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EDUC - Science Curriculum II

Assignment 1: Video Analysis (Reflective Practice)

An empowered teacher is a reflective decision maker who finds joy in learning and in
investigating the teaching/learning process- one who views learning as construction and
teaching as a facilitating process to enhance and enrich development.
Fosnot (1989, p. xi)

Introduction
Purpose
Reflecting on teaching practice provides an avenue through which to make evaluations and
therefore identify what is or is not working (MacKinnon, 1987; Pena and DeLeon, 2011).
This type of professional development for teachers to promote making improvements
(Avalos, 2011; Pena and DeLeon, 2011) and can be seen as a responsibility for teacher
effectiveness (Lemon, 2007).
Recording a video of a lesson helps reflective practice as it reduces the reliance on memory
(Pena and DeLeon, 2011; Robinson and Kelly, 2007). In addition, it allows other important
aspects of teaching, such as the teachers body language or student behaviour, to be captured
for analysis and reflection (Pena & De Leon, 2011).

Context
Description of class
This class was the year 8 science class and consisted of 23 students, one of whom was absent
on the day of the recording. The class consisted of mixed ability students with lower to
average achievement level. Several of these students were listed as having learning
difficulties in the schools database. One student had a behaviour management contract,
whilst the other two were occasionally accompanied by an education assistant. This education
assistant was not present on the day of the recording.
Description of lesson
This lesson occurred on Thursday in the last week of my five week professional practice
placement. The period came just before recess. This lesson was the fifth lesson on the topic of

matter. It followed from the previous lessons involving the arrangement of particles in three
states viz solid, liquid and gas and changes of state that take place. This lesson aimed to
investigate the expansion and contraction in all the three states. I chose to demonstrate an
activity with metallic ring and ball as an introduction to the topic followed by the teacher
explanation of how the expansion and contraction in solids take place.
The rest of the lesson involved demonstrations on the expansion and contraction of particles
in liquids and gases followed by explanations, a YouTube clip on the same and students
noting down in their exercise books.

Overview of the lesson

The observer effect is generally accepted to mean that the act of observing a system will
influence that which is being observed. (Uncertainty principle, n.d., paragraph 5)
As an initial remark, the observer effect was immediately noticeable while viewing my
teaching video. Several students commented on the camera upon their entry into the
classroom. Excluding my initial greeting, my first words asked my students not to bother it.
However, aside from the few cursory glances by several students, the camera was at least
physically ignored for most of the lesson. While acknowledging that mental effects of being
filmed exist since these are more difficult to identify, they will not be included in the
following reflective analyses.

With regards to the planning and implementing of my lesson, I feel that I should have given
students the opportunity to do the activity themselves instead of teacher demonstration,
followed by a worksheet with various questions on their established understanding from the
activity. This could have helped the concepts of expansion and contraction to be more
effectively understood and engaged the students more.

My lesson timing was relatively accurate and followed that of my lesson plan. However, my
conclusion was a bit rushed. It is one of my weaker areas. I have difficulty finding ways to
summarise the concepts covered without simply repeating myself or sometimes I run short of
time. Although I have been trying hard to improve this aspect of mine since the first
placement, yet this is something I can work on during my next placement both through
practice and from observing other teachers. Moreover, I encountered a few behavioural issues

during the lesson and wondered if they were in any way related to my body language and
nonverbal immediacy. Several students were found to be disengaged throughout, whilst the
lesson proceeded.
The main focus of my video analysis is on my class management skills, in particular, how
this relates to body language, authority, withitness and nonverbal immediacy.

Analytical Framework
Body Language
Body language or nonverbal communication consists of several types of signals which may
differ between cultures. These include facial expression, gaze, posture, gestures, positioning
and proximity, intonation, and attire (Neill & Caswell, 1993).

Authority
Authority is defined as the ability to gain the respect of other people and to influence or
control what they do (Encarta, 1998-2007). The most fundamental element of productive
teaching is establishment of a relationship between a teacher and his students, which
indubitably comes from classroom authority in its various forms (Weber, 1947). The teacher
needs to set rules or clear expectations beforehand. My university supervisor had also
suggested me to set clear expectations before the class which I tried doing in the very
beginning of the lesson, but could not establish the environment where students chose their
sanctions. The weak authority, as I assume, remained one of the elements in some students
disengagement (looking here and there throughout) and hence leading to behavioural issues
(e.g. sneezing by one student followed by the other, passing comments and so on). As a
method of measuring or noting various behaviours which were determined to influence
authority, the Classroom Authority Observation Rubric developed by Middendorf and
McNary (2011) was used.

