Jul
2014
Twenty-first International Conference on Learning 14th – 17th July 2014 Parallel paper – Towards Improving the Informal Feedback Loop: Mentor-Student Teacher Structured Discussions Dr. Robin James, Education and Educational Psychology Department, School of Professional Studies, Western Connecticut State University, Danubury, USA, Dr. Becky Hall, Department of Mathematics, School of Arts and Sciences, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, USA, Alex Fraiha, Department of Education and Educational Psychology School of Professional Studies, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, USA
This study examined one strategy to address perceived communication challenges of giving feedback to pre-service teachers. The questions for the study were:
- How important is consistent and guided feedback to pre-service teaching?
- Does having a set of questions and goals foster step for improvement?
- Does changing pre-service teachers responsibility help?
The project arose through frustration at triad meetings where co-ordinating teachers had not raised any issues and then in the final meeting they said I think the student will fail. The methodology was 42 pre-service teachers and 42 co-ordinating teachers. The data was collected from a 33 item likert type survey with a few open questions, interview data and reflections.
The findings included that if pre-service teachers understood the feedback then the outcome tended to be positive but if they did not then negative things often happened. Setting goals did help with lesson plans. There was improved classroom management if the teachers understood the feedback. Using focused discussion tool enabled pre-service teachers to ask for help.
Limitations of the study are that it is small and some who agreed to take part did not complete the questionnaire fully nor attend the interviews.
The implications are that training is needed for communication so feedback can be provided.
Future research is to examine the University supervisor role.