Primary School Pre-Service Teachers' Collective Reflective Discourse On Reflection

Abstract

Reflection is one of the most important processes that can be used to improve teaching. Even though pre-service teachers' attitudes toward reflection, specifically to written reflection, are unclear, teacher education programs specifically emphasize the importance of written reflection for the education and development of pre-service teachers. In order to explore their attitudes, a collective reflective discourse was conducted. The research question is: What are the attitudes of primary school, pre-service teachers toward reflection, especially written reflection, at the beginning of the first preparatory year? A small group of eight, first-year, pre-service students participated in a collective reflective discourse on reflection at one of the educational colleges in Israel. The research findings according to qualitative content analysis indicate that most of the pre-service teachers' attitudes toward reflection changed from negative to positive during the discourse session. In addition, the pre-service teachers' misconceptions about reflection were also altered during the discourse. This article presents a literature review on reflection, collective reflection, and pre-service teachers' attitudes toward reflection. A description of the small-group method, collective reflective learning discourse, and the resulting qualitative content analysis will follow. Finally, conclusions will be presented with recommendations to improve teacher education programs.

Keywords: Reflectionwritten reflectioncollective reflective learningpre-service teachers

Introduction

Reflection is an acceptable method for individual development and focuses primarily on improving problems and difficulties ( Dewey, 1933). During their training process, pre-service teachers (PST) are encouraged to reflect on and learn from their in-school teaching experience ( Jaeger, 2013; Le Cornu & Ewing, 2008; McClure, 2005). Beyond the importance of personal reflective learning for professional development, it is recognized that C ollective R eflective L earning (CRL) is important to the development of teaching skills ( Anderson, 2006; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Le Cornu & Ewing, 2008; Schechter & Michalsky, 2014).

Learning with others enriches reflection on experience ( Rodgers, 2014) . C ollective R eflective L earning (CRL) of professional practices and approaches emphasizes the importance of PST learning from their teaching experience ( Schechter & Michalsky, 2014). However, PST reflection is still primarily done through the traditional method of subjective, individual, written reflection or through discourse with a mentor and P edagogical I nstructor (PI). Even when reflection is done in the reflective learning discourse framework with a mentor and peer(s), PST also need to write personal reflections on their learning that are not necessarily connected to the collective discourse content ( Birenbaum, 2013; Dewey, 1933; Le Cornu & Ewing, 2008; Schön, 1987).

According to this literature review, the strength and advantages of applying CRL discourse as a methods of PST reflection, expressing and exposing PST attitudes, and promoting reflection had not yet been applied or studied. While researchers believe that reflection is one of the most effective tools and processes to promote teaching skills and professional development of PST ( Kohen & Kramarski, 2018; Kramarski & Michalsky, 2009; Perry & Rahim, 2011).

The aim of this research is to expose PST attitudes toward reflection and determine if changes occur through CRL discourse. The research question is: What are the attitudes of primary school, pre-service teachers (PST) toward reflection, mostly written reflection, at the beginning of the first preparation year? Eight, first-year PST participated in the small group, CRL discourse research, at one of the educational colleges in Israel. First, a literature review on reflection in education, collective reflection, and PST attitudes toward reflection will be presented.  Then a description of the CRL discourse method and a qualitative content analysis of the PST attitudes will be presented. Finally, conclusions will be discussed, and some recommendations will be suggested for teachers' education preparation programs.   

Problem Statement

The literature review conducted for the purpose of this research mostly exposes general, negative attitudes of PST toward reflection in connection to subject matter domains. In addition, it has been determined that PST attitudes toward reflection are unclear and need to be investigated further. While most of the researchers in the field of education have a positive attitude toward reflection, they emphasize positive thinking and the benefits of reflection for PST professional development in teaching. In addition, researchers emphasis the CRL discourse as a useful method to learn from teaching and thus promote it for PST teaching. However, in the research literature review, no CRL discourse on reflection occurred during the preparation period of the program. It is important that PST attitudes will be exposed and evaluated in order to promote professional development in teaching.

In addition, when the researcher guided first-year PST, she encountered huge resistance to reflection writing. As a result, she decided to add CRL discourse sessions on reflection, as part of her doctoral research in order to understand PST attitudes toward reflection.

Research Questions

What are the attitudes of primary school, pre-service teachers (PST) toward reflection, especially written reflection, in the beginning of the first-year preparatory program?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

• To explore PST attitudes toward reflection, mostly to written reflection.

• To provide recommendations to pre-service preparatory programs regarding teaching and learning from reflection in an innovative way.

Research Methods

Findings

Generally, there were two, unequal PST subgroups identified through the discourse. One group had a negative attitude, and the other group had a positive attitude toward reflection. However, changes did occur in the negative PST subgroup during the discourse. Findings according to each subgroup will be presented.

