t & McNamara, 1980). Calderhed (1981) has referred to this method as "stimulated recall", and has compiled an extensive review of several studies using the methodology. Calderhed concluded that the technique was a systematic and sound methodological procedure that there were some validity concerns regarding its use.
These concerns were divided into three basic categories. First, Calderhed noted that teacher recall can vary in amount and precision depending upon a variety of factors such as the number and kind of visual cues afforded by the videotape, the degree of distraction of focus caused by teachers concentrating on the way they look on the tape rather than on what they were thinking at the time the tape was made, anxiety level of teachers, etc.
A second set of factors that can contribute to variability in recall consisted of variables related to teachers' ability to spontaneously verbalize. This ability can be actually diminished by the teacher's length of experience. As Calderhed (1981) put it:
...for the experienced teacher, much classroom behavior may have reached a level of automatization...in that it has become a largely automatic part of the teacher's classroom activity: the teacher may have long since forgotten the rationale for behaving in such a manner and the behavior may be engaged in unthinkingly. (p.213)
The final set of factors which can influence data under conditions of stimulated recall methodology consisted of the ways in which teachers prepared themselves for recall commentary, and the nature of the instructions given to them concerning what they are expected to recall. For example, instructions can vary from teachers being specifically asked to focus on the decisions they were making while being taped, to teachers being asked merely to recall everything that was going through their minds while the tape was being made.
In order to properly evaluate teacher decision-making research, it is impo...