UC San Diego

Reflection-on-practice has become a critical component of teacher professional development over the past decade. As a result, it is increasingly important for teacher educators to better understand the relationship between reflection and the development of professional expertise. The term reflection is often loosely defined in the literature as a range of instructional practices, including observation journals, group discussions, or formal writing. These reflective writing or discussion activities may be implemented by individuals, within collaborative peer groups, or through guided conferencing with a mentor. This study involved a particular kind of self-reflection that utilized video of credential candidates' own teaching as the object of reflection. This preliminary study examined an intact group of preservice teacher candidates who exhibited typical performance scores on the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) Teaching Event, a standardized preservice teacher performance instrument. Preservice intern teachers were given periodic reflective writing tasks around their own classroom practice. Reflection on the lesson was facilitated by either recall only or videotaped lesson analysis, and the writing samples were coded for three types of reflective writing (descriptive reflection, dialogic reflection, reflective critique) and three reflective foci (technical focus, practical focus, critical focus). The study showed that reflective writing type, or voice, remained constant throughout the four- month period of the study. However, the focus of reflection increased in sophistication when students used videos of their own teaching as objects of self- reflection. Video analysis is a powerful tool to support the growth of preservice teachers in making the critical connections between pedagogy and actual classroom interactions as evidence supporting their pedagogy decisions. The effect of video analysis can persist over time and do not need to be used for every reflection task. The results of this study strongly suggest that activities and instructional procedures that target improved reflection-on-practice through the use of video analysis can be accomplished within the time constraints of a credential program. Also, analysis of PACT performance data showed that reflective practice was predictive of beginning teachers' abilities to assess student learning needs, but not planning or instruction performance. More study about this interrelationship is warranted