This qualitative study takes place at a regional public university and partner public K-12 school district in the Southwestern United States. The study asked the research question: How have field experiences, in senior block courses, influenced/shaped students' perceptions in the semester before student teaching? Reflective data was collected from…

The process of reflection is assumed to be important for developing professional knowledge through practical experience in science teaching. However, this claim requires more evidence, based on a clear definition of reflection. The main goal of the present study is to explore how reflection skills influence the development of professional…

This qualitative study was designed as a single-case study of a small, public, teacher education program in the Midwest. The author conducted a study on the perceived role of a "critical friends group" (CFG) in the development of beginning secondary teacher candidates' understandings and practices of reflective practice. Three main types…

The traditional structure of field experiences poses a dilemma for urban teacher preparation. Research shows that teachers of low-income, urban students often have negative beliefs about, and attitudes towards, their students. Yet, large numbers of cooperating teachers are routinely utilized as mentors in urban classrooms. This practice…

The purpose of this study was to determine the capacity of teacher candidates to facilitate and reflect on classroom discourse in the context of an early field experience. The classroom discourse and reflections of 10 teacher candidates were examined through interviews, audio and video recordings, and written reflections. The findings indicated…

A basic condition for teachers developing their personal theory about teaching and utilising their knowledge in practice and perceiving and managing the complexity of the teaching process, is their ability to analyse the teaching process and to reflect on it. The research data presented in this article comes from research carried out, during which…

During a teaching methods field experience, we initiated several processes to facilitate pre-service teachers' reflection, empowerment, and performance as they learned to teach students. Through an ethno-theater presentation and subsequent revisions to an ethno-theater script, we turned the reflective lens on ourselves as we discovered instances…

In the context of rapidly changing classroom environments, it is crucial that teachers be able to make appropriate decisions. Those teachers who reflect on their practice, particularly while they are teaching (what Schon terms reflection-in-action), are best able to do so. It is the intent of this article to investigate the role of teacher…

In this study, we examined changes in levels of pre service teachers' reflective writing and tried to identify links between these changes and pre service teachers' success in teaching. Participants were two groups of pre-service special education teachers that taught in two different special education settings: learning difficulties classes and…

The pedagogical use of journals as a reflective tool has been used in many academic disciplines. Researchers have studied the effectiveness of implementing journal writing as an academic exercise, and results have generally touted journals as a successful means of encouraging learning and reflection. However, little is known about how students…

The purpose of this 3-year investigation was to determine if a relationship exists between teacher reflectivity and the classroom performance of novice teachers when final evaluations are aligned with national standards. This study included 98 novice teachers enrolled in their final field-based teaching experience. Participants reflected over two…

Reflective practice is a major focus of teacher preparation programs (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1992; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Zeichner, 1986; Zeichner & Liston, 1987), yet Zeichner (1986) asserts that developing reflective practice in preservice teachers has focused primarily on short-term, less systematic interventions and that interventions must be…

This study was designed to explore the ways in which preservice teachers' reflective judgment levels influenced their perceptions of and decisions about complex and ill-defined dilemmas they encountered in their field placement classrooms. Participants were ten traditional-aged juniors in a college teacher preparation program who were completing a…