Cloud-Based M-Learning in a University Context: Student-Teachers’ Perspectives on the Development of their Own Reflective Thinking

Prospective teachers should be able to increasingly reflect on their own profession, so teacher education programmes need to find new ways to foster and implement the opportunities for reflective thinking development during both academic and training activities. This pilot study was focused on the possibilities offered by mobile devices and hybrid environments to support and improve these processes. The overall aim of the study was how to connect theory and practice and how they can support each other in a virtuous circle, whilst the specific research question was related to the contribution of mobile devices within this relationship: how can cloud-based m-learning facilitate student-teachers’ reflective thinking? The Department of Education at the University of Genoa (Italy) designed a mixed method model indicating the actions to be carried out at university, at school and during the reflection periods. Two questionnaires, composed of closed and open-ended questions, were administered to student-teachers to underline if and how the mobile devices affected the reflection levels. The quantitative and qualitative analysis shows how mobile devices can support the development of pre-service teachers’ reflective thinking during an educational training path carried out between the lectures at university and teaching practice at school.