S10 E5: Using Technology Based-Solutions for Professional Development

This episode of Practical Access discusses Drs. Lisa Dieker & Rebecca Hines' Federal Grant project called FLIGHT STEM Coaching,  which focuses on assisting math and science coaches in supporting special education teachers. The project utilizes a tool called Debriefscape, offering a comprehensive coaching and professional development approach.

FLIGHT STEM Coaching with Debriefscape represents an innovative approach to professional development and coaching in special education. By combining video technology, targeted resource gathering, and a flexible coaching model, the project aims to enhance math and science teaching in special education settings. The episode encourages educators to explore and adapt these tools to their individual and institutional needs, contributing to the evolution of inclusive and effective teaching practices.

Website: https://www.cs.ucf.edu/~ceh/EDGrants/DScape/

YouTube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obw0D0dCJJs

Key Points Discussed:

1. Purpose of FLIGHT STEM Coaching: This initiative aims to aid coaches (including principals) in guiding special education teachers who are teaching math and science. The acronym FLIGHT stands for Flexible Learning through Innovations and Technology in Education, highlighting the project's focus on adaptable and technology-driven educational strategies.

2. Debriefscape as a Coaching Tool: The hosts discuss the utility of Debriefscape in facilitating effective coaching. This tool allows for video recording of teaching sessions, where behaviors can be tagged and reviewed. It is designed for both self-reflection by teachers and for use by coaches in providing targeted feedback.

3. Professional Development Resources: The project includes resources for teachers to pursue their professional development independently, moving away from a top-down coaching model to a more personalized approach.

4. Targeted Support for Math and Science: Recognizing the limited resources in special education for math and science, the project gathers and vets resources specifically beneficial for these subjects, ensuring they align with best practices in special education.

5. Biometric Data Integration: The project is exploring the integration of biometrics, such as heart rate monitoring, to provide insights into teachers' responses during teaching and coaching sessions.

6. Customizable and User-Friendly: Debriefscape and the associated resources are designed to be customizable and user-friendly, catering to the specific needs of different educators and contexts. This includes the potential for districts to add their specific goals, like trauma-informed skills or math competencies.

7. Ongoing Development and Accessibility: The project is in its development stages, with plans to include around 1,500 resources. All tools and resources developed through this project will be freely available online.

Transcript

Lisa Dieker: 
Welcome to Practical Access. I'm Lisa Dieker.

Rebecca Hines: 
And I'm Rebecca Hines. Today, Lisa and I are going to talk about flight STEM coaching using a tool we're both familiar with called DebriefScape. This is another federal grant project we've been collaborating on that has many layers to support teachers.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yes, indeed. This one is excellent for teachers and even parents. It specifically focuses on helping math and science coaches to coach special education teachers in teaching math and science. If I were a coach in a school, perhaps even a principal, knowledgeable in math and science but uncertain about how to best teach in special education, and Becky is the teacher, this toolkit can help me coach Becky. What we love most about it is that it also provides resources for Becky to engage in her own professional development. It promotes personalized and flexible learning. Flight stands for Flexible Learning through Innovations and Technology in Education. This project, here at the University of Kansas in deep partnership with the University of Central Florida, focuses on supporting STEM coaches. What's your favorite part, Becky?

Rebecca Hines: 
My favorite part about this is that it's designed to be user-friendly, catering to anyone. It captures the element of video, allowing individuals to videotape teaching episodes, have someone else tag it, and analyze behaviors for potential changes in my own teaching behaviors. My favorite thing is that it's a literal tool that allows actions that would typically cost a lot of money for a commercial provider. Currently, Lisa, I'm using the DebriefScape tool as we continue developing it. I'm using it with pre-service teachers, applying our coaching model in a real-world setting. They work with coaches and mentors to set their goals, watch their 10-minute videos, tag occurrences related to their goals, and try to ignore everything else. Often, when looking at videos, it can be overwhelming, we could code 100 things but pinpointing goals and having rich conversations with coaches is the goal here. I'm loving that I can use it not just as part of a research study but as a practical tool in my own teaching.

