The characteristics of students, blog groups and blogging that predict reflection in blogs during teaching practice and induction year

Abstract One way to support reflection skills in teacher education is to use a collective blog. This paper reports how different characteristics of students, blog groups and blogging predict the level of reflection in the blog posts of student teachers and induction year teachers. Data was gathered using questionnaires and a quantitative content analysis of blog posts from 166 bloggers. Using a stepwise multiple regression analysis eleven essential characteristics were identified, which may inform us how to encourage the use of blogs, or what characteristics should be taken into consideration when promoting reflection in blog posts.