re.There is recent research led by Jo Tobin ('Children Crossing Borders') which is looking at equality and using video recordings of focus groups. This included analysis of the interaction, verbal and non-verbal, including 'body language' but I don't have the details of the techniques developed.

 
I think there is considerable value in using video - taking as read comments in the previous session relating to ethical issues - not least because you can replay as often as you wish and slow down and see minute changes from frame to frame if you wish. As in most research coming back to basic questions of why am I doing this? what is it for? what am I trying to find out? should help to keep a tight focus in a medium that might well lead off in interesting tangents - and Mark's paper shows critical awareness of the need to clarify and maintain the focus.  
 
I will be very interested to hear comments from others using similar approaches.
 
Mike Gasper
Early Years Consultant

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Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:01:41 -0700
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mark Potts: analysing video evidence
To: [log in to unmask]

Hi Jan, Mark and Everyone, That's very interesting - thank you! One of the main skills (in my opinion) that a coach and mentor needs to develop is the ability to 'read' a mentee's or client's body language in order to personalise what they are doing/saying; by paying very close attention not only what is said but also what is being revealed by non verbal communication (as in any relationship where trust must be built in a short time and sustained). So - while I agree that asking the 'right' questions in non directional coach-mentoring is highly important mastering the skills demands more than that... One of the ideas I am playing with at the moment (and I would LOVE to find someone to work with me on this!) is using computer software to generate avatars as coach-mentor and mentee-client where the dialogue is the sound track from authentic mentoring-coaching interaction - gets round permissions for video, sensitivities about identities as it can be anonymised like genuine role play without so many problems... (?) In order to work towards creating avatars I need to learn how to analyse video footage and that is why I posted the 16 very short clips last night. I am going to try analysing by Mark's system and also try and explain how I analayse the footage in my (less systematic!) way. Thinking back to the excellent session on asking questions in coaching I took part in at the TLA conference last week - this reference comes to mind: it's a highly practical handbook Hubbard, R. and Power, B. (1999) Living the questions; a guide for teacher-researchers, Stenhouse Publishers, Portland USA It also relates to Emma's clips so I will see if I can incorporate some of the guidance to make my video analysis more systematic & rigorous. Sarah --- On Tue, 6/30/09, Janet Oti <[log in to unmask]> wrote: re. I see the potential for using videos to analyse body language against what respondents actually say during interview. I think this could make a fascinating study especially around sensitive issues such as policy and practice. re. I assessed the Flip video recorders which Bridget mentioned in the last e-conference.