TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wulff, Peter
A1  - Buschhüter, David
A1  - Westphal, Andrea
A1  - Nowak, Anna
A1  - Becker, Lisa
A1  - Robalino, Hugo
A1  - Stede, Manfred
A1  - Borowski, Andreas
T1  - Computer-based classification of preservice physics teachers’ written reflections
JF  - Journal of science education and technology
N2  - Reflecting in written form on one's teaching enactments has been considered a facilitator for teachers' professional growth in university-based preservice teacher education. Writing a structured reflection can be facilitated through external feedback. However, researchers noted that feedback in preservice teacher education often relies on holistic, rather than more content-based, analytic feedback because educators oftentimes lack resources (e.g., time) to provide more analytic feedback. To overcome this impediment to feedback for written reflection, advances in computer technology can be of use. Hence, this study sought to utilize techniques of natural language processing and machine learning to train a computer-based classifier that classifies preservice physics teachers' written reflections on their teaching enactments in a German university teacher education program. To do so, a reflection model was adapted to physics education. It was then tested to what extent the computer-based classifier could accurately classify the elements of the reflection model in segments of preservice physics teachers' written reflections. Multinomial logistic regression using word count as a predictor was found to yield acceptable average human-computer agreement (F1-score on held-out test dataset of 0.56) so that it might fuel further development towards an automated feedback tool that supplements existing holistic feedback for written reflections with data-based, analytic feedback.
KW  - reflection
KW  - teacher professional development
KW  - hatural language
KW  - processing
KW  - machine learning
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09865-1
SN  - 1059-0145
SN  - 1573-1839
VL  - 30
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
PB  - Springer
CY  - Dordrecht
ER  -