Action Research

ByCheok Mei Lick

IPGK Perempuan MelayuMelaka

An Action Research Project Report

Reflective Framework: Implications to student

teachers’ future practice

Introduction

• It is often difficult for us to stand outside ourselves.• Our own interpretive filters and perceptual

frameworks are the ones that determine how we view our experiences.

• Our foundations of practice have been laid in our autobiographies as learners.

• We fall back instinctively on memories and experiences from our times as learners.

Problem Statement

• We normally teach the way we were taught and they way we think we learn. As such, student teachers can go through the whole motion of the teacher education’s curriculum, yet when they teach, they fall back to how it was when they were students.

• According to Munby & Russell (1990) through reflective practice, student teachers can reinterpret and reframe their experiences from a different perspective

Problem Statement

• I wanted to find ways to educate my students to have sufficient knowledge and skills to understand, analyse and respond to teaching and learning issues and problems.

• Schon & Zeichner (1996) says that reflection brings understanding to the complex nature of the classrooms

Research Focus

• How does the reflective framework influence change in student teachers’ teaching and learning perceptions and implicate their future role as a teacher?

Research Questions How does the reflective framework help my

students be aware of the factors that both help and hinder them in their teaching and learning process?

How reflective process help change their perception to what constitutes an optimal teaching and learning process?

Research Objectives• To identify factors that both help

and hinder students in their teaching and learning process

• To initiate change in students’ teaching and learning perceptions through the reflective framework

Key words

• Reflection• Reflective practitioner• Reflective framework• Journaling• Metaphor• Implications

Literature Review: What is reflection?

• Valli (1997) says a reflective practitioner can look back at events, make judgements about them and alter their teaching behaviours in light of craft, research and ethical knowledge.

• However, according to Zeichner & Liston (1996), reflection also involves intuition, emotion and passion.

Literature Review: What do we reflect on?

• Zeichner & Liston (1996) suggest we move beyond asking simple questions about whether or not their practice is working. They advocate understanding how our practice is working and for whom.

• In this study, I have tried to capture a way of scaffolding student teachers’ thinking through a framework which will help them make sense of the teaching and learning process.

Literature Review

• One of the main goals of a teacher education curriculum is to produce teachers who have deep understanding of teaching and learning. As mentioned by Dewey 90 years ago, the process of learning and teaching has to go together.

• Student teachers need to understand the dynamic relationship of teaching and learning that changes with different students and contexts (Hoban, 2000)

Literature Review

• These will provide insights into their future classroom practices.

• However, this is where many teacher education curriculum do not have. We promote a fragmented view of knowledge and we expect our students to make their own connections between the many courses that they are taking.

• By studying and looking at their own classroom experiences through reflection, as a future teacher now, chances are they will rethink and reframe their perceptions and interpretations

Action Research Model: Lewin’s (1946)

Planning

Acting

Observing

Reflecting

Instrument: JournalInfluences

 Positive/Enhancing 

FactorsNegative/Inhibiting 

FactorsJane’s 

comments

1. Personal  [me-student]

2. Teaching[you – lecturer]

3. Friends

4. Situation 

Subjects in the Study

• Student teachers are from the first-semester of a foundation teaching degree course.

• They have at least 2 years teaching experience as contract teachers in primary schools.

• There are only 8 of them involved in this study as 1 was on maternity leave during the semester.

Hoban’s Reflective Framework: Adaptation

• brainstorming• discussion• explicate modelling [think aloud]• examples

Awareness

• study factors that either enhance/inhibit their learningAnalyse• identify key factors for all the 4 factors• deepening of reflectionSynthesis• identify a metaphor to show the relationship between the 4

