Engaging student teachers in meaningful reflective practice

This paper examines the use of peer-videoing in the classroom as a tool to promote reflective practice among student teachers. Twenty pre-service teachers from a variety of subject disciplines participating in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Education programme in an Irish university participated in the study. The practice of encouraging student teachers working in the same school to participate in structured video analysis avoids the impact of external observers whose role is largely evaluative and endorses a collaborative model that promotes dialogue and shared learning. This practice promotes a culture of observation and critical dialogue in a profession which has traditionally been characterised by isolation, while at the same time fostering and validating the voice and experience of the student teacher. Locating the discussion within the framework of the theoretical literature on reflective practice, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international debate over best practice in supporting, encouraging and scaffolding reflective practice. It comments on the implications of reflective dialogue for the modernisation of teacher education and offers guidelines on how best to scaffold and promote reflectivity.     

Practising what we preach: towards a student-centred definition of feedback

Students appear to have an almost insatiable appetite for receiving feedback and the scholarly literature has acknowledged its central importance for learning. And yet there is no widely accepted definition of feedback, most definitions reflecting the perspective of the teacher rather than student. When staff at the University of New South Wales who had put a lot of time into providing feedback nevertheless failed to score highly on the course satisfaction survey question on feedback, staff conjectured that their students might not recognize what they are providing as constituting feedback. A study was undertaken to find out just how students would define feedback. This article provides the background to the study, describes its design and presents the definition of feedback as conceptualised by the students, and then considers its significance.     

Should physicists preach what they practice?

Does one need to think like a scientist to learn science? To what extent can examining the cognitive activities of scientists provide insights for developing effective pedagogical practices? The cognition and instruction literature has focused on providing a model of expert knowledge structures. To answer these questions, what is needed is a model of expert reasoning practices. This analysis is a step in that direction. It focuses on a tacit dimension of the thinking practices of expert physicists, “constructive modeling”. Drawing on studies of historical cases and protocol accounts of expert reasoning in scientific problem solving, it is argued that having expertise in physics requires facility with the practice of “constructive modeling” that includes the ability to reason with models viewed generically. Issues pertaining to why and how this practice of experts might be incorporated into teaching are explored.     

Living with CATE: the case of reflective student teachers

This paper considers the effect of the introduction of market forces into teacher education both in terms of the loss of autonomy on the part of the providers, the teacher educators, and in terms of the growth of ownership by the consumers, the student teachers, of their learning. Specifically it identifies the paradigms of teacher education which are absent from the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) criteria, such as enquiry‐oriented teacher education, but which are important for promoting professional self‐awareness amongst teachers. This paper describes and evaluates an exercise undertaken by student teachers on a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) course which both promotes self‐reflection and meets some of the criteria set by CATE. It concludes that it is possible to promote self‐reflective teaching within the confines of the CATE criteria so long as certain procedures are followed.     

Appreciated but constrained: reflective practice of student teachers in learning communities in a Confucian heritage culture

This study aimed to understand the reflective practice of 23 Chinese student teachers in learning communities (LCs) during their practicum in a Confucian heritage culture. The reflective levels of the student teachers and the factors that mediated the effects of LCs on their reflective practice were explored using journals and post-journal interviews. The results showed that the majority of the student teachers reflected on their teaching at surface and pedagogical levels, and only a few of them critically reflected on their teaching in LCs. Although the student teachers acknowledged the positive roles of LCs in terms of collective wisdom, constructive suggestions from peers and peers’ emotional support in their reflective practice, they believed that some Confucian-based cultural factors, such as reliance on authority, giving/saving face, and maintaining harmonious social relationship, constrained their reflective practice, particularly when they had to make decisions or were confronted with conflicting views.     

Practising what we teach: vocational teachers learn to research through applying action learning techniques

Action learning techniques are well suited to the teaching of organisation behaviour students because of their flexibility, inclusiveness, openness, and respect for individuals. They are no less useful as a tool for change for vocational teachers, learning, of necessity, to become researchers. Whereas traditional universities have always had a research culture, new Australian universities, such as the one under study here, have, until recently, concentrated on consulting to industry, and teaching. Faced with strong competition for government research funds to enable its survival and growth, Swinburne University set in place a number of strategies aimed at changing the old consulting culture into a thriving research culture. One such strategy was to hold a colloquium to promote and support teachers' research efforts. A number of iterations of an action learning process took place over a period of time, with each iteration addressing a different research question. The result of academics' engagement with the process of feedback and reflection has been instructive. Unquestionably, the majority of the academics who initially engaged in the ‘learning by doing’ process were encouraged to actively address the problems that beset them, resulting in significant changes in behaviour and a dramatic increase in research output. However, without a commitment to the process that is ongoing, and critical, further interest in research and development as researchers may come to a standstill, predetermining a level of research output that may yet see the School succumb to the internal and external pressures to which it is subject.     

