Characterizing mathematics teacher educators’ written feedback to prospective teachers

You’ve Got Mail! – Written Communication and Feedback in Mathematics

“…The first is immediate, provided in the moment, in response to students' actions and leaves no written record. Written feedback is also organized in response to students' work but provides a record that can be revisited whenever at any time (Katsberg et al, 2020). There is another noteworthy difference and that is written feedback provides teachers with a means to address students' individual needs, while also giving them a record of the information that they can save and go back to as needed.…”

“…Letter correspondence is an opportunity for prospective teachers to access the thinking of the students with whom they communicate and to send feedback through evaluative writing. The nature and quality of feedback, in this context or any other, is crucial to a successful learning, since it can either be a powerful moderator in achieving improvement or have unintended negative implications on achievement or attitudes towards learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007;Katsberg et al, 2020). That is why it is important to understand how the intervention should be carried out.…”

“…However, it is found that teachers rely primarily on oral feedback, a context that may be somewhat reductive in identifying more individualized difficulties and positive aspects in the productions of students. From the students' point of view, the comments written by the teacher can help them identify strengths and weaknesses of their written productions and, consequently, progress in learning while reviewing what they have done (Havnes et al, 2012;Katsberg, Lischka, & Hillman, 2020).…”

Constructing ‘good teaching’ through written lesson observation feedback

“…Written feedback in teacher education has been conceptualised as dialogue (Agricola et al, 2020;Carless et al, 2011;Goodell, 2006) between teacher educators and beginning teachers, contrasting with the 'persistent narrative' (Dowden et al, 2013, p. 357) in higher education of written feedback as simply transmission. Kastberg et al's (2020) definition extends the teacher education ideal of feedback as dialogue by describing written feedback as an 'instantiation of practice ' (p.131). That is, written feedback functioning as both a model of the practice of writing feedback and a process of improving teacher educators' practice.…”

“…That is, written feedback functioning as both a model of the practice of writing feedback and a process of improving teacher educators' practice. Critically analysing their own written feedback, Kastberg et al (2020) and Ritter et al (2011) highlight discrepancies between their ideals and the actual text. In Ritter et al's case, this is a contrast between their collaborative, democratic vision for teaching, and the individualistic cultural values their written feedback actually constructed.…”