An Analysis of Pre-service Science Teachers' Reflective Thinking aboutvScientific Experiment in Experimental Journal Writings

Abstract

In this study, pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking in their journal writing was investigated. To do this, the authors used pre-service science teachers' journal writing abilities, wherein they not only reported data and result formally, but also wrote their feelings and reflections about an inquiry-based physics experiment they performed. Pre-service science teachers' writings were decomposed into sentences and each sentence was analyzed into a framework with 4 dimensions: knowledge, procedure, orientation and attitude. Reflective thinking in knowledge dimension included reflection on what they know before the experiment, what they still do not know and what they learned from the experiment. Reflective thinking in procedure dimension included recalls of experiences about general experimental procedures and specific experimental skill. Reflective thinking in orientation dimension included their views about the nature of science and science teaching and learning, and reflective thinking in attitude dimension consisted of interests, motives and values about the experiment they performed. While there were some variations in frequency distribution of reflective thinking by the topic of experiments, pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking in journal writings revealed their metacognition on their knowledge and learning, epistemological belief about science and science learning, and affective domain related to experiment. This study can infer that such kind of writing with 'their own language' in an informal way followed by formal 'scientific' reports in a scientific experiment has a significance not only as a mediator representing reflective thinking but also as an instructional activity to facilitate reflective thinking in science learning and teaching.