This study examines the characteristics of pre-service teachers’ (PST) reflection logs throughout practice placement (PP) in year one and four of their initial teacher education. More specifically, we investigate the themes, topics, knowledge, and skills that PST focus on in their logs, and what language is used to describe these elements. The reflection logs are written at the end of each week of PP and contain PST’s reflections on their own development during that week, as well as areas to focus on during the following week(s). The focus points for reflection are given by the PST’s practice teacher, and are addressed in guidance sessions during PP.

The following research questions guide our investigation.

1)      What language do pre-service teachers use to reflect over learning and development in practice placement?

2)      What themes, topics, knowledge and skills do pre-service teachers focus on in their reflection logs?

• To what extent are general pedagogy and subject didactics represented in the reflections? What is the ratio between the two?
• To what extent do the logs bridge theory and practice? How is the campus-based learning incorporated in the practice placement reflections?

3)      What are the similarities and differences between reflections at years one and four?

The Norwegian initial teacher education system for primary and lower secondary teacher education (compulsive education) promotes a holistic teaching and learning approach. This comprehensive system is structured into two distinct five-year master's programs, preparing teachers for either grades 1-7 (pupils’ ages 6-12) or grades 5-10 (pupils’ ages 10-16). Both study programs encompass a blend of subject knowledge, pedagogical skills, subject didactics, research literacy, and professional ethics.  Our study focusses on the grade 5-10 training program. Teachers in this program are typically subject specialists, as the complexity of subjects increases at these grades. They are expected to possess a deeper understanding of a smaller selection of subjects (Skagen & Elstad, 2023).

An integral part of these programs is in-school PP under the supervision of experienced practice teachers, providing PSTs with practical experience (110 days divided into 5-6 weeks per year in the first 4 years of studies). The aim of such integration is to link in-school PP and campus-based learning, bridging the gap between theory and practice (Allen & Wright, 2014). PSTs write reflective logs during their practice placement, documenting their experiences, reflections and learning process. These logs, used by practice teachers for feedback, are also potential research resources. They provide insights into individual PSTs' growth, challenges, teaching methods, and the application of theoretical knowledge. Comparing logs across PSTs can identify patterns and differences in experiences and reflections and the development of their teacher identity and professional competencies.

The theoretical framework for analysing PST logs includes Teacher Cognition, Teacher Professional Knowledge, and Aristotle's phronesis, techne, and episteme:

• Teacher cognition explores the cognitive aspects of teaching, focusing on how teachers’ thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions shape their classroom actions (Borg, 2003).
• Teacher Professional Knowledge encompasses the essential knowledge for effective teaching, including content, pedagogical, and pedagogical content knowledge (Gess-Newsome, 2015).
• Aristotle’s phronesis (practical wisdom) guides moral and ethical action, techne relates to craft or skill, and episteme signifies evidence-based scientific knowledge. In teacher education, episteme represents the theoretical and factual knowledge acquired by PST (Lea, 2021).

The reflective logs provide a rich source of data for exploring these dimensions. This comprehensive approach allows for a deep understanding of the processes involved in becoming a teacher. The reflective logs can reveal how PSTs are applying their professional knowledge in real-world teaching situations, and how this knowledge evolves over time.

This study is a two-pronged document analysis of PST reflection logs consisting of a content analysis and a collocation analysis. Participants and data sets The participants are PSTs in years one and four of their five-year teacher training. The first-year PSTs (estimated N=20) all have English as a second language as their subject, while the fourth-year PSTs (estimated N=50) have 14 different subjects. In addition, all PSTs have pedagogy as a subject. Each PST writes one reflection log per week, giving an estimated data set of up to 800 logs (5 logs per PST in first year and 6 in fourth). Analytical approaches First, we conduct a collocation analysis where various word combinations are extracted from the reflection logs, including clusters, N-grams and collocations based on Mutual Information, t-score and Log-Likelihood, using the AntConc software (Anthony, n.d.). The purpose of this analysis is to identify recurring, similar formulations in the texts. Combining measures that include statistical significance (Log-Likelihood and t-score) and effect size (MI-score) ensures that we extract both frequent word combinations and rarer ones that may nevertheless be strong predictors of central text features. Second, the collocation analysis is used as a starting point for a content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) which allows us to study the meanings of a text and its relation to the context in which it is written (Gheyle & Jacobs, 2017). The purpose is to identify the themes, topics, knowledge, and skills that are prominent in the logs. The unit of analysis is the entire log, where words/word clusters are thematised and categorised according to their focus area (pedagogy, subject, subject didactics etc.). Our content analysis is mainly qualitative, seeking to identify what the PSTs focus on and how they relate this to their professional development in the context of PP. Thus, this two-pronged approach allows for a seamless combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses. Anonymity/ethics The study complies with data protection legislation as assessed by the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. No sensitive data is gathered, and the texts are anonymised after collection. References to the material and the analysis of the data is conducted without referencing any identifiable informant information.

This is a planned study, as data collection is carried out March- April 2024, thus the following is a description of expected outcomes. The combination of the content analysis and collocation analysis will give us insight into the characteristics and thematic content of the texts. Furthermore, they will provide opportunities to understand the context of PP. First, we expect to be able to pinpoint if and how the logs’ content balances between pedagogy and subject didactics, i.e., do the PST focus on both pedagogical skills such as classroom management, teacher-student relationship, planning etc, and subject didactics such as choice of teaching materials, subject content, learning aims, subject-specific assessment etc. As both pedagogy and subject didactics are equally central in the study program, the expectation is that they will feature equally in PP reflections. At the same time, research shows (Amdal & Willbergh, 2020) that newly-educated teachers find the non-subject related aspects of the profession, such as classroom management and teacher-student relationships, more challenging, which would suggest that they would take up more space in their PP reflections. Second, the analysis will give insight into how PSTs and their practice teachers connect theory (campus curriculum) and practice. These findings will further our understanding as teacher educators of the link between campus and school learning arenas. Such connections are vital for the PSTs professional development and learning during their teacher education (Allen & Wright, 2014). Fragmentation and lack of coherence across sites of learning and forms of knowledge has long been pointed out in research on teacher education in Norway (Hammerness, 2006; Hermansen, 2020). Together these findings will serve to give valuable knowledge about how to improve coherence in teacher education with a focus on a specific tool used in PP, the reflection log.

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