Picture a student teacher the morning of their first formal observation. They’ve prepared for days. The formal observations feels high stakes because in a sense it is: observations are rare. Not because anyone has failed them, but because the math of field placement supervision makes frequent feedback hard to deliver.

A university supervisor managing a full roster of student teachers across a dozen school sites, balancing their own teaching load, can often realistically visit each candidate two to three times a semester. 

Between those visits, student teachers do get support, but it comes with real limits:

• Mentor teachers are present and often helpful, but their feedback reflects a teacher working within one building’s context, not necessarily the frameworks a preparation program is building toward
• Cohort meetings and seminar discussions give candidates space to process, but the feedback is secondhand. No one else was in the room.

What if that gap didn’t have to define the experience? How could student teachers receive specific, framework-aligned feedback after every session? Could supervisors arrive at observations with a semester’s worth of data, rather than reconstructing a narrative from two visits?

Fortunately, there’s a way to augment the traditional model to make this all possible.

The problem with episodic observation

When a student teacher knows they’ll be formally observed once or twice this semester, that session carries weight. They prepare differently, perform. receive feedback that reflects a curated version of their practice, not necessarily the daily reality of their work.

Practically speaking, issues that surface in week three of a placement may not get identified until a supervisor visits weeks later. By then, the teacher candidate may calcify certain patterns that are causing persistent issues in classroom management, instructional planning, or elsewhere. All the while, a small course correction could have prevented the larger issue from emerging. The model also asks supervisors to draw broad conclusions from a narrow slice of evidence: two observations, however carefully conducted, are snapshots, not a portrait.

While issues with infrequent feedback are logically clear, the benefits of frequent feedback are research-backed.

• John Hattie’s Visible Learning synthesis puts feedback at an effect size of 0.70, among the highest-impact interventions identified across decades of educational research. 
• Wilcoxen and Lemke reached a similar finding: ongoing, process-focused feedback raises performance in ways that summative evaluation simply cannot.
• Schaefer and Clandinin found that regular observations with constructive feedback were highly valued by beginning teachers
• Garcia and Weiss reported that the highest-performing education systems in the world provide feedback as part of the regular experience of teaching.

A key theme in this body of research is regular and ongoing. Feedback works when it’s frequent, specific, and connected to real practice.

For student teachers, the implication is direct: a placement evaluated through two observations is, by design, a low-feedback environment, which is less conducive to growth.

What three to four months of M2 looks like instead

M2 gives student teachers something the traditional model doesn’t: a feedback loop that runs alongside their practice rather than interrupting it once or twice a semester.

When student teachers use M2 weekly, they receive AI-powered feedback after every session on:

• Questioning techniques
• Participation patterns
• Instructional pacing
• Classroom dynamics

They start identifying their own tendencies before a supervisor ever needs to name them. Early in a placement, when there’s the most room for improvement, that kind of immediate, low-stakes reflection has an outsized impact.

A typical M2 feedback session might surface something like:

*”Students responded well to your opening question, but whole-class participation dropped during the independent work phase. Consider building in a structured think-pair-share before returning to whole-group discussion.”**

That’s the kind of specific, actionable language student teachers can act on immediately. It also maps directly onto the competencies supervisors are already evaluating. M2 feedback aligns to standard teacher preparation frameworks like Danielson and Marzano, connecting AI insights to the rubrics programs are already using.

M2 doesn’t replace formal observations or human judgment. What it gives supervisors is a richer evidence base: a complete arc of real sessions, real classrooms, real decisions, not two curated clips. When coaching conversations are grounded in session-by-session data rather than one visit from three weeks ago, they become more specific, more productive, and more useful to the student teacher sitting across the table. Dr. Natalie Bolton’s experience shows what this looks like in practice.

The habit that carries forward

The question a pre-service program has to answer is clear: do our teachers leave with the skills needed to teach today, and the mindset to get better tomorrow?

Teaching rewards people who treat their practice as something worth examining. The teachers who grow most consistently over a career are those who stayed genuinely curious about their own work. That disposition is easiest to form at the very beginning, before other habits are established. 

The structure of a field placement helps to shape it. When student teachers receive feedback weekly, they internalize a simple but durable lesson: looking closely at their practice is a normal part of the job. When formal observations are the only occasion for feedback, they internalize that evaluation is rare, high-stakes, and something to prepare for rather than learn from. Whichever lesson they carry out of a placement, they’re more likely to carry forward.

A semester of weekly M2 sessions is a semester spent building that habit. The argument for continuous feedback goes beyond this semester. It’s a foundation for everything that comes after.

The post Why 1-2 observations aren’t enough: The case for continuous feedback in pre-service teacher training appeared first on Swivl.