Withitness
Kounin (1970) proposed withitness and overlapping to be one of the most significant factors
in establishing a good lesson movement which in turn is mandatory for a teacher to have an
effective connection between management and teaching. Withitness portrays the capability

of a teacher to be perceptually and cognitively conscious to scan the classroom at any point of
time. The term Withitness stands for sending messages to child or children off task to get
back on task and to prevent the occurrence of problem behaviour at first place. Overlapping,
on the other hand, is the teachers proficiency to attend to more than one issue at once.
Numerous research studies indicate these skills to be critical for effective teaching (Anderson,
Evertson, and Brophy, 1979; Copeland, 1987; Webb et al., 1997) and failure to display these
skills may lead to detrimental implications for class management. These skills emerged out to
be my weaker areas during the video presentation in the class and my friends advised me to
improve on these skills in my teaching.

Description of analytical framework

The Classroom Authority Observation Rubric (CAOR) consists of four domains: Voice &
Diction, Body Language, Focus of Attention, and Classroom Management (Middendorf &
McNary, 2011, p. 132). Individual characteristics such as gender, race, physical stature, age
and social standing are also expected to affect the authority and have been allocated to one
item in the body language domain. Other items in the CAOR include voice intonation and
pace; facial expression, gestures, movement and attire; eye contact, off-task behaviours and
connectedness; and organisation, student participation and enforcement (Middendorf &
McNary, 2011, p. 134).

The aim in developing the CAOR was for feedback to be provided to instructors to allow for
the least and most beneficial behaviours for authority to be identified. Observers were
required to note the instructors specific behaviours in the allocated column before
prioritising the most beneficial and harmful behaviours and providing feedback. No score
was to be calculated.

The COAR was developed through the study of four white female instructors in an American
university from limited subject areas (not including science) (Middendorf & McNary, 2011).
Whilst this obviously limits the CAORs applications, Middendorf and McNary chose white
female instructors to control for gender and race since these could influence authority.

The initial stage of the CAORs development involved the authors noting down weak or
strong behaviours (based on their reactions) noted in videos of the instructors. The rubric was
then refined further before undergoing validation tests from other university educators
(Middendorf & McNary, 2011).

The CAOR was developed for white university instructors, in addition to its design for use by
an observer. I am using the CAOR to provide a guide for identifying more specific aspects of
my behaviour which could influence my authority in the classroom.
The CAOR (Middendorf & McNary, 2011, p. 134) with my notes from the video is included
in the appendix.

Analysis
While viewing my teaching video, I noticed that I held my arms quite close to my chest when
holding whiteboard marker. I worried that this might signal to students that I was nervous or
timid. However Neill and Caswell noted that such barrier signals (1993, p. 96) were more
often viewed as being helpful rather than uncertain. They noted that certain types of armfolds, which were not present in my video, were more likely to project uncertainty (Neill &
Caswell, 1993). In contrast, under the authenticity item of Body Language, selfconsciousness is indicated to be detrimental to authority (Middendorf & McNary, 2011).

The main behavioural aspects which I identified as undermining my authority included my

tone which I found monotonous, somewhat aloof facial expression and my occasional
ignoring or obliviousness to off-task behaviours. I was most surprised by my apparent
aloofness as I felt throughout my teaching that I was smiling at my students more regularly
than was shown in the video. This aspect, I think, is very essential for effective teaching as it
sends positive vibrations to students and projects the teacher being friendly. The other thing I
strongly feel should be there in my teaching is humour as it helps in improving good teacherstudent relationship (Robertson, 1996). One of the teachers during my first placement had
also suggested me to include humour in my teaching to make it effective.

The CAOR also helped me to identify authority-enhancing behaviours which I observed

myself demonstrating including a loud and steady voice, being mobile around the classroom,
making eye contact with students, and being respectful and caring when listening to students.
In addition to this what I felt positive in my teaching was repeating the answer given by one
student to the whole class to make everyone clear with it. I made good use of the whiteboard
and the questioning skill while reviewing the previous lesson and during demonstrations.

Middendorf and McNary suggested that smiling, making lots of eye contact, moving around
the room, listening carefully, humour, and making encouraging statements could improve
authority in general (2011, p. 133). When a laugh or a smile is included, it makes students
feel more comfortable and open to learning. Humour usage in class lead to enthusiasm,
positive thinking, and certainty to the classroom.

This and my results from the CAOR provide me with specific goals to work towards in order
to improve my authority in the classroom while teaching in order to enhance good class
management skills.

Nonverbal Immediacy
As a result of discovering my aloof appearance while watching my video, and finding this
supported by the CAOR, I found the idea of analysing my nonverbal immediacy to be of
potential use for future improvement.

Literature Review
Nonverbal immediacy can be defined as actions that communicate warmth, closeness and
availability for communication (Johnson & Card, 2008, p. 2). These behaviours could
include physical proximity, physical contact, vocal expressiveness, facial animation, eye
contact, and increased availability (Comstock, Rowell & Bowers, 1995).

