Reflecting on Practice–Student teachers' perspectives.pdf

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When an educational establishment decides to promote reflective practice in its midst and expects all stakeholders (teachers, students, and administrators) to become reflective practitioners and advocates, there ought to be a firm understanding of the meaning of the term reflection and of the concept of reflective practice. This research paper will address all relevant issues concerning the practice of reflection, highlighting the primacy of professional development as a reliable and robust link between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The paper will also explore the current research with regard to reflective practice. A comprehensive literature review of the practice within the educational field will be alluded to. Best approaches to integrate relevant strategies and to address issues emanating from the practice will also be included. Finally, recommendations for future development and a synthesis of the various elements needed for efficient reflective practice will be provided.

European Journal of Teacher Education, 2013

ABSTRACT Some researchers claim that reflection helps student teachers to better understand their practice teaching. This study aims to explore how deliberate reflection by student teachers is encouraged as a way to prepare, analyse and evaluate their practice. A total of 104 student teachers in primary education participated in this study during their practicum and produced reflective accounts to identify and think about problems they encountered in their teaching practice. The written reports were analysed for precision or explicitness of statements in relation to types and levels of knowledge generated in reflection. Three main types of knowledge were produced by the student teachers through deliberate reflection (appraisals, rules and artefacts). A relationship was found between producing high levels of knowledge and precision of reflective statements. We interpret this to mean that while deliberate reflection can support the construction of professional knowledge, this only rarely occurs.

Reflective Practice, 2016

This paper explores the concept of reflection and its changing role in the journey of the student teacher. It presents part of the findings of a yearlong investigation into the reflective practice of student teachers during their training year. Specifically it investigates the reflections of the student teachers' lessons during the PGCE (Post/Professional Graduate Certificate of Education) year at a HE institution in England. The strengths and weaknesses of the student teachers' lessons are analysed and how these reflections change as they reach Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) status.

Reflective Practice, 2016

This paper explores the concept of reflective practice and its role in the professionalisation of student teachers. There is an examination of the requirements to become a qualified teacher and how these requirements have determined practice. After looking at the recent evolution, of state requirements for initial teacher education, in England, it investigates the place of reflective practice within that process and to what extent reflective practice is still needed to become a teacher. It presents the different interpretations of reflective practice and the role of professionalism in the journey to qualified teaching status (QTS).

European Journal of Teacher Education, 2014

This study clarifies the basic structure of student teachers' reflective thinking. It presents a constructivist account of teacher knowledge through a detailed analysis of various patterns of reflection in student teacher portfolios. We aim to gain a greater understanding of the process and outcomes of portfolio writing in the context of teaching practice. By closely analysing portfolio texts, we defined six main starting points for reflective episodes and several patterns under each of them. Also, the patterns of reflective episodes were analysed according to their deductive and inductive dimensions, together with their static and dynamic features. According to our results, it is possible that student teachers can reflect beyond solely practical issues on teaching, articulate multiple concerns about practice and elaborate them in an integrative manner as well as learn both from theory and from practice as a result of reflection for their future profession.

Reflective Practice, 2011

This paper reports the findings of a study where student teachers' practical reasoning and the development of professional knowledge were investigated during teaching practice in pre-service class teacher education. The model of student teachers' supervision applying the philosophy and principles of the practical argument approach was used in the study and data collection. In this model practical argument premises can be situational, empirical, stipulative or they can be based on value assessments. The videos of student teachers' lessons, stimulated recall interviews and critical incidents, were used in order to grasp the situationality and contextuality of the classroom reality. Results show that student teachers mainly expressed situational and empirical premises in their practical argumentation. Stipulative and value premises were also present, but to a lesser degree. During the process, the student teachers developed their arguments from situational and empirical premises towards new value premises and reflections on the stipulative premises guiding their work.

South African Journal of Higher Education, 2000

In this article we report research addressing the facilitation of reflection amongst novice (pre-service) teachers. This study is based on the analysis of written reports of 35 second-year and 36 third-year Bachelor of Primary Education (BPrimEd) student cohorts during a brief teaching practice in the 1999 mid-semester teaching practicum. Pro forma's were provided to students as guidelines for the reflective process. Students were also provided with guidelines to keep a journal which would inform their reflection while at the schools. They were required to hand in an assignment detailing their reflection on some of the lessons they taught during the practicum. Most student reflections focused on more technical aspects of teaching and classroom management, which are discussed in the article. We include a brief review of reflection and reflective practice, discuss levels of reflection, a short description of method of course evelopment, a narration of findings, concluding remarks and propositions.