The students can definitely get some feedback and guidance regardless of what the assignment may be. So they’re not having to wait for me to do that.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

USE CASE

Scaling quality feedback in higher education, teacher preparation

Jan Miller

Director of Competency Based Education and Registered Teacher Apprenticeship

School/District:

University of West Alabama, AL

Grade Level Higher Ed

Jan Miller sat at her desk well past midnight, reading through digital submissions from her teacher education program students. In education, providing meaningful feedback to students is a cornerstone of effective teaching. For Jan, Director of Competency-Based Education and Registered Teacher Apprenticeship at the University of West Alabama, this commitment to quality feedback came with a significant challenge. With over 1,200 online students in their teacher education program, delivering timely, personalized feedback was becoming increasingly difficult.

“Feedback on assignments could take hours or even an entire day to complete, per course,” Jan explains. As someone dedicated to supporting future educators, she knew that delayed feedback meant missed opportunities for growth. Students, particularly adult learners with families to support, need prompt responses to continue their educational journey efficiently.

The feedback bottleneck

The University of West Alabama’s teacher education program serves a diverse student population. From traditional on-campus students to online learners, from competency-based education participants to teacher assistants working toward certification, each group required thoughtful, targeted feedback to develop their teaching skills.

For Jan and her team, this created an impossible equation. “There’s no way that we can give timely, accurate, good feedback to 1,200 students,” she shares. The delay in feedback was especially problematic for adult learners who were balancing education with full-time jobs and family responsibilities. “The sooner they can finish, the more income they can make,” Jan notes, highlighting the real-world impact of educational efficiency.

Despite using Swivl products for recording classroom experiences for 6-7 years, Jan recognized they needed a more robust solution that could scale their ability to provide meaningful guidance while maintaining the personal touch that makes feedback effective.

A new approach to reflection and growth

When Jan discovered M2, Swivl’s intelligent co-teacher with embedded MirrorTalk technology, everything changed. The reflective capabilities immediately caught her attention as a perfect fit for their competency-based program.

“Part of growing as a professional is watching yourself, thinking about why you did what you did, why you made the instructional decisions you did,” Jan explains.

For us to tell students to go back and rewatch something, and then to ask those reflective questions, and now to layer it with AI responses to keep the conversation going – it’s been tremendous.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

The impact was immediate. Students in the competency-based program began receiving instant feedback on their work, allowing them to continue their educational journey without waiting days for instructor responses. For Jan, this meant she could focus on providing higher-level guidance rather than spending hours on repetitive feedback.

“For me to set it up for them to get immediate feedback… it’s a time saver for me,” Jan says. “The students can definitely get some feedback and guidance regardless of what the assignment may be. So they’re not having to wait for me to do that.”

A lasting transformation

Today, M2 and MirrorTalk have become essential components of UWA’s approach to teacher preparation. The technology has transformed how Jan and her team support student growth, providing a scalable solution to the feedback challenge while maintaining educational quality.

For students, the immediate feedback means they can progress through their coursework more efficiently, applying insights in real-time rather than waiting for instructor responses. “Online learners don’t like to wait,” Jan notes. “For competency-based to get immediate feedback has been a wonderful thing for the student experience.”

For instructors, M2 has created a more manageable workload without sacrificing educational quality.

It’s very easy to use. The more that you play with it, the easier it gets.

Jan Miller | University of West Alabama, AL

Looking ahead, Jan envisions expanding M2’s use to their K-12 charter school, where teacher candidates can learn to use the technology for assessment and then take those skills into their future classrooms. “We need to teach our candidates how to use this, and then once you get your results, what do you do with it,” she explains. “It really takes assessment to the next level.”

For Jan Miller and the University of West Alabama, M2 isn’t just a technological tool — it’s a partner in their mission to prepare the next generation of educators with the reflection skills and feedback they need to thrive.

Meet M2

Meet M2 — every teacher’s intelligent co-teacher and every coach’s new best friend. MirrorTalk powers it and helps you take your coaching to new heights.

Schedule a consultation with the Swivl team to learn more.

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In a recent Educause video, Rob Shomaker shared compelling insights from CUPA-HR’s 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey, highlighting the complex challenges facing higher education institutions today. The findings paint a clear picture: higher education is at a crossroads, facing unprecedented workforce challenges that demand innovative solutions.

The current state of higher education staffing

The pandemic has fundamentally altered the higher education landscape. With the loss of approximately 900,000 workforce-eligible individuals to COVID-19, early retirements, and ongoing childcare and elder care challenges, institutions are grappling with more openings than qualified candidates to fill them. While compensation remains a primary concern, the survey reveals that job satisfaction and overall wellbeing are the strongest predictors of employee retention.

Perhaps most alarming is the technology sector trend: 78% of IT professionals in higher education are considering moves to for-profit organizations outside academia. This brain drain threatens institutions’ ability to innovate and serve students effectively.

