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Turkana Asgarzadeh
Master’s Student
Baku Slavic University
Department of Pedagogy
Baku, Azerbaijan
ORCID ID: 0009-0001-0741-2054
https://10.5281/zenodo.23861149
Keywords: interactive instruction, pedagogical competencies, teacher education, microteaching, formative assessment, reflective practice
Abstract. The purpose of this article is to clarify how interactive instruction can be organised to support future teachers’ planning, communication, assessment, and reflection. The research question concerns the conditions under which interactive activities create opportunities to practise these competencies. The article develops a five-stage implementation model based on a conceptual analysis of selected Azerbaijani and international sources. It presents no original experimental data, and its recommendations should be understood as methodological proposals rather than demonstrated effects.
Introduction
Teacher education requires a close relationship between theoretical knowledge and practical judgment. Future teachers must understand educational principles and apply them when planning lessons, responding to learners, and assessing progress. Knowing a method does not necessarily mean being able to use it appropriately. University instruction should therefore provide opportunities to explain pedagogical choices, examine alternatives, and revise decisions in response to evidence. Interactive instruction can support this process when communication is organised around a meaningful learning problem. Its value cannot be determined simply by counting discussions or group activities. Students may participate actively without examining the reasons behind their decisions. In Azerbaijani pedagogical literature, Rüstəmova discusses active teaching methods in relation to learners’ interest, independent learning, and the teacher’s professional actions [Rüstəmova, 2016]. This perspective makes the organisation of interaction an important methodological issue.
Main part. The analysis draws on six sources selected for their relevance to teacher knowledge, cognitive engagement, professional practice, and assessment. The sources were compared to identify principles that could guide methodology seminars. This is a focused conceptual discussion, not a systematic literature review. Findings and recommendations concerning school teaching are considered for their relevance to teacher preparation without assuming that the two contexts are equivalent.
Shulman’s concept of pedagogical content knowledge emphasises the transformation of subject knowledge into representations that learners can understand [Shulman, 1986]. For future teachers, this means that choosing an explanation requires attention to both the content and learners’ likely difficulties. An interactive seminar can make these choices visible by requiring candidates to justify why a particular example or question is appropriate.
The ICAP framework distinguishes passive, active, constructive, and interactive engagement. Its interactive mode involves participants building on one another’s contributions [Chi & Wylie, 2014]. Accordingly, group membership alone is not sufficient. A productive task should require candidates to compare explanations, address disagreement, and reconsider an initial response. The instructor remains responsible for correcting misconceptions and providing conceptual guidance when discussion alone does not resolve a difficulty.
Planning competence involves connecting an intended learning outcome with suitable activities and evidence of achievement. Candidates should explain what learners will be able to demonstrate, how a task supports that outcome, and how understanding will be checked. A lesson plan becomes professionally meaningful when these relationships are justified rather than recorded as separate formal requirements.
An interactive planning task may provide a learning objective, examples of learners’ previous answers, and a practical constraint. Each candidate prepares a short individual plan before comparing alternatives in a group. The group identifies the strengths and limitations of the plans and produces a justified version. Individual preparation helps prevent agreement from concealing gaps in understanding.
For example, if the objective requires learners to compare two explanations, a task asking only for definitions is insufficient. Candidates should identify this mismatch and propose evidence that would reveal comparison. They should also anticipate vocabulary difficulties, differences in preparation, and limited time. The initial plan, revised plan, and explanation of changes together provide more useful evidence than the final document alone. However, a successful group product does not establish that every member can plan independently.
Pedagogical communication includes listening and responding to learners’ reasoning. A confident presentation may still be ineffective if the teacher overlooks a misunderstanding. Role play can address this problem by introducing plausible but unexpected answers. One candidate acts as the teacher, while peers express uncertainty, request clarification, or offer an alternative explanation. The candidate must decide how to respond while maintaining the learning objective.
Observers should record specific exchanges rather than general impressions. They may note the question asked, the learner’s answer, and the subsequent teaching action. Discussion can then examine whether the response clarified understanding or merely repeated information. Useful criteria include the quality of questioning, attention to the answer, respectful handling of disagreement, and the appropriateness of the next step.
Collaboration among candidates also requires individual accountability. Responsibilities for facilitating discussion, recording arguments, and presenting decisions can rotate across sessions. Each participant should explain the group’s choice and identify an alternative that was considered. Written preparation and paired discussion can support those who need more time to formulate a response. Quiet participation should not automatically be interpreted as weak understanding, just as frequent speaking should not automatically be treated as competence.
Assessment competence begins with understanding what learners already know. Veysova and Məcidova explain diagnostic assessment as a basis for purposeful planning and discuss ways of identifying learners’ initial preparation [Veysova & Məcidova, 2009]. In teacher education, this principle can be applied by asking candidates to interpret sample responses before designing an activity. The assessment should help determine what support is needed rather than simply classify learners.
Formative assessment continues this process during instruction. Evidence becomes formative when it informs a subsequent teaching or learning decision [Black & Wiliam, 2009]. Candidates can compare several answers to the same question and decide whether each indicates a conceptual error, incomplete reasoning, or insufficient evidence. Where an interpretation is uncertain, a follow-up question may be more appropriate than an immediate judgment.
Peer feedback should be tied to shared criteria. Instead of stating that a plan is successful, a candidate can identify whether its final task checks the intended skill and suggest a specific improvement. The recipient should explain how the comment informed revision. Before assessing one another’s work, candidates can examine a common example to clarify the criteria. A later individual task is needed to distinguish independent assessment competence from performance achieved with substantial peer or instructor support.