Lisa Dieker: 
Well, it's funny that that's the part you love. I love that part too, but I think I love the three buckets. For our listeners, as you go out to the site, one, you can see Becky Hines doing video and helping coaches. So, if you happen to be somebody coaching, it could even be a parent trying to coach your learner. There are some aspects of coaching literature out there, looking at how to be a coach. There's also, as Becky said, this tagging. Stay tuned. This is a five-year grant. We're only in the second year, moving into the third. But what I love about the tagging software is, as we've talked about in an earlier podcast, we're trying to align biometrics with it too. So we can look at things like Becky's heart rate. If I were her coach, and it's a true story, we did a little practice session with Becky, and she was wearing a device that looked at her heart rate. All of a sudden, her heart rate spikes, and we said, "Becky, why did your heart rate spike?" She goes, "Because I asked a question and nobody answered it." So again, she could explain that moment, but then she could also reflect on it. What we love is it's actually not only a free tagging software, we don't own your video, we don't own the tags. It's all web-based because both of our projects that we've been talking about are all web-based. So you don't have to subscribe, you don't have to pay, but then you can decide what data you want to stack up and align. But then I think my favorite part is at the end, we have amazing, brilliant people in mathematics and science and special ed harvesting all of the great resources aligned with best practice in special ed. So if I'm coaching Becky and I want her to focus on praise, she doesn't have to have a PD with me after school when we're both already busy. We've already harvested anything on that particular topic, and Becky can go and watch. We have, if you go to the site, you'll see long, short, and medium. So short, 10 minutes or less; medium, 30 minutes or less; and long is approximately 30 minutes and beyond, so it could be an hour. Then we have blogs, we have videos, we have this great podcast called Practical Access out there. So we have a range of resources so that you can Google. So as a parent, if you're wanting to even look at how do I do a better job phrasing, we have examples for you to think about too. So those are some of my, but again, there are three big buckets there, and depending on your role as a listener, you might look at different buckets.

Rebecca Hines: 
Yeah, the tool retrieval is a great element, and it's one that, as you said, is available right now. So even if just reflecting on my own workweek, I'm thinking, "Wow, I don't feel like I'm doing XYZ well enough. You know what else could I try?" It is nice to be able to go in and ask this specific question and to be linked directly to some specific resources that we have been able to pull together.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah, and those resources are AI, just so you know. When you type the word "discourse," and video shows up with discourse, that's artificial intelligence. But it's not scary AI, and we want to just keep emphasizing that in this season.

Rebecca Hines: 
And, Lisa, one of the things that we didn't mention yet about the project is it is linked to high leverage practices. Yeah, so we've built it around this idea that it's not just things that Lisa and I are sitting around saying, "Oh, you know what teachers need." It's all linked to high leverage practices, and the searches are constructed that way. But the interesting thing, and some of you guys may have found this when you're trying to find information and find resources, is we talk about things like high leverage practices, but so often it's difficult to drill them down into an observable task. So if I say, "You know, oh, the learning environment," well, what in the learning environment am I looking for? So the coaching model here really is designed so that rather than Lisa and I sitting down and talking about what she's doing wrong, we're talking about, well, which of these high leverage practices do you want to focus on? And then we pull that up together, and then we say, "Well, what area within that big broad topic?" And then we decide together what is something I could observe that you were doing that meets this high leverage practice. And even the conversation part of that is so different from what most people experience because we're just talking about a single observable behavior or two that we can isolate and focus on, search for possible solutions, and implement. So the simplicity is the key to this project, and we're working really hard to make it as user-friendly as possible.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah, and just two other things I would want the listeners to think about is remember that we have a lot of resources in special education in the areas of literacy and behavior. Our basket is not nearly as big in the research literature in mathematics and science, and that's one of the reasons that's been the focus. So you'll see things out there that aren't specific just to math and science, but they've been vetted by math and science experts to say, "Yes, these align with those practices." So again, a big win. And it's a really practical example. Many teachers struggle with discourse, how do you get kids to engage in discourse besides, "I don't know, I don't care," those kinds of things and so again, lots of great examples out there from great teachers, blogs, links to think about how do I get more dialogue in my class. If I'm an elementary teacher, we don't tend to get a big background when we first get certified in math and science. And so again, if I'm struggling with something related to fractions, I might Google that, and it'll give you some areas there to think about in helping learners. So keep it in mind in that regard and something you might consider. And then the last thing is just stay tuned. We've harvested about 500 resources now. Our goal is to harvest around 1500 by the end of the project and to add more biometrics and all kinds of other options, stronger coaching. But if you have feedback for us, and we do have a chatbot so you can ask the chatbot, thanks to Becky. But you also can post some questions like, "Hey, can you do this?" And we do have a lot of our friends, like Becky said, using this site to start to tag teacher behaviors in their student teaching, or better yet, as Becky said, let students tag it themselves. So lots of resources out there we hope you'll look at and hope they might be useful to you as a user.

Rebecca Hines: 
And I would encourage everyone, don't just rely on tools like these. Obviously, these are all just in the development stage, but the value is in thinking about what you can use of this to create a system that meets your needs right now. So send us questions if you have them. We spend a lot of time thinking about and looking at the coaching piece, and we're always happy to help you guys meet the goals that you set for yourselves.

Lisa Dieker: 
Yeah, and we have one particular district that has trauma-informed skills that they're looking at, and they've been added or getting ready to add those. We have another one that's looking at specific math competencies, and those can be added. So again, it can be customized. You can make your own tags. We've given you some to start with, but again, that's what Flight stands for– flexible learning through innovations and technology in education. I think it's what Becky and I have been talking about this season. It's really using all the things out there to make it work for you instead of assuming you have to all drive the same Model T Ford that was first invented. So we hope you'll take this and drive in a direction you would like. If you have questions, please send them to us on Access Practical, or you can also post them on our Facebook page.