The Effects of Guided Video Analysis on Teacher Candidates' Reflective Ability and Instructional Skills.

Internships are central to teacher preparation, but many novice teachers do not feel such student teaching experiences prepared them for teaching realities. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to understand the effects of guiding teacher candidates through common video-recording and self-reflection activities during student teaching internships to determine whether such activities improve teacher candidates’ reflective abilities and instructional skills. Thirty-six teacher candidates with similar prior experience were divided into two groups. Both groups participated in semester long internships where candidates video-recorded their instruction 4 times and wrote four corresponding reflections. Treatment group candidates (n = 17) also received directed guidance and feedback to supplement video analysis procedures. Both groups self-reported significant improvements in their teaching ability, but only the treatment group demonstrated significant growth in reflective ability and instructional ski...