Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Educational Psychology

Advisor

Helen Johnson

Committee Members

David Rindskopf

Bobbie Kabuto

Leigh McCallen

Jessica Lipschultz

Subject Categories

Educational Methods | Higher Education and Teaching | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Teacher Education and Professional Development

Keywords

Reflection, Professional Identity, Community College, Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Grounded in the constructivist theories of Dewey (1963) with learning situated as reflective practice, the study explored the impact of guided written reflection on levels of reflection, commitment to teaching and professional identity for community college preservice teachers enrolled in their first fieldwork course in a teacher education program.

Participants in the treatment group received instruction on levels of reflection using Nickel’s (2013) Levels of Deep and Surface Learning. Pre/posttest results were collected using three measures: Reflection Questionnaire (Kember & Leung, 2000), Professional Identity Status Questionnaire - PISQ-5d (Mancini, 2015), and Commitment to Teaching Scale (Van Huizen, 2000). Researcher-designed demographic surveys were used to collect instructor and student demographics, i.e., gender, race, ethnicity, level of education, etc.

Analyses of demographic variables revealed no significant differences between the treatment and control groups and no student demographic effects on the primary variables - reflection, commitment to teaching and professional identity. There was a significant effect of instructor full/part-time status on level of reflection. Reflection levels were similar for part-time instructors across conditions and higher for full-time instructors in the treatment group.

Repeated measures ANOVAs compared levels of reflection, commitment to teaching and professional identity using pre/posttest scores as the within-subjects variable and condition (treatment/control) as the between-subjects variable. There were statistically significant increases in levels of reflection, commitment to teaching and professional identity for the treatment group and not for the control group. A chi-square statistic was calculated to compare the proportion of shallow and deep reflections by condition. The treatment group had a significantly greater proportion of deep reflection than the control group.

Additionally, correlations were conducted on pre/posttest levels and on change scores of reflection, commitment to teaching and professional identity. Analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between the levels and between the change scores of all three domains, as well as a significant relationship between change in professional identity and change in reflection related to change in commitment to teaching. Lastly, PROCESS by Hayes (2016) was used to test a mediation model. It revealed a significant direct effect of change in level of reflection on change in level of commitment to teaching and a significant indirect effect on the level of professional identity through change in commitment to teaching. Limitations and future directions of the study are discussed along with educational implications and suggestions for future research.

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