Rethinking reflective journals in Teacher Education

Schooling in the 21st century must embrace the need for learners to be interdisciplinary, navigate change and diversity, to learn as they go, solve problems, collaborate and be flexible and creative. That is, the curriculum must reflect the notion of New Learning (ACDE, 2001). The renewed Bachelor of Education (BEd) program was designed to promote preservice teacher knowledge through provision of opportunities for critical self-reflection in terms of alignment of personal values and beliefs with the concept of New Learning. One of the innovations within the program includes the use of shared journal across courses within the program. This paper describes the design of the Bachelor of Education program within one university in Australia and how its philosophical underpinnings fit with the concept of New Learning, and how the reality of implementing and using shared journals within the program to promote preservice teacher critical reflection has challenged staff to rethink their own values and beliefs about their role in the development of a critically reflective practitioners.