Hello, my name is Robin Kay, and I'm from Ontario Tech University,
and with my colleague we did a study examining the creation of video podcasts
to improve the quality of mathematical explanations
for pre-service teachers.
So the context or the bigger picture is that pre-service teachers in mathematics
have considerable difficulty explaining how to solve mathematical problems
and there is limited research on this essential skill.
So what we decided to do is
have the students create video podcasts using tablets and Camtasia.
So they used tablets to solve problems in an analogue way with writing
and step-by-step procedures and then we looked at the quality
of the explanations and assess them.
So our main research question is what are the strengths and challenges
that pre-service mathematics teachers display
when creating video podcasts for grades 7 & 8 mathematics content?
The participants were 37 pre-service teachers 26 female 11 male.
All pre-service teachers specialized
in the teaching of mathematics from grades 7 to 12.
And English was the second language for 1/3 of the participants.
So to begin with
all the pre-service teachers were trained for two hours on how to use the software,
the tablets, the hardware, and the Camtasia to create video podcasts.
And then they were given a set of detailed criteria to help guide
their creation of these podcast explanations.
They had three to four weeks to develop four to six-minute math podcasts.
So based on the work of Kay in 2014, we looked at four aspects of the video:
the context created,
the quality of the explanation, the cognitive load and engagement.
Specifically, we used an instructional video evaluation scale.
So the extent to which an instructor established context was assessed by three items,
how they created effective explanations was assessed by seven items,
how they minimized cognitive load in the person watching the video
was assessed with four items and finally how they cognitively
engaged students was assessed by five items.
Each of the items were assessed on a three-point scale
of No, whether the item was not addressed,
or sort of which was one, or yes the item was addressed.
So in terms of context, almost 70% of the students were able
to develop context and correctly articulated the problem being addressed.
60 percent identified key elements of the problem and explained them
and then about half the students gave a clear problem label
for the mathematics content that they were addressing.
In terms of explanation, almost two-thirds of the
students showed all the key steps.
60 percent of the students explained the reasoning behind each step
and used the correct mathematical conventions
about half the students used an appropriate strategy
to solve the problem and offered tips for solving the problems.
Only two out of ten students offered visuals to support explanations
and about three out of ten students
noted potential errors that might be made when solving the problem being discussed.
In terms of cognitive load and minimizing cognitive load,
eight out of ten students provided a clear organized layout of the problem,
about 50% of the students provided writing that was readable
and visually highlighted key points in their explanation,
and less than a third of the students listed supportive elements
such as terms or formulas when solving a problem in terms of engagement.
Cognitive engagement, about two-thirds of the students
were able to limit distractions when explaining their problem.
About six out of ten students went at an effective pace for learning,
that means that they weren't too slow and they weren't too fast.
Half the students had a clear voice,
and half the students provided an appropriate length of an explanation.
Finally, just under 50% of the students used an engaging conversational voice.
So in terms of opportunities for growth for pre-service teachers explaining
mathematics problems in terms of content,
they should be encouraged to grasp and understand the big picture of a problem
and articulate that big picture when they're explaining a problem.
So putting a problem in the proper context
as opposed to an isolated problem that is not connected to anything.
In terms of explanations, in pre-service teacher programs,
more time should be spent explicitly focusing on the connections between problem-solving
within the problem-solving process and making thinking explicit.
In other words,
these students have an automatic understanding of the problem and
they have to reverse engineer their understanding and make their thinking explicit to the students,
new students who are trying to learn these mathematical concepts.
In terms of cognitive load, if you're using an analog pen or writing,
it has to be readable.
If it isn't readable, that can increase cognitive load for students.
You need to highlight key points so students know what you're focusing on.
That's particularly important for videos and you need to write down key
elements so students don't have to hold formulas and key terms in their head
while trying to understand the explanation of the problem.
And finally, with engagement, a conversational personalized tone,
as opposed to a teacher voice in front of the classroom will probably work best.
If you have any questions please contact me at this email address.
Dr. Robin Kay
or you can contact Dr. Robin Ruttenberg Rosen at this email address.