The influence of structured guidance on pre-service teachers' blog writing

The purpose of the study was to investigate how structured blogging influences pre-service teachers' writings. In this study, pre-service teachers were provided with structured guidance for blog writing to support their instructional media development, undertaken as part of their teacher education course. Content analysis was conducted to examine the distribution of the types of statements and feedback in the blog posts. The proportion of statements varied depending on the sub-topics of the posts. A large number of descriptive statements were identified in the sub-topics which asked for lesson objectives and methods of instructional media use. However, in cases where the rationale for media use was requested, a great number of evaluative statements were found. Reflective statements dominated under the sub-topic of descriptions of the pre-service teachers' impressions of instructional media development. The most prominent feedback types in the blog comments and replies were social and affirmative. The pre-service teachers rarely used critical or suggestive feedback. However, reflective types of feedback occurred more in their replies than in their comments.