Student teachers’ self-dialogues, peer dialogues, and supervisory dialogues in placement learning

This paper compares three types of dialogues as reflective tools in
placement learning: supervisory dialogues (mentor to student-teacher),
peer dialogues (student teacher to student teacher) and selfdialogues
(student teachers to themselves). Forty-four Dutch student
teachers utilised the procedure of guided reflection to talk about
their teaching experience. Stimulated recall data were analysed
through qualitative and quantitative methods. Most poignant result
was that supervisory and peer dialogues seemed to have similar
reflective power considering student teacher’s practical knowledge
and richness of argumentation for appraisals. We suggest more
frequent use of peer dialogues. Only when expert advice is needed,
should one employ supervisory dialogues. As self-dialogues engendered
most rules and resolves, they could arguably be employed for
student teachers to consolidate their own knowledge and manage
their learning behaviour.