Dive Brief:
- Miriam Greenberg, director of education and communications at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research, and director of the Best Foot Forward project, wrote in eSchoolNews that her research proves video technology can improve classroom observations.
- In Greenberg's study, videos of teachers working in the classroom were passed along to school principals, who then evaluated them.
- Results shows that educators were more likely to take constructive criticism and specific actionable feedback to heart, since they were able to see exactly what they and their students were doing while teaching.
Dive Insight:
Greenberg advocates for the spread of such technology, for the benefit of teachers and students alike. Previously, eSchoolNews published an article with similar leanings by Diane Lauer, the executive director of professional development and assessment for St. Vrain Valley School District in Colorado, who also experimented with the use of an online video coaching platform for classroom observation. She reported that in Colorado school districts, video helped teachers advance performance.
But districts considering adding video to the mix should keep in mind the results from a study released by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR). It found that, broadly, observing teachers in the classroom for the purpose of evaluation can "fail to meaningfully assess teacher performance." Instead, it recommended looking to prior academic achievement by students to better predict how well teachers are doing their jobs.