What does reflection mean for pre-service teachers?: Analysis from online weekly journals Akiko Takagi (Aoyama Gakuin University) Takehiko Ito (Wako University) Joint 7th SELF Biennial Conference and ERAS Conference 2013 Nanyang Girls' High School 14:30-15:00 10 September

Outline Literature review Course description Research questions Methods of data collection and analysis Results Discussion Conclusion and future consideration 2

3 Literature review (1): Impact and effectiveness of reflection towards Professional Development Studies by Liou (2001), Lee (2005), Hacker and Barkuizen (2008), Tamai (2008), Izumi (2008) and more….. “More research is needed in terms of how reflection should be conducted by student teachers and how reflection should be promoted by a teacher-trainer.” (Yamaguchi, 2004)

Literature review (2): Reflection for pre-service teachers Reflection in action, Reflection on action (Schön, 1983) ⇒ Focusing too heavily on reflection based on practice (Fenner, 2012) “…, developing critical reflection among student teachers is of vital importance. In teacher education courses, this means developing the students’ ability to reflect, based not only on school practice, but as much related to theoretical knowledge.” (Fenner, 2012, p.37) 4

5 Literature review (3): Reflection for action “Reflection-for-action happens when teachers undertake reflection to prepare for future action by using knowledge of past experience.” (Killon and Todnew, 1991) “Teacher mentors should encourage prospective reflection by giving novice teachers an opportunity to verbalize plans, predict outcomes, consider possibilities, and reflect on their prospective pedagogical practices.” (Urzüa and Vásquez, 2008)

Course description Participants: 85 juniors and seniors enrolled in a teaching methodology course on teaching English as a foreign language Period: April, January, 2013 Reflection tool: Weekly reflection journal (electronic discussion board) 6

7 Research questions 1. What did the students write in the weekly journals? 2. What did weekly journal reflection mean for the students?

8 Methods of data collection and analysis Data collection Weekly reflection journals (998 essays written over the 20 weeks) Data analysis Text mining using Text Mining Studio ver. 4.1 The items of analysis: Basic word count, word frequency (noun, verb, adjective) After the analysis, the original text was closely examined.

Results (1): Base information ItemValue 1 Total number of essays998 2 The average number of characters in each essay Total number of sentences6,020 4 The average number of characters in a sentence Total number of words (Tokens)65,558 6 Total number of words (Types)6826 9

Results (2): Word frequency WordPart of SpeechFrequency 1classnoun652 2studentnoun607 3teachernoun512 4Englishnoun497 5importancenoun455 6Inoun366 7necessitynoun357 8learnverb348 9thinkverb316 10doverb270 11goodadjective248 12learningnoun227 13lecturenoun224 14useverb220 15feelverb193 16learnernoun188 17activitynoun182 18varietynoun181 19haveverb180 10

Results (3): Word frequency (noun) WordFrequency 1class652 2student607 3teacher512 4English497 5importance455 6I366 7necessity357 8grammar167 9content166 10method155 11

Analysis of “importance (important)” and “necessity (necessary)” 1.Theory student teachers learned in class: “I realized the importance of presenting a meaningful context in class.” “Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are necessary to increase students’ motivation.” 2.Qualities and capabilities as a teacher: “Not only teachers’ reflection on themselves but also the advice they receive from their colleagues is important.” “Meeting students’ expectations is a necessity.” “Improving their teaching constantly by analysis of their areas of improvement after every class is necessary for teachers.” 12

Analysis of “importance (important)” and “necessity (necessary)” 3.Skills and roles as a teacher: “Teachers’ encouragement of students to find a strategy that is suitable for them is important.” “I feel the necessity to understand the difference between traditional attitude and student-centered attitude to promote learner autonomy.” “(In teaching reading), clarifying the purposes of the questions asked by teachers from students is necessary.” 13

Results (4): Word frequency (verb) WordFrequency 1learn348 2think (”kangaeru”)316 3do270 4use220 5feel193 6have180 7take170 8listen167 9think (“omou”)158 10see145 14

Analysis of “learn” What the student teachers learned in class: “I learned how to teach vocabulary in this class.” “I learned various ways of giving feedback on students’ speech.” “I learned that some listening activities help increase students’ motivation.” “I learned that the new educational guidelines place emphasis on the linkage among education in elementary school, junior high school, and high school.” 15

