Award Date

5-1-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Early Childhood, Multilingual, and Special Education

First Committee Member

Tracy Spies

Second Committee Member

Kyle Higgins

Third Committee Member

Cori More

Fourth Committee Member

Chyllis Scott

Number of Pages

249

Abstract

Although there is a focus on classroom discourse and interaction in the current teaching standards and research evidence suggests it is important in teaching and learning, students have limited opportunities for interaction in today’s classrooms. Limited opportunities for interactions may be attributed to teachers’ underdeveloped understandings of the role of classroom discourse as well as their under preparation to support the classroom discourse of all students due to a lack of training during their teacher education programs. The quality of teaching and learning can be improved by guiding teacher candidates (TCs) to notice interactional processes. One of the promising practices in teacher training is reflection. However, most types of the reflections (e.g., reflective journals, oral reflections) are based on the memories which results TCs to have descriptive reflections. Memory based reflections are not helpful for TCs to notice and remember every detail. Providing TCs with a tool such as video self-reflection (VSR) would help them notice important details and critically reflect on their own teaching. VSR may serve as a potential scaffold in the reflection process by taking TCs back to the teaching event minimizing the dependence on their memory. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative single-case study design was to explore and interpret the role of VSR in guiding special education TCs’ noticing behaviors and knowledge development in facilitating classroom discourse during an accelerated teacher preparation course. Furthermore, this study sought to understand TCs’ perceptions of using the VSR tool. This study was implemented with five special education TCs who were enrolled in Theory and Practice for Academic English Language Development course. TCs’ course artifacts (i.e., experience survey, oral language knowledge pre-post surveys, partner exchange activities, whole class discussion activities, and VSR individual assignments) were collected as secondary data. Additionally, field notes were collected during TCs’ accelerated course. Data were analyzed by using both deductive and inductive approaches including constant comparative and thematic analysis. The theoretical lenses guiding this study was specifically, deBettencourt and Nagro’s (2019) reflection dimensions: Describe, analyze, judge, and apply. The following themes emerged from the thematic analysis of data sources related to special education TCs’ noticing behaviors regarding classroom discourse: (a) student-focused noticing behaviors, (b) self-focused noticing behaviors, (c) classroom discourse-focused noticing behaviors, and (d) moving beyond noticing. Three themes emerged from analyzed data regarding TCs knowledge about classroom discourse. First, TCs describe classroom discourse in terms of definition, importance, and role. Second, TCs describe their knowledge in terms of activities that facilitate classroom discourse. Third, TCs describe their knowledge needs for further development. Related to what are the special education TCs’ perceptions for using VSR as an independent professional development tool, the following theme emerged from the analyzed data: Before using VSR, TCs believed VSR was a tool that causes discomfort. After using VSR, TCs believed VSR was a beneficial tool that helps them identify their areas for growth in teaching, and TCs plan to use VSR as an independent professional development tool. This study contributes to the field on the noteworthy assets of VSR process for the preparation of TCs, provides evidence of a TCs’ noticing behaviors and knowledge on classroom discourse through the context of an accelerated class based in VSR, highlights the importance of the VSR in critical reflection, provides some direction to future research in VSR and classroom discourse, and suggests the incorporation of VSR scaffolds and guiding questions into teacher education programs.

Keywords

Classroom discourse and interactions; Noticing behaviors; Reflection; Special Education; Teacher preparation; Video self-reflection

Disciplines

Education | Special Education and Teaching | Teacher Education and Professional Development

File Format

pdf

File Size

1901 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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