Tutors’ Use of Reflective Practice to Promote Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Reflective teaching is a significant element in pre-service teachers’ initial training programmes as well as teachers’ continuous development activities. It has been widely acknowledged by many researchers as an approach that promotes teachers’ professional development and improves the quality of teaching and learning. The research sought to uncover the use of reflective teaching by tutors in a College of Education in Ghana. It is qualitative research based on the phenomenological research design, which implements constructivist ideas. Participants were purposively sampled in view of their professional and academic backgrounds and experiences. Data was generated via the conduct of semi-structured interviews with the participants. The data was analyzed in relation to the research questions that guided the study. The research revealed that the tutors had a clear understanding of reflective practice and considered it a vital approach that enables tutors to identify weaknesses in the teaching process, and adopt mechanisms to assuage the weaknesses to engender learners’ understanding and performance. The research confirmed reflective practice as a powerful, durable, and effective agent of quality educational change and therefore urged tutors to recognise and employ it as a tool to facilitate effective teaching and learning to help in the attainment of national educational goals. It suggests that reflective practice be habitually and constantly applied by tutors in their preparation; teaching and evaluation of instructions to enable them successfully achieve the instructional objectives and have an improvement in pre-service teachers’ performance.