Abstract:
This paper reports on a study of the nature of professional learning among a group of twenty experienced secondary school science teachers who participated in a video study group professional development project. The teachers met six times over fifteen months to critically examine video-case recordings of their own teaching, and to explore and share their understandings about accomplished teaching. The data include the classroom video cases, audio recordings of group meetings, audio and written records of individual's reflections about the process, and video and audio recordings of interviews with each participant. In our analysis we focus particularly on the nature of teachers' talk as they examine and critique videos of their own teaching and the teaching of their colleagues. We use this analysis to examine the nature of teachers' learning and the connection between learning and learning contexts. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the theoretical and practical implications for teacher professional development.