It was recommended that teacher immediacy behaviours could affect student motivation,
leading to a more positive view of both their teacher and the subject (Christophel, 1990b;
Richmond, 1990) before Frymier (1994) found a causal link. Immediacy was also discovered

to be related to cognitive learning. Comstock et al. (1995) suggested that the relationship
between levels on nonverbal immediacy and student learning were curvilinear. In this sense,
the effectiveness of immediacy for student learning reaches a maximum for moderately high
levels before decreasing as immediacy becomes excessively high. They proposed that high
immediacy could lead to high arousal which in turn reduces stimulation of learning.

In contrast, McCroskey, Sallinen, Fayer, Richmond and Barraclough (1996) found that
increased levels of immediacy was related to increased levels of perceived learning and
decreased learning loss. The direction of this relationship was found to occur in each of the
four cultures studied (Australia, Finland, Puerto Rico and the United States of America) with
the only differences in the strength of this relationship (McCroskey et al. 1996). The most
highly related behaviours were vocal variety, eye contact and smiling (McCroskey et al.
1996).

Richmond, McCroskey and Johnson (2003) developed The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale
(NIS) from previous immediacy measurement tools with adaptations to allow for selfreporting in addition to reporting by others. When the scale was tested for its reliability and
validity, a gender difference was found where females tended to score themselves higher in
nonverbal immediacy than did the males (Richmond et al. 2003). The reasons for this have
not yet been substantiated.
.
While the NIS was developed for the university environment, I suppose it will still be
applicable in analysing my immediacy levels from my video.

It is highly demanding for a good teacher to exhibit high levels of awareness and use of body
language (Neill, 1991). By ameliorating authority and non-immediacy which are, no doubt,
the most important aspects of effective teaching, I can certainly improve the missing aspect
that is withitness as making use of appropriate body language is critical to sending powerful
messages to students and hence establishing authority in the classroom. The perceived
misbehaviour in class can be responded by sending out subtle, subdued signals such as eye
contact, use of facial expression, slow mobility towards the source of the problem, or making
small signals (Erickson & Mohatt, 1982).

Analysis of NIS
The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report (NIS-S) consists of 26 statements which are
rated with a 5-point scale ranging from 1=Never to5=Very Often (Richmond et al. 2003,
p. 509). Upon filling this form out (see appendix), I attained an immediacy score of 92. The
average NIS-S score was 102.0 for the female cohort and 93.8 for the male cohort with
standard deviations of 10.9 and 10.8 respectively. My score falls comparatively low for both
cohorts.
McCroskey et al. (1996) suggested that as a result of the positive relationship found between
teacher nonverbal immediacy and perceived learning, teachers should strive to maintain high
levels of immediacy. Coupled with my low result in the NIS-S, this is something that I need
to work on improving, particularly the aspects of smiling and withitness.

Concluding remarks
In analysing my video, a great improvement is required in several aspects of my behaviour in
terms of classroom authority and nonverbal immediacy.
Of most important for enhancing my authority, I need to work on noticing and acting on offtask behaviours in addition to using a variety of vocal expressions and improved facial
expressions. This can be best done during my upcoming professional practice placement.
To improve my nonverbal immediacy levels, I should concentrate my initial efforts on
smiling more often and improving my use of voice (making it varied), the highest related
behaviours to increased perceived learning including eye contact (McCroskey et al. 1996).
Both of which are also related to improving classroom authority. Setting a clear and firm
expectation is another thing I need to work on which I certainly will do. Eye contact is one of
the areas where I feel I am the strongest since I make sure to look at each student during my
lessons. However this could also be improved by ensuring that I appear friendly while
making eye contact to avoid unintentionally disciplining a student.

References:

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over ten years. Teacher and Teacher Education, 27(1), 10-20.
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Anderson, L., Evertson, C. & Brophy, J. (1979). An experimental study of effective teaching
in first-grade reading groups, Elementary School Journal, 79, 193-223.

Authority (1998- 2007). In Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary (North America ed.).
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Comstock, J., Rowell, E., & Bowers, J. W. (1995). Food for thought: Teacher nonverbal
immediacy, student learning, and curvilinearity. Communication Education, 44(3), 251266. Retrieved from Communication & mass media complete.

Copeland, W. (1987). Classroom management and student teachers cognitive abilities: a

relationship, American Educational Research Journal. 24(2), 219-236.

Christophel, D. M. (1990b). The relationships among teacher immediacy behaviors, student

motivation, and learning. Communication Education, 39(4), 323-340.
Erickson, F. & Mohatt, G. (1982). Cultural organization of participation structures in two
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Johnson, E. J., & Card, K. (2008). The effects of instructor and student immediacy behaviors
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