Reframing one's teaching: Discovering our teacher selves through reflection and inquiry

Learning to teach is a highly complex and multidimensional process. This self-study, conducted collaboratively by a preservice teacher and a teacher educator, traces one preservice teacher's development and growth over a 2-year period. The study examines the complexities of learning to teach, as well as the complexities of assisting preservice teachers on their journey to becoming teachers. The data were derived from multiple sources including observation notes, journal reflections, dialogue journals, and the student's action research/self-study paper. The results provide insight into how preservice teachers think, the conflicts they experience, the fears they encounter, and the benefits they derive from systematically examining their teaching and their students’ learning. The article describes specific attitudes and dispositions that can impact growth and development. In addition, it discusses a variety of activities to foster reflection and inquiry.     

Exploring Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of the Essential Features of Inquiry-Based Science Teaching Using Evidence-Based Reflection

This study explored preservice elementary teachers' and their mentors' understanding of the essential features of inquiry-based teaching through the use of evidence-based reflection. The web-based video analysis tool (VAT) system was used to support preservice teachers' and mentors' evidence-based reflection during field experiences. Major data sources included VAT reflections and individual interviews. Data analysis indicated that the preservice teachers had been involved in various activities designed to support their understanding of inquiry features in a science methods class; they did not implement all of the features in their actual teaching. Both preservice teachers and mentors had difficulty connecting appropriate inquiry features to each teaching episode, which indicates their lack of understanding of inquiry. Both the preservice teachers and mentors had different levels of understanding for each feature. That is, they tended to understand certain features better than others. They interpreted each feature of inquiry-based science teaching too broadly. They also either had a teacher-centered view or tended to focus on issues unrelated to science teaching.     

Professional identity creation: Examining the development of beginning preservice teachers' understanding of their work as teachers

The importance of reflection in supporting the continued professional learning of preservice practitioners is well recognised. This study examines one aspect of the outcomes of preservice teachers' reflection: the development of their own self-image as a teacher. In making the transition from student to teacher, preservice teachers create their own professional identity. Their ability to articulate this identity is examined through a new construct, a “teachers' voice”. A teachers' voice, develops when preservice teachers interpret and reinterpret their experiences through the processes of reflection. A teachers' voice is articulated as part of the persons' self-image. The construct, a teachers' voice, was investigated by examining changes in preservice teachers' contributions in an online discussion forum. Two complementary approaches of content analysis were applied. Both methods revealed changes in preservice teachers' levels of engagement and showed that in the first semester of preservice teacher education, the majority of preservice teachers moved towards a more professional stance in their contributions.     

Between Student and Teacher: Learning to teach as translation

In this article, I propose that teacher educators use the metaphor of translation to illuminate the process of preparing to teach. Drawing on my analysis of the experience of preservice teachers enrolled in a methods course required for certification to teach at the secondary level, I explain how a project based in that class supports the preservice teachers' translations. Through a weekly exchange of letters with selected students who attend a local public high school, and ongoing reflection on that exchange, preservice teachers enrolled in this methods course face two challenges: to translate what it means to be a teacher as they translate themselves into teachers, and to translate the language they use with students as they interact with those students.     

Preparing Preservice Teachers to Become Teacher Leaders

Since PreK–12 student achievement is the primary focus of schools, all teachers are called to serve as teachers leaders and improve learning on their campuses. Rather than waiting until they have gained experience, teachers can begin acquiring the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teacher leaders during their preservice programs. Drawing upon published literature, this synthesis paper recommends reflection, service learning, and involvement in university-level student professional organizations as ways to prepare preservice teachers to become teacher leaders.     

