Learning to plan lessons: how feedback supports pre-service teachers' lesson planning

Lesson planning is a key competence for teachers, yet little is known about how teacher educators influence pre-service teachers planning process. This paper reports on a study in teacher education, where pre-service teachers received written feedback on their planned lessons through a digital learning design tool. We investigate how written feedback from school-based mentors and university teacher educators supports pre-service teachers when learning to plan lessons. Data include written feedback comments on pre-service teachers' learning designs ( N = 57), semi-structured interviews with pre-service teachers ( N = 8), and questionnaire responses from both pre-service teachers ( N = 8) and school-based mentors ( N = 3) evaluating the tool in practice. Findings show that university teacher educators primarily provided feedback by asking questions that encouraged reflection on what the pre-service teachers had planned, whereas school-based mentors contributed context-specific knowledge about students, classes and practical organization of activities. Providing feedback through a shared learning design tool enabled pre-service teachers to integrate professional knowledge and perspectives from teacher educators on campus and in school into their planning process. The paper discusses the importance of designing learning processes in which feedback (and technology) is integrated into course design, positioning students as knowledge producers, and creating shared spaces where pre-service teachers can simultaneously relate to feedback from different teacher educators on a shared knowledge object.