Call to videotape teachers at work Teachers are being encouraged to view video footage together with a colleague or mentor. Teachers should be filmed in the classroom so they can review and improve their performance, a member of the expert Gonski panel says. Kathryn Greiner, who conducted a major review of school funding alongside business leader David Gonski, said teachers could gain a fresh perspective on sharpening their skills by watching themselves on video. "I have to say it is about time teachers understood that they must be assessed, they must be a part of professional development and I would like to see every single teacher in every single classroom in Australia videotaped," she told a Mitchell Institute education forum. Ms Greiner later told The Age that teachers could view the video footage together with a colleague or mentor. The best way of learning is to see yourself and have somebody help you. Monash University education Associate Professor Bruce Waldrip said schools needed to be careful to ensure footage of students did not leak into the public, particularly if a child's identity had been suppressed by a court. He said teachers would respond best to a camera in the classroom if it was used to encourage rather than punish them. "As a tool to help them it's very powerful," he said. A spokeswoman for Teaching Profession Minister Peter Hall welcomed the use of cameras if they were used carefully. "This idea is a great opportunity to monitor, assess and encourage ongoing improvement across the teaching profession," she said. Australian Education Union state president Meredith Peace said cameras were rarely used in classrooms in Victoria. "Videotaping is a step further than something like observing classrooms and we wouldn't be supportive if it was something that was done punitively," she said. Knox Grammar School deputy headmaster Paul Brown said cameras were used at his NSW school so teachers could determine ways to improve. Mr Brown said cameras gave teachers a dispassionate perspective on their work. Memory can be hazy or subjective. Film is objective," he said.