Examining the Content of Preservice Teachers’ Reflections of Early Field Experiences

This paper describes an exploratory study that examined the content of preservice elementary teachers’ reflections of their documented early field experiences of science teaching in authentic contexts. The study used an early field experience model that was focused on the objective of profiling an elementary science teacher as the practical merit of reflection. Preservice elementary teachers individually and collaboratively reflected on their early field experiences and used the resulting reflections to construct profiles of an elementary science teacher respectively in synthesis papers. Data sources included journal entries and synthesis papers resulting from individual and collaborative reflections. Thematic analysis revealed that profiles of an elementary science teacher constructed from both individual and collaborative reflections were based on the roles of teacher as a guide and teacher as a mediator. Analysis further revealed that classroom management and discipline and safety were the key foci factored within individual reflections while what promotes learning and the difference between what is effective and ineffective scaffolding respectively, served as the foci within collaborative reflections. Also, collaborative reflection provided a structured approach to reflection as it drew preservice elementary teachers into collective dialogue and negotiation capturing the tensions they faced when trying to make sense of the practice of other teachers. Implications include the need to frame early field experiences with objectives that are understood by all parties involved in early field experiences; and, the need to instill the importance of observation, documentation, and reflection which collectively sum up preservice teachers’ early field experiences.     

职前教师协作写作中反思能力发展轨迹研究——基于认知网络分析法

反思是促进教师专业发展的重要能力。因此,越来越多的教育工作者关注职前教师反思能力的培养。然而,由于反思的过程具有不可见性,使得追踪职前教师的反思能力发展轨迹十分困难。认知网络分析(ENA)提供了一种量化定性数据中认知框架元素之间关系的方法。该文分析了30名职前教师在完成两个阶段协作脚本写作任务后的反思日记。基于ENA,探究在线协作写作中职前教师反思类型及元认知策略之间的关系,并追踪其反思能力发展轨迹。研究发现,在活动过程中,职前教师整体反思能力发展呈上升趋势。一开始,职前教师的反思主要集中在对小组内容的描述;在完成协作写作活动之后,则转向对小组方法的讨论和个人收获的评价与总结。研究结果揭示了协作写作活动中职前教师的反思能力发展轨迹,为后续开展教师反思能力培养提供了参考。     

(Re)conceptualizing preservice teacher supervision through duoethnography: Reflecting,supporting, and collaborating with and for each other

This paper reports on ways duoethnography encouraged reflection, support, and collaboration for two novice teacher educators. Through duoethnographic research, they juxtaposed their experiences in new roles supervising preservice teachers as lived curriculum, or “currere.” Although supervisors often work in isolation, their collaborative research allowed the opportunity to reflect, coach one another through challenging situations, and collaborate on tools and strategies to use with preservice teachers. By engaging in the process of duoethnography, these teacher educators found themselves jointly (re)conceptualizing the role of supervisors. The authors suggest that duoethnography can promote critical reflection and break down supervisor isolation.     

Preservice Teachers Adrift on a Sea of Knowledges

The paper argues for fresh recognition of the complexities faced by preservice teachers, particularly during the practicum, where they are expected to bring their stockpile of diverse, and sometimes conflicting, knowledges about effective teaching to immediate use with classroom learners. The paper abo draws on insights from postmodern theorising on the privileging of knowledges. While the major focus of the paper is on issues surrounding multiplicity of knowledges about effective classroom teaching, it is also recognised that much of learning to teach occurs in affective, ethical and interpersonal ways as well as cognitive. Several suggestions are made to assist preservice teachers negotiate the complexities of the process of becoming teachers. It is argued that the practicum in preservice teacher education can be seen as a rich site for further exploration of this process—and should be resourced commensurately. Such explorations have the potential to illuminate the ways in which preservice teachers mesh knowledges about effective teaching with their own personal values and beliefs within the specific contexts of their classrooms. Associated with the recognition of the complexities of the processes involved, is a call for university and school based teacher educators to model, with respect to their programmes and practices, the same level of critical reflection they advocate for student teachers.     

