A Study of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences Investigating Global Climate Change Within an Elementary Science Methods Course

We investigated the inclusion of a curricular module on global climate change in an Elementary Science Methods course. Using complementary research methods, we analyzed findings from 63 teacher candidates’ drawings, questionnaires, and journal entries collected throughout their participation in the module. We highlighted three focal cases to illustrate the diversity of participants’ experiences. Findings suggest potential positive impacts on teacher candidates’ content understanding related to global climate change, confidence to teach, and awareness of resources to support their future science instruction. Recommendations for science teacher education underscore the importance of providing opportunities for teacher candidates to increase their relevant content understanding, helping teacher candidates become familiar with appropriate curricular resources, and engaging in ongoing conversation and evaluation of developing views and understandings related to global climate change.     

Collaborative learning from personal cases in a principal preparation programme

Existing preparation programmes for school principals have been widely criticized for failing to prepare their students adequately for their future roles. This study investigated a workshop at a principal preparation programme which focused on collaborative learning from personal real-life cases, exploring its potential contribution to the professional development of aspiring principals. Using qualitative methodology, we investigated 99 journal entries written by 12 aspiring principals who had participated in such a workshop. Data analysis revealed three benefits of this way of learning: (1) developing a multidimensional view; (2) acquiring applicable knowledge; and (3); nurturing the ability to doubt. Analysis suggests that collaborative learning from personal cases may be an appropriate pedagogical approach for principal preparation programmes; however, there are some concerns worthy of attention.     

Exploring Pre-Service Teacher Development Through Daily Journal Reflections: A Case Study

This article explores the findings of a qualitative case study of journal entries by 10 finalyear English pre-service teachers during their five-week practicum in disadvantaged schools in South Africa’s Gauteng province. The study sought to investigate the nature and depth of reflection as well as student teachers’ perceptions regarding the writing of daily journal entries. It drew on socio-constructivist theory, which emphasises learning as a dialogic engagement with the source of knowledge and participants involved. Data was collected from the student teachers’ daily reflections, as evidenced by their teaching journals, and interview responses at the end of their teaching practice. Findings revealed that most of the reflections were on contextual issues and that, contrary to expectations, journal entries lacked in-depth exploration of classroom practice. The study is part of continuous course evaluation and contributes to the ongoing initiatives for improving the quality of teacher education in open distance learning (ODL).     

Developing Reflection on Practice Through Journal Writing: Impacts of variations in the focus and level of feedback

Journal writing is a popular technique for encouraging student-teachers to reflect on their professional practice during field experience placements. This paper explores the role and importance of journal feedback in developing students' reflective skills. Weekly journal entries were submitted by 35 student-teachers during a 6-week field placement. Students received individual feedback on each journal entry that focused on either the level of reflection attained in their writing or the particular issues that their entries addressed. Within these groups, the type of feedback provided was further varied according to the level of questioning and challenge with which students were confronted (high versus low). The relative effectiveness of the four different types of feedback in improving student journal writing and facilitating reflection on practice is examined. Although students in all conditions reported positive aspects of the feedback they received, feedback that focused on the level of reflection attained was more effective in bringing about improvement in journal writing than feedback that focused on teaching issues. Such feedback, combined with issue-related questions and comments designed to challenge the student and encourage consideration of alternative perspectives, would appear to offer the most effective strategy for enhancing the effectiveness of journal writing as a learning tool.     

Journals in criminal justice and criminology: An updated and expanded guide for authors

This article provides an annotated list of 326 journals in criminal justice and criminology. After consulting the “notes for contributors” sections of each journal, the authors mailed a self-administered survey to all journal editors soliciting their input on their editorial policies. Journal websites were also consulted to construct the journals' mission, scope, and editorial focus. A total of 221 editors returned the survey for a return rate of 68%. The following entries present an annotation that summarizes the mission, philosophy, and editorial policies of each journal. Following the annotations, the chart documents contact information for the editors and editorial policies concerning submissions to each journal.     

