VITAL: Early Childhood Mathematics Education

VITAL at 2010 AERA Annual Meeting

Tue, 04 May 2010 12:29:04 -0500

Teachers College professor Herbert Ginsburg served as chair and UCLA professor Jim Stigler as discussant for a symposium on VITAL at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Denver on May 4, 2010. Entitled "Video Analysis as a Method for Developing Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching and their Understanding of Children, Pedagogy, and Assessment" and sponsored by SIG-Mathematics Education, the symposium featured research papers by CCNMTL staff member Michael Preston, CPRE staff member Wakasa Nagakura, Teachers College doctoral students Deborah Rosenfeld, Genevieve Hartman, and Janet Eisenband Sorkin, and Rutgers University doctoral student Cecilia Arias and professors Roberta Schorr and Lisa Warner. The research focuses on early childhood teacher preparation in mathematics, including the development of model courses, an extensive video library, and the VITAL web-based video analysis system, which combine to provide preservice teachers with intellectually-stimulating learning experiences that vividly portray the processes of children's mathematical thinking and learning and help teachers develop skills relevant to assessment and teaching. There were five papers presented:

Designing a Video Library and a Web Environment for Learning about Early Childhood Mathematics Education (Janet Eisenband Sorkin and Michael D. Preston, Teachers College, Columbia University and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning) PDF, 844 KB
Reflecting on Reflections: How Better Understanding Preservice Teachers' Beliefs and Concerns Can Help Us Help Them (Genevieve Hartman and Wakasa Nagakura, Teachers College, Columbia University) PDF, 225 KB
The Impact of Video Analysis on Teacher Perceptions of Self-Efficacy: An Analysis of Reflections and Self-Ratings (Deborah Rosenfeld, Teachers College, Columbia University) PDF, 270 KB
Using Guided Experiences with Video to Help Teachers Interpret Children's Thinking with Appropriate Intellectual Modesty (Michael D. Preston, Teachers College, Columbia University and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning) PDF, 209 KB
Using the Clinical Interview Method to Examine Children's Mathematical Thinking (Cecilia C. Arias, Roberta Y. Schorr, Lisa B. Warner, Rutgers University) PDF, 143 KB

Publication: VITAL research in Educational Technology Magazine

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:27:27 -0500

An article entitled "Examining student thinking through video analysis" by CCNMTL educational technologist Michael Preston appears in the latest issue of Educational Technology Magazine (Vol. 50, No. 1, January-February 2010), which is a special issue on video analysis in teacher education. From the introduction to the article:

For preservice teachers, videos of children interacting with other children or with teachers can serve as more than a repository of "virtual kids." An inquiry-based approach to watching such video, supported by tools that allow for frequent and close viewing, provides an opportunity for prospective teachers to develop their skills of observation and interpretation before entering the classroom. Furthermore, the in-depth study of videos - particularly if the videos capture situations that reveal something about children's thinking - creates a context in which teachers can act as researchers by gathering evidence, developing hypotheses, and coordinating this information as a guide for further inquiry and teaching. Over time, close and repeated viewing and analysis of video helps shift focus away from the teacher and to the child, and allows for a richer conception of the relationship between children's performance and understanding, to help better inform teaching.

Publication: Chapter in the Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:47:19 -0500

Profs. Herbert Ginsburg and Ann Cami of Teachers College and Michael Preston of CCNMTL co-authored a chapter entitled, "Inquiry practices: How can they be taught well?" in the newly published Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry: Mapping a Way of Knowing for Professional Reflective Inquiry, edited by Nona Lyons (Springer 2009). The chapter appears in a section entitled "Approaches to Assessing Reflective Practice and to the Ethical Dimensions of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry" and discusses pedagogical methods for using videotaped examples of teaching as a manipulative, both in the university classroom and online (in VITAL), to encourage prospective teachers to think more analytically about children and teaching.

