Video portfolio assessment: Creating a framework for viewing the functions of teaching

The goal in this work was to study how a professional assessment of teaching can be developed that will have a positive impact on the professional development of teachers who participate, either as candidates or evaluators. Our hypothesis was that such a positive Impact depends upon two factors: on teachers developing a socially shared language of practice for describing important functions of classroom teaching, and on their using this language in discussing videos of teaching covering a wide range of classroom situations. Our focus was on constructing an interpretive framework (and criteria) that could serve as this language of practice We present psychometric and semantic analyses showing that teachers are consistent in observing these functions of teaching and in using their observations to evaluate teaching in a variety of classroom contexts. We also present qualitative evidence showing how participating in collaborative video analysis or in scoring video portfolios benefits teachers in improving their professional practice.