Research On Technology-Enhanced Instructional Reflection For Teachers

Instructional reflection, as a way of self-improvement and self-development for the teacher, has been regarded as an important and effective way to facilitate his/her professional development. Therefore, concerning to instructional reflection has turned out to be a significant direction of teacher education reform in this period.With the application of information technology,the teacher education has been informationalized.It also increasingly raises the researchers'concerns in the field of education that how to support teacher's reflective activities using information technology.This study discusses on how to support teachers'instructional reflection by making best use of the effectiveness of technology from this perspective.This study,firstly analyzes researches and practical cases on teachers' instructional reflection supported by technology at home and abroad through related literature review and introduces the cut-in point;then combs the connotation, process and basic methods of instructional reflection, which are the base and premise for discussing on the instructional reflection supported by technology;and then states the relationship between technology and instructional reflection as well as supportive function of technology to instructional reflection, and forms a solution to create a technology-enhanced instructional reflection environment, to the existing situation in practice that teachers don't know how to reflect their instruction. The environment consists of teacher,reflection director,instructional reflection activities, information technology tools, instructional reflection resources and cases, reflective practice community, instructional reflection scaffold, reflection assessment, as well as a cultural environment with the characteristics of exploring, collaboration, democracy and open-up that facilitating reflection.According to this environment framework, a Web-based platform is designed and developed to support the teachers'collaborative reflection activities.A preliminary application is carried out.Six chapters are included in this dissertation.Chapter one puts forward the research problem on the base of analyzing the study background of teachers'instructional reflection supported by technology,and then defines related concepts, states objectives and meanings of this study,finally introduces the thinking clues, methods,and main contents.Chapter two states the connotation, process and approaches of instructional reflection and analyzes many instructional reflection studies at home and abroad in detail.Chapter three discourses upon the relationship between the technology and teachers'instructional reflection, then combs the theories related to instructional reflection supported by technology,analyzes the main reflective tools.Chapter four proposes the environmental framework of instructional reflection supported by technology.This framework is constructed on the base of stating the relationship between instructional reflection environment and learning environment, referring to elements related to learning environment. The elements of instructional reflection environment are analyzed in detail.Chapter five describes design and realization of an instructional reflection environmental platform.According to the environmental framework of instructional reflection supported by technology mentioned in the fourth chapter, a Web-based platform supporting the teachers'collaborative reflection activities is designed and developed.A preliminary application is implemented and its effects are analyzed.Chapter six gives a review of the whole study,summarizes the contributions, and analyzes the deficiency and the direction to future research.