Genre as a Potential Scaffold for Preservice Teachers’ Reflection on their Videotaped Lessons

Abstract

Purpose

To describe how a defined video reflection prompt for preservice mathematics teachers shaped their reflective writing, which was examined using academic reflection as a genre model.

Methodology/approach

Academic reflection as a genre model was used to unpack the reflective processes evident in preservice teachers’ written reflections on a practicum teaching experience in the context of a methods course assignment, prior to any formal instruction about reflective genre. This chapter examines how the quality of participants’ reflective writing corresponded with two promising products of reflection – the accuracy of participants’ claims about the effectiveness of instructional tasks used during teaching and the quality of suggested revisions to the lesson.

Findings

The findings indicate that the extent to which participants engaged with the required parts of the assignment corresponded with the accuracy of their claims about the effectiveness of instructional tasks and the quality of revisions they suggested to the lesson. The authors discuss the writing produced by the participants, providing examples from their reflections to demonstrate preservice teachers’ initial competencies in using genre.

Practical implications

Informed by the nature of writing produced by the participants, the authors extend the model of reflection as a genre and suggest how it could be used to teach preservice teachers to effectively structure reflective writing. Furthermore, the authors offer recommendations for how to define the video reflection prompt to serve as a more effective scaffold of preservice teachers’ analysis of student learning.

Citation

Kuleshova, A.N. and Roehrig, A.D. (2015), "Genre as a Potential Scaffold for Preservice Teachers’ Reflection on their Videotaped Lessons", Video Research in Disciplinary Literacies (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 353-370. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820150000006018