VEO as Reflective Practice in Primary Teacher Education Programmes in Finland

In this chapter, we discuss the results of a study of the Video Enhanced Observation (VEO) trials in the primary school teacher education programme at the University of Lapland, Finland. Twenty student teachers used the VEO app during the Advanced Practicum, which followed the phases of the reflection procedure. Two students from this group were selected for further analysis as case studies. The study aimed to determine how the students experienced the reflection procedure and the extent to which their professional development was supported by VEO. The data consisted of focus group interviews and supervising discussions. The students found VEO to be a good support for individual reflection when combined with feedback from a supervising class teacher. Faculty supervision was helpful because the supervisors linked practicum experiences to theory, asked comprehensive questions and offered new viewpoints on practice. These outcomes were confirmed with evidence from supervised discussions in which the supervisors’ guiding questions promoted the students’ reflections on recorded videos, specific instances of their learning, core qualities and the teaching profession. The students were able to move beyond mere descriptions of their actions and to take into account diverse viewpoints and broader contexts, thus reaching valuable levels of comparative and critical reflection.