Using Interactive Journal Writing as a Strategy for Professional Growth

Now what? First year student teachers' reflective journal writing

“…In reviewing the literature, the process of journal writing is shown as onerous, tiresome and time-consuming for many student teachers, particularly for those with little experience and skill in journal writing (Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002). For journal writing to be more effective, this perception must be addressed.…”

“…This is best achieved when an appropriate framework is provided for the writer (Cattley, 2005;Hume, 2009a;Seban, 2009), but it also varies according to prior experiences and confidence. Workshops are shown to account for variations in the sophistication of a student's journal writing (Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002). Levels of sophistication in students' journal entries reported by Bain and colleagues (1999) varied "from simple description in which little if any reflection is evident, to highly sophisticated self-dialogue in which several perspectives are explored" (p. 52).…”

“…For journal writing to be more effective, this perception must be addressed. Researchers report that most journal entries are descriptive in nature, written as reports or reviews (Hume, 2009a;Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002) because the students do not have the skills to be effective journal writers. Developing reflection skills can be complex and problematic (Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002), an acquired skill requiring scaffolding by experienced teachers (Hume, 2007;Harford & MacRuaire, 2008).…”

“…Researchers report that most journal entries are descriptive in nature, written as reports or reviews (Hume, 2009a;Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002) because the students do not have the skills to be effective journal writers. Developing reflection skills can be complex and problematic (Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002), an acquired skill requiring scaffolding by experienced teachers (Hume, 2007;Harford & MacRuaire, 2008). It is clear that explicit instruction is needed to promote high levels of reflection (Seban, 2009), for example, through workshops and conferencing (Hume, 2009a;Russell, 2005).…”

“…There is limited learning without reflection (Joseph & White, 2006;Schön, 1983) so there needs to be time and approaches for reflection as a framing condition for ongoing professional learning (Ussher, 2001;White, 2009). Interactive opportunities enable teachers to write and talk about observations, thinking, reading and practice, as greater learning value occurs when teachers interrogate events particularly through dialogue (Ghaye & Ghaye, 2001;Maloney & Campbell-Evans, 2002). To effectively interrogate events and practices over time and with others, it is essential to have a written record of both the actual event and own thinking.…”