The present study aims to validate the function of reflections in the education of PTs and highlight the importance of multi-source reflections on microteaching practices of PTs: a tripartite reflection- from the PTs themselves, the peers, and the course instructor on ELT micro-teaching sessions.
Turkey’s “major problem in English language teacher education is little or no attention given to the language use of the preservice teachers (PTs) or the ongoing interaction in their classrooms” (Sert, 2010, p. 68) and reflecting on teacher candidates’ video-recorded teaching with pedagogical and interactional foci could shape their teacher identity. Lazaraton & Ishihara (2005) reported the misalignment in PTs’ reportings of beliefs and implementations, and Walsh’s (2006) classroom interactional competence, teaching modes is one way to investigate this. Reflection, unlike traditional teacher education models, puts the PTs at the center of their own development journey. The study has adopted a model similar to the one proposed by Sert (2010) Phase 1: Observing teacher candidates’ micro teaching sessions and video-recording the lessons, Phase 2: Self, peer, and mentor evaluation, Phase 3: Follow-up interviews established the multi-dimensional data collection procedure to answer to: To what extent do teacher trainees’ self, peer evaluation reflect their teaching philosophy? Is self and peer reflection on micro teaching an effective method for teacher trainees to improve their instructional capacities? The present study aims to validate the function of reflections in the education of PTs and highlight the importance of multi-source reflections on microteaching practices of PTs: a tripartite reflection- from the PTs themselves, the peers, and the course instructor on ELT micro-teaching sessions. A group of English PTs (n: 37- majority sophomores occasional junior & senior) in an ELT program delivering English language teaching sessions (N: 13 micro-teaching sessions, all video-recorded, ~585 min. video-recording of micro-teaching and critical reflective sessions). Analyses of transcribed data included a mixed-method approach. Conversation Analysis (CA henceforth) paradigm (Seedhouse, 2008; Sert & Seedhouse, 2011; Sert, Balaman et al., 2015) established the main framework of data analysis. Emerging themes revealed a partial misalignment in PTs’ instructional recommendations and their philosophies.
