Post-Class Reflections of English Language Lecturers Working at a Kazakhstani University

Abstract

This study describes post-class reflections of 10 English language lecturers working at a university located in Almaty, Kazakhstan in order to learn more about their perceptions of reflection in education and different ways they engage with teacher reflections after conducting their English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. The research design utilized multiple semi-structured, recorded interviews. The participants’ responses were grouped and analyzed through a reflection framework comprised by Hatton and Smith (1995), which discusses four types of reflections: technical, descriptive, dialogic, and critical. The findings revealed that most participants understood the concept of reflection in education similarly rather than differently. Second, the results showed that the most frequently produced single reflection type was descriptive, followed by technical, dialogic and critical. Overall, all 10 participants produced different single as well as hybrid reflection types, which was a rather important finding of this study as hybrid reflections have not yet been thoroughly explored in the research literature. The use of hybrid reflections also indicated that reflective thinking is not a linear process that can be easily categorized based on a certain reflection type. Third, the study describes a few characteristics of highly and less reflective participants. The main teaching implication entails a need for the organization of seminars focused on introducing and exploring the impact of different types of reflections on EFL teaching in higher education.