Abstract

Lesson observation has been used with pre- and in-service teachers to improve classroom practices. In addition, reflection and criticality can be developed when teachers use evidence from their lessons and engage in collaborative discussions. Therefore, it is essential for pre-service teachers to collect data from their practices and reflect upon them individually and as a part of a teaching community. Thus, classroom-based studies in which blended models promote reflective research skills based on pedagogical practices are needed. Bearing this in mind, the aim of our case study was to examine the development of reflective inquiry skills amongst pre-service teachers in an English language teaching programme in Chile. We implemented a blended model of face-to-face sessions and an online community to foster discussions about classroom related issues. The face-to-face interactions took place as part of the Applied Research (AR) in teaching English as a foreign language course. The pre-service teachers’ videos from the Practicum I (PI) course were uploaded onto the Video Enhanced Observation (VEO) online portal where self, peer, and teacher observation occurred. Data were collected from a questionnaire, comments on the VEO platform and focus groups. Statistical analyses were carried out using R scripts and quantitative content analyses were conducted with word clouds. A thematic analysis was performed for the focus groups. Our findings suggest that the pre-service teachers’ experiences in the blended model promoted their understanding of pedagogical issues and their capacity to address them as they embarked on research.