Schedule: 2009-09-12 (10:00 - 10:45)
Parallel Session 3 (Room A-32)

Title: From diaries to blogs: the development of student teachers’ metacognitive strategies
Authors: Elaine Riordan, Fiona Farr
Abstract: Teacher education programmes have long since promoted the use of reflective diaries amongst student teachers. However, living, as we do, in the digital age, and having undergone a technological revolution, many have been considering and implementing the transfer from traditional methods of hand-written diaries to appropriate online modes. In this way, the value of written reflection can still be maintained, but through the use of new media, for example, blogs, and in this way, student teachers can avail of technology that they are already familiar with. Through such media, reflective practice (Schön, 1991) may be promoted, and this is acknowledged to be beneficial to student teachers in gaining a better understanding of their own learning about teaching, therefore contributing to their professional development (Sime and Priestly, 2005). Furthermore, student teachers’ metacognitive skills (Oxford, 1990) may be enhanced through this constant and critical reflection on the art of language teaching. And finally, by encouraging student teachers to interact with new technologies, they are indirectly becoming more accustomed with the educational potential of some tools that can be of use to them in their own classrooms of the future.

This study evaluates blog entries from 1st year BA (Education) in Languages students, who were required to post entries to their individual blogs over the course of a semester in their programme. These students were assigned suggested questions to encourage them to reflect on the different areas covered in their module, and also to reflect on how they could apply what they learned in class to their own future teaching, thus encouraging the development of metacognitive skills. A corpus of these blog entries has been complied and analysed using appropriate software (Wordsmith Tools, Scott 2004), therefore, both a quantitative and qualitative corpus-based analysis will be presented using frequency and keyword lists, and appropriate concordances arising from their significant findings. This data also gives an insight into the student teachers’ relational presence, and how they create and form their social presence in this environment. Furthermore, questionnaire data delves into their perceptions and attitudes towards blogging, and also their opinions on the use and merits of a blog for this purpose. Finally, the paper will close with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of such research findings for the teacher education arena.

References
Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Schön, D.A., 1991. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Aldershot: Arena.
Scott, M., 2004. Wordsmith Tools (Version 4.0). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sime, D. and M. Priestley, 2005. ‘Student teachers’ first reflections on information and communications technology and classroom learning: implications for initial teacher education’. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 21: 130-142.
Keywords: Teacher Education, Online Diaries, Reflective Practice, Metacognitive Skills, Identity, Blogs

Main topic: Virtual Worlds

Biodata: Elaine Riordan has an MA in English language teaching and is currently a PhD student at the University of Limerick. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning, corpus linguistics, English language teaching and teacher education. Fiona Farr is a lecturer in English Language Teaching at the University of Limerick, where she is involved in the education of teachers at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is part of a research group called IVACS (Inter-varietal applied corpus studies) and is co-manager of the Limerick Corpus of Irish English (L-CIE). Her professional interests include language teacher education, applied corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and language variety.
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Research & Development

Target educational sector Higher education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-12 (10:00 - 10:45) Parallel Session 3 (Room A-32)
Title:	From diaries to blogs: the development of student teachers’ metacognitive strategies
Authors:	Elaine Riordan, Fiona Farr
Abstract:	Teacher education programmes have long since promoted the use of reflective diaries amongst student teachers. However, living, as we do, in the digital age, and having undergone a technological revolution, many have been considering and implementing the transfer from traditional methods of hand-written diaries to appropriate online modes. In this way, the value of written reflection can still be maintained, but through the use of new media, for example, blogs, and in this way, student teachers can avail of technology that they are already familiar with. Through such media, reflective practice (Schön, 1991) may be promoted, and this is acknowledged to be beneficial to student teachers in gaining a better understanding of their own learning about teaching, therefore contributing to their professional development (Sime and Priestly, 2005). Furthermore, student teachers’ metacognitive skills (Oxford, 1990) may be enhanced through this constant and critical reflection on the art of language teaching. And finally, by encouraging student teachers to interact with new technologies, they are indirectly becoming more accustomed with the educational potential of some tools that can be of use to them in their own classrooms of the future. This study evaluates blog entries from 1st year BA (Education) in Languages students, who were required to post entries to their individual blogs over the course of a semester in their programme. These students were assigned suggested questions to encourage them to reflect on the different areas covered in their module, and also to reflect on how they could apply what they learned in class to their own future teaching, thus encouraging the development of metacognitive skills. A corpus of these blog entries has been complied and analysed using appropriate software (Wordsmith Tools, Scott 2004), therefore, both a quantitative and qualitative corpus-based analysis will be presented using frequency and keyword lists, and appropriate concordances arising from their significant findings. This data also gives an insight into the student teachers’ relational presence, and how they create and form their social presence in this environment. Furthermore, questionnaire data delves into their perceptions and attitudes towards blogging, and also their opinions on the use and merits of a blog for this purpose. Finally, the paper will close with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of such research findings for the teacher education arena. References Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies. What Every Teacher Should Know. Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Schön, D.A., 1991. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Aldershot: Arena. Scott, M., 2004. Wordsmith Tools (Version 4.0). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sime, D. and M. Priestley, 2005. ‘Student teachers’ first reflections on information and communications technology and classroom learning: implications for initial teacher education’. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 21: 130-142.
Keywords:	Teacher Education, Online Diaries, Reflective Practice, Metacognitive Skills, Identity, Blogs
Main topic:	Virtual Worlds
Biodata:	Elaine Riordan has an MA in English language teaching and is currently a PhD student at the University of Limerick. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning, corpus linguistics, English language teaching and teacher education. Fiona Farr is a lecturer in English Language Teaching at the University of Limerick, where she is involved in the education of teachers at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is part of a research group called IVACS (Inter-varietal applied corpus studies) and is co-manager of the Limerick Corpus of Irish English (L-CIE). Her professional interests include language teacher education, applied corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and language variety.
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Research & Development
Target educational sector	Higher education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No