Abstract:

The use of a backchannel in a graduate level university or teacher professional development environment has promise for engaging teachers in peer coaching and in-depth discussion regarding their teaching. The use of a backchannel, an internet chat room, to explore teacher practice, collaboration, and peer feedback will be explored in this session.

In an effort to increase and deepen collegial discussion about instructional practice among practicing teachers, researchers employed a backchannel in a reflective teaching graduate level course. This study examined the nature and quality of peer feedback exchanged among practicing teachers in the backchannel digital medium. Secondarily, the study gauged the graduate student participants’ impressions of the backchannel practice and technology for use in their own preschool though 12th grade (P-12) classrooms.

The researchers taught a graduate level reflective teaching course to three cohorts at a small liberal arts college in the United States. The graduate students, active P-12 teachers, self-selected an area of focus that interested or challenged them in their own teaching practices, video recorded their own instruction, shared their recordings with small peer groups who taught in similar settings, and shared feedback with the purpose of studying their own and each other’s instructional practices. In this study, the researchers sought to understand if a backchannel, when implemented appropriately as a graduate level pedagogical practice, impacts the nature and quality of peer feedback. For this purpose, backchannel is defined as an online, synchronous conversation that complements a “front channel” presentation or event in an instructional setting. The study employed a mixed methods investigational approach that included two major sources of data: backchannel transcripts and a participant survey. The backchannel transcripts of graduate students’ conversations were qualitatively analyzed to examine the nature and quality of feedback given and received as they viewed videotaped instruction of themselves and their peers teaching in P-12 classrooms. To gauge students’ experiences and perceptions related to the backchannel, a survey was administered immediately after the experience, using Likert scale ratings and open-ended prompts. These two data sources, transcripts and surveys, allowed the researchers to investigate the nature of interactions between and among students, the perceived quality of feedback exchanged, and the perceived value of the backchannel in graduate and P-12 settings.

Study results offered multiple themes regarding prior use, overall perceptions of the value of backchannel as a tool, feedback quality, impact on teacher reflection, benefits and challenges of use, and P-12 classroom application. Results revealed that the backchannel promoted rich real-time feedback, collaboration, the exchange of ideas, and high-quality feedback, while improving engagement. Backchannel comments during instructional video sharing, mostly positive or neutral observations, offered compliments and helpful coaching prompts from peers. Comments focused on instructional strategies, teacher behavior, and the learning environment. In survey, participants noted through survey that they saw value in utilizing backchannels in P-12 settings, with age appropriate use guidelines.

Keywords:

Backchannel, chat, peer feedback, peer video share, reflective practice, engagement, teacher education.