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The use of videotapes in early childhood education

University of British Columbia

In the realm of modern educational media, verbal and scientific support has been given to the potential of videotape for teaching and learning specific skills. Little evidence, however, can be found to substantiate, the support in early childhood teacher training. This lack of sufficient evidence pertaining to the effectiveness and possibilities for use of videotapes as a teaching aid in early childhood teacher training, served as the motivating force for the present study. The first purpose of this study was to accumulate videotaped data about four target children who displayed different natural behaviours during chosen free play activities,and to develop a systematic observational plan for analysis of videotaped information. The second purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of videotaped records displaying children's behaviour used with structured observational guidelines to help pre-service and in-service teachers become more accurate observers of young children's natural behaviour. Two basic procedures were used in this study. (1) To accumulate videotaped data about young children's behaviour, four target children were selected and videotaped. A 20 minute continuous free play activity was retained as a "record tape" for each target child. For analysis of obtained videotaped records, a systematic observational plan was developed. (2) To test the effectiveness of videotapes used in connection with structured observational guidelines, the following procedures were used: Subjects of the study were 23 pre-service and inservice teachers enrolled in an Early Childhood curriculum and instruction class at the University of British Columbia. Pre-service and inservice teachers were asked to observe without interruption a 15 minute segment of videotape No. 1 entitled "Kevin and Aaron". When the videotape showing ended, all the subjects were asked to write a description of what they saw using the guide sheets. Three types of guide sheets were administered to the same group at one week time intervals between each test. After completion of the observation guide sheets, all subjects were asked to evaluate the videotaped observations and guide sheets used. From analysis of videotaped records, it was concluded that the kindergarten classroom is a remarkably busy place and each child has unique and special qualities. All the children do not think identically, are not equally skilled nor are they interested in or concerned by identical problems. Results of analysis carried out in the pilot study suggest a significant difference between test scores obtained on observation Type 1 and Type 3, indicating a preference for the most structured guide sheet.

Text

2010-03-29

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/23016

Curriculum Studies

University of British Columbia

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