Openness and Development or Self-Criticism of Preservice Teachers Watching Videos of Themselves Teaching a Lesson

The goal of videotaping lessons in a teacher training process is to bring about change in the behavior of preservice teachers to promote self-awareness, openness, and development. The research question was whether preservice teachers, after watching the video recordings of the lessons they taught, would undergo a process of development and increased openness, or remain on a plane of self-criticism. The present qualitative discourse analysis study examined the data based on the principles of social and emotional learning (SEL). The data were organized according to SEL categories: self-criticism, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, interaction management, and accepting responsibility. Participants in the study were 100 preservice teachers studying in teacher training institutions in Israel. Most preservice teachers (93%) were found to be critical of themselves, but they also tried to open up to a process of self-awareness (82%) and to change their behavior. Some participants (11%) remained “shackled” to their critical attitude and failed to break through the “wall of self-criticism” and change their behavior. Most participants (76%) showed social awareness and mindfulness of their feelings and of those of others; empathy and ability to read signals sent by their students; listening to others as opposed to being emotionally deaf; attention to the nature of interactions with students during the lesson, to how they moved about the classroom and used their voice, and whether they made eye contact with learners. To bring about change, the teacher must watch, observe, and investigate, and be able to better understand emotional and social situations. Teachers who had experienced social and emotional learning are likely to develop self-awareness and the ability to bring about openness, development, and change in their own behavior and in the behavior of their students.