Abstract:

This study reports a qualitative case study of a blended teacher education course held at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Fourteen student teachers and their teacher educator participated in the study. The Course ”Me as a Teacher” was 1.5 ECTS, consisting of 14 seminar hours and 26 hours of independent work. The preliminary data for this study consist of two documented seminar hours, where personally meaningful learning experiences were reflected upon with teacher guidance. Furthermore, e-mail conversations around the topic are included in the data. The theoretical grounding of the reflection was an article written by Raimo Silkelä (2001).
Four continuous e-mail conversation turns are analysed for this study. The specific content analysis method, grounded on the e-mail conversation data, was developed for the study. The categories for the analysis method are negative learning experience, meaningful learning experience, identity-threatening learning experience and identity-strengthening learning experience. The analysis of the e-mail conversation turns reveals that the student teachers bring in the meaningful role of their negative learning experience in their virtual conversations. In this study, the student teachers reflect on the neglected role of negative learning experiences in the reviewed literature. They suggest the power of self-changing learning experience as a tool to reinforce the personality.
This study suggests the power of the virtual learning environment, in this instance, an e-mail-conversation, as a part of blended learning, to act as a tool to enhance teacher learning in dealing with sore experiences. In our present day society, this indeed is a necessary skill for an educator, in this case a teacher, for the growing up of whole persons.

Keywords:

teacher education course, blended learning, teacher identity, personally meaningful learning experience.