Promoting Student Teacher’sReflection by Collaborative Learning

【Abstract】：Reflection may provide great help in teacher’s development. A lot of people think that reflection is only suitable for in-service teachers， however， it is also crucial for student teachers. The author attempts to link the collaborative learning to student teacher’s reflection， and to promote the student teacher’s reflection through the collaborative learning.

【Key words】： student teacher; reflection; collaborative learning

1. Introduction

Teacher education has become more and more devoted to cultivating reflective teaching practices in student teachers. In the year of 2013， I got the experience of a student English teacher in Baiyin first high school. During the internship， I and my colleagues （also as student teacher in this school） exchanged our experiences and ideas. We taught several classes to students and after class， we reflected and discussed a lot. After the group discussion， my understanding about teaching， students， and management of a class have changed a lot. So， the benefits I got from the collaborative learning opportunity give me the idea of this paper.

2. A Design

2.1 Research Questions

There are three questions in this paper： Are student teachers always have collaborative learning？ Are student teachers always reflect after class？ Whether collaborative learning is effective in promoting student teacher’s reflection？

2.2 Subject Description

There are ten subjects in the experiment who are divided in to two groups randomly： control group and experimental group. Each group have five subjects. All subjects have a part-time job （practicing） in a same school during the vocation， and they are all in their last year or third year of graduates.

2.3 Instruments

The author uses both qualitative and quantitative method. For the qualitative study， the author will use interview. The first interview will focus on the first two research questions. The second interview will focus on the third research questions. For the quantitative study， the author will use a questionnaire. The questionnaire will do twice. The first time is before the experiment and the second time is after one "month’s experiment.

2.4 Procedure

First， the author will give ten subjects a short interview separately. After the interview， those subjects will be asked to finish the questionnaire. Then， experimental group will have collaborative learning for a month. During the one month summer vocation internship， first， the experimental student teachers will gather together to discuss a member’s lesson plan before she had the class. Second， the student teacher is required to revise her teaching plan according to the advice given by her group members. Third， the student teacher have the class according to the lessen plan and the whole class procedure will be recorded by videotape. Forth， all members watch the class video together and give their suggestions. During the process， the group members are not only the evaluators and the suggestion givers. At the end of internship all participants are required to finish the same questionnaire again.

Finally， only the experimental group will have a interview. This interview will focus on the third research question： Whether collaborative learning has affected your reflection habits and if has， please give us some detailed examples.

2.5 Date Collection and Analysis

We collect three kinds of data in this experiment： 1. ten student teachers’ answer to two questions in the first interview. 2. ten student teachers’ answer to the questionnaire （twice）. 3. five student teacher’s （experimental group） answer to the second interview.

For the two interviews， the author uses descriptive analysis. Dividing the answers into several kinds and analyze them one after another. For the questionnaire， the author puts the data into SPSS 17.0 to calculation the data.

3. Conclusion

Collaborative learning is really effective for student teachers in promoting their reflection. It is true that with well-arranged collaborative learning， student teachers can engage in meaningful reflection and they can foster many types of reflective thinking. The design of this study confirms that in collaborative environment， student teachers can improve their reflective skills. So for the Normal Universities， the internship period must be included as a compulsory course， and collaborative learning should be used during the internship.

References

Oner， Damp; Adadan， E. （2011）. Use of Web-Based Portfolios as tools for reflection in preservice Teacher Education . Journal of Teacher Education， （5）， 477-492

Schon， D. A. （1983）. The Reflective Practitioner. London： Temple Smith.

劉正偉（2003）。培養(yǎng)反思型教師：從教育實(shí)習(xí)開始。高等師范教育研究，（3），49-54