The connection to student success

These staffing challenges directly impact student outcomes. When institutions struggle with employee retention and satisfaction, it creates a ripple effect that touches every aspect of the student experience. Understaffed departments, overworked employees, and high turnover rates can significantly affect student engagement, retention, and overall success.

Leveraging technology for better insights

This is where MirrorTalk by Swivl enters the picture. As institutions work to address these challenges, having access to deep, actionable insights about student experiences becomes crucial. MirrorTalk offers a powerful solution for gathering and analyzing student feedback in ways that traditional surveys and assessment tools cannot match.

How MirrorTalk makes a difference:

1. Rich, qualitative data collection: MirrorTalk enables institutions to capture authentic student voices and experiences through structured, guided conversations, providing deeper insights than traditional surveys or feedback forms.
2. Real-time analysis: Instead of waiting months for survey results, institutions can gather and analyze student feedback continuously, allowing for more responsive and timely interventions.
3. Comprehensive understanding: By facilitating meaningful dialogues about student experiences, MirrorTalk helps institutions identify early warning signs of disengagement or dissatisfaction, enabling proactive support measures.
4. Evidence-based decision making: The platform’s analytical capabilities help leaders make data-driven decisions about resource allocation, program development, and support services.

Taking action with MirrorTalk insights

When institutions understand student challenges more deeply, they can:

• Improve overall student satisfaction and retention
• Design more effective student support programs
• Allocate resources more efficiently
• Create more engaging learning environments
• Develop targeted interventions for at-risk students

Moving forward

As higher education continues to navigate these challenging times, the ability to gather and act on meaningful student feedback becomes increasingly crucial. As Rob Shomaker emphasized in his discussion of employee retention, understanding and addressing underlying needs is key to creating positive change. The path forward requires innovative approaches to both data collection and analysis—tools that can help institutions create more responsive, supportive environments that benefit the entire academic community.

MirrorTalk provides the sophisticated yet accessible technology needed to gather these deep insights, helping institutions build more resilient and successful academic communities for the future.

Ready to transform your institution’s approach to student success?

To learn more about how MirrorTalk can support your institution in gathering meaningful student insights and driving positive outcomes, schedule a meeting with Cynthia Glover, our Educational Partnerships Manager. She’ll show you how MirrorTalk can help your leaders better understand and address student challenges while supporting your strategic goals.

The post Addressing higher education’s retention crisis: how data-driven insights can make a difference appeared first on Swivl.

M2 is an AI-powered device that helps teachers engage students better in class, deepen everyone’s thinking, and effortlessly enhance instruction with real-time feedback and automated insights. Its integrated MirrorTalk software automates reflection with customized prompts. Durable, mobile, and uniquely sized, M2 serves as an intelligent co-teacher in various educational spaces.

Your AI Teaching Companion

M2 is more than your average video tool. We leveraged our 12-year expertise in video observation by working with Swivl Robot users around the world to give teachers the best experience when recording themselves for observation and coaching. We built M2 to become your AI teaching companion and help you build skills while you teach by delivering on the spot feedback and strategies for keeping students engaged. For formal observation, M2 features a 180° camera with automated tracking, high-quality audio, and follows up each recording experience with a reflection to capture the teacher’s experience, while its still fresh on their minds.

Small group leader

M2 is also a multi-modal small group leader for classrooms, featuring built-in tools like Recharge, Whiteboard, Links, Timer, Recording, and step-by-step directions to keep students focused. Teachers simply set up M2 at a designated station and load an activity from the Library or create their own based on their lesson plan. After each activity, students reflect on their learning and receive instant feedback.

Reflection kiosk 

M2 prioritizes and measures metacognitive skill development. Its presence constantly offers immediate, personalized feedback for growth as learning happens. Educators gain key insights into participants’ thinking, including understanding, mindset, and challenge level, and actionable feedback to help their participants improve.

In this article, hear from real M2 users about the unique ways they are making the most of this intelligent co-teacher!

Student projects and presentations

M2 enhances projects and presentations by fostering peer collaboration without classroom chaos. Its built-in Workspace tools keep small groups focused, allowing teachers to assist students who need extra help. After completion, M2 prompts student reflection, provides instant feedback, and gives teachers automatic insights into the learning experience.

Hear from several different teachers on how they have transformed their classrooms into project-based learning centers with M2:

M2’s Workspaces are transforming our mathematics instruction. Students enthusiastically solve problems and reflect together, celebrating successes while thoughtfully addressing challenges. It’s remarkable to watch how this guided group work naturally cultivates growth mindsets and genuine excitement for learning.

Brittany Carpenter | Technology Instructor and RESA Coordinator

With M2 Workspaces, science teachers don’t have to keep repeating the same safety procedures and instructions for a lab, they are just built into every activity automatically. This kind of autonomous guidance truly helps teachers meet students where they are with minimal lift on their part.

