Exploring the Development of Reflection Among Pre-service Teachers in Online Collaborative Writing: An Epistemic Network Analysis

Abstract

Facilitating reflection of pre-service teacher is becoming a more and more important topic in teacher education. There are a number of social media tools which can support teacher professional development. It also enables us to examine the development of individuals’ reflective process and group dynamics. In this study, 50 pre-service teachers were involved to write scripts collaboratively using wikis and they were encouraged to reflect upon their written texts and script-writing strategies during the online collaborative writing process. In particular, epistemic network analysis is adopted in order to characterize learners’ reflection dynamics during the two phases of collaborative script writing. The research results show that the characteristics of reflection type in different phases are different. Also, teachers tend to reflect on the content and methods of the group in the first phase; while in the second phase, they tend to reflect on the group methods and personal gains. Using content analysis and epistemic network analysis, this paper characterize the development of reflection during collaborative writing activities and provides reference for the cultivation of reflection among pre-service teachers.