The Use of Online Modules and the Effect on Student Outcomes in a High School Chemistry Class

The purpose of the study was to review the efficacy of online chemistry simulations in a high school chemistry class and provide discussion of the factors that may affect student learning. The sample consisted of 351 high school students exposed to online simulations. Researchers administered a pretest, intermediate test and posttest to measure chemistry content knowledge acquired during the use of online chemistry laboratory simulations. The authors also analyzed student journal entries as an attitudinal measure of chemistry during the simulation experience. The four analyses conducted were Repeated Time Measures Analysis of Variance, a three-way Analysis of Variance, Logistic Regression and Multiple Analysis of Variance. Each of these analyses provides for a slightly different aspect of factors regarding student attitudes and outcomes. Results indicate that there is a statistically significant main effect across grouping type (experimental versus control, p = 0.042, α = 0.05). Analysis of student journal entries suggests that attitudinal factors may affect student outcomes concerning the use of online supplemental instruction. Implications for this study show that the use of online simulations promotes increased understanding of chemistry content through open-ended and interactive questioning.     

Teacher agency,positioning, and English language learners: Voices of pre-service classroom teachers

This study explores the identity (re)negotiations and agency of three pre-service classroom teachers who received their ESL (English as a Second Language) endorsement at a research university in the United States. An analysis of interview data and teachers' journal entries, from a narrative positioning perspective, indicates that the teachers took on various, and sometimes conflicting, positional identities in relation to their social context (e.g., mentor teachers, ELLs, etc.). The findings further indicate that those positional identities have shaped teachers' agency and self-reported classroom practices. The analysis presented provides implications for teachers of ELLs and teacher educators.     

Journal Writing and Learning: Reading between the structural,holistic, and post-structural lines

This paper explores the use of journal writing for providing adults with the opportunity of reflecting on their learning. The article examines the author's own experiences teaching students on an undergraduate part-time degree evening course where journal writing was an important component. Three understandings of journal writing are compared using examples from students' journal entries. They are characterised as structural, holistic, and post-structural positions, respectively. Structural approaches to journal writing claim benefits in enabling the learner to manage her/his own subjectivity with a view to finding an “objective truth”. An holistic approach, while “useful”, attempts to synthesise multiple ways of knowing and presents a false sense of completion and inclusion. The post-structural view positions the learner intertextually in a processual learning context where the text the student writes is driven by other discourses. Here, the student/journal writer is constituted by discourse but not necessarily determined by it because the strategies of reflexivity and deconstruction are available. This last position draws on the sociology of interpretative biography and narrative theory. The implications for assessment and the ethical dimensions of privacy and disclosure of student journals are examined also.     

Reflections on using journals in higher education: a focus group discussion with faculty

Reflective journals have become an increasingly popular tool used by numerous faculty across many disciplines in higher education. Previous research and narrative reports of journal writing have explored student perceptions of journal writing, but very little is understood about faculty perceptions. In this paper, we report on a study involving eight university faculty who teach courses with outdoor field components in the areas of outdoor recreation, experiential education, or outdoor education. We present the faculty member’s: (1) current practices of journal writing (types of journals, types of entries, process of journal writing), (2) perceptions of journal writing (rationale, quality, evaluation) and (3) recommendations to maximize the potential of journal writing. A mixed methods approach was used that included a 32‐item quantitative questionnaire and a focus group discussion. By and large, the faculty who participated in this study appreciated the pedagogical potential of journal writing. They were, however, cautious about certain aspects of the journaling process and offered numerous suggestions for improving the ‘journaling experience.’ This paper concludes with several recommendations for consideration by higher education faculty who use journal writing as an instructional technique.     