The development of reflective practice through student journals

This paper explores the design and assessment of reflective journals in a course on spirituality and management in a tertiary institution. The purpose of reflection in education is to develop students’ self‐awareness and inner leadership. Yet, such assessment poses challenges in terms of design, content and grading. This paper explores the literature surrounding these issues, and then describes the introduction of such an approach through a case study. Two types of assessment were developed to assist students to explore self‐awareness. The first was through reflective journal entries completed throughout the course, and the second was a report due at the end of the course, describing the journey of the student’s most significant learning. The paper concludes by assessing the effectiveness of such an approach through qualitative measures. The use of student narratives from their journals, with their consent, illustrates the power of the reflective method.     

Reflective practice in the transition phase from university student to novice graduate: implications for teaching reflective practice

Reflective practice is widely taught within higher education and is regarded as beneficial to developing graduates' ability to practise effectively within professional environments. In spite of widespread acceptance of the merits of reflective practice, a comprehensive understanding of teaching reflective practice remains incomplete and contested. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore physiotherapy students' experiences and perceptions of learning reflective practice in order to critically and meaningfully inform current teaching practice. The findings identified that students and graduates conceptualised reflective practice in terms of the challenges they faced in the concrete tasks of daily novice practice. They used methods of reflection that were embedded in the context of their daily practice with particular emphasis on using social and collective opportunities for reflection. The preferred methods of reflective practice used by students and graduates contrasted with traditional approaches to teaching reflective practice. This study supports rethinking approaches for teaching reflective practice to incorporate approaches that are embedded within real and daily practice experiences.     

Improving reflective practice: a documentation rubric for mentoring preservice and in-service teachers

ABSTRACT

Professionals in the field of early childhood are encouraged to demonstrate reflective perspectives of their work supported by pedagogical documentation. The purpose of this article is to introduce a rubric developed for preservice and inservice teachers to improve documentation and reflection. The rubric’s four dimensions: visible learning, powerful story, emotional impact, and visual impact range from novice to expert level. The rubric is not meant to create prescribed documentation or to be used as an evaluation or assessment. Instead, it is a tool to sharpen critical focus for reflection and to challenge teachers to examine and improve their documentation. We include a review of the Reggio Emilia approach to pedagogical documentation and reflective process, an explanatory account of how the rubric was developed, and reflections from implementing the rubric with preservice teachers. We also offer reflective questions and examples to aid in improving documentation and reflection. Recommendations for practice include use as a tool for selfreflection and guided collaborative reflection in small groups.     

“Relocating the Personal” to engender critically reflective practice in pre-service literacy teachers

This case study mapped candidates' responses to a pre-service literacy course designed to relocate teacher candidates' literacy histories and beliefs from a personal to political frame with the intent of promoting critical reflection and complex understandings of literacy, teaching, and learning. As part of a broader qualitative case study including 71 participants over 8 months, this paper focuses on data gathered from 7 candidates. Through a modified constant comparative method, the analysis confirmed the effectiveness of certain conditions created in the course while pointing to a need for further attention to issues of power and the unconscious in learning to teach literacy.     

An Adventure: from reflective practice to spirituality

Abstract

This article stems from reflective practice undertaken by the author. It represents an attempt to bring together some of the questions which occurred to her about the nature of community education when she worked as a practitioner in that field with more recent considerations about the ‘taken for granteds’ of her present professional practice as a facilitator of reflective practice for adult educators. Using metaphor and a model derived from Eastern philosophical traditions, the article suggests that the concept of spirituality may be a useful addition to the discourse about (community) education in general and reflective practice in particular.     

Patterns of inclusive education through the practice of student teachers

Interest in the integration of refugees has grown with the increase in numbers of asylum seekers dispersed across the UK. The ability to communicate effectively in English is seen as the key priority in facilitating integration, while a lack of English language is seen as one of the major barriers to refugee employment. Some £267 million was spent on English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes in 2004/05. However, commentators have observed that asylum seekers and refugees continue to struggle to speak English. This paper examines data from interviews with refugees and ESOL tutors, and statutory data recording retention and achievement of asylum seekers and refugees, to explore the extent to which they are achieving in ESOL, and the effectiveness of the existing monitoring system in assessing whether ESOL meets the needs of asylum seekers and refugee learners. It finds that there are major inconsistencies between the retention and success rates observed in the monitoring data and those reported by tutors and refugees. A range of problems are identified that indicate that monitoring is neither robust nor reliable and that refugees and asylum seekers are struggling to learn sufficient English to enable integration.     

