LaBoskey (1993) maintained that there are two types of impetus: internal and external. Impetus or motivation for reflection come hand in hand with the purpose or the focus of reflection.

• Internal

Internal Impetus to reflect is influenced by one’s cognitive ability and propensities including attitudes, beliefs, values. Not all students will be inclined to or be able to reflect on their own. For those reflection is not part of innate propensities or habit, external impetus become important.

• External

In the context of preservice education, external impetus for reflection is often provided by teachers explicitly or implicitly. The impetus can be reading materials, cases, et al. coupled with reflective tasks with structure of various types.

Another source of external impetus, according to Dewey, might be a ‘felt difficulty’ ranging in intensity from mild uneasiness to intense shock. Dewey (1910) delineates reflection as a three-step process: 1) problem definition; 2) means/ends analysis; 3) generalization. The problematic situations are likely to arouse the cognitive disequilibrium which lead to reflection on one’s previous experience or existing knowledge.

So what?

The implication of this for teacher educators is how to better design or provide better support to activate students’ reflection. During teaching practicum, there should be ample external impetus for reflection since student teachers inevitably bumped into problems or difficulties. It’s naturally for them to be engaged in reflection. However, during the in-class teaching, such external stimulus is greatly lessened. In this case, teachers need to elicit students’ reflection through case studies; give them a nudge over what to reflect about and how to reflect.