Research paper
Taking in the complete picture: Framing the use of 360-degree video for teacher education practice and research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103597Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Conceptual framing for use of 360-degree video to enhance teacher education practice and research.

  • Presentation of four key dimensions: opening observation, critical distance, spatial presence, and investigative space.

  • Successful demonstration of use and exploration of affordances in challenging, low-resource teaching context.

  • Found to facilitate teacher agency in sharing, viewing and noticing.

Abstract

360-degree video combined with virtual reality has potential as a significant tool and field of study in teacher education. However, research to date has been fragmented and undertaken almost exclusively in high-income contexts. In response, we articulate key features of the emerging narrative that can be used to interrogate, define and guide the opportunities afforded by this technology to support improved teaching across the globe. Furthermore, we undertake a small pilot of the technology with educators in rural India as an innovative step to extend the evidence base to low-resource contexts.

Introduction

Observation is a commonplace activity in both teacher education and educational research, yet the options available for documenting and recording classroom practice have been limited due to the gaze and purpose of the physically present observer and, until now, the technical limitations of technology. Video affords teachers, teacher educators, and researchers alike a distinct ‘window into practice’ (Zhang et al., 2011, p. 459) from which to engage, experience and reflect on teaching and learning in the classroom. However, conventional video only partially opens this window, meaning the ambition of allowing an observer ‘to enter the world of the classroom’ (our italics) (Sherin, 2004, p. 13) without having to be there remains limited.

360-degree video represents a new method for capturing, re-viewing, and analysing educational practice. Also referred to as spherical-based video virtual reality (SVVR) in the context of virtual reality (VR) use, this technology holds potential for improving teacher education and educational research (Cross et al., 2018; Theelen et al., 2019; Kosko et al., 2020). When watching 360-video with a VR headset, the viewer can look at and listen to different parts of the classroom while the video plays in real-time. Whether conceived as an evolution of existing practice or as a potential paradigm shift, these technologies open a new conceptual space for 360-degree video that is related to, but distinct from, existing strands of educational research associated with the use of conventional video in teacher professional development (Blomberg et al., 2014; Borko et al., 2010; Gaudin & Chaliès, 2015). Greater affordability and the ability to play clips on user-owned VR headsets heighten the need to foreground questions relating to how best to conceptualise and use 360-degree video for professional development and educational research in diverse contexts.

While 360-degree video and SVVR represent a very different proposition from that of conventional video, field-based research or theorisation of how such technologies might impact on teacher professional learning is only very recent (Theelen et al., 2019; Walshe & Driver, 2019; Kosko et al., 2020). Importantly, there is a strong disparity between the higher-income contexts in which most research of conventional and 360-degree video technologies in teacher education have taken place (Gaudin & Chaliès, 2015; Major & Watson, 2018, Seidel et al., 2011) and the low- and medium-income countries where large-scale improvements in teaching quality are most needed (UNESCO, 2017) and pupil achievement is low (World Bank, 2018). This absence of studies from the Global South may have been due to challenges posed by the bulky, fixed, and relatively expensive equipment needed, such as video cameras, and a lack of access to electricity in schools and teacher education institutes or colleges. But if, as previous research suggests, there is a critical need for teacher educators and educational researchers to develop and study best practice for this emerging technology (Kosko et al., 2020), it will be essential to expand work to include studies in low-resource contexts.

In many low- and medium income countries, policy advocates pedagogic change from a didactic model involving the transmission of knowledge (often labelled ‘teacher-centred’) to a ‘learner-centred’ approach (World Bank, 2018; Schweisfurth, 2011), but a series of studies and reports indicates that the latter approach is only rarely observed in school classrooms in the Global South (Akyeampong, 2017; UNESCO, 2013). The nature of pre- and in-service teacher education offered to aspiring and practising teachers is central to most arguments and initiatives to improve teachers' classroom practice. Hence, a significant goal for achieving quality education for all children - in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (sdgs.un.org) - is delivering mediated, engaging, reflective and participatory teacher professional development (Popova et al., 2018) and helping teachers take ownership of this (Grossman et al., 2009). In previous work (Murphy & Wolfenden, 2013) we have outlined how this should engage teachers in enquiry of their own problems of practice and offer them opportunities to consider new ideas in line with the cultural and curricula contexts of their classrooms. With their ability to offer full immersion in the classroom, 360-degree video and VR technologies may have a role in supporting such pedagogic change by enhancing teachers' understandings of the interactions within their classrooms and hence their agency to effect change in their practice. These technologies are potentially well-suited to use in low-resource contexts as the key technological components are mobile and do not require mains electricity or the internet, and the central, most expensive element – the smartphone - may already be owned by the teacher (smartphone ownership in developing economies currently ranges from 24% in India to over 60% in Brazil and South Africa (Pew Research Centre, 2019)).

