As part
of professional development training for mathematic teachers, we used a
speech recognition recorder (Language ENvironment Analysis, LENA) to create
an automated teacher feedback system to help teachers monitor and limit the
time they talk and to increase students’ active participation in mathematics
lessons. Teachers got feedback with a 12h turnaround which allowed them to
see how much they and their students talked on a daily basis. In this study,
we wanted to know whether a) the system indicated change in the talk pattern,
b) whether more complex indicators can be developed that are useful for
professional development. Based on a pilot study we were able to implement an
automated feedback of quality discussion episodes which was effective in increasing
the amount of teacher-student discussion.
