Characterizing productive reflection among preservice elementary teachers: Seeing what matters

Effective teachers consider interrelationships among aspects of teaching including learners, subject matter knowledge, assessment, and instruction. The 70 journal entries of 25 preservice elementary teachers are analyzed to characterize the teachers’ written reflection. One focus of the analysis is on how the preservice teachers integrate ideas about these aspects of teaching. The preservice teachers sometimes integrate ideas about learners with ideas about instruction. Further analyses illustrate the difference between integrating ideas and simply juxtaposing them. The paper illuminates how reflecting on multiple aspects of teaching may help new teachers integrate their knowledge and begin to develop a more complex view of teaching.