Analysis of “think” and “feel” 1.What student teachers thought and felt about what they learned in class: “In today’s lecture, I thought about the importance and difficulties of motivating students.” “I strongly felt that as role models, we teachers need to speak in English if we want students to do the same.” “I felt that assessing is one of the important roles of a teacher.” 16

Analysis of “think” and “feel” 2. What student teachers thought and felt about their learning experience as a learner: “I thought extensively about the English education I received in today’s lecture. I also thought about why my English communication skills were so poor.” “I felt that I should not translate Japanese into English word-by-word, and should not teach it in the same way.” 17

Analysis of “think” and “feel” 3. What student teachers can/should do as teachers in the future : “I learned four teaching methods and was able to imagine how to teach using each method. As each method has its advantages and disadvantages, I felt that I would have to think clearly about the lesson procedure when I taught.” “I strongly felt that I would like to conduct a lesson for students who enjoy learning a language, not those only studying it as a means for entrance examinations.” 18

Results (5): Word frequency (adjective) WordFrequency 1good248 2many171 3difficult139 4pleasant/delightful82 5skillful77 6high75 7big/large72 8interesting52 9strong50 10correct49 19

Analysis of “good” 1.Positive evaluation about what the student teachers learned in class: “I felt that the content-based approach is good in helping students acquire guessing ability and in simulating the experience of studying abroad.” “I thought that the information-correction listening task is good because it would allow students to concentrate on listening, in order to judge whether the information is correct.” 2 ． Good ＋ (various) nouns good teacher, good class, good opportunity, good score, good effect, good example, good teaching method 20

Analysis of “difficult” 1.Planning and conducting lessons: “I do not know how to increase students’ motivation in my lesson. Doing so is difficult for me.” “Planning a lesson that each student with a different learning style can be satisfied with is difficult.” “I found task-based learning very difficult because I have never experienced it before.” 21

Analysis of “difficult” 2. Learning for Japanese learners: “Acquiring listening skills is difficult for Japanese learners.” “Although the Japanese understand grammar, speaking with good English pronunciation is difficult for Japanese learners.” 3. Teaching in Japan: “Teaching English for communication is difficult because we have an entrance examination in Japan.” 22

23 Discussion(1): RQ1. What the student teachers wrote in weekly journals Reflected what they learned (theory and teaching skills) in class (especially, important and necessary theories, qualities and capabilities), Expressed their thoughts and feelings (good, difficult). Reflected on their own past learning experiences, and tried to connect the theory and their learning experiences. Tried to imagine how they could improve as teachers in the future.

Discussion(2): RQ2. What weekly journal reflection meant for the students Weekly journals helped to develop students’ ability to reflect on theoretical knowledge and their own learning experiences, based on the theory they learned. Weekly journals provided student teachers with an opportunity to verbalize their thoughts and feelings as well as to reflect on their prospective pedagogical practices. 24

Conclusion and future consideration Based on text mining analysis (only a part of the analysis), the general tendencies of weekly journals was revealed. However, closer analysis of the text is needed (qualitative analysis should be combined). We need to investigate how students have grown over a year (change in the students' essays / interview). 25

References Fenner, A-B. (2012). The EPOSTL as a tool for reflection. In D. Newby (Ed.), Insights into the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) (pp.29-50). Newcastle upon Tyre: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Hacker, P., & Barkhuizen, G. (2008). Autonomous teachers, autonomous cognition: Developing personal theories through reflection in language teacher education. In T. Lamb & H. Reinders (Eds.), Learner and teacher autonomy: Concepts, realities and responses (pp ). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Izumi, E. (2008). A case study on improvement of classroom practice and teacher autonomy in voluntary teacher training: Teachers' reflection and awareness using video and collaborative dialogue. In Tamai (Eds.), Development of EFL classroom research methods for professional development and construction of a database for multilayered research, Research report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), (pp ). 26

Killon, J. & Todnew, G. (1991). A process of personal story building. Educational Leadership, 48, Lee, H.-J. (2004). Understanding and preservice teachers’ reflective thinking. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, Liou, H.-C. (2001). Reflective practice in a pre-service teacher education program for high school English teachers in Taiwan, ROC. System, 29, Schӧn, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books Tamai, K. (2008). Classroom research for the teacher and by the teacher: Application of reflective practice. In Tamai (Eds.), Development of EFL classroom research methods for professional development and construction of a database for multilayered research, Research report of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), (pp.1-41). Urzúa, A. and Vásquez, C. (2008). Reflection and professional identity in teachers’ future-oriented discourse. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24,