Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 277
REFLECTIVE JOURNAL: A TOOL FOR REVEALING
THE PRE-
SERVICE TEACHERS’
PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
Debora Tri RagawantiReflective practice—getting engaged in constant examination, thought, and reflection on
one‘s own teaching through data collected during their teaching—has been extensively used in many teacher education programs in both in-service and pre-service phases of teaching. One of the ways that can be used to capture experiences and thoughts from reflective thinking is through a reflective journal (Loughran, 1996 in Goh, P and Matthew, B, 2011). By documenting, examining, and reflecting events, actions, or problems in teaching and learning process in narrative forms, a teacher will find the patterns of frequent aspects happening in their teaching and be encouraged to think in-depth how certain aspect happens and how to deal with that. Going through such a reflective practice will help teachers be more alert, independent, and developed in their teaching profession. This paper is aimed at analyzing the journal entries of five teaching-practicum students (as the pre-service teachers) coming from Satya Wacana Christian University, Indonesia that is to reveal their professional learning obtained during their teaching practicum.
Key words: Teacher education, reflective practice, reflective journal, teaching practicum, pre-service teacher.
To meet the demands of today‘s world on a more and more qualified education as well as
English teachers, teachers are demanded to possess certain knowledge and ability to do
certain aspects of teaching. The idea is in line with Burns‘ and Richards‘ opinion (2009: 115)
arguing that in order to educate the language learners effectively, language teachers need to have knowledge base and skills of teaching. In the field of Second Language and Teaching Education (SLTE), the knowledge and skill include content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical skill, and attitudes necessary for effective teaching (as summarized
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 278 In most teacher education and preparation programs, reflective practice is used at both the pre-service and in-service stages of teaching. One of the ways that can be used to capture experiences and thoughts from reflective thinking is through a reflective journal (Loughran, 1996 as quoted by Goh, P.S. and Matthews, B, 2011 : 3). More recently, reflective journals are used in research on teacher education in the attempt to promote reflective thinking in teaching (Bailey, 1997; Gilmore, 1996; Janisek, 1999 as quoted by Subramania, M (2001: 3).
One study on reflective journal was done by Sinclair & Woodward (1997) at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur in 1995. This study involved 35 students and they were asked
to respond to a questionnaire on ―My understanding of professional learning‖ grounded in Dewey‘s philosophy (1938, 1966). The finding revealed that 40 percent of the participants who answered the questionnaire reported that journal writing influenced their own learning mostly by encouraging reflection on their learning and their experiences and developing their
ability to think more critically‖. This study also found that students experience their
awareness of their own learning or of their own strengths and weaknesses get increased (as cited by Clarke, M, 2004: 3).
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 279 REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
Maarof, N (2007: 1), quoting Ferrarro, 1999 and Wellington, 1991, presents Schon‘s definition on reflective practice as ‗Thinking through one‘s own experiences putting
knowledge to practice while under the supervision of experienced experts in the field.‖.
Moreover, in this teaching practicum, teachers are engaged again and again in ―Cycle of thought and action based on professional experience.‖
Another definition is proposed by Richards and Lockhart (1997: 1) that reflective practice is an approach to teaching where ―Teachers and student teachers collect data about teaching,
examine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and teaching practices‖ and the data are then
used further to reflect critically about teaching. In summary, Reflective practice is an approach to teaching where the teachers and student-teachers are engaged in constant examination, thought, and reflection on their teaching through data collected during their teaching.
In most teacher training and preparation programs, reflective practice is used at both the
pre-service and in-pre-service stages of teaching. One of the ways that can be used to capture experiences and thoughts from reflective thinking is through a reflective journal (Loughran, 1996 as quoted by Goh, P.S. and Matthews, B (2011 : 3).
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THROUGH REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflective journal writing is the action of documenting one‘s own thinking by narratively
writing about experiences, actions and events to be reflected on and learned. (Loughran, 1996 as quoted by Goh, P.S. and Matthews, B (2011 : 3).
