Search results for: Teachers' reflections

This collaborative self-study explored three graduate students’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of viewing, editing, and sharing lesson demonstrations based on Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). The researchers also examined how university instructors could promote reflection through the lesson demonstration process. The study consisted of four qualitative forms of data collection. First, the researchers interviewed participants regarding their experiences viewing, editing, and sharing their videos. Then, they examined participants’ written reflections of their lesson demonstration, focusing on best practices for teaching English learners (ELs). Using the constant comparative method, they coded the interview transcripts, participant reflections, and instructor feedback. Researchers performed a document analysis of course materials (e.g., instructions, rubrics, lesson plan templates) to better understand and contextualize participants’ perceptions of the lesson demonstration process within the course. The findings indicated that participants benefited from the process in a variety of ways, while experiencing minimal or no challenges. In reviewing and editing the footage, participants expressed how they were able to view their teaching from a new vantage point and identify unique opportunities for future growth from other professional development strategies. Due to participants’ limited sharing of the video, this stage of the process was not fully explored.

Field experiences aim at immersing student teachers in authentic work tasks and conditions of teachers. However, specific psychological needs of the teaching workforce are not considered when studying the fulfilment of student teachers’ psychological needs. This paper proposes a four-dimensional theoretical framework incorporating both basic and specific psychological needs. A diary study is presented, which measures the fulfilment of the hypothesised needs at five intervals during a ten-day field experience. The average fulfilment rates and development trends show differences among the four dimensions, suggesting the presence of lower- and higher-order needs. Significant correlations between need fulfilment and success indicators, such as learner satisfaction, learning gain, teacher self-efficacy and level of self-reflection, are also found. The results highlight the relevance of high rates of need fulfilment right from the start of the field experience.

This design-based study explores what kind of reflection in-service or student teachers produced in case-based discussion workshops, and how. Worksheets on the case and tasks facilitated discussion in small groups. In this study, the targets of reflection written on those sheets are analysed. Three levels and seven categories of reflection emerged, ranging from context and practices to principles and power relations. Most of the reflection was superficial or on the meso-level, the level of deepest reflection was reached to greatly differing degrees depending on the group or case concerned. Both some in-service and some student teachers needed scaffolding by the instructor, but certain tasks in the case discussion sheets could also serve as scaffolds. Intercultural competences are often defined as knowledge, attitudes and skills, and reflection produced by the case-based tool covers all the three areas.

This study explores what is advocated and disseminated as reflection about teaching to teachers in professional development journals. The authors conducted a discourse analysis of 122 articles that dealt with teacher reflection. These texts were published in two popular educational journals in Spain: Notes on Pedagogy and Educational Innovation Journal. The authors found four biases in what is conveyed to teachers about reflection.