Virtual Feedback on Teaching From Coach and Peers Using Videos of Teaching

• In Event: Exploring Feedback Practices in Novice Teaching Through Online Platforms: A Panel Discussion

Abstract

A growing body of literature has shown that there are elements of teacher professional development that are effective in impacting teacher learning and practice and student outcomes (Desimone, 2009; Wenglinsky, 2000). Important in this endeavor is the situated (Putnam & Borko, 2000) as well as the subject-specific (Wilson & Berne, 1999) nature of learning opportunities. We have seen positive outcomes when teachers work together to help each other improve (Cornett & Knight, 2009; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001).

There is a gap in the literature, however, around the nature of feedback that is impactful for bringing about changes in teaching. Feedback Intervention literature has shown that there are elements of feedback that are more effective in bringing about changes in performance (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996) and we know it to be true in feedback teachers provide to students (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Shute, 2008). For example, feedback that outlines how the task was performed impacts our learning processes and likely changes our performance, whereas feedback that tells us how well we’ve completed the task taps into our motivational processes and could or could not change future performance. The current study examines written and oral feedback that teachers received from content expert coaches and peers, as well as analyzes the subsequent classroom teaching for the potential impact of feedback. It asks:
· What is the nature of feedback on teaching?
· How does teaching evolve for teachers receiving consistent feedback?
Data for this paper comes from a university-based professional development program for 100 early-career high school teachers in low-income schools throughout the United States. Teachers attended a summer PD at the university, and at four points throughout the following school-year videotaped and virtually shared videos of their teaching, and participated in virtual feedback conversations with a content-expert coach and other teachers of same content. Eleven teachers volunteered to watch other teachers’ videos of teaching, provide and receive written feedback, and participate in virtual group feedback conversations. The written and oral feedback comments and videos of classroom teaching from 11 ELA teachers were coded and analyzed through Studiocode using a priori codes developed from Feedback Intervention Theory and classroom discourse literature (Michaels & O’Connor, 2012; Osborne et al., 2014).

Preliminary analyses show majority of feedback teachers receive from their peers is around task details or processes of teaching moves, though they do still provide feedback on individual characteristics of the teacher. They regularly referenced observed instances from videos of teaching and the videos served as an anchor for the feedback conversations. Teacher reflections during feedback conversations and subsequent teaching videos showed enactment of instructional changes as a result of feedback.

This research contributes to the literature on feedback on teaching that impacts in-service teacher performance as the majority of feedback studies reside within pre-service training programs. It builds on the effective teacher professional development literature and unpacks the elements of feedback necessary to bring about instructional improvement.

Author

• Edit Khachatryan, Stanford University