Examining teachers’ brain functional connectivity during reflection: A preliminary study.

Abstract

This paper reports the preliminary findings of a research study focusing on examining the brain functional connectivity of teachers during reflective thinking. Teachers are expected to constantly engage in reflective practice as it helps enhance their ability to assess, evaluate, predict, strategize, and improve their skills throughout their service. This study used electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to capture the brain activities involved when a teacher engaged in a reflective task. The signals were used to analyze the functional connectivity during reflective thinking using partial directed coherence (PDC) analysis. The initial findings suggest that the brain’s pre-frontal area (Fp1) was activated when the reflective thinking process was believed to be taking place. The results of this preliminary study will be used in determining the structure of the reflective task during the actual data collection.