Designing a framework to improve critical reflection writing in teacher education using action research

ABSTRACT

Critical reflection writing in teacher education programmes is often undertaken without appropriate learning support despite the contribution it makes to informing meaningful changes in the early stages of their teaching careers. Students’ attempts at writing critical reflections often lack discursive depth when connecting theory to practice. However, teaching academics may also need to develop conceptual knowledge of critical reflection as a genre of writing to better inform teaching practices. This paper reports on a small-scale action research project which draws on a cohort of student voices to guide the creation of learning resources focused on critical reflection writing. Narrative frame style surveys and focus group discussions were used to explore students’ understanding of reflection, critical reflection, and ways learning resources assist development of critical reflection writing abilities The students’ responses informed the development of targeted learning resources to support critical reflection writing, and to raise their conceptual knowledge of critical reflection that may inform effective teaching practices. An implication from this study is the need to explore further ways to embed critical reflection discourse throughout teacher education so both teaching academics and studentsdevelop a common understanding of this important concept and its role in teacher education.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical reflection
• teacher education
• reflection writing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All names used in this paper are pseudonyms.

2. Also known as composite classrooms, multistage classrooms, and multigrade classrooms.