Reflections of Novices: What Do Preservice Teachers Think Are Important Aspects of an Effective Lesson?

• In Event: ePortfolios in Teacher Education: Research on Prospective Teacher Learning and Program (Re)Design

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the self-selected constructs pre-service teachers reflective upon as important to effective teaching during a lesson simulation.

Perspective
The teacher educator/researcher of this study couched the course assignment within a critically reflective pedagogical frame (Brookfield, 1995; Dewey, 1933; Lyons & LaBoskey, 2002; Schön, 1987; Simpson, Jackson & Aycock, 2005; Van Manen, 1977; Wlodarsky, 2005) in an effort to elevate pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking processes.

Method
Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) which is effective for capturing multiple aspects of individual perspectives and experiences. The inductive nature of constant comparative method allows for the researchers’ insight, experience, speculation, discovery, and interpretation to contribute to the process of coding collected data. Initial data served for broadly determining the main categories in simple codes, which were then added to, modified and tweaked with subsequent data in the establishment of more keenly defined patterns and themes. Peer debriefers were utilized for validating initial codes identified in the data.

Data Sources
This study involves archival data pulled from three sections (spring & summer 2015) of a required undergraduate management core course. The course is a foundational course taken prior to any methods courses and Internship; therefore, most students have never written nor taught a lesson before. Content of the course includes lesson planning, instructional strategies and management techniques. This study focuses on one of the course’s assignments. It is the lesson simulation assignment where students collaboratively write a lesson plan, teach it to a small group of peers, write a first reflection on their videoed teaching experience (prior to watching), later watch the video and then write a second reflection. Data are comprised of the students’ two reflections of their teaching experience. They answer specifically posed questions for both reflections based on their own perceptions and peer feedback regarding lesson effectiveness.

Results
The paper will discuss the constructs that students initially viewed as important in their teaching reflections compared to what they noted as significant in their second reflection after viewing their teaching video. At this point in the study, only the constructs students identified in their initial reflection have been analyzed. The constructs students identified as significant in their reflections were noted as either effectively used or there was a need to implement them in their lesson. They will be reported by degree of frequency. For example, student engagement was the most frequently mentioned construct where technology was one of the lowest. For the full paper, constructs for the video reflections will be analyzed and compared to the initial reflection constructs to identify any possible shifts in the focus of reflections.

Scholarly Significance

Data from these reflections can assist instructors in generating question prompts that can help students think more deeply and comprehensively regarding what effective teaching entails. This study can potentially yield findings which contribute to the current scholarship on increasing reflective thinking processes.

Author

• Denise M. McDonald, University of Houston - Clear Lake