4 th International Conference on Education September 25-26, 2019 “Innovation in Islamic Education: Challenges and Readiness in Society 5.0” 207 CRITICISM STRATEGIES USED BY PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN GIVING PEER-FEEDBACK IN MICROTEACHING CLASS Rita Erlinda 2 and Ceria Etika ritaerlinda@iainbatusangkar.ac.id IAIN Batusangkar, West Sumatera, Indonesia ABSTRACT This study aims at describing types of criticism strategy employed by student-teachers in giving feedback on teaching performance in Microteaching class. The utterances of student-observers when giving feedback to the student-teachers were recorded. Then, the utterances were analyzed to find out the types of criticism strategy employed by the student-observers by applying Miles and Hubberman theory. The results show that the student-observers exploited three strategies for direct criticism, namely (1) statement of the problem, (2) statement of difficulty and (3) consequences; whereas for indirect criticism, they also used three strategies, i.e. (1) demand for change, (2) suggestion for change and (3) correction. Keywords: criticism strategy, pre-service teacher, peer-feedback, microteaching class INTRODUCTION Microteaching is regarded as an effective teaching technique (Skakunova, 2017) or laboratory-based teacher training method (Orlich, harder, Callahan, Trevisa, & Brown, 2010), or teaching situation (Cooper & Allen, 1971) which has certain characteristics, namely: (a) scaled down in term of time (four to twenty minutes) and numbers of students(three to ten peers or fellow student-teachers), (b) a short content, (c) focus on selected aspect of teaching, (d) include teaching a lesson and immediate feedback which may come from video or audiotape recording, supervisor, pupils, collegous, or from the teacher’s self-perception (Orlich, et al., 2010; Cooper & Allen, 1971) and it is improved through time (Wilson & I’Anson, 2006). Microteaching is very beneficial for pre-service teachers because of two reasons—easiness to do and its consistency to control acquired teaching skills among novice teachers (Skakunova, 2017). Essential components of Microteaching are video-taped lesson and feedback from peers and from teacher trainer (Skakunova, 2017). Feedback is a major element in the pre-service teachers training process. It should be given by considering immediacy and objectivity principles. In order to be objective, the feedback must be based on the skills, strategies, techniques, teaching aids, and so on (Şen, 2010). Feedback has been lauded as a key pedagogical tool in higher education (Zher, Hussein & Saat, 2016). Moreover, feedback which refers to information concerning one’s performance with instruction to help close incompetency gap between current and targetted competency levelis a powerful constructivist tool to enrich deep learning and a critical component of assessment for learning (Rahmat, 2013). Feedback can be defined as opinion or judgment bestowed by an agent (like a teacher) pertaining parts of one’s performance or comprehension (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). In assessment process, feedback can be given by a teacher to students or student to another student. The latter is called peer feedback. Peer feedback can be defined as a communication process through which learners into dialogue related to performance and standard without formal grades (Liu & Carless, 2006). In general, peer feedback provides several benefits not only for students who receive the feedback but also for those who give the feedback. First, it enables students to take an active role in the management of their own learning. Second, it enables students to better self assess themselves. Third, it enhances students learning. Through peer feedback students are actively engaged in articulating evolving understandings of subject matter and carries potential for improved performance in high-stake assessment. Fourth, peer feedback can give more 2 Associate Professor of Linguistics at English Teaching Department, Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty IAIN Batusangkar, Indonesia