Learning in the practicum: engaging pre-service teachers in reflective practice in the online space

It is argued that online discussion is a useful tool for creating opportunities for learning in teacher education. In a project designed to improve the practicum in rural areas, researchers placed pre-service teachers (PSTs) in two different moderated online discussion forums: an unstructured personal blog space and a structured threaded discussion forum where discussion topics guided them to reflect on their practicum experiences in relation to theoretical components of their studies. Findings indicated a marked difference in the contributions made to each form of online discussion with significantly greater participation in the unstructured blog format. Using Kreber and Cranton’s hierarchy of reflection, analyses of both forums found that PSTs rarely engaged in high-level reflection. Examination of lecturer involvement in the forums suggests that their contributions did not sufficiently encourage PSTs towards optimum critical reflection. These results leave the researchers considering ways in which the practicum experience can better promote reflective practice in this crucial, component of teacher education.     

Starting points: student teachers' reasons for becoming teachers and their preconceptions of what this will mean

This article focuses upon the developing professionalism and emergent thinking of 36 secondary trainee teachers, in terms of their motivation to teach, their early beliefs about teaching and the teaching–learning process and their views of themselves as trainee teachers. It analyses their perspectives on how they expect to learn to become teachers and how these perspectives match with their early experiences on their training courses. Discussion of these starting points of beginning teachers reveals some understanding of models of outstanding classroom practice, but equally a relatively unsophisticated analysis of the essential characteristics of this practice. The challenge for teacher educators is to frame courses in such a way that beginning teachers are provided with the contexts and the methodologies whereby they can reflect upon their own preconceptions and refine their own understandings as to how they themselves learn as teachers, to enable them to facilitate the learning of pupils and to fulfil their own clearly articulated aspirations to become quality teachers.

Cet article se focalise sur les changements du professionnalisme et des idées de 36 professeurs stagiaires de secondaire. Il regarde pourquoi ils veulent enseigner, et leur croyance tôt au sujet de l'enseignement et de l'enseignement ‐ apprentissage. Il considère également leurs propres vues d'eux‐mêmes comme professeurs stagiaires. Il analyse comment ils comptent apprendre à devenir des professeurs, et comment ces espérances s'assortissent avec leurs premières expériences sur leurs cours de formation. La discussion des vues de ces professeurs stagiaires suggère qu'ils aient les modèles clairs de la pratique en matière exceptionnelle de salle de classe. Mais ils ont également une compréhension plutôt simple des vraies caractéristiques de cette pratique. Le défi pour des éducateurs de professeur doit concevoir les cours qui fournissent à des professeurs stagiaires les contextes et les méthodologies pour les aider à se refléter sur leurs propres préconceptions. En même temps, ils ont besoin d'aide pour clarifier leurs propres comprehensions quant à la façon dont ils apprennent comme professeurs. Ceci les aidera à soutenir les étudiants apprenant mieux, et à répondre à leurs propres aspirations claires pour devenir de très bons professeurs.

Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Änderungen im Professionalismus und in den Ideen von 36 Sekundärauszubildendlehrern. Er erwägt, warum sie unterrichten wollen, und ihre frühe Glauben über den Unterricht und den Unterricht ‐ Lernprozeß. Er überlegt auch ihre eigenen Ansichten von sich selbst als Auszubildendlehrer. Er analysiert, wie sie erwarten, Lehrer werden zu lernen und wie diese Erwartungen mit ihren frühen Erfahrungen auf ihren Ausbildungskursen zusammenpassen. Diskussion über die Ansichten dieser Auszubildendlehrer schlägt vor, daß sie klare Modelle der hervorragenden Klassenzimmerpraxis haben. Aber sie haben auch ein ziemlich einfaches Verständnis der wirklichen Eigenschaften dieser Praxis. Die Herausforderung für Lehrererzieher ist Kurse zu entwerfen, die Auszubildendlehrer mit den Kontexten und der Methodik versehen, um ihnen zu helfen, über ihre eigenen vorgefaßten Meinungen nachzudenken. Gleichzeitig benötigen sie Hilfe, ihr eigenes Verständnis davon zu klären, wie sie als Lehrer lernen. Dies hilft ihnen, die Studenten besser zu stützen und ihren eigenen klaren Aspirationen zu treffen, um sehr gute Lehrer zu werden.

