5.

Findings
To answer research question one: What area student teacher’sperception soft eaching
of writingin the L2 class room in the beginning of his/her placement? Toni does not
expressabelief ofteaching of writing at the beginning of herstudent teaching semester. Besides
ex plicitlystatingaphilosophyofhelpingstudentsbecomeableSpanish
speakers,Tonidoesnototherwisemakeastatementofanyothermodalityoflanguagelearning.Toni’s
experiencesup to
herstudentteachingsemestersupportfindingsbyotherresearchersthatwritingforcommunicationw
asnot emphasizedinL2programs(see
AngelovaandRiazantseva,1999;Silvaetal.,2003;Villalobos,1996). Shedidnot learn
howtowritecommunicatively,nordidshelearnhowtoteachwriting.Uptothispointinhereducation,
Toniwas not
challengedtoconsiderthatwritingwasaskillthatneededtobedevelopedbyL2learners.Therefore,sh
ehadnot
reflectedontheideathatshewas,asaprospectiveL2teacher,goingtobeawritingteacheraswell.
Based
ontheseinsights,itisnotsurprisingthatTonihadnostatementofbeliefofwritingassheenteredherstud
ent teachingsemester.Consistentwith Lortie’s(1975)
findings,Toniwasdirectlyinfluencedbyherpreviousexperiences as
astudent.However,constructivistlearningtheorystatesthatlearnerssometimesneedtobechallenge
dintheir experiences toengendercontradictiontotheircurrenthypotheses(Brooks
andBrooks,1993). Tonihadnotreallybeen
activelychallengedinthisarea;therefore,sheconsideredneitherwritingnortheteachingofwritingse
riously.
Reflectivejournalwritingisaneffectivemediumthroughwhichprospectiveteacherscanbechalleng
edtolookat themselvesandtheirdevelopingteachingpractices(see
Garmon,1998;Hughesetal.,1997;Lee,2004). Todiscoverif this
isthecaseforToni,Iaddressthesecondresearchquestion. The
secondresearchquestionedasked:Whatchangesaremanifestedbetweenthefirstandfinalstatement
sof
philosophy?Tonionlyaddedtwowords:writingandspeakingtoherfinalphilosophyofteachingassh
ediscusses
communication.Theaddingoftwowordsisnotagreatchangeinherphilosophy,butshowsthatsheism
ovingin a
positivedirection.Thiswasaccomplishedinarelativelyshortamountoftimeoffourmonths.Thispar
allelsastudy conductedby Ho andRichards(1993) who
statedthattheyfelttheirresultswereinconclusiveduepartiallytotheshort
amountoftime(twomonths)theyallowedforthestudy.Ontheotherhand, Fishman andRaver(1989)
reported that during
herstudentteachingexperience,Raverwasabletodevelopasoundphilosophyofdisciplineforthecla
ssroom. In
thislatterstudy,however,theSTwaswritinginherjournalonadailybasis.Perhapsgivenmoretime,T
oniwillbe able
tocontinueconsideringhowtoteachwritingmoreeffectivelytoherstudents.However,Ifeelthat,give
nthetime frame
dictatedbythefieldexperience,thepresentstudysuggeststhat,althoughchangesmaynotinitiallyma
nifest themselves withagrandflair,theuseofguidedreflectioncaninfluenceapre-
serviceteacherandstarthim/heron a paththatmaycontinueintohis/herprofessionalcareer(see Lee,
2008). Thesefindingssupportworkdoneby Cole et al.(1998) that
showedthatreflectivejournalwritingallowedpre-serviceteacherstodiscovernewmeaningintheir
teaching andbroadentheirhorizons.Likewise, Lee (2005)
showedthatreflectivitythroughjournalshelpspre-service teachers
improveorchangeinthefutureandincreasetheirunderstandingthroughanalyzinganissue.Tonihas
certainlybeenabletounderstandmoreabouttheteachingofwritingthroughreflectinginthismedium.
The presentstudyshowedthatbychallengingherthinking,Toniwasabletofocusonanissueandre-
frameherideas. This findingisdistinctlysimilartotheworkdoneby Francis(1995)
andWilsonandCameron(1996), whoseprospective teaching
studentswereable,throughreflectivejournaling,tore-thinktheirteachingphilosophyduringpre-
service courses. Thisstudyalsosupports Tsang andWong’s(1996) findingsthatsuggestthatpre-
serviceteachersareable to
evaluatetheirownteachingbyisolatingideasandworkingthroughthem.Bytakingnoticeofanareath
atwas
somewhatlackinginherdevelopmentasbothaSpanishlearnerandateacher,reflectinguponitandsyn
thesizing
differentaspectsofitthroughthemediumofwritinginherjournal,Toniwassuccessfulinbeginningto
observeherown teaching
fromaproblemcenteredapproach.Thisisimportantforteachereducatorsofalllevelsbecauseitshow
sthat prospectiveteacherscanbeshownhowtotakeownershipoftheirdevelopment.Thepre-
serviceteachersareindeedable to
addressandsolvechallengesthattheywillinevitablyencounterandbebetterpreparedforfuturechalle
nges. Workdoneby BurtonandCarroll(2001) suggests thataspre-
serviceteachersreflect,theyincreasetheirawareness of
howstudentslearn.Thepresentstudysupportsthisfinding.UniversitystudentssometimesentertheK
-12class- room
accustomedtothefasterpacethatauniversitycoursetakes.Throughreflectivewriting,Toniwasablet
oexpress that
sherealizedthatthestudentsneededtobeguided.Thisideamayhavebeenpartofhertacitknowledge,b
utshe was abletomakeitexplicitthroughherjournalwriting(see Smyth, 1989). 6.
Conclusionandimplications The
purposeofthisstudywastodescribeandinterpretthereflectionasshowninapre-
serviceteacher’swritingin her
studentteachingexperienceinanL2classroom.Thedatainterpretationtracedthepathofherthinking
asshe
developedaphilosophyfortheteachingofwritingintheL2setting.Althoughthefindingsherecannot
begeneralized to allpre-
serviceteachers,severalimportantideascanbeusedtoinformL2teachereducation.
Tonihasshownthinking,notjustdisplayingknowledgeofwhatshehadalreadylearnedbeforethebeg
inningofher student teachingexperience(see Clinchy,1995).
IntegratingguidedjournalwritingthroughoutaTEPcanbean
effectivemeanstohelpteachereducatorsguideL2teachereducatorstoexamineinasystematicmanne
rallmodalities of
languageteachingaswellasotherareasofclassroomteaching.Teachercandidatesareoftentaughtab
outthe modalities
invariouscoursesintheirTEP.Byprovidingtheopportunitiestoreflectonvariousaspectsofteaching
these
modalities,theymaybeabletoseemoreclearlyhowtoaddressthemintheirfutureclassrooms.Tonicer
tainly had
beentaughtaboutL2writinginhercoursework,but,notuntilshewasdirectlygiventheopportunitytor
eflect upon
theissue,wassheabletobringherformerteachingtogetherandconsiderhowtoapplytheknowledge.
As
teachercandidatesentertheirTEP,theyneedtobeshownthattheywillbeviewedintheirdevelopment
notas a
finishedproductandthatreflectionisavitalelementintheirjourneytowardsprofessionalismandexce
llence.
Therefore,whenstudentteachersprogressthroughtheirpracticeteachingsemester,needtobeencour
agedtoexamine the beliefsandideaswithwhichtheyenteredtheexperience.