Practice and Reflection as a Dialectical Unity: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience in a Service-Learning Program

Purpose This paper aims to explore how initial teacher education constructs dialectical relationships between practice and reflection through a service-learning program in response to the “double reduction” policy in China. Design/Approach/Method Drawing from a Marxist activity-theoretical view of dialectics, this study investigates a Chinese university's arrangement for developing pre-service teachers (PSTs) by means of service learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to analyze the participants’ experience in the service-learning program. Findings The service-learning program embodies a dialectical unity of practice and reflection for PSTs, which is realized through three core processes: the transformation of professional knowledge via object-oriented activity; the deliberation of teaching skills supported by knowledgeable others; and the achievement of personalized learning outcomes through the appropriation of mediating artifacts. The program thus engages PSTs in socially necessary service while structuring reflective experiences that directly enhance their professional competence. Originality/Value The dynamic integration of practice and reflection is conceptualized as a dialectical unity, which contributes a Chinese pathway to applying Marxism in education by tackling the persisting dichotomy between the-knowing and the-doing in teacher education. It also implies a critical activist role of initial teacher education in transforming societies.