Microteaching provides a manageable setting for rehearsing a short teaching episode. Grossman and colleagues distinguish representations, decomposition, and approximations of professional practice [Grossman et al., 2009]. These concepts support making teaching visible, separating it into elements for analysis, and practising it under simplified conditions. Such rehearsal cannot fully reproduce the demands of a real classroom.
A candidate may prepare a brief explanation followed by two questions. Observers focus on a limited number of criteria, such as whether the questions reveal learners’ reasoning and whether the answers influence the explanation. Restricting the focus helps keep feedback specific and usable. Reflection then addresses what was intended, what occurred, what evidence supports the interpretation, and what alternative action is possible.
The candidate revises the episode and rehearses it again. Improvement should not be assumed merely because the second presentation is smoother. Introducing a different learner response can help examine whether the candidate understands the reason for the change. Where video is used, consent, restricted access, and an agreed retention period are necessary. Written observation notes remain a suitable alternative. The central purpose is evidence-based reconsideration of teaching, not the use of recording technology itself.
The proposed model connects the four competence areas through a sequence of preparation, action, and revision. Its duration should depend on candidates’ prior knowledge, the subject, and the selected professional focus. It is intended for adaptation rather than uniform application across all courses.
The first stage presents a realistic pedagogical problem. The instructor supplies a learning objective, relevant information about learners, and a practical constraint. The second stage combines individual preparation with group comparison. Candidates record their initial decisions, examine alternatives, and justify a shared proposal. This record makes the contribution of interaction easier to examine.
The third stage involves simulation or microteaching. Candidates enact the selected part of the plan while peers provide plausible responses. The fourth stage uses criterion-based observation and feedback. Observers distinguish what happened from their interpretation, and the instructor checks conceptual accuracy. The fifth stage requires a revised plan or another rehearsal accompanied by an explanation of the changes. A new task should subsequently examine whether the principle can be applied independently.
Consider a hypothetical seminar on helping school learners distinguish fact from opinion. Candidates prepare a question and a short task. During rehearsal, a peer argues that a statement must be factual because it contains a number. The candidate must choose whether to ask for justification, offer a counterexample, or explain the distinction directly. Feedback examines what the response reveals about understanding. A revised task might compare two statements containing numbers, only one of which is verifiable. This example illustrates the sequence; it does not report an observed intervention or measured improvement.
The model requires a learning environment where uncertainty and mistakes can be discussed without personal criticism. Tasks should be sufficiently demanding to require reasoning but manageable with the knowledge candidates possess. Brief explanations and worked examples may be necessary before rehearsal. Interactive methods should complement appropriate direct instruction rather than replace it automatically.
Four provisional observation criteria correspond to the selected competencies: coherence among objectives, tasks, and assessment for planning; responsive questioning and listening for communication; interpretation and use of evidence for assessment; and justified revision for reflection. These criteria should be explained through examples before use. They are not validated measurement instruments, and a single observation cannot establish stable professional competence.
In larger cohorts, parallel small-group rehearsals and rotating roles can distribute practice opportunities. The instructor can review selected episodes in depth while candidates document feedback and revision. Digital tools may assist shared planning, but accessible paper-based alternatives should remain available. Connections with supervised school placement are needed because successful rehearsal does not necessarily transfer to sustained classroom teaching.
The principal limitation of the article is the absence of empirical testing. Future studies could compare initial and final performance on equivalent tasks, use independent assessors, and examine agreement between their judgments. Delayed assessment and school-placement observations could investigate transfer. Confidence and satisfaction may provide supplementary information, but they should not substitute for evidence of professional performance. Any investigation should distinguish voluntary research participation from compulsory course assessment.
Conclusions
Interactive instruction provides a methodological opportunity to connect educational theory with professional decision-making. Its potential depends on the quality of the task, the reasoning required, and the use of evidence during feedback and revision. Discussion, role play, and group work should therefore be organised around specific competencies rather than treated as indicators of quality in themselves.
The proposed five-stage model links a pedagogical problem with individual preparation, collaborative comparison, rehearsal, observation, and justified revision. It connects planning, communication, assessment, and reflection and clarifies how these competencies can be practised and observed. Azerbaijani contributions concerning active learning and diagnostic assessment complement the international theoretical perspectives used in the analysis.
The model is a theoretical proposal, not an experimentally confirmed programme. Its practical use should involve accessible participation, individual accountability, instructor guidance, and opportunities to apply learning to a different task. Further research is required to establish the reliability of the criteria and determine whether the proposed activities support lasting improvements in classroom practice.
References
- Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21, 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9068-5
- Chi, M. T. H., & Wylie, R. (2014). The ICAP framework: Linking cognitive engagement to active learning outcomes. Educational Psychologist, 49(4), 219–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.965823
- Grossman, P., Compton, C., Igra, D., Ronfeldt, M., Shahan, E., & Williamson, P. W. (2009). Teaching practice: A cross-professional perspective. Teachers College Record, 111(9), 2055–2100. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810911100905
- Rüstəmova, İ. (2016). Fəal təlim metodlarından istifadənin səmərəliliyi [The effectiveness of active teaching methods]. Bakı Dövlət Universiteti İlahiyyat Fakültəsinin Elmi Məcmuəsi, 26, 257–262. https://journal.ait.edu.az/elmi-mecmua/article/view/863
- Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X015002004
- Veysova, Z., & Məcidova, A. (2009). Diaqnostik qiymətləndirmənin məlum və naməlum aspektləri [Known and unknown aspects of diagnostic assessment]. Kurikulum, 4, 30–36. https://edu.gov.az/upload/file/diaq_qiy_mel_nam_asp.pdf