Didaktisk modellering av lärarstudenters reflektiva praktik vid planering av undervisning i naturvetenskap

Abstract in English

The purpose of this thesis is to extract didactic models that can support science teacher educators in developing pre-service science teachers’ (PST) professional reflection. Developing PSTs to become reflective practitioners has been a prevailing aim in teacher education since the 1980s. There have been many descriptions of what constitutes reflective practice and how reflection occurs. At the same time, there is no support for developing PSTs’ habit of reflection; many models for reflection lack empirical support and PSTs perceive them to be lacking relevance. One activity that involves reflection is lesson planning, therefore I examined twelve pre-service science student teams’ planning conversations based on the overarching research question of how PSTs’ reflection can be described and modelled when planning science lessons. Didactic models were created through didactic modelling, a process in which I created descriptions of PSTs’ reflections and extracted components that together form models thatsupport the reflection involved in planning teaching. The results show that the moments of reflection differed from other parts of the planning conversations. During these moments the PSTs changed their perspectives on how to plan teaching, and the quality of the PSTs’ reflections also differed. In addition, the PSTs’ reflections were guided not only by the purposes presented in the instructions for the planning work, but they also formulated their own questions that they needed to seek answers to before they could complete the planning task. Based on these results, I created three models that emphasize: (1) the importance of openness in a task in order for it to give rise to an opportunity for reflection, (2) the different purposes that guide the pre-service teachers’ planning work, and (3) the importance of responsibility, open-mindedness and whole-heartedness for achieving a more complete reflection. These models highlight different aspects of PSTs’ reflection and contribute to a deeper understanding of PST reflective practice. The models can be used individually or in combination to model PSTs’ reflective practice. The results contribute with both methods for studying reflection, descriptions of PSTs’ reflection, especially in planning, an area that has not previously been studied separately in relation to reflection, and models of different aspects of PSTs’ reflection, providing support for the analysis and design of teaching that aims to develop PSTs as reflective practitioners.