Changing how teachers improve | Harvard Gazette - 1 views
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Katie Day on 05 Feb 11" For Kane, video is also a key to the project's success.-- "Improving teaching requires adult behavior change. Imagine trying to get someone to quit smoking by showing them a video of a bunch of happy nonsmokers … and yet that is the way we do professional development for teachers, by showing them some third person teaching instead of showing them their own work." According to Kane, teachers need to see and analyze their own efforts, and then discuss with their supervisors what they are doing well, and what they could do differently to improve. This can be done by showing teachers their own videos and by providing feedback that is related to student achievement. Heather Hill, an associate professor of education at HGSE, developed a rubric for guiding classroom observations that will be used to help score the videos. Project organizers hope the effort will help lead to a new approach to professional development. "We are trying, said Kane, "to get people to quit smoking by taking them into their closet to smell their own clothes."