factors• small theories 't' formed• new knowledge into existing ones

Theorising• stimulate reframing• new actions takenAction

Findings

• Data collected from students:-

– weekly journals

– metaphors

Implications to future practice

Data Analysis: Burnard’s (1991)Stage  Description

1 Read all data; weekly journals, metaphors and final week journals

2 Re-read the data and make notes throughout the reading, generate general themes. Immersed in the data.

3 Re-read the data and identify specific headings and categories. Open-coding. Generate categories.

4 Sort out the categories into precise groups. Collapse some of the similar categories into broad categories.

5 Re-sort categories, similar headings are grouped to form a final list and remove extraneous categories.

6 A colleaque was invited to blindly validate my findings. Categories were discussed and adjusted as necessary.

7 Journals and categories were examined identifying the data relating to each category.

8 Data linked to category headings. Numbers are used to distinguish between findings in the journals and categories.

Sample of a Collated JournalsInfluences Positive/Enhancing factors Negative/Inhibiting factors

1. Personal factors try to understand in detail do more practice motivate myself

exhausted lazy to revise & complete

homework

2. Teaching factors gave meaningful advice elaborated with examples inspires

none

3. Peer factors cooperative & helpful not selfish

none

4. Situational factors none nervous as today we have a test

Metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor

Metaphor

Findings: Implications to Future Practice

Table 1: Summary of Journals ■ Analysis of Data from Students.docx

Findings: Implications to Future PracticeAspects Involved:- Percentage 

Reflection 88 %

Pedagogical 75 %

Teacher qualities 75 %

Knowledgeable 63 %

Motivation 50 %

Students’ needs 38 %

Support 38 %

Role Model 25 %

Environment 25 %

Past weaknesses 25 %

Relationship 25 %

Classroom management 13 %

Religion 13 %

Findings: Implications to Future Practice

reflection pedagogy teacher qualities knowledge motivation0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Percentage

Percentage

Discussion

• Students draw implications for their future role from their insights of their teaching and learning process.

• 7 out of the 8 students felt that reflection is important as the whole process of reflecting has made them looked into their practices; understand and rationalise them.

• After going through a thorough process of reflection, it has influenced them to consciously and deliberately think about their teaching.

Discussion

• Teacher qualities like being hardworking, considerate and pleasant are some of the traits that students felt were important

• Pedagogical and content knowledge are the next 2 most raised aspects in the students’ journal. Most felt that an effective teacher will be well-versed in these 2 aspects of teaching.

• Motivation was also raised by most of them. They felt being able to motivate will enable their students to try to perform to their best ability.

Discussion

• I felt these 5 aspects as shown in the graph were the ones these students wanted most from me when I was teaching them. They wanted so much to improve their grammar knowledge especially and this cannot be achieved if I am not equipped with sufficient content knowledge.

• I always have words of encouragement or video clips’ to motivate and encouraged them in each and every class. As they found them useful, they too want to do this with their students.

Implications

• Students would not have made time to make the link between how they learn and how they were taught and to how other factors influenced their teaching and learning process.

• The introspection has made more impact by asking them to then reflect on how this will implicate their future roles.

• This framework has provided the link to bridge the gap between these student teachers’ classroom experiences and their future roles.

Implications

• To answer the research focus of this study, yes students gain an understanding of the complexity of classroom learning which links personal, social and situational influences. Through this framework, the 8 students involved know that an optimal learning environment in a classroom requires a combination of factors. They now have the mental model on how to establish this environment.

Implications

• Reflection when executed with guidance will reap beneficial, long-lasting effects on our student teachers.

• Implications form this process, have not just benefitted my students, but I have also gained tremendously from this reflective practice. Students’ comments have either confirmed or challenged my underlying assumptions with regard to my practices. As such, I was able to make the necessary changes and align my teaching to suit my students’ learning.

Russell (2005)

Reflective practice can and should be taught – explicitly, directly, thoughtfully and patiently…

Quotation from a student in Freese (1999)

To constantly be moving forward becoming a better teacher, and not staying stagnant, you have to reflect. I don’t think a lot of teachers do it nowadays. And I think they’re kind of just going along. The ones who are really dynamic are the ones who are constantly reflecting on their lessons.

Thank you