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I am not in the education field, but I want to join the Video Mosaic Collaborative Community. Am I allowed to Join?
The Video Mosaic Collaborative represents 20+ years of observational videos and longitudinal research into how students reason and how manipulatives and teaching strategies can encourage the development of student reasoning. Although publicly available for browsing, further use of VMC videos to create analytics requires, for research and participant privacy reasons, that a member of the Community must be in mathematics education, as a researcher, teacher educator or practicing teacher, or a complementary field such as child psychology. Participants must adhere to a code of conduct incorporating a code of ethics that will be familiar to faculty and those engaged in social studies research. If you feel your area of study is complementary to the VMC’s stated mission to “make new discoveries in math education and transform mathematics research, teaching and learning, ” please review the VMC Community Code of Conduct and complete the VMC Community Application Form.
What is the VMCAnalytic?
The VMCAnalytic is an exciting new tool that will enable anyone registered at the Video Mosaic site to annotate videos, create virtual clips, and create playlists of multiple virtual clips. Learn more here.
I am developing a continuing education program for mathematics teachers. What role can the Video Mosaic play?
The Video Mosaic collection provides videos by grade level for broad areas of mathematics ("strands"), such as fractions and geometry. You can find specific problems that the students are working on, within those strands. When you find a video, be sure to look at the complete description about the video. It will tell you how the expert(s) worked with the students, what problem they solved, and what forms of reasoning the students exhibited. (e.g., direct reasoning, referencing a previous problem). A transcript is provided for each video. Many videos are clips in a series so you may want to look at all the clips in the series to follow along as the students progress in their understanding of a mathematics problem. The clips are identified by title and number in the series, e.g., "Division of fractions, clip 3 of 3." The researchers working with the students provide guidance in using manipulatives and other tools to learn mathematics concepts and also guidance in encouraging students to find the answers themselves through interaction with other students in their groups or with students in the whole class. Transcripts are provided for every video and, in some cases, student work.
How do I use the Video Mosaic to teach mathematics education to future teachers?
Future teachers can benefit the same way that practicing teachers do, by watching expert researchers and teachers working with students in different grades as they use manipulatives and other tools to learn math concepts and solve problems. The videos can provide your students with successful strategies to explain mathematics concepts and also the opportunity to watch expert researchers and teachers engage with students to develop and encourage reasoning skills. The researchers and teachers in the videos serve as "virtual mentors" for educators looking for successful approaches to teaching mathematics concepts and developing reasoning skills. Look for videos by limiting the search to the grade you need and to the math strand or area you are interested in (e.g., fractions, combinatorics, geometry, etc.) When you find a video, be sure to look at the complete description about the video. It will tell you how the expert(s) worked with the students, what problem they solved, and what forms of reasoning the students exhibited. (e.g., direct reasoning, referencing a previous problem). Many videos are clips in a series so you may want to look at all the clips in the series to follow along as the students progress in their understanding of a mathematics problem. The clips are identified by title and number in the series, e.g., "Division of fractions, clip 3 of 3." . Transcripts are provided for every video and, in some cases, student work.
Future teachers can gain a deeper understanding of how students learn by following the progress of specific students over time. The Video Mosaic collection is unique in its longitudinal documentation of students progressing in math reasoning skills and understanding over successive grades, from elementary through high school. You can search or browse students by name and also forms of reasoning by name.
How can the Video Mosaic help me teach my students math?
The Video Mosaic collection includes videos of teachers and researchers working with students from grades 4-12 using manipulatives and other tools to learn critical math concepts such as fractions and combinatorics. Emphasis is placed on developing student reasoning skills. The videos can provide you with successful strategies to explain mathematics concepts and also the opportunity to watch expert researchers and teachers engage with students to develop and encourage reasoning skills. The researchers and teachers in the videos serve as "virtual mentors" for educators looking for successful approaches to teaching mathematics concepts and developing reasoning skills. Look for videos by limiting the search to the grade you need and to the math strand or area you are interested in (e.g., fractions, combinatorics, geometry, etc.) When you find a video, be sure to look at the complete description about the video. It will tell you how the expert(s) worked with the students, what problem they solved, and what forms of reasoning the students exhibited. (e.g., direct reasoning, referencing a previous problem). Many videos are clips in a series so you may want to look at all the clips in the series to follow along as the student's progress in their understanding of a mathematics problem. The clips are identified by title and number in the series, e.g., "Division of fractions, clip 3 of 3." . Transcripts are provided for every video and, in some cases, student work.