Paper: VITAL in the Australian Journal of Early Childhood

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:54:14 -0500

VITAL project partners Joon Sun Lee (Hunter College, The City University of New York), Herbert P. Ginsburg (Teacher's College, Columbia University), and Michael D. Preston (Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning) have published an article entitled Video interactions for teaching and learning (VITAL): Analysing videos online to learn to teach childhood mathematics in the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (Volume 34, No 2, June 2009, pp. 19-23). From the abstract: "The most pressing need in early childhood mathematics education in the United States is to improve early childhood teacher preparation. A Web-based video system, 'Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL)', is a novel and effective approach for teacher preparation integrated into early childhood mathematics education courses. With extensive analysis of videos involving children's mathematical thinking, VITAL provides prospective teachers with engaging and intellectually stimulating hands-on and minds-on learning experiences that supplement the traditional textbook and readings."

VITAL video analysis application released as open source project

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:29:35 -0500

The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) is pleased to announce that Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL), a web-based learning environment for video analysis and multimedia essay writing, was released today to the public under an open source license.

VITAL features tools that enable students to edit, annotate, and store clips that they select from a video library. Students then use these clips as multimedia citations in essays that are published within the VITAL environment for review and critique by the professor and classmates. In the essays, students establish a meaningful context for the cited videos, similar to they way they cite books or journal articles.

Read the full press release here:
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/news/press-releases/vital-opensource-release.html

VITAL Symposium at SRCD Biennial Meeting

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:29:04 -0500

Partners in our VITAL project presented their research on student learning at the 2009 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), in Denver, CO, April 2-4. The title of the paper symposium was "A Video-Based Pedagogy for Improving College Students' Understanding of Development and Education," and the session was chaired by Prof. Herbert P. Ginsburg of Teachers College, Columbia University and Carol Copple of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). There were three papers presented:

Observation as Contexts for Student Interpretation and Critical Thinking (Prof. Lori Custodero and Prof. Ann Cami, Teachers College, Columbia University)
Teaching Educational Psychology With Video Case Studies: Going Beyond Psychological Theories in Context-Specific Case Analyses (Prof. Noriyuki Inoue, University of San Diego) PDF, 176 KB
Video-Based Exercises for Developing Early Childhood Educators' Use of Evidence and Interpretation (Michael Preston, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning) PDF, 1 MB

Paper: VITAL featured in Journal of Teacher Education

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:52:26 -0500

Our VITAL work in teacher development has been featured in the January/February 2009 edition of the Journal of Teacher Education in an article entitled "Video Annotation Tools: Technologies to Scaffold, Structure, and Transform Teacher Reflection." Authors Peter Rich of Brigham Young University and Michael Hannafin of the University Georgia review several software applications that support video analysis and annotation, and provide case studies of their use with teachers. From the abstract: "Video annotation tools offer the potential to support both the reflection and analysis of one's own teaching with minimal video editing as well as the ability to associate captured video with related student and teaching evidence." The full citation and a downloadable PDF of the article can be found at http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/52.

VITAL Symposium at 2009 SRCD Biennial Meeting

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:05:11 -0500

Partners in our VITAL project will be presenting at the 2009 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), in Denver, CO, April 2-4.

We are scheduled to present on Friday, April 3, 10:20 AM - 12:00 PM, in Hyatt Capitol 4 at the Hyatt Regency Denver. The title of our paper symposium is "A Video-Based Pedagogy for Improving College Students' Understanding of Development and Education." The symposium will be chaired by Prof. Herbert P. Ginsburg of Teachers College, Columbia University and Carol Copple of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). There will be four papers:

Observation as Contexts for Student Interpretation and Critical Thinking (Prof. Lori Custodero and Prof. Ann Cami, Teachers College, Columbia University)
Teaching Educational Psychology With Video Case Studies: Going Beyond Psychological Theories in Context-Specific Case Analyses (Prof. Noriyuki Inoue, University of San Diego)
Learning to Enter the Child's Mind: A Web-Based Video Analysis Lesson in Early Childhood Mathematics Education (Prof. Joon Sun Lee, Hunter College, CUNY)
Video-Based Exercises for Developing Early Childhood Educators' Use of Evidence and Interpretation (Michael Preston, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning)

Presentation: Herbert Ginsburg at TERC

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:30:55 -0500

Prof. Herbert Ginsburg (Co-PI) of Teachers College, Columbia University, presented on the VITAL project at TERC, a non-profit organization devoted to mathematics and science education curriculum development, training, research and evaluation. The focus of the presentation was on the use of VITAL to help teachers understand that they are helping children bridge the gap between everyday and scientific thinking, and to better understand the role they can play in their students' ongoing process of meaning-making. The VITAL video analysis tools are one promising method for developing teachers' skills of close observation and clinical interviewing, which give them greater access to children's thinking.

