REFLECTIVE WRITING AS A WINDOW ON PRESERVICE TEACHERS THOUGHT PROCESSES

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the writing of two secondary preservice teachers involved in assignments designed as a programmatic feature to promote reflective thinking during a university teacher education practicum. It proVides a contextually framed description of the participants' revelations throughout their 15 week final field experience. A weekly journal, daily lesson analyses, and two focused videotaped analyses offered a window on preservice teachers' deliberation. Data revealed that while studies of writing indicate that such assignments, possess the potential to lead to higher level thinking, written assignments were more useful in making participants' cognitive processes explicit than in their actively constructing knowledge about teaching and learning. Implications for facilitating reflectivity include consideration of choice of writing task and an audience beyond the supervisor.