ERIC Number: EJ870219
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 16
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0737-5328
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Tell Me Your Story: A Reflection Strategy for Preservice Teachers
Binks, Emily; Smith, Dennie L.; Smith, Lana J.; Joshi, R. Malatesha
Teacher Education Quarterly, v36 n4 p141-156 Fall 2009
"Tell me your story" is a phrase popularly being promoted in the business setting during recent years. The power of storytelling can be utilized in student teacher reflection as a strategy for making connections between theory and practice in authentic classroom environments and enabling preservice teachers to actively develop plans for growth. A narrative approach, or storytelling, serves as an alternative approach to reflection for student teachers to understand and make meaning of their field experiences in an unobtrusive and connective way. Yet, while this trend has generated excitement in the education community, there is still much to learn about the nature of story and its value in teacher education. The purpose of this study was to create contexts for preservice teachers to be reflective about their practice, and the hypothesis supposed that storytelling is one potential way for encouraging this. In integrating storytelling into a university seminar in curriculum leadership taken simultaneously with students' teaching internship, the study focused on the process of generating meaningful stories that would enable thoughtful reflection and determining benefits to students and the improvement of the teacher education program. The findings of this initial study seem to imply a need for increased use of storytelling in teacher preparation programs as a means to promote teacher reflection. Although this study is limited to one student teaching program, the authors believe, through increased practice in more student teaching programs, this strategy could contribute to the continuous improvement of a teacher education. (Contains 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Student Teaching, Teacher Education, Teacher Education Programs, Theory Practice Relationship, Field Experience Programs, Teaching Methods, Story Telling, Reflective Teaching, Educational Trends, Preservice Teachers, Seminars, Graduate Study, Program Improvement
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A