Improving Teachers' Mathematics Tutoring Skills Through Microteaching: A Comparison of Videotape and Audiotape Feedback.

Discussed is a research project designed to measure the relative effects of audiotape versus videotape feedback in a microteaching situation. Teachers were randomly assigned to one of three groups; audiotape feedback, videotape feedback, control. The teachers in the two feedback groups participated in an instructional sequence on microteaching procedures which involved about 13 hours of instruction in a four-week period. Teachers were asked to conduct tutoring sessions before and after the training sequence. Videotapes of these sessions were rated for the teacher's use of diagnostic questions, demonstration techniques, evaluation examples, practice phases, and verbal praise. The results indicate that videotape and audiotape feedback are generally equally effective in producing gains in these tutoring skills. (CT)