Developing alternative teaching skills through a programme of video analysis and mentoring

Abstract

In 2000, the University of Wolverhampton's Learning and Teaching Strategy funded an innovation project to change a traditionally taught module to a module based on social constructivist principles. The project team found that whilst the changes to the module improved student learning, they had overlooked the demands these alternative methods would make on the teaching skills and expertise of colleagues. The changes not only required lecturers to think differently about how they teach, they also required them to act differently in the classroom e.g. from ‘telling’ to ‘questioning’ behaviour. Getting students to actively engage with each other and negotiate meaning, rather than imparting knowledge, seemed particularly problematic. At times it was all too tempting to revert back to telling students what they ‘should’ know rather than facilitating the generation of students’ own ideas and encouraging a spirit of enquiry. Of course there could be many factors that affect classroom practice, including the teacher’s beliefs about the students and the subject she is teaching. I therefore conjectured that in order to develop appropriate instructional behaviour we would first need to understand and work on the factors affecting classroom behaviour.