Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how pre-service teachers in a child development course demonstrated reflexivity in the language of posted blogs to reveal deeper understandings about children in simulated environments in Second Life. This attempted to allay the problem that oftentimes, pre-service teachers do not have opportunities to engage in problem solving prior to being cast into the classroom with little more than book knowledge of child development theories. Qualitative methods were utilized to collect and analyze data, which included blog reflections after the completion of the scenario-based problems in the virtual environment. A total of eleven blogs were collected per participant (n=18). Results revealed that participants reacted emotionally, immersed themselves in the environment, and created unintended realities in the scenarios they had examined. Conclusions indicated that pre-service teachers struggle to make sense of situations outside of their own experiences.