Exploring Alternatives

Real-time visual feedback may help teacher candidates improve their instructional practices and explore alternatives to traditional post-lesson evaluations, according to a study by Kelly B. Kearney, Ed.D., assistant professor of special education, College of Education.

Research, recently published in the Journal of Education for Teaching, examined whether immediate, data-driven feedback could increase the use of open-ended questions, a strategy linked to student engagement and higher-order thinking.

The questioning techniques skill was observed for three special education teacher candidates during classroom lessons. During the lesson, a faculty observer recorded each open-ended question and displayed the data in real-time as a line graph visible to the candidate. The results were striking, Kearney said. Prior to visual feedback, open-ended questions comprised just 24 to 29% of the candidates’ classroom inquiries. By implementing real-time feedback, open-ended questions sharply increased, with one candidate’s usage rising from 26 to 83% in a single session. Even after feedback was removed, candidates maintained elevated rates of 72 to 88%, suggesting that real-time feedback can drive lasting instructional improvements.

“What’s exciting is how quickly and consistently these teacher candidates adapted their instructional behavior,” Kearney said. “The visual feedback gave them a clear, immediate picture of their teaching in action, empowering them to make meaningful changes that stuck.”