What does reflection mean for pre-service teachers?: Analysis from online weekly journals Akiko Takagi (Aoyama Gakuin University) Takehiko Ito (Wako University)

What does reflection mean for pre-service teachers?: Analysis from

online weekly journals

Akiko Takagi (Aoyama Gakuin University)Takehiko Ito (Wako University)

Joint 7th SELF Biennial Conference and ERAS Conference 2013Nanyang Girls' High School

14:30-15:00 10 September 2013

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Outline

• Literature review• Course description• Research questions• Methods of data collection and analysis• Results• Discussion• Conclusion and future consideration

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Literature review (1): Impact and effectiveness of reflection towards

Professional Development

Studies by Liou (2001), Lee (2005), Hacker and Barkuizen (2008), Tamai (2008), Izumi (2008) and more…..

“More research is needed in terms of how reflection should be conducted by student teachers and how reflection should be promoted by a teacher-trainer.” (Yamaguchi, 2004)

Literature review (2): Reflection for pre-service teachers

• Reflection in action, Reflection on action (Schön, 1983)⇒ Focusing too heavily on reflection based on

practice (Fenner, 2012)“…, developing critical reflection among student

teachers is of vital importance. In teacher education courses, this means developing the students’ ability to reflect, based not only on school practice, but as much related to theoretical knowledge.” (Fenner, 2012, p.37)

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Literature review (3): Reflection for action

“Reflection-for-action happens when teachers undertake reflection to prepare for future action by using knowledge of past experience.”

(Killon and Todnew, 1991)“Teacher mentors should encourage prospective reflection by giving novice teachers an opportunity to verbalize plans, predict outcomes, consider possibilities, and reflect on their prospective pedagogical practices.” (Urzüa and Vásquez, 2008)

Course description

Participants: 85 juniors and seniors enrolled in a teaching methodology course on teaching English as a foreign language

Period: April, 2012 - January, 2013Reflection tool: Weekly reflection journal

(electronic discussion board)

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Research questions

1. What did the students write in the weekly journals?

2. What did weekly journal reflection mean for the students?

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Methods of data collection and analysis

Data collection• Weekly reflection journals (998 essays written

over the 20 weeks) Data analysis• Text mining using Text Mining Studio ver. 4.1• The items of analysis: Basic word count, word

frequency (noun, verb, adjective)• After the analysis, the original text was closely

examined.

Results (1): Base information

Item Value1 Total number of essays 9982 The average number of characters

in each essay182.3

3 Total number of sentences 6,0204 The average number of characters

in a sentence30.2

5 Total number of words (Tokens) 65,5586 Total number of words (Types) 6826

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Results (2): Word frequencyWord Part of Speech Frequency

1 class noun 652

2 student noun 607

3 teacher noun 512

4 English noun 497

5 importance noun 455

6 I noun 366

7 necessity noun 357

8 learn verb 348

9 think verb 316

10 do verb 270

11 good adjective 248

12 learning noun 227

13 lecture noun 224

14 use verb 220

15 feel verb 193

16 learner noun 188

17 activity noun 182

18 variety noun 181

19 have verb 18010

Results (3): Word frequency (noun)Word Frequency

1 class 6522 student 6073 teacher 5124 English 4975 importance 4556 I 3667 necessity 3578 grammar 1679 content 16610 method 155

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Analysis of “importance (important)” and “necessity (necessary)”

1. Theory student teachers learned in class: “I realized the importance of presenting a meaningful context in

class.”“Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are necessary to

increase students’ motivation.”2. Qualities and capabilities as a teacher: “Not only teachers’ reflection on themselves but also the advice

they receive from their colleagues is important.” “Meeting students’ expectations is a necessity.”“Improving their teaching constantly by analysis of their areas of

improvement after every class is necessary for teachers.”

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Analysis of “importance (important)” and “necessity (necessary)”

3. Skills and roles as a teacher:“Teachers’ encouragement of students to find a

strategy that is suitable for them is important.” “I feel the necessity to understand the difference

between traditional attitude and student-centered attitude to promote learner autonomy.”

“(In teaching reading), clarifying the purposes of the questions asked by teachers from students is necessary.”

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Results (4): Word frequency (verb)Word Frequency

1 learn 3482 think (”kangaeru”) 3163 do 2704 use 2205 feel 1936 have 1807 take 1708 listen 1679 think (“omou”) 15810 see 145

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Analysis of “learn”

What the student teachers learned in class:“I learned how to teach vocabulary in this class.”“I learned various ways of giving feedback on students’

speech.”“I learned that some listening activities help increase

students’ motivation.” “I learned that the new educational guidelines place

emphasis on the linkage among education in elementary school, junior high school, and high school.”

