Cultivating preservice teachers' reflection on their practice has been a major objective in teacher education over the last twenty years. Teacher educators have designed a number of activities, usually related to coursework, to facilitate preservice teachers' reflectivity. These kinds of assignments might be described as asking preservice teachers to reflect on demand. Studies in the past have typically focused on the discussion of specific strategies used to elicit reflection or descriptions of reflective teacher education programs. This study explored how preservice and first-year teachers understand and engage in reflection in different contexts while learning to teach. A sample of seventeen respondents, education students enrolled in coursework, student teachers, and first-year teachers, was selected to participate in the study. The data consisted of interviews, classroom observations and the examination of related documents. Preservice teachers taking courses engaged in introspection or self-reflection. This time was spent exploring their emerging identities as teachers. As respondents got opportunities to work in school settings, they began to reflect more on content and students. First-year teachers applied some of the reflective strategies they learned during coursework in their own practice. Several factors appeared to enhance preservice and first-year teachers' ability to reflect as they moved from coursework into student teaching and their own classrooms: (1) building relationships with teachers and students in K--12 classrooms, (2) engaging in reflective dialogue with 'more knowledgeable others'---university faculty and practitioners, and (3) having opportunities to teach on a regular basis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-3450 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Creators | Cain, Kellie J. |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
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