Research Report A National Video Library for Teacher Preparation in Visual Impairments Ellen Trief, Jim Lengel, and Laura Baecher The 44 institutions of higher education that prepare teachers of students with visual impair- ments in North America are deeply committed to providing the best possible education for their candidates. Whether undergraduate, graduate, or certificate programs, core courses for prepar- ing teachers of students with visual impairments are similar among these institutions (Ambrose- Zaken & Bozeman, 2010). Each program offers educational foundations courses, methods courses, and student teaching or practicum sem- inars, along with courses about assistive tech- nology, orientation and mobility, assessment, and classroom management. Although preparation programs for teach- ers of students with visual impairments share common curricula and goals, these programs also share a common challenge—the lack of readily available models of exemplary teach- ing practice that can be readily viewed and linked to course curricula. In addition, be- cause 42 of the 44 programs incorporate dis- tance learning models, the majority must use multimedia, such as video cases, to commu- nicate course content. To address this national challenge, good-quality videos of best teach- ing practices in the field are needed. This Research Report presents the findings of the first phase of a multiyear funded project whose ultimate purpose is to clearly define and then create a video clip library of 8- to 10-minute video clips that demonstrate exem- plary teaching practices for working with stu- dents who are visually impaired (that is, those who are blind or have low vision). These videos would represent elementary to high school settings in the areas of literacy, braille reading and writing, mathematics, the Nem- eth Code and abacus, technology, science, and social studies, as well as for working with students with severe and multiple disabilities. The research questions that guided this phase of the project included, What teaching prac- tices are of greatest importance to personnel preparation programs for teachers of students with visual impairments to be included in this video clip library? and How do faculty plan to use these video clips in the preparation of teachers? VIDEO AS A TOOL IN A TEACHER’S DEVELOPMENT As digital video has become more portable, accessible, and affordable than ever, its appli- cation to teachers’ learning has flourished over the past 10 years. Brouwer’s (2011) review of video as a tool in a teacher’s development or- ganized its uses into three approaches: orienta- tion, support, and assessment. Support and as- sessment involve teachers in viewing and reflecting upon their practice either through video records of their own teaching or by ob- serving videos of others (Baecher & Connor, 2010; Gale, Trief, & Lengel, 2010; Sherin & van Es, 2005; Tripp & Rich, 2012). For this project, Brouwer’s (2011) use of “orientation” is relevant because the video clips to be housed in the online library de- scribed in this report are intended to be used to illustrate techniques, methods, and prac- tices as a component of a preservice course or an in-service training initiative. The use of video cases in addition to text has been shown to be an effective tool for teacher educators as an introduction to classroom practices that their candidates will later attempt (Copeland & Decker, 1996; Koc, Peker, & Osmanoglu, 2009; Sherin, 2004; Wang & Hartley, 2003; Welsch & Devlin, 2007). By studying specific dimensions of practice through specially de- signed video cases, teacher candidates gain an Special thanks to the Lavelle Fund for supporting this project. ©2013 AFB, All Rights Reserved Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, January-February 2013 55