Improving the Explicitness of Verbal Communications of University Supervisors in Student Teaching

Abstract

Research in teacher education indicates the need for training university supervisors in specific programs that are compatible with the goals of the teacher education program. There is also evidence which indicates that student teachers often receive feedback from supervisors that is vague and implicit. As a result of the implicitness of the feedback, student teachers are often unable to follow through successfully in subsequent teaching. Some form of training is essential if student teachers are to receive information about their teaching that is explicit. The purpose of this study was to train four university supervisors to communicate information about student performances in an explicit manner and to hold them accountable for their performances during student teaching. As a result of participation in the training program, university supervisors were able to increase the communication of fully explicit tasks and type of accountability statements. In addition, they were able to decrease the communication of implicit tasks and different types of accountability statements during conferences in student teaching.