English

Kayapinar Ulas

doi:10.5897/err2018.3619

Abstract

Teachers’ ability to reflect on their performances or reflective teaching has been commonly used and accepted in the educational contexts. However, it has not become a content item or a course in educational curricula so far. For this reason, reflective abilities of teachers or preservice teachers cannot be measured, and there is limited feedback on their reflective performances in the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence of reflection and reflective skills of preservice teachers of English (PTE) along with experienced teachers of English (ETE) by measuring the use of reflection in different settings such as classroom settings, colleagues and management settings. Reflection-oriented reactions of ETE and PTE to possible complexities or problematic situations were scored by using Teacher Reflection Scale to reveal if they are reflective practitioners or not. The data were collected from 298 volunteer PTE and 293 ETE. Statistical analyses give evidence that ETE participants reflect more than PTE participants. Among PTE, participants mostly reflect in classroom and colleagues’ settings, but not in management settings. Besides, ETE participants also reflect in classroom settings, but not in collegial setting. They prefer to reflect within management setting. Compared to PTE, there is evidence that more ETE in teaching and learning environments reflect on their practices.   Key words: Reflection, teaching, teacher development, assessment.

Highlights

Dewey (1933) defines reflection as “an active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds supporting it and future conclusions, to which it tends” (p. 43)
Assessment of reflection using a scale is supposed to contribute and pave the way to the field of reflective practice in teacher education with the increased attention to the quality of teacher education as reflective teaching is a way teachers think about goals and lessons in a thoughtful, analytical, and objective way, and they assess the origins, purposes, and consequences of their work at all levels (Cruickshank, 1981; Zeichner and Liston, 1990)
An examination of the findings shows that the results of the correlations applied to the reflection scores of experienced teachers of English (ETE) and preservice teachers of English (PTE) revealed a statistically significant difference

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Dewey (1933) defines reflection as “an active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds supporting it and future conclusions, to which it tends” (p. 43). Preservice teachers usually have opportunities to gain some practical experience through microteaching simulations during their university courses (Tuluce and Cecen, 2015) They reflect on their experiences when they teach small groups of peers, and discuss possible challenges, problematic situations or confusions, reinforcing their strengths. Several scholars give evidence of preservice teachers‟ reflection which will improve upon their teaching abilities and suggest teaching reflection (Coulson and Harvey, 2013; Cruickshank, 1981; Feyten and Kaywell, 1994; Gipe and Richards, 1992: Gore, 1987; Holton and Nott, 1980; Hume, 2009; Ryan, 2013; Zeichner, 1994) In this respect, reflection is an attribute which can be gained by experience, and it can be developed via education and experience it is a process of selfobservation and self-evaluation. This study tries to answer the following research questions: 1) Do ETE and PTE use reflection in the teaching and learning environment? 2) Is there a significant relationship between PTE/ETE reflection scores for classroom settings and colleagues‟ settings? 3) Is there a significant relationship between PTE/ETE reflection scores for classroom settings and management settings? 4) Is there a significant difference between ETE and PTE total scores of TRS? 5) Is there a significant difference between PTE and ETE means of reflection for classroom settings? 6) Is there a significant difference between PTE and ETE means of reflection for colleagues and management settings?

Participants

Procedure

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Conclusion