Abstract:
The increasing availability of online streaming and mobile learning has made watching instructional videos a seemingly unavoidable part of formal learning. Much of the research into the use of videos in secondary education has focused on so-called revolutionary pedagogies like flipped learning, blended learning, and intelligent tutoring systems; or in contexts like online learning and distance education. But how are instructional videos used by teachers in mass compulsory education systems? The use of such media in ordinary schools, in which teachers direct the learning of classes of students has been surprisingly under-examined. This paper discusses findings emerging from a case study of nine teachers in a variety of subject domains working in two Australian secondary schools. Through interviews, direct classroom observation, and site-wide data reports, this research examined ways in which instructional videos, 84% of which sourced from YouTube, were used by teachers as part of their teaching practice. Some of these purposes could be easily anticipated, such as to replace the teacher as the provider of direct instruction, to display historical footage, and to demonstrate phenomena beyond the scope or scale of the classroom. However, some teaching practices were more innovative, such as a virtual duplication of the teacher through the use of an instructional video, while the physical teacher conducted experiments; or the use of controversial videos to prompt critical discussion and collaboration. Perhaps more worryingly, early career teachers at times reported using videos from YouTube to compensate for a lack of content knowledge when teaching unfamiliar topics. There was a clear correlation between teacher experience and the innovative use of instructional videos, suggesting that the use of videos is a pedagogical skill that improves with wisdom of practice and content knowledge. This study of instructional videos in mainstream educational contexts is an attempt to bring their discussion into what has been termed “the state-of-the-actual” (Selwyn, 2014, p. 15), and examine the influence of platforms like YouTube on ordinary teacher practices.