Reflective Writing and Self-assessment of Language Teaching Performance

Studies have shown that novice teachers’ reflective writing tends to be descriptive and justificatory, without much connection to theory and practice or growth and development (Freese, Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 100–119, 2006; Rodgers, Voices inside schools. Harvard Educational Review, 72, 230–253, 2002). This study used teachers’ performance-based assessment data to explore how language teacher candidates write reflective responses about their own practice and to identify ways to support this type of writing. The investigation aims to determine levels and dimensions of reflection as well as common discourse moves and steps (Swales, Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press, 1990; Research genres: Explorations and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) in teacher candidates’ reflective writing through the development and use of a specially tailored, user-friendly rubric (based on Jay & Johnson, Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73–85, 2002 and Ward & McCotter, Teaching and Teacher Education 20, 243–257, 2004). A quantitative analysis of the data showed that most of the teachers’ writing involved a focus on descriptive reflection of classroom actions with some related explanation and evaluation, and that reflection involving deeper analysis and changes in teacher practices were scarce. The outcomes of the study serve to guide qualitative analyses and identify distinct discourse moves and steps used in reflecting, from descriptive to analytical and from problem-based to improvement-oriented, which can be used to better prepare teacher candidates to write more deeply reflective self-assessments of their own teaching performance.