The role of reflection on preservice teachers’ development in the context of a professional development school

Abstract As a faculty member teaching in an innovative, two-year Master's of Teaching program, I found myself reexamining my beliefs and assumptions about the role of reflection in preparing preservice teachers to become reflective practitioners. In the first semester of a four semester program, I introduced a three-part reflective framework ( Loughran, 1995, Windows into the thinking of an experienced teacher. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April.) designed to guide the preservice teachers in systematically reflecting on their lessons before, during and after teaching. The preservice teachers, mentors and I practiced and used the reflective framework for three semesters. In the fourth semester, during which preservice teachers taught in a paid internship position, I conducted individual interviews with the preservice teachers (interns) to explore their understanding and use of reflection. The results of the study suggest that use of the framework helps develop preservice teachers who actively think about their practice to improve their teaching and their students’ learning. Implications for using the reflective process in teacher education programs, particularly in professional development school contexts, are discussed.