Trainee teachers’ use of blogs as private reflections for professional development

Abstract

Developments in Higher Education (HE) over the last decade have seen an increasing focus on developing skills through the use of technology as part of blended learning opportunities. At Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) in the United Kingdom research has taken place over the last year in the use of personal diaries with trainee teachers using a private web log (blog). The purpose of the research was to determine if blogs could provide a setting for their continuing professional development as practitioners and emerging qualified teachers. This collaborative project was undertaken to determine attitudes and perceptions of blogging as a tool for professional development, and also to evaluate and review current practice within the two institutions in this area of teacher training. The rationale for the use of blogs with the trainee teachers in this study was to determine if they could provide a usable substitute for more traditional methods of recording their professional development throughout their course. This paper seeks to share the findings of the research which the authors believe could be applicable to other areas of Higher Education.

Influencing and facilitating conditions for developing reflective assessment practice

“…This can be interpreted as one reason why the texts were mainly descriptive and retrospective i.e. they handled everyday experiences in a reporting way without taking alternative or critical stands, and complies with findings in Hramiak et al (2009) and Kerawalla et al (2008). In their studies on student teachers writing reflective blogs, the first phase of learning to reflect involves being used to the writing process itself.…”

“…A major concern related to projects working with reflection as a methodological approach, is that they tend to finish after the first phase (Hramiak et al, 2009), a phase we identified as a preparatory phase. This study contributes to…”

Peer Support during Student Teachers’ Practicum: A Case Study using a Web 2.0 Community on the Cloud

“…Because CMC communication does not provide visual or intonation cues, participation does not necessarily establish trust or a sense of community among members (Paulus & Scherff, 2008) and thus the underlying technologies must be able to support artefacts creation, collaboration, awareness, and a friendly user interface (Kostas & Sofos, 2012 these research studies were subject to various conditional factors, such as the need of a sound instructional design in order to achieve reflective practice (Whipp, 2003), the type of messages, i.e. positive vs. negative ones (Ebenezer, 2003), the need for a clear goal for the community, a better framing of the communication with emphasis on the CMC environment (Hough, Smithey, & Everston,, 2004), teacher's presence (Yang, 2009), individual's skills (Hramiak, Boulton & Irwin, 2009) and lack of participants' time (Andersen & Matkins, 2011). Summary of the literature review's outcomes leads to some basic requirements needed for the sustainable pedagogical and technological settings of a CMC platform, as a supportive environment for student teacher's apprenticeship:  Members of a supportive community must have access to a set of various tools (asynchronous and synchronous) within the same infrastructure.…”

El diario del estudiante de enfermería en la práctica clínica frente a los diarios realizados en otras disciplinas. Una revisión integradora

“…Otra preocupación general es la referida a la confidencialidad de lo escrito en el diario (29,43,56,57) y que podría condicionar su contenido, aspecto que se agrava cuando lo escrito es público, como es el caso de blogs compartidos para este fin (43,57).…”