E-flection: the development of reflective communities of learning for trainee teachers through the use of shared online web logs

This paper reports on research that has taken place with trainee teachers using web blogs for reflective practice at Sheffield Hallam University and Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom. The research identifies how reflective blogs provided trainee teachers with an opportunity to develop as reflective practitioners in a more evolutionary way – something we might term ‘e-flection’ encompassing as it does reflections that are both evolutionary and online. This is in line with Schon’s ideas of reflection on action (Schon, 1983) as the research indicates that trainees were using the blog after teaching, to reflect on their teaching and learning as a past experience. The research also explores how reflecting as part of a community can benefit students in developing the reflective aspect of their professional identity