Mirror of Mind: Eliciting Critical Reflections in Preservice and Novice Teachers

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study responds to calls for research on the ways critical reflection develops in preservice and novice teachers. While evaluating capacity to reflect is a dominant practice in teacher education, few studies explore empirically how different factors impact teachers’ reflection. Building from earlier research that conceptualized a typology that included four levels of reflective thinking, this study explores how different factors spur the highest form of reflection identified by the literature, critical reflection, through a multi-method approach involving several sets of data across nine cases of learning to teach. Findings from within-case analyses suggest some habits of critical reflection transfer across contexts, while others appear to be contextually dependent. Shifts in teaching contexts and elicitation practices appear to drive the quality and quantity of critical reflection suggesting that some habits of reflection can be elicited and reinforced by teacher educators regardless of context.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical reflection
• teacher education
• cognitive dissonance
• dialog partners
• preservice teachers
• novice teachers
• elicitation

Acknowledgments

This data collection was originally funded by the Spencer grant, “Performance Assessments and Teacher Learning in and Beyond Teacher Preparation.”

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although there are already multiple Dian(n)as involved in this paper, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge one more Diana. Special thanks to Diana Ross, and the Supremes, whose lyrics from the song 'Reflections' provided inspiration for this paper's title.

2 Names of case participants are pseudonyms in the interest of maintaining anonymity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dianna Gahlsdorf Terrell

Dr. Dianna Gahlsdorf Terrell's research interests include education policy; civic, democratic, and socially just education; and learning theory in teacher education, specifically the roles of metacognition and reflection. She is the current co-director of Saint Anselm College’s Center for Teaching Excellence, where she also teaches Curriculum and Assessment, Getting Schooled: The Politics and Promise of Education, and supervises teaching interns. Dr. Gahlsdorf Terrell has conducted collaborative research on socially just education for two decades and is published with treasured colleagues in American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Teacher Education, Education Policy, American Journal of Education, and Teacher Education Quarterly.

Diana Sherman

Diana Sherman is an Assistant Professor of Education at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she teaches courses on elementary mathematics methods, principles of teaching and learning, and fundamentals of pedagogy. Her research interests include teacher preparation, specifically in the areas of content and pedagogy for elementary mathematics instruction and the roles of performance assessments and reflection in developing teacher expertise. Diana earned her doctorate in Education Studies with a focus in Mathematics Education from the University of Michigan –Ann Arbor, a Master of Science in Mathematics (Elementary) from Central Connecticut State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Education from Mount Holyoke College. For five years she was a public elementary classroom teacher in East Granby, Connecticut.