The Role of Practice and Feedback for Developing Teacher Candidate’s Opportunities to Respond Expertise

Abstract

A greater emphasis on measuring the outputs of teacher preparation programs such as practice-based evaluations (e.g., edTPA) has increased the need for teacher educators to examine “best practice” for developing the skill-based competencies of teacher candidates. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of practice and feedback on teacher candidates’ knowledge and skill acquisition of a specific evidence-based practice, the provision of opportunities to respond (OTRs). Using an experimental, pretest–posttest design, 48 teacher candidates in an introductory special education course (i.e., nonpracticum course) were randomly assigned to a distributed practice with feedback (experimental) condition or a massed practice with no feedback (business-as-usual) condition. Candidates in the experimental condition outperformed candidates in the business-as-usual condition on a measure of knowledge and a performance measure on the accuracy of specific OTR technique delivery. There were, however, no differences between the groups in terms of rate of OTR delivery. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.

Experiential Learning Experiences to Enhance Preservice Special Educators Literacy Instruction

“…Therefore, we discussed the need to increase the amount of structured experiential experiences the preservice teachers engage early in the program to better prepare them for internship and student teaching and provide them opportunities to refine their instructional skills (Janssen et al, 2015). These experiential experiences should be a fundamental and integrated aspect of a special education teacher preparation programs; thus, we need to identify opportunities for deliberate practice throughout the program to help facilitate the development of teaching skills (Sayeski, Hamilton-Jones, Cutler, Earle & Husney, 2019).…”

“…We encourage teacher educators, as we are doing ourselves, to create experiences that allow preservice special educators to engage with students with disabilities and begin to develop their craft from their first semester in a program. We know that meaningful practice in teaching students can be taught during early coursework in teacher preparation programs (Sayeski et al, 2019) thus, these experiential experiences should be integrated into all courses throughout the program, rather than clustered at the end during practicum and student teaching experiences which is typically the norm. Although special education teacher preparation programs typically note that preservice educators complete several hours in the field before student teaching, the vast majority of these field experiences tend to be observational in nature or unstructured.…”

“…However, unlike classroom experiences later on in their teacher preparation program (e.g., student teaching), the majority of these experiential experiences linked to courses may not have direct university supervisors, but instead, rely more on the support of the cooperating teacher. Therefore, it is up to the course faculty to systematically integrate cycles of practice and feedback into their courses, since research shows that frequent opportunities to practice and receive feedback can improve the efficiency with which preservice teachers acquire and implement practices accurately (Peeples et al, 2018;Sayeski et al, 2019).…”

Improving Teaching Quality for Students With Disabilities: Establishing a Warrant for Teacher Education Practice

“…Thirty-eight TESE studies examined the effectiveness of different pedagogical approaches to improving teacher learning (e.g., coaching, video analysis, and multicomponent innovations that include some combination of knowledge development, modeling, practice, and feedback; see Online Appendix A). The vast majority were designed to improve teachers’ knowledge and skill for implementing evidence-based practice (e.g., Kennedy, Rodgers, Romig, Mathews, & Peeples, 2018; Sayeski, Hamilton-Jones, Cutler, Earle, & Husney, 2019). A summary of the research supporting each pedagogical approach follows.…”

Using Performance Feedback to Increase Special Education Teachers’ Use of Effective Practices

“…Therefore, performance feedback is an ideal strategy for any teacher who is seeking to improve his or her delivery of academic or behavioral instruction. Performance feedback is effective for teachers during their preservice years (Cornelius & Nagro, 2014; Sayeski, Hamilton-Jones, Cutler, Earle, & Husney, 2017), and it was suggested that performance feedback may be especially helpful for teachers during their induction years as they are beginning to add effective methods to their teaching repertoire (Collins, Sweigart, Landrum, & Cook, 2017). Finally, veteran teachers who are interested in improving specific practices or engaging in new practices may benefit from performance feedback.…”