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Analysis of “think” and “feel”

1. What student teachers thought and felt about what they learned in class:

“In today’s lecture, I thought about the importance and difficulties of motivating students.”

“I strongly felt that as role models, we teachers need to speak in English if we want students to do the same.”

“I felt that assessing is one of the important roles of a teacher.”

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Analysis of “think” and “feel”

2. What student teachers thought and felt about their learning experience as a learner:

“I thought extensively about the English education I received in today’s lecture. I also thought about why my English communication skills were so poor.”

“I felt that I should not translate Japanese into English word-by-word, and should not teach it in the same way.”

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Analysis of “think” and “feel”

3. What student teachers can/should do as teachers in the future :

“I learned four teaching methods and was able to imagine how to teach using each method. As each method has its advantages and disadvantages, I felt that I would have to think clearly about the lesson procedure when I taught.”

“I strongly felt that I would like to conduct a lesson for students who enjoy learning a language, not those only studying it as a means for entrance examinations.”

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Results (5): Word frequency (adjective)

Word Frequency

1 good 2482 many 1713 difficult 1394 pleasant/delightful 825 skillful 776 high 757 big/large 728 interesting 529 strong 5010 correct 49

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Analysis of “good”

1. Positive evaluation about what the student teachers learned in class:

“I felt that the content-based approach is good in helping students acquire guessing ability and in simulating the experience of studying abroad.”

“I thought that the information-correction listening task is good because it would allow students to concentrate on listening, in order to judge whether the information is correct.”

2 ． Good ＋ (various) nouns good teacher, good class, good opportunity, good score, good effect, good example, good teaching method

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Analysis of “difficult”

1. Planning and conducting lessons:“I do not know how to increase students’

motivation in my lesson. Doing so is difficult for me.”

“Planning a lesson that each student with a different learning style can be satisfied with is difficult.”

“I found task-based learning very difficult because I have never experienced it before.”

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Analysis of “difficult”

2. Learning for Japanese learners:“Acquiring listening skills is difficult for Japanese

learners.” “Although the Japanese understand grammar, speaking

with good English pronunciation is difficult for Japanese learners.”

3. Teaching in Japan:“Teaching English for communication is difficult because

we have an entrance examination in Japan.”

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Discussion(1): RQ1. What the student teachers wrote in weekly journals

• Reflected what they learned (theory and teaching skills) in class (especially, important and necessary theories, qualities and capabilities),

• Expressed their thoughts and feelings (good, difficult).

• Reflected on their own past learning experiences, and tried to connect the theory and their learning experiences.

• Tried to imagine how they could improve as teachers in the future.

Discussion(2): RQ2. What weekly journal reflection meant for the

students• Weekly journals helped to develop students’

ability to reflect on theoretical knowledge and their own learning experiences, based on the theory they learned.

• Weekly journals provided student teachers with an opportunity to verbalize their thoughts and feelings as well as to reflect on their prospective pedagogical practices.

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Conclusion and future consideration

• Based on text mining analysis (only a part of the analysis), the general tendencies of weekly journals was revealed.

• However, closer analysis of the text is needed (qualitative analysis should be combined).

• We need to investigate how students have grown over a year (change in the students' essays / interview) .

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ReferencesFenner, A-B. (2012). The EPOSTL as a tool for reflection. In D. Newby (Ed.), Insights

into the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) (pp.29-50). Newcastle upon Tyre: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Hacker, P., & Barkhuizen, G. (2008). Autonomous teachers, autonomous cognition: Developing personal theories through reflection in language teacher education. In T. Lamb & H. Reinders (Eds.), Learner and teacher autonomy: Concepts, realities and responses (pp.161-183). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Izumi, E. (2008). A case study on improvement of classroom practice and teacher autonomy in voluntary teacher training: Teachers' reflection and awareness using video and collaborative dialogue. In Tamai (Eds.), Development of EFL classroom research methods for professional development and construction of a database for multilayered research, Research report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 2005-2007 (pp.90-108).

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Killon, J. & Todnew, G. (1991). A process of personal story building. Educational Leadership, 48, 14-16.

Lee, H.-J. (2004). Understanding and preservice teachers’ reflective thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, 699-715.

Liou, H.-C. (2001). Reflective practice in a pre-service teacher education program for high school English teachers in Taiwan, ROC. System, 29, 197-208.

Schӧn, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books

Tamai, K. (2008). Classroom research for the teacher and by the teacher: Application of reflective practice. In Tamai (Eds.), Development of EFL classroom research methods for professional development and construction of a database for multilayered research, Research report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 2005-2007 (pp.1-41).

Urzúa, A. and Vásquez, C. (2008). Reflection and professional identity in teachers’ future-oriented discourse. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1935-1946.

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