Learning thoughtful reflection in teacher education     

Luigina Mortari 《Teachers and Teaching》2013,19(5):525-545

The notion of reflection has become an object of attention in education, but the research on this topic is often reduced to mere reflective practice. A relevant part of educational literature portrays reflection as a wholly beneficial practice for practitioners, but also for researchers. In the nursing field, in particular, reflection is largely practised and deeply examined. Reflection is specifically encouraged in teacher education, where ‘how-to’ manuals are widely used to explain strategies for turning teachers into reflective practitioners. In some cases, a specific kind of reflective approach is proposed, such as critical reflection. From the analysis of this technical literature, I observe that a wide range of approaches for fostering reflection have been applied, but little research evidence shows how effective these approaches are. Taking this problem into account, this article presents a research study on reflection. It first introduces a specific and unusual concept of reflection – that of phenomenological conception – and then goes on to develop an empirical investigation that enacts a phenomenological method of inquiry and is aimed at exploring the potential of the use of journal writing as a tool for enhancing reflection, and documents the data that emerged. The research was developed in a university context where the student teachers were asked to ‘reflect on the life of the mind’, in order to learn how to take a reflective stance. The student teachers wrote entries in a reflective journal in which they were requested to describe the lived experiences of the mind as they came to their reflective attention. The data emerging from the experience were made sense of through a qualitative method of analysis. The findings of the research are useful for designing an effective method for enhancing reflective practice.

  相似文献   

Formative Evaluation of Eccomi Pronto [‘Here I Am Ready’]: a School Counselor-Led,Research-Based,Preventative Curriculum For Italian Primary Schools     

Jessica Bertolani  Luigina Mortari  John Carey 《International journal for the advancement of counseling》2014,36(3):317-331

Eccomi Pronto is a school counselor-led, story-based curriculum that is designed to promote simultaneously the development of early elementary school students’ self-direction, active engagement in school, and pre-literacy skill development. This article reports the results of the first evaluation of a large-scale implementation of Eccomi Pronto in Italian elementary schools. The evaluation employed a mixed methods approach involving qualitative analyses of interviews and observations supported by quantitative analyses of student self-reports and teacher ratings (with a single group pre-test post-test design). Observations and interviews with parents and teachers suggested that Eccomi Pronto was associated with a number of improvements in students’ academic behavior, including engagement, involvement, reading interest, reading comprehension, work conscientiousness, inquisitiveness, and social support of classmates. Quantitative findings confirmed these qualitative findings, indicating that implementation of the curriculum was associated with improvements in classroom climate and student engagement. Limitations of the evaluation are discussed along with suggestions for necessary follow-up assessments.  相似文献