Developing critical reflection skill among pre-service teacher through collaborative inquiry using social media

Abstract

Despite the constructive comments provided by the lecturer and teacher educators, pre-service teachers still failed to reflect critically in their teaching skills. Concerning this matter, David (2008) suggests teachers to meet regularly through collaborative inquiry while Croco and Cramer (2005) suggest the use of technology as added-value in improving their teaching skills. By using technology such social media, pre-service teacher should continuously engage in discussions with their lecturer and teacher educator so that they could constantly reflect critically during their teaching practice. The ability to reflect critically among trainee teachers must start with reflective thinking. Thus, the purpose of this study was to develop critical reflection among the pre-service teachers based on a conceptual framework developed from Schon's (1983) reflective practices model and Kilbane's (2007) collaborative inquiry model using social media. The research sample comprised five pre-service teachers from a Malaysian public university which was selected on the basis of their ability in using social media platform. The instruments used in this study were Facebook group and interviews. The transcripts derived from the online discussions among the students, pre-service teachers, lecturer and teacher educators through Facebook group were analysed using coding procedure developed from Henri's (1992) cognitive skills model and Kilbane's (2007) collaborative inquiry model. The findings indicated that the pre-service teachers were able to develop critical reflections during their teaching practice and thus, improved their teaching skills. ; ; ;