The effects of blogging on pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking and self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

Although blogs have mostly been regarded to be useful in learning environments, it has been observed that few experimental studies with control groups have been conducted on the use of blogs in order to promote pre-service teachers’ development. It is a mixed method research study conducted through pre-test and post-test experimental design with a control group. Although the research framework was based on the experimental quantitative data, qualitative interviews were also held with the experimental group at the end of the procedure. 46 pre-service teachers were included in the study, 21 for the experimental group, and 25 for the control group. In the end, qualitative data were collected from 14 voluntary pre-service teachers in the experimental group. As a result of the analyses, it was revealed that the experimental and control groups, which were identical at the beginning, differed significantly at the end of the experimental process in terms of reflective thinking and teacher self-efficacy. In other words, it was concluded that blogging was effective in developing the aforementioned variables, and the research findings were supported by qualitative interviews. Pre-service teachers in the experimental group pointed out that blogging contributed to the course, their professional and personal development.

KEYWORDS:

• Blogging
• reflective thinking
• self-efficacy
• pre-service teachers
• professional development

Disclosure statement

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

Statements on open data and ethics

Data can be shared if desired. The coding scheme is presented in study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sevilay Cirak Kurt

Sevilay Cirak-Kurt is working at Adiyaman University, Turkey. She completed her doctoral research on blended learning in 2016 at Gaziantep University. Her research interests focus on curriculum development and educational technologies. She teaches courses about teaching methods, research methods and curriculum development at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Ibrahim Yildirim

Ibrahim Yildirim is working at Gaziantep University, Turkey. He earned his PhD in 2016 from Gaziantep University. His research interests focus on curriculum development, assessment in education and educational technologies. He teaches courses about research methods, applied statistics and educational technologies at both undergraduate and graduate levels.