The effect of writing reflective journals on primary school teacher candidates creative thinking tendencies and reflection levels

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of writing reflective journals on primary school teacher candidates for microteaching practices their creative thinking tendencies and levels of reflection and to determine the opinions of primary school teacher candidates on the effectiveness of using reflective journals. The research was designed as a mixed method. The study group of the research comprised of third-year primary school teacher candidates studying in the department of Basic Education at Kastamonu University in the Fall Semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Quasi-experimental pattern was used during the quantitative phase of the research. The implementation was conducted with a total number of 60 students in the experimental and control groups. While reflective journal writing for microteaching practices was applied in the experimental group, only microteaching practices were implemented in the control group. The quantitative data of the research was obtained by the scale called Marmara Critical Thinking Tendencies. A interview form and reflective journals were used to collect qualitative data. Following the research, it was identified that it had positive impacts on creative thinking skills to write reflective journals, which was prepared by primary school teacher candidates for microteaching practices. Taking into consideration the weekly reflection levels of the teacher candidates, it was noticeable that while their reflective thinking skills were only at a level of descriptive explanation in the first weeks, it reached higher levels with a significant progress in the following weeks. The students in the experimental group stated that the use of reflective journals was an effective tool to promote reflective and creative thinking skills. Key Words: Reflective Journal, Reflective Thinking, Creative Thinking, Primary School Teacher Candidates