Does the Use of Video Recording Lead to an Improvement in a Trainee Teacher's Confidence Both in Assessing Pupil Progress and Behaviour Management?

This piece of action research aims to identify if employing the use of video recording software helps trainee teachers develop their confidence and teaching ability. Due to the wide range of rubrics which can be applied to identify if someone is a ‘good teacher’, this research has chosen to focus on only 2 aspects of teaching; assessment for learning and behaviour management. These areas were chosen based on student feedback – trainee teachers believed these were the two weakest areas. The research is taking an action research methodology, with the intervention consisting of 2 parts: initial introduction to the video recording technology and empowerment of trainee teachers to use this followed by a change in the monitoring visit carried out by the personal academic tutor to incorporate video recording and analysis. The research strategy is strongly phenomenological as it is trying to describe the lived experiences and perceptions of the trainee teachers. To this end, the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are aimed at identifying how the trainee teacher perceives their confidence and ability regarding the particular teaching foci. The questionnaire is applied before and after the intervention and is based on Rosenberg’s (1965) self-esteem scale and Schwarzer & Jerusalem’s (1995) self-efficacy scale. This is a small scale project in the first stage of the action research cycle. The intervention has only been applied to Science trainee teachers but will possibly incorporate other subjects in the second part of the cycle.