DOES SCAFFOLDED BLOGGING PROMOTE PRESERVICE TEACHER REFLECTION? EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEARNING TOOL AND SCAFFOLDING IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This study examined the effect of two variables, type of online tool and type of hard scaffolding, on the levels of reflection by preservice teachers. The online tools were a discussion forum and personal weblogs (blogs). The scaffolding types were minimal and enhanced. The participants were forty-eight preservice teachers and their instructor from a course on integrating technology into K-12 environments. The preservice teachers reflected online after watching an online video case study and after planning a lesson that integrated technology. Multiple sources of data were collected and analyzed in order to triangulate findings: the reflective online discourse, two questionnaires, interviews with preservice teachers and the instructor, and observations of classroom and online behavior. Levels of reflection were measured by using a reflection rubric by Hawkes and Romiszowski (2001) and a reflection scale by Crotty and Allyn (2001). The results revealed that enhanced scaffolding had a statistically significant effect on promoting higher levels of reflection over minimal scaffolding. This was because the guiding questions in the enhanced scaffold provided structure and focus as well as an expert practitioner's perspective on technology integration. The type of online tool did not have a statistically significant effect on promoting higher levels of reflection. Results suggest that this was due to the different personal preferences of the preservice teachers and their perceived affordances of the online tools. This study suggests that the nature of scaffolding has a more critical role in promoting reflection than the technical affordances of the online tool. In addition, as a result of the computer-mediated discourse analysis, this study suggests a modified method of measuring reflection.