The development of a robust professional identity plays a crucial part in the journey towards becoming a high quality teacher. In order to develop the much acclaimed attitude of teacher-as-continuous-learner, beginning teachers will need to develop resilience, self-knowledge and a strong sense of professional identity. Teacher identity includes the development of beliefs and dispositions in addition to knowledge and skills. Furthermore, given that the formation of identity is an 'internal process' influenced by 'social or cultural processes', (Winlsade, Crocket, Monk & Drewery, 2000) it is important for pre-service teachers to receive explicit support in identity formation. Whereas reflective activity is often encouraged for the honing of teaching skills there is an additional argument that reflective writing about other non-teaching aspects of school culture can play an important part in the development of teacher identity. Internationally, professional identity and reflective practice are both at the forefront of the teacher education dialogue surrounding the development of new professional standards. This paper reports on a study in which pre-service teachers, that is student-teachers, reflected during their second and final practicum placements in primary schools, upon their observations of professional activities within school communities. The literature supports the notion of broadening pre-service teachers' understanding of the nature of teacher responsibilities and professional role (Valli, 1997). This project required the pre-service teachers to reflect upon their responses to and observations of, various elements of the teaching environment such as daily classroom interruptions, parent liaison and staffroom activities. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a reflective writing task was a suitable and sufficiently explicit process for supporting pre-service teachers in the development of their understanding of the nature of teachers' work, while forming a sense of professional identity. The paper reports on the levels of reflective writing attained by the students, using a specific framework (Campbell-Evans & Maloney, 1998). This framework identifies four levels of reflection, the simplest being to 'report', followed by to 'review and refocus' with higher levels described as to 'analyse' and the most sophisticated level to 'reconceptualise'. Examples of these pre-service teachers' reflections indicate the surprisingly frequent use of the highest level of reflection in addition to the simplest levels. The reflective comments of the pre-service teachers also contained a high occurrence of emotional expression. The influence of emotion therefore became a further yet unanticipated aspect of this study. The pre-service teachers were given feedback on their second practicum reflections and were invited to continue with their reflective observations and written responses in their final practicum. This paper reports on these subsequent responses and the changes in the level of some pre-service teachers' reflections. Finally this paper considers the potential contribution that reflective writing could make towards the formation of professional identity of pre-service teachers during the practicum.