March 2021
On March 11, AERA and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) held an interactive forum, “The Global Teaching InSights Video Study: Methodology, Data, and Research Opportunities,” to examine research opportunities and lessons learned from OECD’s Global Teaching InSights Video Study. The broadcast drew a thousand researchers, practitioners, policy experts, and other viewers from 75 countries.
OECD’s Global Teaching InSights Video Study—formerly known as the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) Video Study—is an innovative project that uses new research methods to deepen understanding of teaching and learning at an international scale. In November 2020, immediately following the release of the study, AERA and OECD held a timely policy forum to discuss the findings from the study. In September 2020, AERA and OECD held another webinar titled “Education Research Worldwide in a COVID and Post-COVID World.”
“We are excited to hold a third webinar of international significance in half a year with OECD,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine, who was joined by Anna Pons, project lead of the Global Teaching InSights Study at OECD, in welcoming attendees. “This forum provides a unique opportunity for researchers interested in investigating teaching and learning across countries, video analysis, mathematics education, and comparative studies. It provides an important complement to the November 24 AERA-OECD forum that examined findings from the study.”
“It is great to see so much interest around the Global Teaching InSight Video Study,” added Pons. “We are very pleased to announce the release of the technical report of this study, hoping to bring more prosperous prospects to the research community.”
Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD Directorate of Education and Skills, gave a brief presentation on the study rationale.
“We don't want this to be only a study of teaching and learning,” Schleicher said. “We also have the mission to make the methodology evidence available to researchers and to empower teachers with these kinds of teaching examples.”
Schleicher was followed by presentations from three of the study’s co-principal investigators. V. Darleen Opfer, vice president and distinguished chair at RAND, provided an overview of the study design. Courtney A. Bell, director and professor at WCER/University of Wisconsin outlined the observations and artifact system developed for the study. Eckhard Klieme, professor emeritus and research fellow at DIPF, then explored the questionnaire design of the study.
Levine and Pons moderated a roundtable discussion and attendee Q&A. The international panel of analysts and researchers included Jorge Manzi, a professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Jon R. Star, a professor of education at Harvard University; Kirsti Klette, a professor at the University of Oslo; Mareike Kunter, director at DIPF; and Frederick K.S. Leung, president at the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction and a chair professor at the University of Hong Kong.
During the highly engaging discussion, the panelists examined a broad range of issues, including the study methodology, new data made available through the study, the potential use of the study in different countries, the possibility of another study in subjects other than mathematics, collaborations between researchers and policymakers, lessons learned for future study of learning, and ways to further explore international research opportunities.
Several comments from the panel underscored the research opportunities and challenges made apparent by the study.
“There are some things that are lost cross-culturally,” Bell said. “One of my hopes is that researchers can use the video data in their respective countries so they can do analyses that are more nuanced than what we were able to do through a set of codes.”
In discussing the application of the study, Star and Bell advised caution. "We still have a lot of work to do to continue our conversation about the similarities and differences across different ideas of what the instruction looks like at different levels in mathematics,” Star said.
Bell noted that the Global Teaching InSights videos and findings “only dealt with mathematics, and it is a critical question to what degree these codes will travel to a new topic or to a new subject matter.”
Manzi added that it is important for researchers to collaborate internationally. “We need more international collaboration and we need to test and check different rubrics and expand the study into different areas,” said Manzi.
During a robust Q&A segment, attendees posed a number of questions and observations about the Global Teaching InSights data, methods, and research potential.
After audience questions and closing thoughts from the panel, Levine and Pons concluded the forum by thanking the participants and emphasizing both organizations’ commitment to collaborating more extensively to advance the knowledge of teaching and learning.
“Having held a forum directed by design to the policy and teaching practice communities, we’re pleased to offer this opportunity to further connect with the research community today,” Levine said. “Our lead researchers and panelists reflected on future research opportunities made available through this study with great transparency. We hope the community can use this study to build more knowledge collaboratively together.”
The forum was co-sponsored by the AERA-ICPSR-NSF PEERS Data Hub.
Editor’s note: A session at the AERA 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting, “Measuring Teaching Practices and Teaching Quality: Conceptualizations and Findings From an International Study,” will examine research from four studies based on the Global Teaching InSights Video Study. Check the conference program for further information.