Tracing the reflective practices of student teachers in online modes

Abstract

During the course of pre and in-service education programmes reflection can happen in a number of ways, for example: reflective journals, personal stories and pair/group co-operative discussions; professional development portfolios; and blogs and electronic portfolios. The aim of this paper is to examine various technologies such as online chat, discussion forums and blogs, in terms of their suitability and affordances as reflective media. It begins by examining positional survey data gathered from student teachers (STs) who have used these social media over a period of time.Following this it focuses on one of the desired outcomes of Reflective Practice (RP), the construction of a teacher identity as part of the process of becoming a professional. The construction of identity through the mediational tool of language used across these modes is examined through a corpus linguistics lens. Collections of language produced around RP activities are analysed as a corpus in quantitative and qualitative ways. These complementary sources of data in a mixed-methods approach provide some insights into the technologies and their potentials in a Language Teacher Education (LTE) context. To this end, our findings suggest that blogs, in particular, foster narration, RP and the expression of identities, while chat and forums promote emotional and affective engagement, all of which can be useful to STs at the initial and continuing stages of their career.

COVID-19 and teacher education: a literature review of online teaching and learning practices

“…The interactions took place through different tools (e.g., narratives, blogs, chat, forum, web conferences or video conferences, social networks) that supported the participants in affectively engaging with other members of the community (Dyment and Downing 2018;Dickey 2004;Choi et al 2016;Farr and Riordan 2015;Gillies 2008) and enabled the creation of interpersonal relationships by projecting themselves (Farr and Riordan 2015;Dickey 2004;Choi et al 2016;Lee and Brett 2015). While these tools leveraged their social affordances to develop online learning practices that presented different degrees of impact, social networks provided an additional component of informal learning that reinforced peer support (Prasojo et al 2017) and a relationship bond among virtual learners that helped to form learning communities (Chuang 2016).…”

“…The discussion of participants' experiences of teaching throughout a range of mediums was critical in understanding the challenges and the co-construction of knowledge about the teaching profession (DeWert, Babinski, and Jones 2003; Fletcher and Bullock 2015). Among others, blogs fostered narration, reflective practice and depicted cognition (Farr and Riordan 2015); online forums enabled the sharing of narratives that enhanced the skill of noticing and led to changes in their practice (Fernández, Llinares, and Rojas 2020), and; webconferences allowed students to engage critically with different educational issues (Dyment and Downing 2018). Both structured and unstructured formats of participation provided opportunities to reflect on key matters related to teaching practice; however, in doing so, Jones and Ryan (2014) showed that participants did not engage in critical reflection on their practice but developed learning by sharing experiences relevant to their specific practice-based situations.…”

The Impact of Reflective Practice on Teacher Candidates' Learning

“…Twenty-five percent of participants did not progress beyond the Habitual Action level of reflection, highlighting the need for instructional scaffolding to progress beyond reflective practice that is primarily thoughtless and formulaic. This finding is not surprising, given that research has revealed a general lack of evidence of advanced reflection among future educators and a vague understanding of the factors that impact reflective practice (Farr and Riordan, 2015;Hatton & Smith, 1995;Sellars, 2014;Yang, 2009). Pre-service teachers often view reflection as a tedious and superfluous activity (see Hartman, 2001), which is actually quite true if they do not progress beyond the Habitual Action level.…”

Factors affecting pre-service teachers’ participation in asynchronous discussion: The case of Iran

“…This property enables the participants to reflect on the content of messages, and review and revise them before posting. Such reflection can promote cognitive as well as critical and higher order thinking skills (Farr & Riordan, 2015;Nandi, Hamilton, Chang, & Balbo, 2012).…”