Phyllis Balcerzak, Ph.D. | Associate Professor, University of Missouri – St. Louis, MO

We love how M2 offers the students many opportunities to practice. Even if a student doesn’t feel like their initial presentation went well or they didn’t master a concept, we can just structure a workspace to include a quick resource, like a video, to watch before they practice it again. And during the reflection, they still get a separate opportunity to explain what they really know about the concept.

Annette Lang | Instructional Coach, Bio-Med Science Academy Stem School, OH

Multi-modal learning for ELLs

M2 assists teachers in balancing ELL and native English speaker needs. It allows ELLs to access content in their native languages and reflect independently, while providing teachers feedback in English. Tools like whiteboard, timers, and group reflection foster digital collaboration, peer modeling, and language practice for all students.

M2 bridges crucial gaps for our newcomer students from El Salvador, recognizing their true academic capabilities while addressing language barriers. By enabling initial reflections in Spanish, then slowly transitioning to English, it builds confidence and creates pathways to their English acquisition, helping these students demonstrate their actual academic potential and integrating them into our classroom community.

Harley DeKeyzer | Librarian/Technology Coordinator, Albany Middle School, Livingston Parish, LA

PBIS that really supports

Transform tense moments into opportunities for growth with MirrorTalk on M2. Placing this powerful tool outside counselors’ or administrators’ offices works wonders for dysregulated students. It guides them through calming exercises and self-reflection, empowering them to process their emotions at their own pace and verbally reflect on their their experiences more productively. Watch as students shift from stressed to serene, ready to engage in constructive conversations. M2 isn’t just a device – it’s a game-changer for student well-being and conflict resolution.

M2 uniquely supports students from challenging home environments by providing a safe, structured space for conflict resolution. Through guided dialogue and calming exercises, it helps students who frequently experience behavioral issues develop essential communication skills and emotional regulation strategies before returning to class.

Rachel Tyson-Wiley | Teacher, City Of Chicago School District 299, IL

Amplify the power of instructional coaching

M2 is the ultimate ally for instructional coaches—because it’s every teacher’s ally too. This powerful tool streamlines teacher development, providing real-time feedback from pre-observation prep to post-lesson reflection. It captures every teachable moment, delivering instant insights and end-of-class summaries that help teachers understand and refine their practice.

With M2, teachers can reflect out loud, deepening their learning, while coaches gain invaluable insights into mindset, tone, and cognitive bias. Skip the recall—jump straight into meaningful, targeted discussions with every teacher that drive real growth.

M2 has completely changed how teachers engage with feedback. The moment they receive a meta-analysis with different strategies, they’re instantly thinking, ‘I can try that!’ The ‘Team Learning Summary’—our coaching strategy—has been a game-changer. Every time teachers see it, they get excited to implement new ideas. It’s not just improving their practice; it’s making them more receptive and fully bought into our coaching cycles.

Meagan Stass-Macdonald | Instructional Coach, Barrington School District 220, IL

Actually measure PD’s impact

Empower everyone with M2! Watch as it transforms post-PD moments into goldmines of insight. Teachers pour out their thoughts at the door, while facilitators instantly gauge their impact. It’s a win-win: educators feel valued, and PD becomes razor-sharp. With M2, every reflection sparks growth, turning feedback into fuel for educational excellence. Get ready to revolutionize professional development – one M2 at a time.

M2 has been an invaluable resource for our PD program: it’s a comprehensive coaching platform, facilitating anonymous PLC feedback, structured support cycles, and data-driven professional development planning.

Amarius Reed | Elementary Math Coordinator, Atlanta Public Schools, GA

Involve the whole community

Unleash M2’s magic at your next school event! From art shows to open houses, M2 captures honest feedback from parents and community members in a private, judgment-free zone and turns them into active participants. Watch as stakeholders dive deep into school initiatives, sharing thoughts that truly matter. Get ready for a avalanche of insights that’ll supercharge your community relationships. With M2, every event becomes a launchpad for meaningful connection and school improvement. Don’t just host events – ignite engagement!

The problem with feedback tools we’ve used in the past is that there is no accountability for the parent (usually a form we send digitally afterward) and then it takes a while for us to sift through the data and publish what we find. M2 is quick, painless, and enjoyable for parents and lets us instantly collect and disseminate the data we gather.

James Wilborn | Elementary Educational Technology Specialist, Atlanta Public Schools, GA

M2 is the intelligent co-teacher that helps teachers engage students better in class, deepen everyone’s thinking, and effortlessly enhance instruction with real-time feedback and automated insights. With all these ways (and more!) it could support your school, isn’t it time to let M2 do the heavy lifting? 

Watch me do even more tricks!

Schedule a live demo to learn more!

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