Letter From a Korean Classroom: The Case for Classroom Cameras

by CHRIS BACON

Working at a private English academy in South Korea consistently highlights the benefits and pitfalls of education as a business. Though such a system has its ups and downs, one particular “up” is that to survive, a business must guarantee a quality product. In educational terms, this means fostering awesome teachers. One particular means to this end involves a little black globe on the ceiling. It’s a method I would have decried two years ago, but swear by today: cameras in the classroom, recording 24/7.

On the first day in such a classroom, my mind jumped (as would most others’ reading this) straight to George Orwell’s 1984—Big Brother is watching you. The veteran instructors, though, never batted an eyelash at the idea, forgetting that it wasn’t normal everywhere. I soon discovered, to my ultimate surprise, that I thrived through, even enjoyed, the feedback classroom cameras afforded me as a teacher. Today, being responsible for watching these videos to constructively evaluate our teachers has only deepened my confidence in their effectiveness.

Take a moment to imagine a basketball team, the coach of which only gets a printout of the players’ stats, never having witnessed a game. “Johnson,” he would say, “looks like your free throws are way below average. What’s the deal?” Johnson would defend himself, saying that he was doing his best in the circumstances. “Right,” replies the coach “now I respect your right to privacy and autonomy on the court, so I’m still not actually going to watch you play. But try to step up your game a bit—these stats will make our sponsors nervous. Now get out there and cream ‘em boys!”

Of course, this is ridiculous. In reality, an attentive coach would see that Johnson cocks his elbow out too far while shooting, point that out to him, and Johnson would hit nothing but net for the rest of the season. However, this “blinded coach” method is precisely how many schools evaluate their teachers: “Our standardized test results are down. Teachers need to get them higher… somehow.” Meetings ensue. Theories are theorized. Incentives, and more often punishments, go into effect, all without anyone ever watching the game.

Contrary to the Big Brother neurosis, when a class is recorded, no one pours over it for subversive, anti-government content. In fact, most evaluation is based on presentation rather than content. Watch any recording of any class, and you will find that a lot of what makes a teacher effective can be seen in the first five minutes—energy, preparation, professionalism, and interest in the students. As it turns out, our students already do this: In the book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell cites a study in which students watched full videos of classes and were asked to rate the teacher. Students could easily separate the “effective” (caring, interested, knowledgeable) teachers from the “ineffective.” The surprise came when another group of students watched five minutes of the classes, and judged the teachers with the same accuracy. Yet another group was able to identify the teachers who would excel just as easily, having watched one minute of a class—on mute.

I’m not suggesting teachers be evaluated through one minute silent videos, but it does demonstrate that there is no complex, scientific formula for what makes an effective teacher. If students can make the call within such constraints, there’s no reason that experienced educational professionals can’t easily identify star teachers and help struggling teachers learn from them.

As far as teacher evaluation, personally, I would much rather be judged by my performance and engagement in the classroom (things I can control, adapt, and improve on) than by the multitude of compounding variables that influence things like my students’ test scores. However, I only highlight teacher evaluation as it is a hot issue in many districts today. The benefits of classroom cameras actually extend far beyond evaluation, and in practice, are tools for our instructors more than anything else. Most often, teachers will approach me after having difficulty with particular class or aspect of the program and ask me to check out the video and share some ideas.

(By the way, I don’t think I need to point out that a randomly selected video depicts a substantially more realistic environment than that joke of an evaluation in which the principal sits in on a class, or the other farce in which a tripod camera is set up for one day—talk about an angelic transformation—students and teachers alike!)

The most profound effect, though, comes when teachers view their own classes for themselves. As many film actors will attest, there are cringes at first, but the self-realization that comes from observing oneself in action is priceless. One of our teachers recently had a class that got uncharacteristically rowdy during a certain class component. The teacher and I viewed the video together to come up with some strategies to keep them under control. The teacher quickly pointed out, however, that throughout the exercise (which was a rather difficult grammar component, unfamiliar to native speakers), she had her nose buried in the book to keep track of the next step. It was simply the lack of eye contact that allowed a bit of unchecked mischief to unravel into rowdiness. The next day, the teacher spent more time familiarizing herself with the material, kept an eye on the students while engaging them, and the situation remedied itself. Through the videos one finds that a lion’s share of classroom issues are quite simple to rectify. Just like Johnson’s rouge elbow, however, you have to see the game to catch them (Students, by the way, can engage in this self-realization as well, watching their own aberrant class behaviors, and if you want to play really dirty, “Well Mrs. Kim, let’s see why Johnny’s attention grades are indeed so low… Ah, yes that is his glue bottle in his mouth there….”)

Some branches of our academy even use the videos for team-building and idea sharing. New teachers pair with veteran partners and they each spend an hour or so a week watching the other’s class. The new teacher gets to witness a well-functioning classroom, and more often then not, the veteran teacher spends less time giving pointers and more time noting innovative techniques the greenhorn has brought to the game. A budding opera singer doesn’t flourish by simply reading books by the greats, she watches them in their element and absorbs every detail—the same can be said about the craft of a great teacher.

As with any innovation, people will make excuses as to why classroom cameras aren’t feasible. Cost is a favorite. Private academies, admittedly, can afford a semi-sophisticated video system (which, in itself, is another argument for the idea—businesses don’t invest money into something that doesn’t provide ample returns), but we’re not burning high-resolution blue-ray DVD’s here. The audio and grainy video from a simple webcam, mounted on a teachers’ computer is all you need. If anything, simply circumvent school-wide implementation and try it for yourself. Borrow a webcam for a day, have one of your techno-genius students set it up to record (heck, they could probably do all this with a used cell phone) and view your class for your own personal and professional development (Note: If this activity sounds or is boring for you, it’s good to realize that your students go through this five days a week. If the material doesn’t even hold your attention, give the kids a break). Ultimately, the personal camera idea serves as a good kick in the pants on days when I’m dragging: “Would I want to watch my own class right now? What would I do differently if I knew someone was watching… Wait… 24 people ARE watching… every day! Step it up Chris!”

More often than not, the only real obstacle to implementing this system is our own reluctance or paranoia. But why shouldn’t we want to show off our skills? Why, as educators, can we not display our craft as proudly as an NBA player on national television? Why shouldn’t we be confident enough to say that anyone can flip on our video at any moment of any day, and find something magical in the works? We are, after all, already in the major-leagues of professional education. In our line of work, however, neglecting to remedy those botched free throws will ultimately affect much more than our own stats for the season.

Chris Bacon teaches English in Korea.