Teacher educators use of feedback to facilitate reflective practice among pre-service teachers during microteaching

Abstract

This study investigated how teacher educators utilize feedback to enhance reflective practices among pre-service teachers during microteaching sessions. Conducted at a government-run teacher education college in Ethiopia, this research adopted a case study approach, employing semi-structured interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and observations for data collection. Both pre-service teachers and teacher educators were sources of data. Thematic analysis facilitated the interpretation of the data. Findings indicated that teacher educators often relied on evaluation criteria as preliminary feedback (feed-up), delivered feedback that lacked dialogue following teaching practices and did not offer forward-looking feedback (feed-forward). The unchecked use of evaluation criteria for every aspect of pre-service teachers’ practices, coupled with non-dialogic feedback on identified shortcomings and the absence of constructive feed-forward mechanisms, hindered opportunities for pre-service teachers to genuinely engage in reflective practices during microteaching sessions. The study deduced that teacher educators inadequately leveraged varied feedback methods to foster active reflective practices among pre-service teachers. This suggests a missed opportunity in utilizing feedback as an effective pedagogical tool to encourage reflective practice among pre-service teachers. Given the limitations regarding the generalizability of this study, it is recommended that future research gathers more comprehensive data on the subject and delves into the nature and content of feedback in relation to the depth of reflection in teacher education.