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 280 experiences together with teaching and learning situations‖ (Yinger and Clark (1981, cited in
Surbeck, Han & Moyer, 199. Thirdly, Wibel (1991) claimed that journal writing allows more freedom to the author to express his or her thoughts freely without being bothered with criticisms. Lastly, journal writing increases opportunities for discussions between student teachers and their supervisors who do not have enough time for oral interaction (cited by Subramania, M, 2001: 3).
Based on the promoted benefits above, I see a good opportunity of writing a reflective journal, especially for beginning teachers. This is because the common practice is for us teachers to be busy applying better teaching techniques and instructions, busy preparing for what to be taught next and then. Paradoxically, we often ignore, for instance, how we teach, how and why certain thing happens in the teaching and learning process, and why certain students behave in certain way. As a matter of fact, by examining those episodes and thinking intensely factors underlying the episodes in narrative forms we will subconsciously find from
our writing the connection between one event and action to the other ones, see why they happen, and raise our awareness in what way one thing can happen and then independently decide what to do next. In this way, reflective journal helps us raise our critical thinking and alert teachers.
IDENTIFYING A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
The idea of professional learning is grounded in Dewey‘s philosophy (1938, 1966) stating
that we learn from experience and reflection on that experience. Kolb, 1984; Boud, 1993 and Dietz, 1998 all identified learning as a cyclic model where learning occurred through experience and through reflection. Dewey (1966: 50) has described the act of learning as
―one of continual reorganising, reconstructing [and] transforming experience‖ (cited by
Maggie Clarke, 2004: 3).
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 281 Figure 1: Dietz‘s professional learning cycle
In the first level of exploration, identified by Dietz, the key characteristics are learning the territory by investigating school organization, classroom routines and procedures; observing
students; and inquiring about a specific focus in the learner‘s teaching such as classroom management. Some examples of statement in this level are like ―I wanted to learn about school organization, routines, administration and learn to manage their classroom on their
own‖. Concerns on developing confidence, teaching skills and strategies can also be the
example of exploration during the teaching practicum.
The next level, organisation, is where the learner starts to make sense of things in the workplace such as practising routines, putting procedures in place. At this level the student-teachers usually discuss learning routines related to teaching, daily planning, school organization and functioning of the school. In the third level, connection, the student-teachers are becoming more skillful during their teaching practicum at catering for individual student differences by identifying appropriate teaching strategies for these students and modifying their teaching practices to best suit the needs of their students. A large progression is seen in this level of learning as the student-teachers move beyond the routinised procedures they had previously been focused on such as managing their classrooms to interpreting, modifying and
Organization
Content
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 282 altering plans to accommodate their individual student‘s learning needs. Reflection, the fourth level, is where the student-teachers write about their own learning and the learning of their students along with their raising awareness on the teaching and learning process. This also reveals open and sincere responses, inner feelings and thoughts, and the beliefs they hold about their teaching. In addition, they also reflect upon teaching events and examine ways to improve on their teaching to better meet student needs.
METHOD OF THE STUDY Subjects
The subjects in this study were five student-teachers, three female and two male, all of whom were enrolled in the final year of their bachelor of language and literature, majoring in English Language Teaching, at Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia. They underwent a-five-time-teaching spread over the three months of their teaching practicum period. They were placed in a selected secondary school and assigned a university-based
supervisor and some school-based mentors who were experienced teachers teaching in the school and who guided and supported them during their practicum.
Method
The method used in this study is descriptive method that is by analyzing the student teachers‘
journal entries based on Dietz‘ theory of professional learning cycle: exploration,
organization, connection, and reflection that is to know what aspects of learning that occurred during the teaching practicum and how each aspect can portray the whole professional cycle.
For that purpose, the student-teachers were requested to maintain a reflective journal throughout their practicum by writing a narrative journal entry right after they finished teaching. Some guiding questions are provided to assist the student teachers in the reflection process. The questions are:
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 283 2. What would you like to be able to do differently or to know more in your teaching
practicum this week?
