Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Constant search for the best training methods raising the competence of novice teachers has always been a central issue in pedagogical discourse, and the analysis of student-teachers’ reflective reports may point at particular methods and practices that tend to cause novice teachers’ professional growth. Extensive research has employed open content analysis methodology to scrutinize students’ reflective reports in order help their mentors optimize the training process. However, the open content analysis approach might sometimes overlook implicitly conveyed concerns and anxiety that novice teachers tend to feel and may as well be insufficient to follow complicated processes, such as identity shaping or professional empowerment. The current study suggests a range of linguistic markers to be observed throughout the students’ reflective reports that could indicate the areas requiring mentors’ particular attention in order to enhance the students’ professional growth and empowerment. The proposed and further particularized Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-based methodology has been applied to the analysis of the reflective reports by the first-year students in the science teaching track of one of the teaching colleges in Israel. Three case studies have been analyzed emerging distinctive linguistic markers that point at internalization of the material taught, the process of identity change, and the student-teachers’ positioning. We believe that the suggested methodology may serve as a supplementary but effective means of identifying the crucial issues in the students’ training process.