Conclusion

Researchers focus on improving PST personal and collective reflections in order to promote metacognitive thinking processes in learning about teaching because it is one of the most important processes for improving PST teaching (Kohen & Kramarski, 2012, 2018; Michalsky & Schechter, 2013; Schechter & Michalsky, 2014). The current research focuses on CRL discourse in order to talk collaboratively about reflection, to expose PST attitudes toward reflection, and activate metacognitive thinking processes. According to the research findings, the CRL discourse method was useful for exposing PST sub-group attitudes toward reflection. The majority group consisted of PST with negative attitude and the other included a few PST with positive attitude toward written reflection.

Moreover, during the CRL discourse, PST with negative attitude shifted to a more positive attitude toward reflection. It can be concluded that CRL discourse has the strength to promote sharing, correct misconceptions, and develop PST reflection processes and practices, while activating metacognitive thinking processes. CRL discourse was found to be a method of learning that accommodated PST understanding and misunderstanding. It was sensitive to their unconfident, fragile status position in-between roles of student-teacher and a teacher, in addition to their emotional and cognitive state of mind. Furthermore, learning through CRL discourse was not only relevant to PST, but it was also sensitive and significant to their competence and willingness to develop and improve teaching skills through reflection (i.e., metacognitively learning from their teaching). Collective learning was researched among PST in early childhood, primary, and secondary schools but was primarily attributed to the shared-regulation potential derived from this type of collaborative learning. However, they did not focus on the strength of learning provided through reflective discourse ( Foong, Nor, & Nolan, 2018; Michalsky & Schechter, 2013; Perry, Phillips, & Hutchinson, 2006). Four different methods of PST CRL from problematic events in secondary school sciences improved PST teaching to promote self-regulated learning strategies and organizing learning environments ( Schechter & Michalsky, 2014). In addition, collective learning in primary schools involves taking action and performing tasks to promote shared learning regulation and to achieve common goals. These research findings indicated that the PST tasks and practices resembled those of their mentors, and the task complexity was strongly predictive of opportunities for students to develop and engage in SRL ( Perry, Phillips, & Hutchinson, 2006; Perry & Rahim, 2011).

On the contrary, the current research focused specifically on CRL discourse to exposed PST attitudes toward reflection, especially written reflection. The research findings indicated that most of the PST resistance to written reflection was a result of their emotional and cognitive state and were based on misconceptions constructed through their past experiences. The CRL discourse gave them the opportunity to decrease negativity and transform their attitude about reflection by using the strength of reflective discourse. When the PST negative attitudes were exposed, the PI could understand the roots of the misconception, particularly about the purpose of the reflection, to who it is intended, its value and effectiveness, and that there is only one way to write reflection, she could correct them, and to lead them toward positive and metacognitive thinking processes.

Furthermore, the third phase of the discourse revealed gaps in knowledge regarding the aim, components, and strategies for writing reflection. It is reasonable to assume that this type of pedagogical knowledge is missing at the beginning of the first preparatory year ( Shulman, 1987; Schechter & Michalsky, 2014). However, the CRL discourse gradually provided an understanding of the misconceptions constructed on partial knowledge, past experience, and gaps in knowledge. After sharing their resistance, the learning experience was more relevant and connected to the PST. It accommodated to their emotional and cognitive states and to their student-teacher status and had more potential to grow them into reflective practitioners in their learning and teaching ( Schön, 1987).

In contrast, the minority subgroup of PST expressed positive attitudes toward reflection from the beginning of the CRL discourse, especially toward written reflection. However, only one of them presented a solid attitude toward reflection during the discourse. She emphasized that reflection writing assisted her metacognitive thinking processes while she was teaching. As a result, she pointed out that the constructed writing reflection framework helped her develop internal speech on her teaching (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). She applied and developed a reflective, metacognitive thinking processes for her teaching from three kinds of reflection recognized by Schön ( 1987) in the following order: on action - reflection after teaching the lesson , in action - while teaching the lesson, and pre-action – before teaching, in planning the lesson, however it can be understood as post reflection, since she applied it in planning the next lesson (s), instead of planning the current taught lesson, as Schön meant ( Schön, 1987).

One of the most significant findings is the PST’s unconfident state of mind resulting from their in-between roles during the first preparatory year ( Jaeger, 2013). Their fragile status and emotional state integrated with misconceptions, gaps in knowledge, and fear of being evaluated is understandable in this stage of professional development. Previous research further revealed that PST experience feelings of astonishment and anger more than fear in the first year (Kupferberg, 2010a, 2010b; Kupferberg & Gilat, 2005). There are other studies that have exposed gaps in reflection content knowledge and in strategic knowledge regarding integrated reflection as a metacognitive process of self-regulated learning ( Kramarski & Michalsky, 2009; Kohen & Kramarski, 2012, 2018). However, the knowledge gap exposed in the current research is more in pedagogical knowledge than in content knowledge ( Shulman, 1987). This is contrary to prior research findings which attribute PST attitudes to their gaps in subject-matter, content knowledge ( Cardullo et al., 2017; Jaeger, 2013).

