Abstracts - Earli

the learning group? Data analysis was based on 234 online messages of the moderators. Contentanalysis led to the adjustment of teaching presence indicators to the teacher educators’ learningcommunity, and a descriptive statistics was used to study the frequency use of each indicatorduring various stages of the group development. Three frequently used teaching presenceindicators were revealed throughout the activity: (a) emotional expressions/thanks and greetings(14%), (b) creating safe and inviting learning environment (14%) - both reflecting an emphasis onemotional-social encouragement that highlights the contributions of the participants., and (c)focusing/elaborating on the discussion topic (12%), which reflected the direct instruction role ofthe moderators as facilitators of knowledge construction. Comparison of the differential usages ofteaching presence indicators during the various developmental stages of the group disclosedunique indicators at various stages, such as the organizational indicators of technologicalassistance and setting goals during the forming stage, or the content indicators of sharing personalexperience, rehearsing and referring to others’ messages, during the storming stage. The findingscan assist to design, facilitate, and direct online learning communities of teacher educators inregard to the distinctive teaching presence indicators throughout the developmental stages of thegroup.Perspectives and voices: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions of a reflective practicum courseSenem Sanal Erginel, Eastern Mediterranean University, CyprusAli Yildirim, Middle East Technical University, TurkeyThis study aims to develop an insight into pre-service teachers’ experiences of a reflectivepracticum course in relation to its goals, processes, and outcomes. Hence, it enables us tounderstand how pre-service teachers perceive a reflective practicum course. This is a case studywhich was conducted in the form of an action research in qualitative research paradigm. Theparticipants consist of 30 final year pre-service teachers of English language in a 4-yearundergraduate university programme in northern Cyprus. The research was conducted in the fall of2004 for 12 weeks in a practicum course. In this study, the data was gathered from multiplesources, which are as follows: perception questionnaires, weekly journal entries, assignment onvideotaped microteaching, and post-microteaching reflective interviews. The data analysis wascarried out by following the content analysis method within qualitative research. The findingsindicated that the pre-service teachers believed that the involvement in various experiences in thisreflective course enabled them to self-analyze and to become self-aware of the changes inthemselves, which contributed to the development of their self-identity as teachers. Theyexpressed that they improved their competences and expanded their teaching repertoire, andthereby they developed themselves professionally. Furthermore, the pre-service teachers viewedthat the constructive feedback from the course instructor and from peers contributed to their selfdevelopment.Also, the class atmosphere in this reflective practicum course was found to beunconventional with regard to its non-traditional setting, friendly, and interactive atmosphere.Moreover, the pre-service teachers emphasized that throughout the course, both the courseinstructor and themselves as novice teachers had multiple roles. In addition to these positiveaspects, the workload, particularly in relation to journal keeping, was viewed as a drawback of thiscourse.– 433 –