Enhancing professional vision with annotation tools

Background Professional vision is conceptualized as a situation-specific competence that involves noticing (i.e., attending to relevant classroom events) and knowledge-based reasoning (i.e., describing and interpreting events using learning and teaching principles). Whereas video analysis is widely used to foster pre-service teachers’ professional vision, it is not always effective. Possible ways to enhance its impact include the use of technological tools and instructional support. Aims We examined whether technological support through annotation tools improves professional vision compared to post-viewing analysis (Study 1), and whether the effectiveness can be improved by instructional support (prompts, video modeling example, or their combination; Study 2). Samples We collected data from pre-service teachers who participated in university courses ( N Study1 = 122; N Study2 = 164). Methods In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to either an annotation tool or a post-viewing comment condition. In Study 2, all participants used an annotation tool but were randomly assigned to receive a video modeling example, prompts, both, or no instructional support. Outcome measures included the quantity of classroom events noticed and the quality of knowledge-based reasoning. Subjective cognitive load measures were collected. Results In Study 1, annotation tools enhanced noticing but did not affect reasoning. In Study 2, modeling improved reasoning over time, whereas prompts alone showed no impact. Conclusions The findings indicate that annotation tools can facilitate noticing of classroom events, but improving reasoning necessitates structured instructional scaffolds. Video modeling examples effectively enhance pre-service teachers’ development of professional vision and promote elaborated reasoning.