Abstract
Critical reflection in teachers’ professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers’ work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between the professed goals and the actual reflective practice of teachers remains. The article starts with a short overview of the different definitions of critical reflection in the context of teachers’ professional development and then underlines some empirical research findings on the problems that teachers and teacher educators face when putting reflective practice into practice, especially at the deeper and more complex levels of reflection. It continues with a consideration of teachers’ qualifications for in-depth reflection as well as the obstacles and challenges facing teachers and teacher educators. The obstacles occur at the level of individual teachers’ personal traits and at the level of the context in which reflection is done. Employing an analysis of the obstacles, the authors develop some guidelines on how to support teachers in their attempts at making critical reflection part of their teaching practice. It is crucial for this encouragement not to overlook the principal purpose of teachers’ critical reflection; to contribute to new insights, knowledge reframing, and the introduction of such changes in teaching that will support students’ learning and the development of the community for the better learning, work, and life of all its individuals.
Highlights
John Dewey’s book How We Think (1910) is recognised as the origin of the notion of reflective thinking as a key element in learning
Students are to be encouraged to reflect on their own learning in order to shed light on their strong and weak 80 critical reflection in the professional development of teachers areas, but they feel uneasy about disclosing their thoughts and emotions, having summative assessment in mind, which will require them to prove that they have mastered a specific field
We have analysed in some detail the various connotations and characteristics of critical reflection from Dewey onward, created a number of models to develop critical reflection, and defined the conditions for its quality enactment
Summary
Kritična refleksija v profesionalnem razvoju učiteljev je bila v znanstveni literaturi deležna že veliko pozornosti in uveljavljeno je strinjanje glede njenega velikega pomena za kakovostno delo učiteljev. V prispevku najprej predstaviva kratek pregled različnih opredelitev kritične refleksije v kontekstu profesionalnega razvoja učiteljev in poudariva nekaj izsledkov empiričnih raziskav o težavah, ki jih imajo učitelji in izobraževalci učiteljev pri udejanjanju refleksivne prakse, zlasti na globljih in kompleksnejših ravneh refleksije. V nadaljevanju obravnavava vprašanje usposobljenosti učiteljev za poglobljeno refleksijo ter ovire in izzive, s katerimi se učitelji in izobraževalci učiteljev srečujejo. Na osnovi analize teh omejitev oblikujeva nekaj predlogov, s katerimi bi lahko podprli učitelje pri tem, da kritična refleksija postane sestavni del njihove prakse poučevanja. Pri tem spodbujanju je ključnega pomena, da ne pozabimo na temeljni namen kritične refleksije učiteljev, da prispeva k novim uvidom, prestrukturiranju znanja in k vpeljevanju takih sprememb v poučevanje, ki podpirajo učenje učencev in oblikovanje skupnosti za boljše učenje, delo in življenje vseh njenih članov. Ključne besede: kritična refleksija, profesionalni razvoj učiteljev, spodbujanje kritične refleksije, učenje učiteljev c e p s Journal | Vol.7 | No3 | Year 2017 69
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have