The affordances of images in digital reflective writing: an analysis of preservice teachers’ blog posts

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to examine the affordances of images to prompt reflective processes of preservice teachers writing in a digital environment. The study was conducted over three academic years and a total of 180 preservice teachers were asked to write a blog post to reflect on how they learn to write and their approach on teaching children how to write. This study analyses the type of images used in the blog posts and the logico-semantic relationships between the images and the written text. The core data were gathered from the preservice teachers’ blog posts, and then triangulated with the individual written reflections and with the group recordings analysing their respective posts. The results indicate that the blog posts in which preservice teachers use images either connected to personal experiences or with a metaphorical effect, the image-text relation enhances their reflections; whereas the most neutral images that illustrate the act of writing give no added value to their reflections. The discussion addresses the issues on how to help preservice teachers to use images in digital writing in a meaningful way that can deepen their reflective processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflective practice
• language teacher education
• written and visual narratives
• digital writing

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marilisa Birello

Marilisa Birello holds a PhD in Education Sciences and is a Tenure Track Lecturer in the Department of Teaching Language, Literature and Social Sciences at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. She teaches in the field of Teaching Language, and her research interests focus on different topics in the field of teacher beliefs and teacher education.

Joan Tomas Pujola Font

Joan-Tomàs Pujolà holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language Education in the Faculty of Education at the Universitat de Barcelona. His research interests focus on different topics related to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Reflective Practice in Teacher Training. He is the Principal Investigator of the realTIC Research Group.