Chapter 6. Activating learners. The
impact of peer coaching with video on
teaching and learning
in collaboration with Harmen Schaap
Abstract
In this in-depth, mixed-methods case study, 45 experienced
secondary teachers engaging in reciprocal peer coaching with video
were followed over seven years. Four cohorts participated, each
during one school year. The teachers observed, filmed, viewed,
discussed and gave feedback on each other’s lessons in two settings:
pair work in their classrooms and plenary team meetings. Their
overarching goals were: increasing variety in learning activities;
increasing opportunities for differentiation; and promoting self-
directed learning.
The findings show that the teachers strengthened and expanded their
teaching repertoires, while pupils positively rated the teaching
behaviours targeted. Most outcomes were achieved for the goal of
increasing variety in learning activities, both during and after peer
coaching. Teachers’ lessons became less dominated by their own
instruction and came to consist more of content-focussed dialogue.
The main working mechanisms fostering changes in teaching were
lesson observation, peer feedback and video viewing, analysis and
discussion. The teachers succeeded in translating their thoughts
about instruction into actions by moving through repeated cycles of
planning, teaching and reflection.
The main conclusion is that reciprocal peer coaching with video has
the potential to alter the interplay between teaching and learning by
eliciting and driving changes in teachers’ classroom behaviour. This
type of collegial collaboration can bring about sustainable increases in
the quality of instruction and encourage teachers to shift their
instruction towards more dialogic forms of teaching and learning.
What makes this study ground-breaking is that it demonstrates not
only that VTL can foster sustainable changes in instruction, but also
how.
See YouTube for two lectures about this study (in German):
•
Videobasiertes peer Coaching als Strategie zur
Entwicklung der Unterrichtskompetenz (Leuphana
Universität Lüneburg, 20 April 2018)
•
Videofeedback: ein Hebel zur Qualitätssteigerung des
Lehrens (Universität Zürich 28 March 2022)