Evaluating Reflective Writing in Pre-Service Teachers: The Potential of a Mixed-Methods Approach

Abstract

Reflective writing is a relevant aspect of pre-service teachers’ professionalization. Evaluating reflective writing in teacher education is demanding due to a shortage of resources. Hence, this study explores the practical possibilities of evaluating reflective writing using a mixed-methods approach to analyze reflective writing from 198 pre-service teachers at a German university. We used qualitative content analysis, computational linguistic approaches, and BERTopic. Results of qualitative content analysis results indicated primarily descriptive and low-level participants’ reflective writing. Next, computational linguistic analyses revealed that affective and cognitive terminology utilization differed across varying levels of reflection, with a higher frequency of such terms correlating with deeper levels of reflection. BERTopic results showed that reflective content mainly centered on learning materials and shifted toward affective and motivational themes related to higher levels of reflection. This study demonstrates that reflective writing can be evaluated across reflection levels and cognitive, affective, and thematic dimensions, combining qualitative content analysis, computational linguistic approaches, and BERTopic.