ABSTRACT
This chapter adopts a social view of learning and professional development, taking the position that learning is a dialogic process in which meanings are mediated by language. Dialogue allows meanings to be co-constructed, new understandings to emerge and professional learning to develop. Dialogic processes can either be intrapersonal or interpersonal (private or public), entailing interactions between individuals or between an individual and an artefact or tool. A key element of a dialogic, mediated approach to reflection is the way in which tools and artefacts can act as a catalyst (e.g. metaphors, critical incidents, video) and help promote more systematic and focused professional dialogue. The chapter focuses particular on the use of transcripts and recordings of classroom talk, developing and extending G. J. Harfitt's argument for the inclusion of lesson transcripts in the process of learning to teach and developing ways of thinking refectively.
