Video-Based Study of Classroom Pedagogy, 2019-2021

Background: during school lessons participants can face challenging pedagogical problems such as when science and religion topics interact. Potential types of pedagogical problem and what participants can do in response are unclear. Research designs exploring pedagogical problem-solving should investigate teachers’ thinking processes and include pupil interpretations. Purpose: this theoretical and methodological paper integrates the Pedagogy Analysis Framework with an analysis of pedagogical problem-solving, illustrating the resultant extended Pedagogy Analysis Framework and Pedagogical Problem Typology using data from a video-based study of one science and one RE lesson. The research design builds on previous work by exploring primary school and RE pedagogy. Sample: one class of thirty 7-year-old pupils, and another class of 10-year-olds, each with their class teacher and teaching assistants. Design and method: four research methods were used (lesson video analysis, teacher verbal protocols, pupil group verbal protocols and individual teacher interviews). Data were video recorded (managed using NVivo). Six hours of video data were analysed using Grounded Theory Methods by two educational researchers, the class teacher and two groups of pupils (three girls and three boys). The interpretivist theoretical perspective (symbolic interactionism) was underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology (hence the methodology is Straussian Grounded Theory). Appropriate criteria for evaluating the emergent grounded theory were used. Data were recorded in 2019. Results: This paper presents an extended Pedagogy Analysis Framework and a Pedagogical Problem Typology with examples. Conclusion: the extended Pedagogy Analysis Framework and Pedagogical Problem Typology can help during pedagogy analysis to identify, understand and explain common and less common types of pedagogical problem. Novice-expert strategic dialogue can struggle for want of a shared vocabulary. This research design works with younger and older children.This project is comprised of three sub-projects. Two of these sub-projects research specific gaps in knowledge of teacher development and how big questions are framed in science and RE classrooms and a third which seeks to implement some changes. The video data stored in the UK Data Service ReShare is from the sub-project 1. Sub-project 1 explored the encounter between science and religion in primary and secondary science and RE classrooms, using four video-based research methods (lesson video analysis, teacher verbal protocols, pupil group verbal protocols and individual teacher interviews). Sub-project 2 explored the, as yet little-known, science/religion understanding and classroom experience of student teachers of RE and science at 6 universities with teacher training programs, recruited during the first year of the project. It used group interviews and quantitative surveys to generate a comprehensive understanding of where student teachers find themselves at the beginning of their school professional lives. Sub-project 3 combined the findings of both sub-projects 1 and 2 to make a teacher education resource for use by the participating universities, and evaluated its initial impact trialing a change to teacher education programs and evaluating the early impact of that change. The project in ongoing and will produce detailed reports and recommendations for teacher education providers designed to enrich their programmes, a set of academic publications written to complement academic knowledge and a network impact engagement strategy designed to use the findings to influence practice more systemically. These outputs and influences aim to shape the research conversation to ground it more closely to teacher experience and change aspects of teacher education programmes to improve how new teachers are prepared for the science/religion encounter in the classroom.