Márcia Sueli Pereira da Silva Schneider
(Language Course, Federal University of Tocantins, Brazil)

 

 

Abstract: One challenge in teacher education is to provide strategies which equip students to examine, critique and evaluate their own understanding and beliefs about teaching and learning. This paper reports the development of a research conducted with students of Letters in a federal university in the north of Brazil and the use of diaries as a tool for critical knowledge production. The classes were conducted in different moments and the diaries were written after each event. The data analysis revealed that diaries give opportunity to students rethink and reconceptualize their understanding and beliefs about teachers’ actions. The framework provided us to understand how the use of diaries could contribute to the reflective process of learning and the types of reflection during the process. The analysis of the data also showed that the way the classroom was conducted provided an easy way of understanding the theories studied.

 

 

Key words: diary, critical reflection, knowledge production