Using scaffolds to support preservice teachers’ reflective practice

Introduction The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of various types of reflection prompt scaffolds on preservice teachers’ metacognitive and problem-solving abilities. Methods Participants were preservice teachers in an educational technology course within an accredited teacher education program. Mixed-methods data were collected using a cycle of reflection beginning with concrete and authentic situations encountered during a simulated teaching activity and resulting in reflective observation through blogs. Two rounds of teaching and reflection occurred, with blog reflections scaffolded by two types of prompts: traditional descriptive and critical incident. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed separately and findings were integrated across phases and data type. Results Results indicated that the type of scaffold impacted ill-structured problem-solving, pedagogical reasoning processes, metacognition, and reflective thinking in various ways. Discussion Implications for teacher education are discussed.