Suitability criteria used by future primary school teachers in the assessment of math educational videos

Abstract

This research describes the criteria implicitly used by a group of future primary school teachers when assessing the adequacy of the planned didactical trajectory after watching two videos in an educational channel to teach sixth graders a specific content, percentages. The content analysis methodology is used to examine the written reports prepared by 61 third-year students enrolled in the class Design and Development of Primary Education Mathematics Curriculum during the 2019-2020 school year, as part of the Primary Teacher Education program at the University of Granada, Spain. Their reports were assessed based on the authors’ a priori consensus analysis of the didactic suitability of educational videos. Results show that student teachers implicitly use epistemic and interactive criteria to a great extent, as well as cognitive, affective, and ecological criteria. Although in general their assessments are quite inaccurate, student teachers recognize the need for teachers to analyze the relevance of these resources before recommending them to their students, which have acquired a fundamental role in education with the virtual teaching format due to the arrival of COVID-19. The paper highlights the importance of giving educators the opportunity to reflect on the practice by incorporating tools that allow them to direct their attention to relevant aspects in the teaching and learning process.