3. How can you relate what you observed/learned today to knowledge or/and experiences in your field?
4. Overall, what do you think or feel about your teaching and what did you learn about yourself as a teacher this week?
In each journal entry that they wrote, they were free to choose which of the question to be focused on in their journal.
As for the data analysis, the journals were analyzed to see the frequency of exploration, organization, content, and reflection. Additionally, it is to see the pattern of what kind of professional learning the student-teachers attain in each level of the learning cycle during their teaching practicum and finally to illustrate how each aspect can correspond to the whole cycle of professional learning cycle.
DISCUSSION OF FINDING
Identifying the Student-teachers’ Professional Learning in each aspect of Dietz’
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 284
Figure 2 : the student-teachers‘ professional development in each level
Exploration
The frequency of statement in the journal entries indicating what the student-teachers want to explore during their teaching practicum is 53. At this level, the student-teachers explored their learning territory; observed students; and were eager to know several aspects of pedagogical skills. In terms of exploring territory, they, generally at their first or second time teaching, observed the classroom situation that is very hot. In terms of observing students, they examined that the students were cooperative, quick learners, but noisy. For them, such an exploration was helpful to adapt with the situation, and find an appropriate teaching strategy.
The other things that they were exploring are pedagogical skill such as teaching skills, communication skills, and classroom management. In the area of teaching skill, they wanted to know how to explain materials to the students, how to teach reading and writing in an interesting and attracting way, and also how to break boredom in the classroom through some attractive activities. In the area of communication skill, they wanted to know how to gain better communication skills such as pace of speaking. As for classroom management, they were challenged to know how to handle students from different backgrounds, to handle noisy classrooms, to divide groups effectively, and to create conducive environment.
Organization
The frequency of statement in the journal entries indicating what the student-teachers organize during their teaching practicum is 35. At this level, mostly the student-teachers talked about their routines in teaching and managing classrooms. In practicing routines, they usually talked about procedures in delivering lessons and implementing appropriate classroom management such as moving around to give assistance to the students.
Connection
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 285 accommodating the students‘ needs by identifying teaching strategies for the students and modifying their teaching practices to best suit the needs of their students.
In the area of teaching skill, the data reveals that to break the students‘ boredom as well as to
motivate students in learning English, the student-teachers tried their best to change, and modify the descriptive texts with another interesting text, jumbled sentence, jumbled pictures, unique pictures, video, and attractive games. Besides the materials, they also alter the procedures of teaching from presenting the descriptive text and then picture or video to presenting video or picture first before the descriptive texts. Another example taken from their journal entry is that in order to make the students understand their explanation, the student-teachers were trying to move from their routine of explaining by adding more varied
activities, relating the material to the students‘ real life.
In the area of communication skill, the data reveal several kinds of professional learning in the level of connection. For instance, in doing their routine of explaining the lesson, 2 student-teachers found that their students did not understand their explanation because they
spoke English most of the time. They said ―Ha……‖ (indicating confusion) and ―Apa Miss‖
(pardon me) several time. To cater such students‘ needs, the teachers modified their explanation with Bahasa Indonesia. Moreover, they became more aware when to speak English, when to speak Bahasa Indonesia, and when to translate English to Bahasa Indonesia.
In terms of classroom management, the student-teachers‘ professional learning is also discovered. For example, in their teaching routine, 3 student-teachers concerned much with some noisy students. In this case, they were trying to discover and modify one strategy with the other strategies. They tried to remind the students to be quiet again and again but failed. Reacting to the situation, these student-teachers were trying again to identify and modify their strategy. The next strategy was staying calm and patient and turned up the volume of their voice. This trial and error finally led them to learn that clear and loud voice was effective to make them quiet.
Reflection
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 286 where they usually become aware about the teaching and learning process. This also reveals open and honest responses, inner feelings and thoughts, and the beliefs they hold about their teaching. In addition, they also reflect upon teaching events and examine ways to improve on their teaching to better meet student needs.