Of butterflies and beetles: First graders' ways of seeing and talking about insect life cycles

First graders' understandings of insect life cycles are explored through pre- and postinstructional interviews, as well as through the analysis of children's journal entries and talk that occurred throughout an instructional unit on beetle and butterfly metamorphosis. The data indicated that children's informal experiences resulted in the construction of one of three models of insect life cycles. Children's journal writing provided an avenue for contextualizing their experience with beetle and butterfly metamorphosis. Although the children's ways of seeing and talking about beetle and butterfly life cycles were changed by the instructional experience, the instructional experience constrained their understandings of insect life cycles. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 873–889, 1997.     

Journals of post secondary outdoor recreation students: The results of a content analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine if and how participation in a journaling workshop influenced the content of student journals. A total of 59 post secondary students from two university programs in North America participated in this study and were randomly assigned to either an experimental (n=21) or control (n=38) group. Before their field course, participants in the experimental group took part in a 45-minute workshop that provided them with strategies for effective journaling. After the field course, a content analysis was performed on each student journal (a total of 880 distinct entries) to investigate if the journals of students in the experimental group incorporated materials delivered in the workshop. A modest number of differences were found between the journal entries of students who did and did not participate in the workshop.     

The power of self-directed journals: being a temporary ‘other’ for learning to teach

This case study investigates how an ESL teacher’s activity of self-directed journal writing can facilitate learning and function as a mediational tool for teacher professional development. The participant for this study is a native English speaker who taught an ESL freshman writing course in an American university. Since he had little time to consult with teaching experts, he decided to engage in his self-directed journal for reflecting on his teaching practices. A sociocultural perspective on human cognitive development is utilized as an analytical framework for tracing his development and capturing the transformative power of narrative within his developmental trajectory. Using grounded theory, his journal entries are analyzed to identify a series of stages that trace his professional development, supported by face-to-face interview data designed to co-construct an interpretation of his journal and to serve as a member check. The data analysis suggests that his journal became a powerful mediational space where he critically reflected on and systematically examined his teaching practices. By externalizing his thoughts and feelings, as he first recognizes his loss of self-regulation and then works toward regaining his sense of professional expertise, he begins to develop alternative ways of thinking about his current teaching practices and starts to embrace new modes of engagement in his L2 classroom.     

Using a video annotation tool to enhance student-teachers’ reflective practices and communication competence in consultation practices through a collaborative learning community

This study investigated how peer comments made using a video annotation tool (VAT) through an online learning community improved student-teachers’ level of reflective thinking and communication competence throughout the simulated (i.e., role-play) context of consultation practice. Eighty student-teachers from two classes of the course “Comprehensive School Guidance” participated in this study, and all recorded two videos for their tripartite practice on parent consultation for self-evaluation and peer comment. Forty student-teachers were in the comparison class and provided general comments to their peers on the learning platform, while those in the experimental class used the VAT on the learning platform to provide specific comments to their peers. Two post-practice online questionnaires and reflective journal entries, which aimed to measure communication competence and reflective thinking ability, were administered to the student-teachers after the first and second consultation practice. The reflective journal entries were segmented into units of analysis that were scored using a 4-level model of reflective thinking (from 1 to 4), with a higher score indicating demonstration of a higher level of reflective thinking for that particular segment. Both the number of reflective notes made and the average level of reflective thinking in student-teachers’ journal entries were indicators of reflective thinking ability. Two mixed ANOVAs were conducted to examine whether student-teachers in the experimental (VAT) class improved their reflective thinking ability and communication competence more significantly than those in the comparison (non-VAT) class. The results showed that student-teachers in both the VAT and non-VAT classes had statistically higher scores for communication competence and reflective thinking in the second role-play practice. Student-teachers with the support of VAT, in comparison to those without, significantly improved their average reflective thinking ability. Focus group interviews were also conducted to investigate how VAT could support student-teachers’ learning process and to learn their perceptions of the strengths and limitations of the VAT. The results indicated that the VAT could enhance student-teachers’ learning by reducing communication barriers created by the tendency to avoid direct observations of peers’ weaknesses, enhancing reflection-in-action during practice, and contextualizing written comments by referring to specific video segments. However, student-teachers felt that the VAT should also allow users to draw on the video screens.

