Taking Into Account Feedback Capacity: A Mediator to Teacher Learning in the Digital Space

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

Abstract

It is worthwhile to critically examine the current constraints the ways of supporting student teachers in traditional teacher preparation programs, particularly how they access high-quality feedback. Unfortunately, literature signals that student teachers do not receive enough supervision and feedback, leading to feelings of isolation (Buck, Morsink, Griffin, Hines, & Lenk, 1992).
To address these problems of practice, I conducted a mixed-methods case (employing design-based research methodologies) using a web-based feedback platform to enhance how preservice teachers exchanged feedback. This session highlights one slice of the study’s findings: the student teachers’ feedback capacity — that is, the ability to receive and deliver quality feedback with the intent to influence pedagogical change.
At present, feedback capacity and how this capacity influences teacher learning, specifically through the use of online technologies, is conceptually underdeveloped and research is scant on this topic (Hougan, 2014). This study contributes new perspectives on feedback capacity, and, in what ways, feedback capacity may mediate how teachers solicit, receive, process, learn from, and provide feedback.
I drew on literature concerning different conceptions of feedback (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Ilgen, Fisher, & Taylor, 1979; Van Houten, 1980). I paid attention to the student teachers’ feedback network, attributes of feedback (nature and temporal features), and meaning making of the received feedback. This study was informed by situative sociocultural theories, highlighting the idea that people develop in particular ways as they participate in communities of practice using cultural and material tools (Anderson, Greeno, Reder, & Simon, 2000).
The setting was a traditional teacher preparation in the Pacific Northwest, over the course of the student teachers’ practicum experience (17 weeks in total). The unit of analysis was the feedback interactions among a group of student teachers and feedback network. The sample consisted of eight student teachers and their two field supervisors.
Qualitative research was best suited to address my study’s research inquiries. Through the use of design-based research methodologies, I immersed myself in “the joint pursuit of practical improvement and theoretical refinement; cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and revision; and attempts to link processes of enactment to outcomes of interest” (Sandoval, 2014, p. 3-4).
Data collection consisted of 30 interviews, analytics, and artifacts (e.g. screenshots of user feedback). I used different sources and methods to triangulate my data. This study utilized a grounded theory analysis approach (Charmaz, 2001; Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995).
Findings revealed that feedback capacity emerged as an influential mediator on how student teachers’ accessed and learned from feedback. Initially, student teachers reported receiving lower-quality feedback, largely due to a lack of understanding the technological tools, an absence of advocacy of learning needs, and inadequate awareness of feedback best practices. In response, a training intervention was conducted focused on improving feedback capacity and how to better utilize the technology, resulting in quality improvements in subsequent feedback exchanges. In summary, this session offers a heuristic case study with conceptual insights into feedback capacity, how feedback capacity plays out in a digital space, and potential ways to build capacity.

Author

• Eric Hougan, Central Washington University