Secondary ELA Mentor Teachers’ Feedback on Preservice Teachers’ Video-Recorded Lessons

Abstract

This dissertation explores the feedback practices of secondary English Language Arts (ELA) mentor teachers and the reasoning behind their feedback to preservice teachers (PSETs) during early field experiences. Motivated by my own experience as a preservice teacher, where the absence of timely, meaningful feedback often left me without needed guidance, I was drawn to study how mentor teachers notice, interpret, and respond to novice teaching. This study focuses not on the mentoring relationship itself, but on the content and rationale of feedback provided by mentors. Three secondary ELA mentor teachers participated in this qualitative study. Each responded to two video-recorded lessons of preservice teachers and took part in two sets of interviews. Using a Teacher Noticing framework, I analyzed what mentors noticed, why they chose to respond, how they delivered feedback, and how their prior experiences shaped those decisions. Findings indicate that mentors’ own experiences with receiving and giving feedback significantly influenced what they prioritized and how they responded to preservice teaching moments. Across participants, feedback focused on seven key areas of teaching and was driven by three consistent reasons. While the study focuses on a small group in a specific context, it raises important questions about broader trends in ELA mentor feedback. I recommend further research across diverse contexts to examine the consistency of feedback practices among mentor teachers.