Balancing Teacher and Student Roles in Elementary Classrooms: Preservice elementary teachers’ learning about the inquiry continuum

Using the National Research Council's inquiry continuum framework, we use a multiple-case study research design to investigate the teacher- and student-directedness of elementary preservice teachers’ planned and enacted science lessons and their pedagogical reasoning about science instruction during a semester-long science methods course. Our specific research questions were (1) What ideas do elementary preservice teachers bring to a science teaching methods course about the inquiry continuum? and (2) How do their ideas about the inquiry continuum change over the course of the semester through engaging in planning, enactment, and reflection upon science instruction? Participants’ course artifacts (journals, reflective teaching assignments, and lesson plan rationales), interviews, and field observations of their enacted science lessons served as data for this study. Findings show that although the preservice teachers began the semester defining inquiry as highly student-directed, their ideas and definitions broadened over the course of the semester to include and embrace more teacher-directed forms of inquiry. Their early science lessons were more student-directed but, as they encountered challenges engaging in inquiry-based instruction and increasingly emphasized students’ learning needs, they began to plan and enact lessons that were more teacher-directed. Teacher education programs need to explicitly emphasize these variations of inquiry as a core component of supporting preservice teachers’ learning to teach science as inquiry.     

Reflecting on the Use of Writing to Promote Mathematical Learning: An Examination of Preservice Mathematics Teachers' Perspectives

We examine preservice mathematics teachers' conceptions of writing as a tool for learning mathematics before and after participation in and reflection on writing tasks. We describe the use of two targeted activities incorporated into a secondary methods course: writing to learn mathematics (WTLM) and reflection on that writing. Prior to participation in these activities, the preservice teachers expressed reluctance toward the use of writing in mathematics and uncertainty as to how writing could be useful in mathematics, while accepting that some possible benefits might exist for students' procedural learning. Following participation in these activities, the preservice teachers expressed a willingness to accept writing as a useful tool for supporting an expanded view of teaching and learning mathematics. Specifically, the preservice teachers considered writing as a way to build connections between mathematics and other subjects, a means to assess student understanding of mathematics, and a beneficial support for student conceptual learning.     

Efficacy of a gender and ethnic equity in science education curriculum for preservice teachers

The purpose of the Gender and Ethnic Equity in Science Education (GEESE) program, conducted during the student-teaching semester, was to provide preservice science teachers with the opportunity to use clinical observations and reflection as vehicles for discovery of the disparate school experiences of the diverse students in their science classrooms. The preservice teachers examined curricular materials in use during their practicum, student and teacher behaviors, the quantity and quality of student–teacher interactions, and grouping and evaluative strategies before attempting self-analysis at the conclusion of the program. Interviews were used as the source of qualitative evidence of change in the preservice teachers' attitudes and teaching behaviors. While students approved of the program initially, they eventually dismissed issues of gender and ethnic equity as critical once they began struggling with the inadequate academic preparation of their students and scant material resources. Ultimately, the preservice teachers identified the GEESE program as useful in that it provided them with specific critical techniques, but inappropriately placed at the conclusion of their professional development sequence. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 1019–1038, 1997.     

Using action research in middle level teacher education to evaluate and deepen reflective practice

The study examined the role of action research in promoting critical reflective thinking among twenty preservice teachers engaged in a year-long middle level program. Data from collaborative discussions, final written documents, presentations, and follow-up surveys revealed that conducting action research (a) engaged them in inquiry into their own practice, (b) was a means to reflect upon and determine ways to change their teaching practices, and (c) promoted critical reflection in a collaborative learning environment. Results underscore the importance of preservice teachers critically reflecting to gain insights into teaching and student learning as they are engaged in action research.     

An inquiry into the development of critical reflection in secondary student teachers

The extent, nature, and development of critical reflection was examined in three secondary social studies preservice teachers over the course of one semester of student teaching. Using an action research case study methodology, the researcher looked for evidence of the study participants’ deliberation about the ethical and moral basis of their work as teachers, and reflection on the broader social conditions of schooling. The study revealed limited, but significant, evidence of critical reflection and critically reflective teaching. Factors of influence are also discussed. The results lend support to the view that critical reflection can be a practical aim of preservice teacher education.     

