Tying Words to Images of Science Teaching (TWIST)

  • Proof-of-concept study
  • Expert panel watches video and develops a shared language for describing the teaching
  • National field test in summer 2011
  • Product: Guide to Video Analysis of Science
  • Funding Source: National Science Foundation

This proof-of-concept study examines the questions: Can the science education research community develop a video-based, consensus-coding manual for analyzing videotapes of science teaching? Will such a “words-to-images” tool be valued by science education researchers?

Currently, classroom observation research tools are produced by individual projects and shared with the research community in the form of written text. This leads to confusion in research findings when people across the science education community (researchers, teachers, teacher educators, administrators) use the same words to describe science teaching methods but have different definitions of what those words mean.

The TWIST project addresses this problem by challenging the traditional model for developing classroom observation tools in two ways. First, a consensus process is being used to develop the analytical tool, involving science educators with differing perspectives from across the research community. Second, the project is producing an analytic tool that includes video images along with the words (a “words-to-images” language). Ten nationally recognized science educators with expertise in analyzing science teaching practice are watching videotapes of science teaching and developing a shared language to describe a selected set of features of the observed teaching. The video-based manual they create will then be tested nationally. The final product will be a Guide to Video Analysis of Science Teaching that includes a coding manual for the selected lesson features, a training guide for achieving inter-rater agreement, and a CD/DVD containing video segments for use as examples and for practice.

For more information, contact BSCS Senior Science Educator Kathy Roth.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-0953499. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.