Augmented Reflection in Practicum: AI as a Dialogic Partner in Teacher Education

The International Academic Forum on 11th November 2025



Author Information

Anna Jo Perry, Manukau Institute of Technology–Unitec, New Zealand

Abstract

Practicum placements are central to field-based qualifications, offering students in person opportunities to develop professional practice. This presentation explores how augmented reflection with AI supported Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Teaching) students in Aotearoa New Zealand as they navigated practicum expectations across three years of study. Students were assessed against 18 Key Teaching Tasks (KTTs), progressing from beginner to proficient levels. For some, this trajectory has proved challenging. Framed within a post-digital paradigm, the AI functioned as a non-human dialogic partner, prompting, reframing, and scaffolding students’ reflective processes. Drawing on survey and focus group data, the study illustrates how the AI surfaced implicit assumptions, deepened pedagogical awareness, and fostered metacognitive insight. Crucially, the AI did not replace human collaboration but complement it, mediating reflection without diminishing learner agency. This hybrid form of reflection created a space in which understandings of practice levels became visible over time. Rather than positioning AI as a sentient collaborator or a mere tool, this work conceptualizes the machine as a post-digital presence, an entangled participant in meaning-making and recursive inquiry. The findings suggest that such configurations can enrich practicum learning by supporting students to articulate professional decisions and navigate complexity with greater confidence.


Paper Information

Conference: ECE2026
Stream: Higher education

Published: Wednesday, September 23, 2026

This paper is part of the ECE2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Perry A. (2026) Augmented Reflection in Practicum: AI as a Dialogic Partner in Teacher Education ISSN: 2188-1162 The European Conference on Education 2026: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 15-23) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2026.2
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2026.2

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