Abstract
Purpose – In this study, 37 English Language Teaching (ELT) teacher trainees from a Malaysian university conducted an action-research project to determine whether journals kept during their fi eldwork in primary schools located in an area close to the university allowed them to reflect on their beliefs and behaviors in the classroom. Methodology – Themes were revealed using emergent coding in their journals. Van Manen’s (1977) three-stage model (practical, technical and critical) was used to determine the issues raised and the level of critical reflection reached in the journal entries Findings – The findings indicated that the teacher trainees demonstrated practical and technical level thinking, but rarely rose to the critical level of reflection. Nonetheless, they also demonstrated changes in their beliefs and behaviours, essential for professional development. Significance – Reflective thinking is critical to teaching and is important in the United States and in countries striving to replicate its pedagogical tools and techniques. However, many Western practices associated with the nurturing of critical thinking are not familiar to Malaysian teacher trainees. We conclude that prospective teachers here do use their journals to reflect on their educational practice, but not at the deepest levels of insight. Critical thinking must be taught to Malaysian teacher trainees and filtered through the local culture if it is to improve teaching and learning in the nation’s classrooms.
Highlights
The term “reflection” has become one of the most important vocabulary words in teacher training (Hatton & Smith, 1995)
The findings indicate that more teacher trainees were at the basic technical and practical levels, a few demonstrated a critical level of reflection
In relation to the levels of reflection, our findings indicate that the vast majority of teacher trainees were in the technical and practical levels
Summary
The term “reflection” has become one of the most important vocabulary words in teacher training (Hatton & Smith, 1995). One quality a good teacher requires is the ability to reflect on what, why and how things are done and to adapt, develop and improve his or her practices within the context of lifelong learning. Reflection is a key to successful learning for teachers. Many studies have shown that teacher trainees reflect at a superficial level, if at all. In a study exploring the use of “scaffolded reflection” with teacher trainees, reflection was found to remain at a superficial level (Bean & Stevens, 2002). Hatton and Smith (1995) said that teacher trainees can learn the habit, despite the widespread belief that they are slow to understand and value the benefits of reflection. The development of reflective skills, remains a key component in most teacher education curricula today
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