Appendix G shows the Guidelines for Reflective Journal. It is one of the documents student teachers need to put in their teaching practice portfolio. They use this form to guide them when writing their reflections. However, it is not specified which type of reflection this is for. Student teachers can either write short comments in the ‘Note’ section of the form or put a ‘tick’ next to the items they have included in their reflections. A potential problem with the guideline is that student teachers may use it as a ‘checklist’ in order to ensure that all items are included in the reflections, instead of a ‘framework’ to structure and compose their reflections. As with all documents that are assessed, it is common to have a standardised list of items in the document, especially in this case where student teachers’ written reflections are assessed together with the teaching practice portfolio. Furthermore, when student teachers write their reflections according to the items in the list, this ensures consistency. In particular, the format and the items should be included in the reflections. In addition, this guideline (Appendix G) could be very helpful as it provides a step-by-step procedure in writing the reflections as can be seen in Table 2.8 below. However, the word ‘identifying’ suggests an approach that requires student teachers to ‘select’ and ‘locate’ which reasons, causes, weaknesses and strengths they need to write in their reflections. This could explain the nature of the sample provided (Appendix F and Table2.7) that seems lacking in in-depth discussion of a teaching problem and only mentioning on the surface the events that took place.
32 Table 2.8: Guidelines for Reflective Journal
No. Item Note
3. Thorough analysis of the issue/event/problem i) identifying the reasons for the issue/event/problem
ii) identifying the possible causes of the issue/event/problem iii) identifying the weaknesses of the issue/event/problem iv) identifying the strengths of the issue/event/problem v) possible effect of the issue/event/problem
Having these documents, for example the Format of Weekly Reflection for Week 1 only (Appendix D), Format for Weekly Reflection for Week 2 and later (Appendix E), Guidelines on How to Write Daily and Weekly Reflections (Appendix F), Guidelines for Reflective Journal (Appendix G), and Weekly Reflective Journal Writing (Appendix H), also suggest that student teachers will approach writing the reflections in a standardised way as these are the documents they refer to when they write their reflections. They may also focus their reflections on identifying the strengths and/or weaknesses of their teaching, providing suggestions and ideas to solve the problems in their teaching, since these are the main elements of the written reflection as portrayed by these documents. For example, in Guidelines for Reflective Journal (Appendix G and Table 2.8) it is clearly stated that student teachers are required to ‘identify the strengths and weaknesses’ in their teaching, words such as ‘issue’ and ‘problem’ in Guidelines on How to Write Daily and Weekly Reflections (Appendix F) as well as ‘an area that needs attention’ in Weekly Reflective Journal Writing (Appendix H) suggest ‘weaknesses’. While ‘accomplishment’ and ‘achievement’ in Weekly Reflective Journal Writing (Appendix H) could also refer to strengths. Elements of ‘identifying the strengths, weaknesses and improvement in teaching’ will also become apparent in the findings of this research (see Chapter 7) which are dominant characteristics of the student teachers’ written reflections. These characteristics constitute a somewhat narrow, restricted interpretation and application of reflection, focusing heavily on teacher performance in the classroom.
In addition, based on the support and guidance that the documentation has provided, student teachers’ reflections are moving towards a ‘teaching-centric’ nature of the reflections (more about this in 3.7 and 8.2.1). For example, objective 2.4, ‘develop student teachers’ awareness of their roles as professional teachers, who are constantly developing their teaching and learning’ (in Appendix H) suggests the stress on reflecting
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on teaching is essential as this helps student teachers to develop their professional skills. Thus, it is assumed that the characteristics of reflection found in these documents will later be evident in student teachers’ written reflections which I have collected as well as in the interviews that I have conducted with the teacher educators and student teachers in this study (see Chapters 5 & 7). Thus, this would explain the topics that student teachers wrote in their reflections later in the data analysis section (in 6.3).
Throughout the three practicum phases, student teachers are expected to write both the daily and weekly reflections. It is expected that student teachers will develop their reflective writing skills accordingly from Practicum 1 to Practicum 3. Thus, the practicum provides the space and time, the ‘training’ and ‘practice’ that student teachers need to develop their reflective skills in real classroom situations. However, the practice of writing reflections is also incorporated in other parts of the curriculum apart from the practicum such as Literature in English, Curriculum Studies and Action Research. For example, for Literature in English course student teachers are encouraged to keep a reflective diary and write reflections about the things they learned on the course, or teacher educators may also ask their student teachers to write short reflective notes at the end of the semester as feedback on the course. These are informal tasks given to the student teachers during tutorials as an initiative to prepare them for the more formal task of writing reflections for the practicum. Often, these tasks are in the form of free writing where no guidelines are given except for a few guiding questions. These exercises can be rather tentative, depending on how far the lecturers feel the student teachers need to develop their reflective writing skills and continue with this exercise in their classrooms. Another example is that Curriculum Studies student teachers may be required to write a short reflection (e.g. within 400 words) at the end of a course as part of their final assignment. These written reflections are assessed according to the assessment criteria set for that particular course (separate from the assessment criteria for the practicum). Often, the mark for the written reflection contributes to a small percentage to the overall coursework mark. Integrating these reflective writing tasks in other courses suggests that the programme is providing additional support in developing the practice of writing reflections to the student teachers. This also means that ‘reflection’ is an important element since it can be found in many different courses in the teacher education programme.
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