“Whenever I watched myself, I realised something different to improve”: Teacher candidates’ reflections on the video-based, micro-analytic practicum

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore a group of EFL teacher candidates’ opinions on the reflective, video-based, and micro-analytic practicum with a focus on classroom interaction. A practicum course was designed to improve pre-service teachers’ classroom interactional competence and help pre-service teachers develop teacher reflection. For this reason, pre-service teachers’ lessons were video-taped and they were required to analyse their lessons with a focus on classroom interaction. First, they learnt classroom interactional competence framework and learnt how to analyse their lessons with a micro-analytic perspective. And then, they engaged in a reflective cycle in which they watched their videos, chose a significant segment and reflected on this segment. In addition, they exchanged feedback with each other in this cycle. At the end of the term, they were required to reflect on the whole process. This study explored the pre-service teachers’ reflections on this reflective cycle and specific components of the practicum. In addition, the researcher’s field notes were part of the data set. The content analysis of the reports indicated that pre-service teachers benefitted from this practicum course. In the light of their views, suggestions and implications for the practicum will be presented.