Collaboratively Exploring the Use of a Video Case-Based Book as a Professional Development Tool

Although the literature contains many examples of extensive professional development (PD) programs, most science teachers experience only a few hours of PD each year. To address this reality, alternative PD delivery tools need to be examined. Since the mid-1990s, video cases have emerged as a flexible form of PD where in-service teachers can repeatedly and vicariously view reform teaching practices enacted within the classroom context. Recently, PD developers have taken video cases to another level by embedding them into print and electronic books. In these video case-based books (VCBBs), the reader is iteratively prompted to watch a video case and read commentaries by the teacher featured in the video. In this study, we used collaborative action research (CAR) to explore what happened when a fourth-year biology teacher attempted to use a VCBB as a PD tool to enact the whole-class inquiry model (presented within the VCBB) into her curriculum. Specifically, we critically examined the extent to which the teacher was able to enact the model, the challenges she experienced, and the manner in which she utilized the VCBB. Our findings indicate that the teacher was able to use the VCBB, in conjunction with CAR, to make significant changes to her teaching practice. The results also point to the possibility of a new PD model where the VCBB provides a “vision” of reform teaching and the collaborative exploration of the VCBB as a PD tool affords the “space” needed to reach that vision.