As a result of reflecting the learning process, the student-teachers started to believe that students have different learning styles, to make a good class environment and good relation between teachers and students are important, and that game is beneficial for attracting
students‘ attention. As for beliefs on teaching/teachers, the student-teachers believe that a teacher must be humble, friendly with all students and be fair with each of them. In addition,
they also believe that the teacher‘s job is to make all students understand the material well and able to express it in their daily life. Lastly, they also believe that praising students with
the words ―very good‖, ―great‖, etc is effective to build a good interaction with them.
In expressing their feeling about teaching, they expressed worries and nervousness in teaching especially at their first time teaching and express their confidence and success at their last periods of teaching.
Apart from beliefs and feelings, the students teachers also examined events happened during their teaching practicum which are in sequence raise awareness about their teaching and learning and rouse their thought to think of ways to improve their teaching strategies. In terms of classroom management, one student-teacher became aware that her voice was too soft, and she reflected how it influenced the classroom management in the way that she got difficulty to handle noises in the classroom. Form this event, she examined a way out such as turning up the volume of her voice. In teaching, another student-teacher reflected her teaching and became aware that she did not adapt the material at all. As a result, the students got difficulties in doing the task and there were several grammatical mistakes in the text. From this case, she realized that she could not only copy materials from books as it is just for
the sake of practicality, but adapt it to be better suit the learners‘ level and that she should
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 287 teaching such as adjusting the material and class activities which can be used in such a multi level classroom.
RECAPTURING EACH ASPECT OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INTO DIETZ‟ PROFESSIONAL LEARNING‟S CYCLE
The illustration of each Professional Learning aspect above can be projected into a portrait of
Dietz‘ professional learning cycle below:
Student 6 in her journal entries:
Exploration : My first teaching challenged me to create the more attractive and fun activities
from which the students can practice more, have an enjoyable atmosphere so
they can feel fun.
Organization : I use Pet as the topic for the descriptive text. To grab students‘ attention, I give
them a game ―Tell and Guess‖ in the pre-teaching. I provide two pet pictures. For the first picture, instead of I show it to them, I tell them the clues or the
description of the pet. After they guess what the pet is, then I show the picture.
For the second picture, I show the pet picture and their job is to tell the
description.
Connection : In my second teaching, I change my lesson plan, activity and the materials. At
the beginning, I use the same method to grab students‘ attention which is using ―Tell and Guess.‖ However, as my pamong teacher‘s advice, I use the more attractive pet picture for the game, the picture of a dog putting eye glasses on,
holding popcorn and a drink. In whilst teaching, I have prepared two activities
after giving explanation. The idea is to make the lesson more attractive. The
first activity is a listening exercise but I use it as the assessment. Then, the other activity which is different from the previous teaching is a game, named ―Tell and Like.‖ I made a pet board, the form is like the snake and ladder board but contain certain pet pictures……
Research in Teacher Education : What, How, and Why?, November 21-22, 2012, UKSW 288 It is very interesting to read the student‘s extracts above, especially to see how those pieces of
statements can form a pattern that can illustrate the Dietz‘ professional learning cycle. Firstly,
in the exploration level, the student-teacher feels challenged to design a fun learning atmosphere. From her experiential learning in her second, third, and fourth teaching, she tries her best to organize the lesson. Moreover, she keeps identifying and experimenting ways to make her classroom fun and attractive so the students will be motivated to learn English. Finally, in her last teaching, she examined her teaching and learned that using game is very
helpful to design fun learning activities that can attract students‘ attention to the lesson. To
sum up, the illustrated extract above shows how the student learn something about teaching through continual reorganizing, reconstructing, and transforming experience.
CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION
The discussion of finding above clearly shows how reflective journals can reveal the professional learning, as well as professional development, attained by the teaching
practicum students as the pre-service teachers. Through continual reorganising, reconstructing [and] transforming experience during their teaching practicum, it is known that at the level of exploration, they would like to learn more about how to explain material well, how to teach language-skill subjects in an interesting way, how to gain better communication skills in explaining, how to handle noisy classrooms, to divide groups effectively, and to create a conducive environment.
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