The Reflective Journal as a Learning and Professional Development Tool for Teachers and Administrators.

Abstract

This paper briefly reviews the evidence on the use of the reflective journal as a learning and professional development tool for teachers and school administrators. It argues that a new trend tends to permeate the teaching profession: reflecting on what teaching really means. It also contends that a reflective educator is aware that taking time and energy to reflect on and improve one's work is absolutely essential to the comprehension of the process of teaching itself. Subjects of this study were 35 graduate students in clinical internship courses. The reflective journal, the assessment and data collection tool, displayed the raw knowledge, the write-ups, that later were transformed into case studies for classroom analysis. From that point, and after recycling the data, cases were constructed, and the subjects were exposed to real situations. Findings confirm the existence of similar patterns or concerns, strengths, and deficiencies when teachers and administrators reflect on their own day-to-day practices. (Contains 1 figure and 13 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. cp Teachers and Administrators World Association for Case Method oo Research and Application Germany, July 02-05, 2002 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY