Using Video Self-Reflection to Support Collaborative Learning for Students With Learning Disabilities

When students work in heterogeneous collaborative groups in content classrooms (e.g., science, social studies), it may not always be beneficial to students with learning disabilities whose engagement and participation may be low. Using video as a self-reflection tool helps all students in collaborative groups, particularly those with learning disabilities, see how they can improve their own collaboration and engagement which can then improve everyone’s learning. We discuss how to use video as a self-reflection tool to improve collaboration processes to support all learners in comprehending complex, content-specific, grade-level texts using Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR). We then provide examples of the process in a 7th grade social studies classroom, specifically highlighting two students with learning disabilities and how their engagement and contributions to their own learning and to their peers in their group improved through video self-reflection.