Enriching Pre-service Teacher Education with Keeping Learning Journals

Abstract

Investigating the integration of learning journals into a pre-service teacher education course to promote reflection was the overall goal of this study. Studies about evaluating students’ journals have generally analyzed them using a holistic and general approach without examining their content and levels of reflection. This study focuses on both contents, levels of reflection, and their relationship. The participants of the study consisted of 33 senior pre-service elementary teachers. The participants were asked to produce a learning journal entry each week at the end of the Science, Technology, Society, and Environment class, in which they were asked to reflect on what they had learned. A deductive content analysis was utilized to determine the levels of reflection of the pre-service teachers’ journals. Deductive content analysis was used to determine the levels of reflection of the pre-service teachers’ journals. The levels of reflection of the participants were moderate and did not show a pattern of improvement over time; instead, the levels of reflection depended on the content of the related class meeting. The majority of the participants agreed that keeping learning journals improved their self-expression and self-assessment skills and retention. The feedback cycle should be reconsidered for further improvement in the journals.