Using Video to Develop Skills in Reflection in Teacher Education Students

Teacher education students confront the challenging task of acquiring a unique and complex set of skills during their courses. These skills are acquired through the study of education theory together with practical experience in the classroom. Perhaps one of the most important skills that students quickly need to develop is that of reflective practice. It is only through a critical and detailed analysis of their performance that strengths and weaknesses can be ascertained and addressed. Video has been used as a tool in teacher education for many years and provides a means by which a teaching episode can be captured more permanently to be used as a point of reference for reflection. This paper discusses the concept of reflection and examines the use of video to enhance the development of these reflective practice skills in a cohort of Graduate Diploma of Education students. Students indicated that that the use of video, in conjunction with written feedback from teachers, had enhanced their capacity to reflect on their teaching skills.