Presentation: VITAL at NSF DR-K12 Annual PI Meeting

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:11:57 -0500

Principal Investigators Frank Moretti of CCNMTL and Herbert P. Ginsburg of Teachers College, Columbia University, presented to their fellow grant recipients at the National Science Foundation's annual PI meeting of the Discovery Research K-12 program. The presentation, entitled "VITAL: A Web-based Video Analysis System for Teaching University-level Courses in Early Childhood Mathematics Education" described the evolution of the early mathematics course and VITAL Web environment, as well as what it has taught us about teaching and student learning. An overview of the project is available from the DR-K12 Web site here:
VITAL: A Web-based Video Analysis System for Teaching University-level Courses in Early Childhood Mathematics Education (Herbert P. Ginsburg, Frank Moretti) PDF, 116 KB

Presentation: VITAL at NAEYC professional development institute

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:47:44 -0500

Prof. Herbert Ginsburg and CCNMTL's Michael Preston presented the VITAL project at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)'s 17th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development in New Orleans, LA. The theme of the institute was "Technology and Early Childhood Education." The VITAL presentation focused on the use of video—both in the classroom and online—to engage teachers in close viewing and analysis, with the goal of helping teachers better understand the ideas they learn about in courses and apply them to the assessment and teaching of children. Case studies from Hunter College and Teachers College were used to illustrate teacher learning outcomes.

VITAL Symposium at AERA 2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:18:00 -0500

Members of our VITAL research group gave a symposium at the AERA 2008 Annual Meeting. Entitled "Video as a Manipulative: An Innovative System to Transform University Courses in Psychology and Education" and sponsored by the SIG Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning (TACTL), the symposium included four papers:

The use of video in teaching psychology and education: Theory and a case study (Herb Ginsburg, Ann Cami, Eram Schlegel - Teachers College) PDF, 202 KB
Adapting pedagogy to a Web-based video analysis system (Joon Lee - Hunter College/CUNY) PDF, 257 KB
The development of critical thinking skills using a Web-based video analysis system (Michael Preston - CCNMTL) PDF, 305 KB
Evaluating students' cognitive outcomes in a Web-based video analysis system (Cornelia Brunner - EDC) PDF, 170 KB
The discussant was Daniel Schwartz, Stanford University School of Education.

Presentation: VITAL at Adult Development

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:28:55 -0500

Herb Ginsburg and Michael Preston presented a poster on VITAL as "an innovative Web system for enhancing adults' critical thinking skills" at the annual symposium of the Society for Research in Adult Development. From the abstract: "We focus in particular on changing adult thinking, and not only on providing instruction in a particular content area or skill set. Specifically, we are developing a method to help prospective teachers (or any university student) connect what they learn from books and lectures with their personal experiences, and to gather real-world data, think critically about it, and make potentially better decisions."

Presentation: VITAL as a "Multimedia Record of Teaching"

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:17:07 -0500

Herb Ginsburg was invited to participate in the Carnegie Foundation's Moving Beyond Parallel Play: A Carnegie Convening about Multimedia Representations of Teaching. MRT is defined as "the documentation and analysis of the richness of teaching at all levels via multimedia representations, using the web and/or DVD technology for distribution, discussion and exchange." Prof. Ginsburg writes, "Our goal is to promote learning in which students make meaningful connections among different areas of their experience—what they see, what they assert, and what they read. The hope is that that this kind of rich, critical analysis of children and teaching will transfer to and form a sound basis for classroom practice. VITAL is intended to enrich teachers' minds." Read more about VITAL on the MRT Web site.

Presentation: National Association for the Education of Young Children

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:57:21 -0500

Michael Preston, along with Profs. Joon S. Lee and Priscilla Hambrick-Dixon of the Hunter College School of Education, gave a presentation entitled "The use of online video technology in teacher education: A VITAL program" at the 2007 NAEYC Annual Conference & Expo in Chicago. The session was designed to demonstrate how VITAL is used in graduate level child development and early childhood education courses to help teacher candidates learn how to observe carefully and think critically about children's development and learning.