     

Measures of Student Attitudes on Aging

The purposes of the study were to (a) identify student attitudes toward older people according to three measures, (b) determine the relationships among the attitudes as shown by these measures, and (c) identify the relationships between age, gender, frequency of communication with older adults, and life experience with older adults. A total of 125 students completed the study at a university in the United States. The attitude measures used were Kogan's Scale for Attitudes toward Old People, a Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ), and journal entries about beliefs, affects, and experience regarding older people. Results from the three measures were quantified and analyzed for positive and negative attitudes toward older people.     

The Handmaid’s Tale: Using Literature and Online Journaling to Facilitate a Self-Study of Feminist Identity in an International Research Collective

ABSTRACT

This article explores how five international colleagues from the USA, Canada, China, and Japan use self-study methodologies and online journaling to systematically examine the tensions surrounding the lived experiences of feminist academics in diverse global contexts. It draws from the theoretical foundations of critical qualitative inquiry, self-study, feminist epistemologies, and fiction as research. The main research questions guiding the study are: what is the role of self-study and journaling in an international research collective?, how can contemporary literature inform a self-study about the intersection of gender and career?, and in what ways does journaling with international partners support personal and professional development of multicultural teacher educators?. For 6 months, the authors explored these questions with one another in an interactive online journal. Collaborative analysis of the journal entries produced three major themes: fiction as self-study, scholarship as hope, and scholarship as freedom. The article concludes with the authors’ personal views on the importance of online journaling and self-study among educational researchers who are interested in finding tools and structures for navigating the contemporary women’s movement within academia.     

The stark reality of the ‘White Saviour’ complex and the need for critical consciousness: a document analysis of the early journals of a Freirean educator

While the anglophone academic literature has long engaged in analysis of the role of privilege in the work of educators in the Global North, this article represents an initial foray into such analysis in non-formal educational settings in the Global South. Through a cultural-textual document analysis of 12?months of personal journal entries written by the author while working as a Freirean adult educator in Mozambique, this article documents a lack of recognition of social privilege exhibited by the author in these entries, which is here referred to as the ‘White Saviour’ complex. This article also documents how the pursuit of what Freire calls ‘critical consciousness’ can effectively problematise this privileged mindset.     

Fostering understanding of institutional oppression among U.S. pre-service teachers

This paper describes the use of an institutional inquiry assignment for pre-service teachers at a large state university in the US to foster critical understanding of institutional oppression. Written inquiry assignments, web-based journal entries, and class discussions with one hundred and six pre-service teacher candidates enrolled in a cultural diversity course are analyzed using interpretive qualitative methods to examine the useful aspects as well as the limitations of this assignment for helping to engage in teaching for social justice.     

Turning experiences into critical reflections: examples from Taiwanese in-service teachers

The aims of this paper are twofold: to investigate how Taiwanese teachers of English as a Foreign Language turned experiences into critical reflections via journal writings and to describe how they gauged critical reflections as teaching inquiry. The participants were 12 Taiwanese in-service teachers enrolled in an elective course entitled ‘Doing Teacher Research in English Instruction’, meeting three hours a week for 17 weeks. Two types of data, journal entries and semi-structured oral interviews, were collected. Three levels of critical reflection – transitions, transformations, and problematics – were generated for further discussion. The results indicate that critical reflection as teaching inquiry helped the teachers deal with situations of uncertainty, instability, and value conflict in multiple contexts. Critical reflections enhanced teachers' understanding and brought about changes in their awareness of instructional effectiveness and teaching beliefs in their practice. For a variety of reasons, these teachers perceived critical reflections as teaching inquiry with positive and/or negative positions.