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My Current Research Ideas

Reflection is one of the key components in teacher education (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE], 2008). It gains more importance in pre-service teacher education because generally many pre-service teachers cannot link theories with the practice in actual classrooms. That is, they may learn various theories and methodologies in their undergraduate courses; however, they may not transfer that knowledge and put it into practice in real classroom settings (Lai, Calandra, & Ma, 2009; Oner & Adadan, 2011).  Moreover, many pre-service teachers are not aware of the dynamic relationship between learning and teaching (Griffin, 2003; Hoban, 2000). They may not envision how their teaching can affect learning outcomes.

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It is argued that technical or pedagogical knowledge offered in classes is inadequate to solve complex problems that professionals experience every day in the real world, so reflective practice may help them to cope with ill-structured problems in their work environment (Schön, 1983). Dewey (1933) also suggests that reflection can be one of the ways that enables teachers to inquire their own teaching, to reveal tacit knowledge that they get in classes, and to make informed decisions based on theories. Moreover, Schön (1983) proposes three types of reflection: reflection in-on-for action. Reflection-in-action means being able to reflect while doing an action. Reflection-on-action is looking back on previous experiences and reflecting on them. Reflection-for-action enables reflective professionals to shape their future actions based on their current reflections.

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So far, many interventions have been designed to make pre-service teachers more reflective. Portfolios, journals, video-taped classes, observation of expert teachers, modelling by expert teachers, collaborative discussions are some of them (Chen, 2012; Gordinier, Conway, & Journet, 2006; Hrevnack, 2011; Rich & Hannafin, 2009). These interventions were used to promote reflection-on-action. There are few studies on how pre-service teachers reflect while doing an action - in action.

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Another gap in the literature regarding the previous interventions is that pre-service teachers generally describe or summarize what they experience in their reflection. Their artifacts lack critical thinking although it is assumed that what helps learners to make informed decisions in the future is critical reflection (van Manen, 1977). Moreover, to enhance student learning, teachers should be engaged in critical reflection (Griffin, 2003; Yost, Sentner, & Forlenza-Bailey, 2000). To be able to reflect critically, they need to be scaffolded, and reflection can be promoted through question prompts because questioning encourages monitoring and retrospective analysis of what has been done or experienced (Davis &Linn, 2000; Lai & Calandra, 2010; Sharma & Hannafin, 2007). 

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Based on the literature review I have completed so far, I am planning to design an intervention, e. g., an online portal that presents some tools that will offer scaffolding ranging from high to low support for critical reflection to pre-service teachers, and to explore how pre-service teachers transfer reflection-on-action into reflection-in-action after this intervention.

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With this prospective design-based research study, I aim to answer two research questions:

How can pre-service teachers' critical reflection be promoted?

How should computer-based scaffolds be designed to enhance pre-service teachers’ critical reflection-in-action?

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References:

Chen, W. C. (2012). Professional growth during cyber collaboration between pre-service and in-service teachers.

Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(2), 218-228.

Davis, E. A., & Linn, M. C. (2000). Scaffolding  students’ knowledge integration: Prompts for reflection in KIE.

International Journal of Science Education, 22, 819–837.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process.

Boston, MA: D. C. Heath and Company.

Gordinier, C., Conway, K., & Journet, A. (2006). Facilitating teacher candidates' reflective development through

the use of portfolios, teacher work sample, and guided reflections. Teaching & Learning, 20(2), 89-105.

Griffin, M. L. (2003). Using critical incidents to promote and assess reflective thinking in preservice

teachers. Reflective Practice, 4(2), 207-220.

Hoban, G. (2000). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association:

Integrating a reflective framework within web-based templates for student and teacher self-study. New Orleans, LA. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED442740

Hrevnack, J. R. (2011). Guided development of reflective thinking in the observations of classroom teachers by pre

service candidates. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 15(2), 81-93.

Lai, G., & Calandra, B. (2010). Examining the effects of computer-based scaffolds on novice teachers’ reflective

journal writing. Educational Technology Research and Development, 58(4), 421-437.

Lai, G., Calandra, B., & Ma, Y. (2009). Leveraging the potential of design-based research to improve reflective

thinking in an educational assessment system. International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 5(2), 119-137.

National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. (2008). Unit standards in effect 2008.Retrieved

from: http://www.ncate.org/Standards/UnitStandards/UnitStandardsinEffect2008/tabid/476Default.aspx# stnd1

Oner, D., & Adadan, E. (2011). Use of web-based portfolios as tools for reflection in preservice teacher education. 

Journal of Teacher Education, 62(5), 477-492.

Rich, P., & Hannafin, M. (2009). Scaffolded video self-analysis: discrepancies between preservice teachers’

perceived and actual instructional decisions. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 21(2), 128-145.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (Vol. 5126). New York, NY:

Basic Books Inc.

Sharma, P., & Hannafin, M. J. (2007). Scaffolding in technology-enhanced learning environments. Interactive

Learning Environments, 15(1), 27-46.

van Manen, M. (1977). Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical, Curriculum Inquiry, 6 (3), 205-228.

Yost, D. S., Sentner, S. M., & Forlenza-Bailey, A. (2000). An examination of the construct of critical reflection:

Implications for teacher education programming in the 21st century. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(1), 39-49.