The basis of knowledge of teachers, reflection and professional development: a case study on class diaries written by Chemistry teacher trainees

We examined 70 class diaries, produced by three teachers in initial training during teaching activities in the Chemistry supervised traineeship. In the class diaries discourse, there is evidence about the knowledge for teaching, upon which trainees reflected. The study was based on the reflective teaching indicator to classify the discourse of diaries as reflective or not, and on the knowledge base of teaching to identify the types of knowledge involved in the reflection of trainees. The results indicate that trainees reflected more about aspects of teacher knowledge related to general pedagogical knowledge and to pedagogical content knowledge and little upon aspects involving the context of students and the knowledge of specific content. In order to contribute to the teacher class diaries become effective tools in the professional development of undergraduates, we propose an orientation guide for the reflection about the teaching practice itself

knowledge base of teaching; reflection; teacher class diaries; student teachers