5.

Findings

Toanswerresearchquestionone:Whatareastudentteacher’sperceptionsofteachingofwritinginthe
L2
classroominthebeginningofhis/herplacement?Tonidoesnotexpressabeliefofteachingofwritingatthebegin
ning of
herstudentteachingsemester.BesidesexplicitlystatingaphilosophyofhelpingstudentsbecomeableSpanish
speakers,Tonidoesnototherwisemakeastatementofanyothermodalityoflanguagelearning.Toni’sexperien
cesup to
herstudentteachingsemestersupportfindingsbyotherresearchersthatwritingforcommunicationwasnot
emphasizedinL2programs(see AngelovaandRiazantseva,1999;Silvaetal.,2003;Villalobos,1996).
Shedidnot learn
howtowritecommunicatively,nordidshelearnhowtoteachwriting.Uptothispointinhereducation,Toniwas
not
challengedtoconsiderthatwritingwasaskillthatneededtobedevelopedbyL2learners.Therefore,shehadnot
reflectedontheideathatshewas,asaprospectiveL2teacher,goingtobeawritingteacheraswell. Based
ontheseinsights,itisnotsurprisingthatTonihadnostatementofbeliefofwritingassheenteredherstudent
teachingsemester.Consistentwith Lortie’s(1975)
findings,Toniwasdirectlyinfluencedbyherpreviousexperiences as
astudent.However,constructivistlearningtheorystatesthatlearnerssometimesneedtobechallengedintheir
experiences toengendercontradictiontotheircurrenthypotheses(Brooks andBrooks,1993).
Tonihadnotreallybeen
activelychallengedinthisarea;therefore,sheconsideredneitherwritingnortheteachingofwritingseriously.
Reflectivejournalwritingisaneffectivemediumthroughwhichprospectiveteacherscanbechallengedtolook
at themselvesandtheirdevelopingteachingpractices(see Garmon,1998;Hughesetal.,1997;Lee,2004).
Todiscoverif this isthecaseforToni,Iaddressthesecondresearchquestion. The
secondresearchquestionedasked:Whatchangesaremanifestedbetweenthefirstandfinalstatementsof
philosophy?Tonionlyaddedtwowords:writingandspeakingtoherfinalphilosophyofteachingasshediscuss
es
communication.Theaddingoftwowordsisnotagreatchangeinherphilosophy,butshowsthatsheismovingin
a
positivedirection.Thiswasaccomplishedinarelativelyshortamountoftimeoffourmonths.Thisparallelsastu
dy conductedby Ho andRichards(1993) who
statedthattheyfelttheirresultswereinconclusiveduepartiallytotheshort
amountoftime(twomonths)theyallowedforthestudy.Ontheotherhand, Fishman andRaver(1989)
reported that during
herstudentteachingexperience,Raverwasabletodevelopasoundphilosophyofdisciplinefortheclassroom.
In
thislatterstudy,however,theSTwaswritinginherjournalonadailybasis.Perhapsgivenmoretime,Toniwillbe
able
tocontinueconsideringhowtoteachwritingmoreeffectivelytoherstudents.However,Ifeelthat,giventhetim
e frame
dictatedbythefieldexperience,thepresentstudysuggeststhat,althoughchangesmaynotinitiallymanifest
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.Bytakingnoticeofanareathatwas
somewhatlackinginherdevelopmentasbothaSpanishlearnerandateacher,reflectinguponitandsynthesizin
g
differentaspectsofitthroughthemediumofwritinginherjournal,Toniwassuccessfulinbeginningtoobserveh
erown teaching
fromaproblemcenteredapproach.Thisisimportantforteachereducatorsofalllevelsbecauseitshowsthat
prospectiveteacherscanbeshownhowtotakeownershipoftheirdevelopment.Thepre-
serviceteachersareindeedable to
addressandsolvechallengesthattheywillinevitablyencounterandbebetterpreparedforfuturechallenges.
Workdoneby BurtonandCarroll(2001) suggests thataspre-
serviceteachersreflect,theyincreasetheirawareness of
howstudentslearn.Thepresentstudysupportsthisfinding.UniversitystudentssometimesentertheK-
12class- room
accustomedtothefasterpacethatauniversitycoursetakes.Throughreflectivewriting,Toniwasabletoexpress
that
sherealizedthatthestudentsneededtobeguided.Thisideamayhavebeenpartofhertacitknowledge,butshe
was abletomakeitexplicitthroughherjournalwriting(see Smyth, 1989). 6. Conclusionandimplications
The purposeofthisstudywastodescribeandinterpretthereflectionasshowninapre-
serviceteacher’swritingin her
studentteachingexperienceinanL2classroom.Thedatainterpretationtracedthepathofherthinkingasshe
developedaphilosophyfortheteachingofwritingintheL2setting.Althoughthefindingsherecannotbegenera
lized to allpre-serviceteachers,severalimportantideascanbeusedtoinformL2teachereducation.
Tonihasshownthinking,notjustdisplayingknowledgeofwhatshehadalreadylearnedbeforethebeginningof
her student teachingexperience(see Clinchy,1995).
IntegratingguidedjournalwritingthroughoutaTEPcanbean
effectivemeanstohelpteachereducatorsguideL2teachereducatorstoexamineinasystematicmannerallmod
alities of
languageteachingaswellasotherareasofclassroomteaching.Teachercandidatesareoftentaughtaboutthe
modalities
invariouscoursesintheirTEP.Byprovidingtheopportunitiestoreflectonvariousaspectsofteaching these
modalities,theymaybeabletoseemoreclearlyhowtoaddressthemintheirfutureclassrooms.Tonicertainly
had
beentaughtaboutL2writinginhercoursework,but,notuntilshewasdirectlygiventheopportunitytoreflect
upon theissue,wassheabletobringherformerteachingtogetherandconsiderhowtoapplytheknowledge. As
teachercandidatesentertheirTEP,theyneedtobeshownthattheywillbeviewedintheirdevelopmentnotas a
finishedproductandthatreflectionisavitalelementintheirjourneytowardsprofessionalismandexcellence.
Therefore,whenstudentteachersprogressthroughtheirpracticeteachingsemester,needtobeencouragedtoe
xamine the beliefsandideaswithwhichtheyenteredtheexperience.