Promote Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Development by Analyzing the Critical Incidents in Teaching

Abstract

Pre-service teachers would learn how to analyze three critical incidents in teaching in the class, and before and after class they are given a questionnaire designed with Likert five-level responses to seek their attitude towards the function of critical incidents, to see whether pre-service teachers can realize analyzing critical incidents is possible to promote their professional development. With the documentary analysis on three typical critical incident examples, the focus is to illustrate the relations between critical incidents and the teaching reflection on mainly four aspects: the reflection on personal practical theory, teaching methods, teaching practice and professional judgment. The result of the questionnaires further illustrate that pre-service teachers are able to develop the awareness of the functions of analyzing critical incidents as well as improve their reflective thinking so as to promote professional development.