Abstract:
Pre-service teachers (PSTs) rate constructive feedback while on teaching practicum as a key element in their training. This feedback is delivered by associate teachers (ATs) who share their classrooms, their students, their expertise, and their time with pre-service teachers on practicum. The vital role associate teachers play in the education of PSTs is widely acknowledged in the literature. Despite this acknowledgement, there is widespread concern that ATs do not experience the kind of training needed to enable them to carry out this vital role in its entirety, let alone in the area of giving feedback. This study looks at the influence on feedback, from ATs to PSTs, of an inquiry oriented effective teaching model intervention. The focus on inquiry is relevant to the New Zealand context given that Teaching as Inquiry is identified as effective pedagogy in the New Zealand Curriculum document (2007). While the inquiry oriented intervention model Teaching for Better Learning (Aitken, Sinnema, & Meyer, 2013) was developed with a focus standards for graduating teachers in New Zealand, this study examines the model’s influence on associate teacher feedback to these same teachers prior to graduation. Three ATs gave feedback to PSTs before and after being introduced to the Teaching for Better Learning model. The feedback sessions were analysed in terms of the Inquiry and Resources elements of the model. Findings indicated a lack of acknowledgement, discussion, or justification of ATs’ and PSTs’ decisions about student learning priorities and the teaching strategies to meet these priorities. Feedback was predominantly about the process of teaching and did not acknowledge the resources or reasons behind teaching decisions. This study argues that the Teaching for Better Learning model provides a framework for AT to PST feedback that focusses on teaching practice as well as delving into decisions underpinning this practice.