The role of reflection on preservice teachers’ development in the context of a professional development school

As a faculty member teaching in an innovative, two-year Master's of Teaching program, I found myself reexamining my beliefs and assumptions about the role of reflection in preparing preservice teachers to become reflective practitioners. In the first semester of a four semester program, I introduced a three-part reflective framework (Loughran, 1995, Windows into the thinking of an experienced teacher. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April.) designed to guide the preservice teachers in systematically reflecting on their lessons before, during and after teaching. The preservice teachers, mentors and I practiced and used the reflective framework for three semesters. In the fourth semester, during which preservice teachers taught in a paid internship position, I conducted individual interviews with the preservice teachers (interns) to explore their understanding and use of reflection. The results of the study suggest that use of the framework helps develop preservice teachers who actively think about their practice to improve their teaching and their students’ learning. Implications for using the reflective process in teacher education programs, particularly in professional development school contexts, are discussed.     

Too Close for Comfort: Real-Time Science Teaching Reflections via Digital Video Editing

This study examined the use of digital video editing as the main venue for fostering reflection. The impact of digital video editing technology on preservice teachers' beliefs included shifts in (a) reflections regarding children's thinking, (b) planning and instruction informed by reflection, and (c) notions of teaching expertise and requisite knowledge. Results were based on an instructional approach emphasizing the exploration of preservice teachers' own planning and teaching as they edited their own video accounts. These findings contrast typical video usage in teacher preparation in which teachers reflect upon the practice of others. Implications for teacher education programs and future research are discussed.     

Preservice teachers’ expressed awarenesses: emerging threads of retro-spection of learning and pro-spection of teaching

In this paper, we report an enquiry into elementary preservice teachers’ learning, as they engage in doing mathematics for themselves. As a group of researchers working in elementary Initial Teacher Education in English universities, we co-planned and taught sessions on growing pattern generalisation. Following the sessions, interviews of fifteen preservice teachers at two universities focused on their expressed awareness of their approach to the mathematical activity. Preservice teachers’ prospective planning and post-teaching evaluations of similar activities in their classrooms were also examined. We draw on aspects of enactivism and the notion of reflective “spection” in the context of teacher learning, tracing threads between preservice teachers’ retro-spection of learning and pro-spection of teaching. Our analysis indicates that increasing sensitivity to their own embodied processes of generalisation offers opportunities for novice teachers to respond deliberately, rather than to react impulsively, to different pedagogical possibilities. The paper contributes a new dimension to the discussion about the focus of novice elementary school teachers’ retrospective reflection by examining how deliberate retrospective analysis of doing mathematics, and not only of teaching actions, can develop awarenesses that underlie the growth of expertise in mathematics teaching. We argue that engaging preservice teachers in mathematics to support deliberate retrospective analysis of their mathematics learning and prospective consideration of the implications for teaching can enable more critical pedagogical choices.

     

Waiting for Gabriel: Philosophical literacy and teacher education

Abstract

The author presents a case for expanding the philosophical literacy of preservice teachers. It is argued here that increasing the philosophical literacy in teacher education programs will enable teachers to think deliberatively and, consequently, reflectively on the exigencies of their practice. For example, through guided experience with philosophy of education, preservice teachers can gain familiarity with the hermeneutics of inter‐subjectivity, thus making them better able to communicate and understand their own students and their families. The author uses John Dewey's pragmatic ideas about reflection, hermeneutics, and equity as examples of how philosophical literacy can guide preservice teachers’ professional contemplation.     

Exploring How a Study Abroad and International Service-Learning Project Shaped Preservice Teachers’ Understanding of Humanizing Pedagogy

In an attempt to better prepare future teachers to fight against social injustice, support their culturally and linguistically diverse students and wrestle with social and educational complexities around the globe, many education programs have increased the number of study abroad programs and international service learning projects. In this qualitative study, we explored seven preservice teachers’ experiences related to humanizing pedagogy after participating in a study abroad program combined with an international service-learning project in a South African rural community. Analyzing multiple data sources such as interviews and reflective journals, we discovered that the preservice teachers grappled with the political, social, economic, and educational differences they encountered during the international project and wrestled with conflicting ideas and beliefs about poverty and language. They identified their relationships with students as catalysts to address these educational issues and their need to reverse systemic inequities. They built caring relationships with students in the community and developed additive perspectives the focused on the students’ community cultural capital. The preservice teachers expressed deep critical reflection and a desire to promote a more fully human educational world where students have the opportunities to enact their agency, their creativity, and their language and culture.