ROLE: Video Cases Online: Cognitive Studies of Preservice Teacher Learning

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Researchers, professional developers, educational institutions, funding agencies, and commercial enterprises currently make huge investments in online systems to support teacher learning with video cases of classroom instruction. However, there is little scientific knowledge about how teachers learn from such cases, how case design affects learning, and how online systems are best designed to support that learning. Specific design features of case-based teacher learning environments, such as design of instructional activities and how the cases themselves are structured for presentation, probably significantly impact teacher thinking and learning from case analysis. Given the substantial expenditure in both human and nonhuman capital, scientific knowledge is needed to guide this enterprise. This program of experimental research, grounded in cognitive science theory about case-based learning and reasoning, aims to develop a pedagogy and theory of online video case study for teacher education. The research will be conducted in the context of two innovative psychological foundations courses taught for teacher education majors at two major universities. Both programs use STEP Web, a professional development web site being developed by the PIs for use in preservice secondary teacher education. STEP Web represents a hypermedia network of instructional resources designed to support teacher learning with video cases. The goal of instruction with STEP Web is to help teachers acquire instructionally relevant scientific knowledge about student learning and development. The STEP Web design is based on Cognitive Flexibility Theory. This theory of knowledge representation and instructional design focuses on case-based learning in multimedia environments, with the goal of promoting flexible transfer in fields of professional practice, such as medicine and teaching. Using STEP Web as a test bed, the researchers will create and test alternative theoretically motivated designs for online learning environments supporting video case study for preservice teachers. They will conduct controlled studies examining how different learning-environment designs affect the individual and group learning processes of preservice teachers, as well as the form and duration of teacher education students' case knowledge, and their abilities to combine and use that knowledge in reasoning about professional practice. The project will advance two integrated programs of research: 1. How to design video-based teaching cases, which consist of various components and can vary in terms of which components are included and how they are organized, segmented, and connected to learning material. 2. How to facilitate group case-based learning on line, which focuses on study and training of group facilitators, as well as design of online discussion environments. This project is expected to develop a more exact picture of what undergraduate education majors learn from video case study and to shed light on how to design good cases and online multimedia environments to support such study.