Reconstruction of meaning during group work in a teacher education programme

Abstract

Do reflections on teaching practice experiences in a group change previously held interpretations? This article reports on an attempt to investigate effects of group learning. The investigation deals with an aspect of the entire meaning making process by University learners from a social constructivist perspective. It involved 107 teacher education students who jointly reflected on practice teaching experiences in a structured group work session. The teaching practice experiences were the vehicle for investigating the ways and the extent in which students were able to reconstruct their understandings in a group discussion.



The preliminary findings indicate that changes in students' understanding (meaning reconstruction) did occur and the process of facilitated reflection and group discussions assisted these changes.


South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(1) 2001: 61-67