The connection between the PST’s emotional and cognitive state of mind and their attitudes can be explained by the research literature review of PST during their preparatory program ( Kupferberg & Gilat, 2005). While the teacher "I" identity is just beginning to form during the preparatory teacher education period, the findings suggest that the fragile state of in-between professional identity at the beginning of the first year is the most powerful since the PST are experiencing a transformation between roles. Most of the PST are experiencing transitions from management, leadership, or other educational roles to a student-teacher status in the first-year educational preparation to be in a teacher role ( Jaeger, 2013; Kohen & Kramarski, 2018; Kupferberg & Gilat, 2005). According to the literature review, this stage is characterized by fear, astonishment, anger, low self-esteem, and low self-efficacy of SRL processes, especially metacognitive ones, because of their fragile transformational status ( Kohen & Kramarski, 2018; Kupferberg & Gilat, 2005).

In order to understand this transition deeper, discourse analysis using the "four worlds" system model as an interactive process is used to position participants' self-construction and self-contextualization between the past, present, future, and interpretative worlds in the discourse (Kupferberg, 2010a, 2010b; Kupferberg, 2016). However, PST’s previous knowledge and experience are ignored by the lecturers and the instructors (past world) and they don't determine what the PST already know (present world). It is very important to understand their prior knowledge, consider it, relate to it, and even include it when teaching subjects, issues, strategies, and practices as part of the teachers' role and professional development (future world) in the context of PST preparation program teacher education. While the interpretative world to refers to their role and emotional and cognitive states, emphasizing their strengths and abilities prepares them to be Self-Regulated Teachers (SRT) from a metacognitively reflective point of view.

The PST try to handle their in-between position and status in two ways. One way is by raising their status to be equal to the PI through attributions from past experience. Since they feel unconfident and their self-efficacy is low, they try to increase it by equalizing their status with the PI’s because they feel unable to be self-regulated learners. Another way is by accusing the PI and undermining her authority by stressing the uselessness of written reflection. They actually expressed this in the second resistance discourse phase by saying that she is the only one giving them these useless tasks of reflection. At the end, after the expression of resistance thinking and ventilating occur, they felt confident to admit explicitly that they don't know how to write a reflection. The PI plays a significant role in guiding them in the discourse up to this point. Her significant role in this stage is confirmed by research findings of early childhood PST who participated in dialogic reflective group sessions between the PST, mentor, and college supervisor on the practicum experience. The findings indicate that the PST expressed higher levels of reflective thinking when influenced by different facilitators' styles. These conclusions support previous research citing positive outcomes when PST are provided with guided reflection and additional support to enhance their reflection ( Foong et al., 2018). As Schon predicted, it can be understood that the PI role needs to give academic support for enhancing the reflective skills of educators in the practicum phase, as a facilitator of “first class faculty” and involved as a “coach, advisor, consultant, tutor” ( Schön, 1987).

The PI’s new understanding helps PST build gradual clarification through metacognitive thinking processes and not only facilitates the construction of positive thinking toward reflection but also inspires their motivation to participate in reflection. Understanding how to write reflection as a way to learn about their teaching and improve their skills gave them the self-confidence of a self-regulated learner which helped them accept the need to grow and develop their teaching. Specifically, in the last phase of the discourse, actual changes in misconceptions exposed during the discourse transitioned to metacognitive thinking processes based on their present teaching experiences in their first preparatory year. The transition occurred when the PI accepted the resistance, asked guiding questions, and offered declarative explanations to correct misunderstandings. Her primary goal was to increase PST learning about their teaching as self-regulated learners through her perception of what it means to be a good teacher ( Mazor Cohen, 2018). This growth in self-regulated learning contributed to the change from misconceptions based on negative thinking to metacognitive constructive thinking based on positive thinking about reflection.

Finally, the CRL discourse enables the combination of knowledge, with sensitivity to the emotional and mental state of mind, and develops PST attitudes as self-regulated learners while positioning self-construction in the discourse between the past, present, and future experience in the context of Self-Regulated Teaching (SRT) interpretative worlds according to the "four worlds" system interactive model (Kupferberg, 2010a, 2010b, 2016). In response to the desire of researchers to advance PST reflection, the current research contribution from a theoretical perspective highlights the urgency of exploring the honest and overt opinions of PST regarding reflection, especially written reflection, in accordance with their state of mind and emotions ( Jaeger, 2013; Kohen & Kramarski, 2018). From a practical perspective, the research contribution promotes positive attitude toward reflection. The CRL discourse exposes PST resistance and the origin of their misconceptions about reflection in a safe place, allows for gradual correction, and encourages PST to become self-regulated reflective teachers, which ultimately constructs good teachers ( Jaeger, 2013).

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