The reflective journey of the student teacher Charlotte Meierdirk – University of Portsmouth, England Twitter @lottiemeierdirk Charlotte.meierdirk@port.ac.uk

This paper is a study into the reflective practice of the student teacher at the UoP. The UoP has a relatively small cohort of PGCE students with around 100 students enrolled every year. Seven different PGCE subjects are taught: English, Modern Foreign Language (MFL), Mathematics, Science, Business, Geography with Computer Science added in September 2015. All these subjects cover the 12-16 age groups except Business, which is taught to the 14-19 age range. The structure of the PGCE course is the same for all the courses. What is this study?

How is reflective practice interpreted?  

Aims and objectives Aim: To investigate the role of reflective practice during the PGCE year Objectives: To explore the concept of reflective practice To explore the impact of reflective practice on the PGCE student To investigate the PGCE student’s changing identity To investigate the impact of the social environment on the PGCE student

A multiple methodology is used consisting of a case study and questionnaire (n=101). The case study includes the analysis, over the PGCE year, of six student teacher’s reflective practice sheets and a series of semi-structured interviews. The interview data is analysed using Nvivo, Excel and critical discourse analysis. The questionnaire was administered to the whole PGCE cohort of 101 student teachers. Methodology

Reflective practice sheets In total, 102 sheets were collected with over 1,000 reflective comments, were coded and categorised.

Discussion What strengths and weaknesses do you think the student teachers reflected about after their lessons? Which ones do you think were the most important to the students?

Categories established from the secondary cycle of coding First cycle codes: Lesson planning Starter activity, plenary, lesson plan and timings Behaviour Engagement of pupils, disruption, lateness, classroom control, classroom layout, external interruptions, gender and rules of the classroom Performance indicators Targets, assessment, outcomes and lesson objectives Classroom activities   Resources, group work, differentiation, extension work, computers and note taking Teacher’s role Instructions, teaching assistant, questioning, pupils’ names, teacher led, support, speech, relationship, teacher error, teacher’s role, subject knowledge and teacher presence.

Reflections = phase comparisons (weaknesses) Meierdirk, C. (2016a)

Reflections = phase comparisons (strengths) Meierdirk, C. (2016a)

Interviews - Reflexivity The interviews showed the student teachers were on a journey. Their professional and personal identities were being challenged and changing. All of the students experienced some conflict in their identity. Student D had to use the designated lesson plans for his teaching. Student A was told to be more authoritarian than she wanted to be, and Student B was told she had to use PowerPoint in her lessons: ‘…in School C I felt I had to go in, PowerPoint, PowerPoint, and it is death by PowerPoint with students. I mean it’s just ridiculous’. Student F had to teach to the exams and his lesson plans had to reflect this. A number of student teachers found the school culture to be too authoritarian but had to ‘play the game’ in order to survive.

Constraints on the student teacher - questionnaire

Reflective practice spiral

Conclusions Conclusions drawn from the data analysis highlight the complex environment the student teacher belongs to. As the student teacher gains in experience and practice the knowledge they draw upon expands and grows. Not only does this give the student teacher more options but it also makes them less emotional when they encounter ‘tricky’ situations. The students are on a reflective journey that exists within a complicated social field of domineering agents and social structures Their placements consist of different social fields that impact on their agency. The external structure of Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) and the internal social fields of competing agents influence, to varying degrees, the student teacher’s journey to professionalism.

Question for debate With the student teachers there is usually something that they confront in their placement that causes them to question themselves. For example, Student A found it difficult to align with the strict rules and the management style of school A. This journey includes having to construct and reconstruct a ‘teaching identity’ whilst simultaneously succumbing to the pressures of the various social structures faced in an educational environment. Q: What do these external pressures look like in your country and to what extent should/ do these pressures shape the teaching identity?

Question for debate Reflective practice is encouraged by Initial Teacher Educators (ITE) but to what extent it is an important part of becoming a professional teacher?

References Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Meierdirk, C. (2016a). The reflections of the student teacher. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. (In press) Meierdirk, C. (2016b). Is reflective practice an essential component of becoming a professional teacher. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 17(3), 1-10. Meierdirk, C. (2016). The changing identity of the student teacher. International Journal of Education Teaching and Learning, 1 (1), 17-35. Meierdirk, C. (2016). Reflective practice in the business classroom, Economics Business Education Association, 20 (2). 23-25.