Video analysis as a learning tool to promote the quality of teaching : from school teachers’ education to university teachers' professional development = La videoanalisi come dispositivo per promuovere la qualità della didattica: dalla formazione degli insegnanti allo sviluppo professionale dei docenti universitari

The use of video as a learning tool in initial and continuing teacher education has increasingly spread over the past decades and has changed over time in line with technological advancements and according to different purposes, from being a means to illustrate good teaching practices to a medium for promoting critical reflection on action and helping teachers develop their “professional vision”. Based on these premises, the contribution presents theoretical and empirical perspectives on the use of video for teacher education in order to outline the conceptual framework underlying a research project aimed at investigating the potential of video analysis in contexts of professional development of university teachers. The first section of the paper therefore offers an overview of existing research on video-based teacher education, with a focus on developments in the approaches to the use of video for teacher learning purposes and on empirical evidence on effectiveness and impact of video-based training to promote teacher change processes. Building on this theoretical framework, the second part of the contribution outlines some directions for the use of video for the professional development of university teachers and presents the objectives and design of the Video Analysis for quality teaching in Higher Education (VAHE) project, a research path in progress aimed at developing and testing a system of methodologies, tools and procedures for video analysis to foster the improvement of teaching skills of university teachers.