Exploring The Key Influencing Factors On The Development Of Pre-service Teacher’ Teaching Reflective Competencies

The formation of teaching reflective competencies of pre-service teacher is a necessary element of their teaching career and professional development.As we know,If you want to reflect on teaching,you should have the corresponding competence,so it is important that we should explore the key Influencing factors on reflective competencies.Although there are studies that investigate the content and level of pre-service teacher’ reflection and look into the challenges,barriers and limitation are encountered by pre-service teachers that hinder them from being reflective,few studies have systematically explored the factors that influence pre-service teachers’ competencies to engage in reflective practice.Recognizing current research gaps,this study examines what factors influence pre-service teachers’ reflective competencies development through semi-structured interviews conducted with 17 senior year pre-service teachers.Grounded theory was used as an approach to analyze the possible challenges they faced.The findings suggested that,Individual factors and External environmental factors both have a significant impact on pre-service teacher s’ teaching reflective competencies.To be specific,the individual factors include: Subjective attitude,personal characteristics,individual objective condition;the external environment factors include: Teacher Education Curriculum,the interaction with significant others,Significant others’ model and subjective norms as well as organizational cultural environment indirectly influence the development of teaching reflective competencies by influencing individual’s subjective attitude and interaction with significant others.This study also gives an explanation to the theoretical framework through analyzing frequency of the nodes,and structure of relationship among different factors.Firstly,node frequency analysis discusses the influence of different factors on the development of pre-service teachers’ teaching reflective competencies from the perspective of pre-service teachers.The results show that the extent of factors from high to low are: the practicum supervisors’ facilitation styles on student teachers,Educational practice curriculum responsibility,learning preference,career ambition and so on.Secondly,after analyzing the interview data in depth,this study found that the democratic and consultative mentoring style of internship instructors positively influenced the development of preservice teachers’ reflective teaching competencies;educational theory courses provided important support for preservice teachers to acquire knowledge and methods of reflective teaching;educational practice curriculum expanded the foundation of pre-service teachers’ reflective teaching;the sense of responsibility,internally driven learning preferences and career ambitions were important driving forces for preservice teachers to consciously develop reflective teaching.The atmosphere of teaching and research activities is the "invisible hand" that indirectly promotes or hinders the development of preservice teachers’ reflective teaching ability.Finally,this study argues that the factors with a high degree of influence should become the "greatest increment" for the development of preservice teachers’ reflective teaching competencies.Therefore,it is necessary to further promote the development of pre-service teachers’ reflective teaching competencies at these levels,focusing on providing "reflective scaffolding" through teacher education curriculums;clarifying the rights and obligations of internship instructors,selecting and training internship instructors who are "willing to instruct and good at instructing";increasing the effective workload of internship instructors,providing both "observation" and "practice" opportunities for teaching.In addition to this,we should also focus on cultivating the non-intellectual factors of pre-service teachers,especially strengthening the sense of responsibility;creating a good atmosphere for reflection is also important.