*Research Methodology*

Sample. The research sample consisted of 71 students, i.e., all first-year students who chose to study special education study program at the university in Lithuania. During studies, students ge<sup>t</sup> prepared to educate disabled children, children with special educational needs and other developmental disorders, to professionally provide special educational assistance in the conditions of inclusive and special education, adhere to the principles of tolerance and human values, working in different types of educational institutions, specialist teams, counselling teachers and pupils' parents. After four years of studies, students who have chosen special education studies acquire the educator's qualification.

Written reflections submitted by 65 students were analyzed. The number of reflections analyzed was determined by theoretical saturation [33,34], which came to prominence in the course of data analysis: The text or the content of another artefact used for the qualitative research; for example, a letter, diary, in this particular case, written reflection, in which all elements are repeated up to a specific unit of the analysis, allows further not to analyze the units of the analysis given by other respondents (in this case, written reflections).

On the second week of their studies, right after admission to the university, these students participated in the observational practice. The aim of this practice was to develop students' self-reflection skills and students had to perceive themselves as prospective special educators. Upon completion of this practice, students started writing self-reflection reports. Students were exposed to all necessary conditions to be able to purposefully analyze the experiences gained during the practice and to be able to link them with the context of prospective professional area.

Research Methods. Data collection: Unstructured written reflection. Students had to write reflections in three months. In addition to that, they reflected on experiences gained during the meetings in which the researcher presented indirect type questions. This way, which is quite frequently used in qualitative research [35–37], the students analysed the experience they had outlived during their practical trainings. Students were given open-ended questions, encouraging them to remember

the experience outlived in practice and describe it in detail as much as possible, distinguishing specific events and describing their performed actions, looking back to their activities and reflecting themselves in various aspects. More detailed instructions were not given, leaving them to decide what was most important, relevant, and significant speaking about themselves and not about expectations of others. Writing of the reflections took them from one to one and a half hours.

In this particular case, reflective writing encompassed the analysis of a wider context of experience and action, meaning, and sense, and was also used as a research strategy for collecting data. According to Moon [38], reflective writing can be undertaken for a number of reasons, such as: the development of theory and adjustment in practical studies, preparation of an action plan, solution of obscurities and search for alternatives, evaluation of personal progress, etc. Written reflection created preconditions for students to analyze the experience outlived during practice, analyzing the experienced events. Based on the advantages and aims of reflective writing explained by scholars [39–42], in this case it was sought to generalize experiences and personal development related to practice performed at the institution. It is important to capture experience and think it over. Students had opportunities to reflect on the process of their learning, i.e., the meta-cognitive process, during acquisition of new experience.

To sum up, it should be stated that the choice of the method was based on the following essential approaches: Writing is inherently related to reflection, when questions and thoughts about the investigated phenomenon are written down creating the possibility to go back and reflect; the aim of writing is to empower us to see what we had not seen before so that the phenomenon is shown in a new way; writing can be compared with "falling forward–into the dark" with the aim of contacting what is not ye<sup>t</sup> known, what was experienced as a whole; writing reveals richness of the phenomena in the outlived experience; writing is both a research process and product; writing is for investigating phenomena in the experienced world and for passing on the results of our investigation to others.

Data analysis: the phenomenological hermeneutics method. The method of phenomenological hermeneutics was employed, analyzing the text by phases, moving from the whole to the parts and back, and from understanding to explanation and back [43]: (1) Naive reading; (2) structural analyses, formulating themes; (3) full understanding, which contains generalization and reflection on the themes with regard to the research matter and research context; and (4) formulation of the results, presenting them in simple language and keeping it close to what was experienced.
