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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine ways to support early childhood special education (ECSE) pre-service teachers in using responsive interaction (RI) language intervention strategies during practicum placements through the use of immediate feedback using bug-in-the-ear technology. The four research questions that guided this study were: (1) What benefits do the pre-service teachers perceive from using the bug-in-the-ear technology when receiving coaching during practicum? (2) What challenges do the pre-service teachers perceive from using the bug-in-the-ear technology in receiving coaching during practicum? (3) How does coaching affect pre-service teacher use of responsive interaction (RI) strategies? and (4) What changes in the target childs communicative acts were observed through the course of this study? This qualitative study used a symbolic interactionism (SI) approach. Findings from this study indicate that, overall, the pre-service teachers who participated in this study found BIE coaching to be valuable and helpful to them. However, participants described feeling overwhelmed at times with the process and the noise of the classroom affected the quality of the BIE feedback provided during some of the coaching sessions. Moreover, there were some indicators that at least two of the pre-service teachers were able to apply some of the RI strategies independent of BIE coaching at the end of the study. Finally, mixed results were found in observations of how the target childs communicative acts may have changed over the course of the study.