Uncovering Supervisors’ Comments in Reflection Journals

• In Event: Studying Practices That Promote Professional Learning in Professional Development School Partnerships

Abstract

As teacher educators, our goal is to encourage our interns to embrace the spirit of reflective growth as a way to progress their teaching practices and increase student learning. The use of reflective journal writing is the most consistent access a supervisor has to their interns’ reflections. We have limited understanding of the comments supervisors use to respond to interns’ reflections. This study uncovers the comments used by supervisors in our PDS program. Supervisors were found to use a wide range of comments to question, tell, and build relationships with interns. These comments have implications for novice supervisors who are looking for resources on how to improve this area of their supervisory practice.

Authors

• Monique Alexander, Pennsylvania State University

• Kelly Parks