Este artículo se enfoca sobre los cambios en el profesionalismo y las ideas de 36 profesores secundarios del aprendiz. Mira porqué desean enseñar, y su creencia temprana sobre la enseñanza y la enseñanza ‐ proceso de aprendizaje. También considera sus propias opiniones de sí mismos como profesores del aprendiz. Él análisis cómo esperan aprender hacer profesores, y cómo estas expectativas emparejan con sus experiencias tempranas en sus cursos de aprendizaje. La discusión de las opiniones estos profesores del aprendiz sugiere que tengan modelos claros de la práctica excepcional de la sala de clase. Pero también tienen una comprensión algo simple de las características verdaderas de esta práctica. El desafío para los educadores del profesor es diseñar los cursos que proveen de profesores del aprendiz los contextos y las metodologías para ayudarles a reflejar sobre sus propias preconcepciones. En el mismo tiempo, necesitan ayuda clarificar su propio entendimiento en cuanto a cómo aprenden como profesores. Esto les ayudará a apoyar a los estudiantes que aprenden mejor, y a resolver sus propias aspiraciones claras para sentir bien a profesores muy buenos.     

Warking with other adults: what teachers need to know

This paper discusses the concepts which trained teachers carry into the classroom from their initial teacher education courses and argues that these outmoded concepts must be altered so that the roles which other adults play can be understood by teachers. There is a common perception that teaching is a solitary activity carried out by a trained adult with a group of learners. The reality is that there is often another adult present. To maximize the support of another adult, teachers must understand the roles of those involved and they must be prepared to manage the involvement of other adults who may not be trained teachers. The paper is set in the context of classroom assistants working in Scottish primary mainstream classrooms. It concems the way in which teachers and other adults work together to support children with behavioural difficulties. Although the data is peculiarly Scottish, the lessons learned have a wider national and international currency, for it seeks to explain the changes necessary in teachers' thinking about collaborative working. This paper argues that continuing professional development must be provided to allow teachers already in the field to consider the effect on their professional identity produced by the presence of other adults. Most crucially, it is argued that initial teacher education must acknowledge the changes happening in mainstream classes and must include personnet and performance management training in courses for student teachers.     

From anxiety to enthusiasm: emotional patterns among student teachers

Studying to become a teacher is a highly emotional experience. Nevertheless, little is known about emotional patterns and emotional change. The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of student teachers’ academic emotions by exploring patterns of emotions experienced in emotionally loaded episodes. A total of 19 primary school student teachers were interviewed. The qualitative content analysis revealed five different emotional patterns: positive, negative, ascending, descending and changing. Most of the emotional patterns were positive or changing in nature. Yet all the emotional patterns were highly focused on studying and learning. Moreover, the patterns were experienced equally in short, medium-length and long episodes. Our study showed that emotional patterns were triggered by various task-related elements of teacher education: most commonly, fulfilled or unfilled expectations, sufficient or insufficient abilities, and experiences of social support received or not received.     

Meaningfulness and instruction: Relating what is being learned to what a student knows

Any comprehensive theory of instruction must include ways to optimize the acquisition, organization, and retrieval of new knowledge. An important concern in this regard is making new knowledge meaningful by relating it to prior knowledge. Although meaningfulness is usually thought of in terms of relating new knowledge to prior superordinate knowledge (as with the advance organizer), there are at least six other kinds of prior knowledge that can facilitate the acquisition, organization, and retrieval of new knowledge. Seven kinds of prior knowledge are described below, followed by a section on instructional strategies that an instructional designer or teacher can use to help optimize the learner's use of the seven kinds of prior knowledge for acquiring, organizing, and retrieving new knowledge.     

Self[ie] reflective practice: revealing student engagement through the photographic performance of the self

ABSTRACT

This paper positions the photographic image of the self (the ‘selfie’) as the reflexive indicator on which students are prompted to reveal their learning behaviours, and uses this mode of reflexivity to construct a qualitative study of engagement in a higher education setting. The study leverages the intensified processes of self –reflection created by the novel forms of convergence across the social landscape in which the selfie is embedded, to reveal how oppositional and indexical selfie-reflective practices can operate to uniquely connect behaviours to learning in this sector.