In response, we explore two key research questions in this paper: (1) How should we conceptualise the emerging evidence and narrative associated with the use of 360-degree video in teacher education in such a way that is useful in guiding practice and research? (2) How do the key dimensions of this conceptualisation resonate with teacher education practice in low-income contexts? The first question is addressed by an interrogation and articulation of the key composite dimensions of the emerging narrative around the use of 360-degree video for teacher education. The second by analysis of data from a pilot exploratory study that trialled the process of recording and then viewing teachers’ classroom practice with 360-video and VR headsets in a low-resource, relatively remote setting. This field activity was designed to elicit views from three essential stakeholder groups: pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators and to ascertain the practical feasibility of using these technologies in such an environment. In this way, our research aims to indicate the appropriateness or not of the narrative framework in a low-resource context with little prior history of video observation in teacher education. Research from low- and medium-income contexts at the outset can drive forward investigations into this emerging field of enquiry rather than remaining peripheral to it.

Section snippets

Our approach

We focused our literature searches on three inter-connected areas: use of 360-degree video in teacher training and teacher professional development, use of conventional video in teacher training and professional development, and general scholarship on teacher skills such as observation, perception and noticing. We focused on teacher professional development so excluded use of the technology by teachers in school classrooms for the support of pupil learning although we do consider this later in

Opening observation

Using conventional video for classroom observation has been found to help teachers develop skills in reflection and self-analysis, build confidence and emotional preparation, capture evidence of improved practice, witness and discuss alternative ways of teaching to their own, challenge their pedagogic assumptions, and connect learning theory with classroom experiences (Blomberg et al., 2014; Tripp & Rich, 2012). Conventional video has also appealed to educators seeking ever more authentic

Small-scale piloting of 360-degree video in a low resource context

In India, the publication of the 2009 National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education marked a major policy shift and foregrounded the need to see teachers as ‘crucial mediating agents through whom the curriculum is transacted and knowledge co-constructed along with learners’ (NCFTE, 2009, p. 4). Of particular relevance was the clear focus of the framework on reflective practice, a capacity for self-directed learning, critical thinking and working in groups, and the ambition that all

Methodology

The exploratory pilot was conducted in Madhya Pradesh, India, in December 2017 and involved two rural primary schools and the local primary teacher education centre, known as a District Institute for Education and Training (DIET). Over the previous three years the researchers had been involved in a large-scale teacher education partnership with the Madhya Pradesh State government. The strong professional relationships with key stakeholders and contextual knowledge developed through this

Discussion

An essential step in delivery of SDG 4 will be the disruption of the classroom discourse, regimes and routines that support and reproduce didactic teaching approaches and assumptions. This will make space for pedagogic change which is more participatory and inclusive for all learners. It is against this backdrop that the new technologies of 360-degree video and SVVR could possibly contribute. In terms of the conceptual framing we outline (Fig. 1), the interplay between spatial presence and

Conclusion

This paper makes two significant contributions to the area of enquiry associated with the use of 360-degree video and SVVR in teacher education and professional development. Firstly, it describes and develops four key dimensions of the emerging narrative associated with 360-degree video and brings these together into a conceptual framing. Future work could seek to understand how these operate together at a practical and theoretical level with respect to teacher learning, as well as a broader

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Open University's International Development and Inclusive Innovation SRA and benefited from work undertaken by the TESS-India Programme funded by UKAID.

Declaration of competing interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their special thanks to Javed Shaikh, Anil Prakash Shrivastava, the TESS-India teams in Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, and the Madhya Pradesh state education department. We would also like to thank the the Institute of Educational Technology, the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, and University's International Development Office.

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