The Role of Practice and Feedback for Developing Teacher Candidate’s Opportunities to Respond Expertise

A greater emphasis on measuring the outputs of teacher preparation programs such as practice-based evaluations (e.g., edTPA) has increased the need for teacher educators to examine “best practice” for developing the skill-based competencies of teacher candidates. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of practice and feedback on teacher candidates’ knowledge and skill acquisition of a specific evidence-based practice, the provision of opportunities to respond (OTRs). Using an experimental, pretest–posttest design, 48 teacher candidates in an introductory special education course (i.e., nonpracticum course) were randomly assigned to a distributed practice with feedback (experimental) condition or a massed practice with no feedback (business-as-usual) condition. Candidates in the experimental condition outperformed candidates in the business-as-usual condition on a measure of knowledge and a performance measure on the accuracy of specific OTR technique delivery. There were, however, no differences between the groups in terms of rate of OTR delivery. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.