Classroom Teaching Video Study: A New Classroom Observation Strategy

Classroom observation is a principal ways in the study of teaching in primary and middle schools,including field observation and videotape observation.The field observation has been existed for a long time and has been widely used,and videotape observation is a kind of new teaching observation strategy,whose development is accompanied by new multimedia technology.The field observation mainly depends on short-term memory of people's sensory means to get information,in addition to teaching process is not reversible,so it is impossible for the observers to record all the valuable information in class and to remain the integrity and objectivity of information at the same time.Therefore,the field observation is easily led to the facial experience of observers,and also led to miss the handling and analysis of important information.Meanwhile the videotape observation can make up for the various shortcomings of field observation.Based on this,this study explores its connotation and characteristic,dimension of analysis and procedure of the videotape classroom study,and introduces its encoding analysis approach by using facts.It has its basis on the former videotape studies made at home and abroad.This is expected to provide a new classroom research methodology teaching for primary and middle teachers,and to improve classroom teaching as well as enhance teacher's professional development.The first part:The connotation and characteristics of videotape classroom study.Videotape classroom study refers to the research approach that researcher makes systematic observation, analysis and studies towards important questions in the classroom videotape to find out strategies for improving teaching.Furthermore,teachers may improve their observation ability and professional development on this basis.It is a professional teaching and an effective way for teacher's professional development,and has some basic characteristics,that is,it is able to repeatedly show the classroom information and remain it integrity;be able to do scientific analysis and make an objective diagnosis;be able to do case study and group analysis.The second part:The analysis dimension of videotape classroom study.It contains the following parts:(1)The student's learning behavior,including student's emotions,their individual participation and communication.(2)The teacher's teaching behavior,including teacher's teaching and questioning behavior.(3)The teacher-student interaction behavior,including askquestion behavior and the discussion behavior.The third part:The procedure of videotape classroom study.It contains:(1)The preparation period.(2)The video period.(3)The observation and research period,specifically there are the following parts:①Setting the research subject.Researchers first observe the videotape comprehensively,find out special problems and make the typical aspect highly relating to teaching quality as the subject.②Make quantitative encoding and qualitative analysis towards specific information from the classroom.Its relying standard is that all the researchers discuss together based on subject criteria and related teaching theories as well as practical experience.③Particular suggestions for improvement are made on the basis of analysis.First each researcher retrospects and analyses individually and puts forth suggestions,then an exchanges and making specific planning for improvement.The fourth part:The case analysis of videotape classroom study.Based on the math videotape,the math task and the teacher-student language interaction are chosen as the research subjects.Conclusions are made after detailed encoding and analysis which are:(1)About the math tasks:①The teacher has provided plenty of math tasks requiring students' "understanding" and "applying" thinking level,and is correspondent with the curriculum standard of primary schools' mathematics.②The percentage of pictures,signs and activities is appropriate.It suits primary students' age and modern teaching ideology well and benefits the balanced development of students' concrete and abstract thinking.③The teacher's conscious elicitation for students to search for different solutions on the same problem is good for cultivating students' creativity and their ability of applying knowledge flexibly.(2)About the speech interaction of the teacher and students:①The teacher asks students to explain their thinking and improves teaching with the help of their thinking.She also pays special attention on directing students to evaluate the students' answers and react encouragingly.②The teacher puts too much emphasis on students' independent thinking,while neglects the discussion among students.The suggestion is that the teacher should create more complex contexts and group students according to the different levels of them,so that the students may exchange and cooperate more among them.