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Arrastia, M., Rawls, E., Brinkerhoff, E. H., & Roehrig, A. D. (2014). The Nature of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Reflection during an Early
Field Experience. Reflective Practice. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2014.900018
Viewing Nature of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Reflection during an Early Field Experience, the 1st item of Nature of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Reflection during an Early Field Experience (2 items)
Teacher education assumes that the more time observing practicing teachers, the better, but the value of observation (guided or unguided) in early field experiences is unknown. In this mixed-methods study, we examined the levels of reflection, use of future-oriented reflection, and changes in the reflective writing of 90 preservice elementary education teachers enrolled in two sections of an early field experience course (one of which received guided observation) at a large university in the United States While the level of reflection in the writing of 35% of the preservice teachers (PTs) increased in complexity over the span of a semester, only 10% of the PTs ever demonstrated the deepest level of reflection in their writing. Future-oriented reflection accounted for 6% of the language in the assignments with a majority of the instances documenting what PTs planned to do in their future classrooms. PTs in the guided observation group demonstrated a significantly higher level of reflection than those in the unguided group. With these findings in mind, we present implications for teacher-education field experiences and future research, such as providing scaffolding for futureoriented reflection.
reflection, reflective learning, future-oriented reflection, teacher education, early field experiences
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Reflective Practice [2014], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14623943.2014.900018
Keywords
reflection, reflective learning, future-oriented reflection, teacher education, early field experiences
Full Title
The Nature of Elementary Preservice Teachers' Reflection during an Early Field Experience
Teacher education assumes that the more time observing practicing teachers, the better, but the value of observation (guided or unguided) in early field experiences is unknown. In this mixed-methods study, we examined the levels of reflection, use of future-oriented reflection, and changes in the reflective writing of 90 preservice elementary education teachers enrolled in two sections of an early field experience course (one of which received guided observation) at a large university in the United States While the level of reflection in the writing of 35% of the preservice teachers (PTs) increased in complexity over the span of a semester, only 10% of the PTs ever demonstrated the deepest level of reflection in their writing. Future-oriented reflection accounted for 6% of the language in the assignments with a majority of the instances documenting what PTs planned to do in their future classrooms. PTs in the guided observation group demonstrated a significantly higher level of reflection than those in the unguided group. With these findings in mind, we present implications for teacher-education field experiences and future research, such as providing scaffolding for futureoriented reflection.
