Developing Teachers' Classroom Interactions: A Description of a Video Review Process for Early Childhood Education Students

Karen M. LaParo, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Christine Maynard, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Amy Thomason, Elizabethtown College
Catherine Scott-Little, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Abstract

This article describes a video review process for providing feedback to students and documents students' teaching practices using the CLASS in a practicum course and student teaching. Students videotaped themselves in their field-based settings and then met with the course instructors and classmates in small groups to review strengths and challenges of their teaching using the CLASS framework of teacher-child interactions. These videos were also coded by trained CLASS observers across 10 dimensions in the areas of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Results from preservice teachers' CLASS ratings indicate a pattern similar to national data sets using the CLASS, higher scores in the emotional support and classroom organization domains than in the domain of instructional support. Also, findings from the current study revealed that CLASS scores declined from students' practicum placement to the end of student teaching in the domain of emotional support and specifically in the dimensions of regard for student perspectives and behavior management. The process of using videos for providing feedback in field-based experiences is discussed as well as implications for teacher development in light of students' CLASS scores and changes in CLASS scores. © 2012 Copyright National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.