Reflective Practice In Teacher Education Research Articles

Justice-Centered Reflective Practice in Teacher Education: Pedagogy as a Process of Imaginative and Hopeful Invention

This paper introduces justice-centered reflective practice, an approach that emerged out of our practitioner research in the Independent School Teaching Residency program. This ongoing and imperfect praxis is simultaneously a stance, a lens, a pedagogy, an orientation, and a way of understanding and mobilizing our individual and collective identities as teacher educators. Mediated by joy, imagination, vulnerability, and uncertainty, six foundational principles guide our work: justice-centered reflective practice is (1) purposeful and systematic, (2) iterative and cyclical, (3), critically reflective, (4) agentive, (5) done in community, and (6) loving and hopeful. Here we detail these principles and illustrate how they manifest in our work as teacher educators in how we structure the program and enact our pedagogy. We seek to continue a scholarly conversation among critical teacher educators about how we enact liberatory values and aspirations in the context of institutions and policy environments that often constrain our collective work.

The Role of Reflective Practice in Teacher Education: A Comprehensive Review

The Role of Reflective Practice in Teacher Education: A Comprehensive Review

The Role of Reflective Practice in Enhancing Teacher Preparation Programs

The study aims to examine the multifaceted integration and impact of reflective practice in teacher education. Employing a mixed-methods research approach, the study unveils that reflective activities, including journaling, structured feedback sessions, and coursework integration, are prevalent in teacher preparation programs, fostering self-awareness and professional growth among teacher candidates. Perceptions of the positive influence of reflective practice on teaching skills, notably in classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement, are strongly affirmed by respondents. While challenges such as time constraints and resistance persist, the study recommends standardized integration, professional development initiatives, and long-term impact assessments to maximize the transformative potential of reflective practice in shaping the educators of the future and elevating the quality of education it provides

Defining and negotiating translingual awareness in “monolingual” teacher education

As a challenge to social and material inequities in the opportunities and outcomes of U.S. public schooling for students of color, more teachers are being prepared to teach with culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). As teachers in mainstream, English-medium classrooms encounter more linguistic diversity, they must also be prepared to teach with linguistically sustaining pedagogies, such as translanguaging pedagogy (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017). The objective of the present study is to explore one example of how translanguaging pedagogy can be integrated into an English-medium teacher education curriculum. This paper analyzes a case study of effective instruction, student learning, and reflective practice in teacher education, examining how undergraduate Education Studies majors in a linguistic justice course define translanguaging as a pedagogical framework and negotiate it in conversation with monolingual orientations. Through thematic analysis of qualitative data, including student work, course artifacts, and reflection surveys, this study demonstrates how a group of future teachers developed translingual awareness through specific course activities. This study ultimately highlights both the challenges and successes of promoting translingual awareness in traditionally “monolingual” teacher education, and provides concrete steps towards preparing all teachers to teach with culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies.

Capturing life as it is truly lived? Improving diary data in educational research

ABSTRACT Diary methods have long been used as pedagogic tools in learning, and as part of reflective practice in teacher education, but less often as data collection instruments in educational research. This is in part due to implementation challenges emerging from the time and literacy demands they place on participants. To illustrate the use of diary methods in educational research, we juxtapose two diary studies to reflect on how to use diaries as data collection tools against a backdrop of researcher positionality. In the first example, the teacher-researcher embedded diaries in a curriculum to collect data from language learners in Japan. While learner engagement with the diaries was high, the prescriptive approach led students to tell ‘the teacher what they wanted to read’. In the second example, the researcher used the diaries to collect data on out-of-class learning among language students in Germany. Engagement with the diaries was initially low but improved substantially after daily reminders were sent via mobile phone. Nonetheless, results revealed a possible self-selection bias. Both examples highlight the value in making adaptations to diary methods as the research context necessitates, so that researchers can take into account issues that might distort or produce misleading data.

The Phenomenon of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Writing: A Literature Review

Multiple approaches, strategies, and experiments have been used in studies to determine the quality of reflective practice in teacher education. It includes research on both general education and TEFL pre-service teachers. Most of these studies focus around the testing and development of tools for the practice of reflection, as well as testing and developing the assessment of reflective practice. Furthermore, by analyzing studies on the forms, features, and evaluative aspects of reflective writing, this literature review paper attempts to go deeply into the area of reflexivity and personal reflection. The research analyzed in this paper should have established the study's position and goals in terms of the style of reflective writing and theoretical approaches to assessment and appraisal attitude. It has stated its role in enhancing students' learning and identity, as well as the importance of affective meanings in this category. Nonetheless, research on this component of reflective writing and how students' perspective and identity are shaped appears to be restricted, suggesting a lack of decent knowledge. Examining the various techniques to evaluation and conducting research on writer position in student teachers' discourse highlighted the necessity to create a framework based on an attitude appraisal system.

Reflective Practice in Teacher Education: A Look into Past and Present Theories, and Some Pertinent Issues

Many educators regard the practice of pedagogical reflection as a prime motivator in the professional growth of teachers. This idea has spurred the realization of the practice of reflection since the early stages of the university's teacher education program. Several scholars have developed their ideas regarding excellent practices in reflection throughout the years. They presented methodologies, concepts, and ways to construct the course of reflection from non-reflective to critical reflective by identifying the reflective thought process and underpinning the degrees of reflection. These ideas would also allow educators to create evaluations for reflective practice. However, this sound theoretical framework is frequently riddled with flaws that linger to the present time, particularly about the extent to which such activity will provide noteworthy growth for teachers, as well as the legitimacy of its reflexivity itself. This paper tries to revisit the origin of the concept, the development, and pinpoint the persistent issues. This, hopefully, would enable us to seek the deeper insight into the dynamics of reflective practice in teacher education program.

Adopting a Janus perspective: moving forwards and backwards through our teacher professional experiences

ABSTRACTThe paper reports on collaborative journal writing and dialogue sustained by two education professionals with a view to engaging in meaningful reflective practice. The transition from journal writing to reporting in this paper was underpinned by knowledge of the place of reflective practice in teacher education and continuous professional development. Knowledge of the limited opportunities and time for meaningful continuous professional development, as experienced across the education sector, also informed a desire to share the writing experience with a view to encouraging other teachers to develop writing communities. As teacher educators, we relate how we came to write together and sustained a dialogue that provided us with newly framed insights into our professional lives and experiences. Our journalling told our stories and was very much in the spirit of evocative autoethnography. We describe how we naturally included sensory description related to the time and place of writing. We also used more evocative language, including the use of metaphors. Themes of critical reflection, reflexivity, embodied reflection and evocative autoethnography are therefore explored in the light of our writing experience. The journals and the associated dialogue highlight the values of such small and time constrained moments as informal professional development opportunities.

Digital Storytelling to Unlock Reflective Practice in the Classroom

It is a common practice that teachers tell stories in the classroom when teaching literature. They are enthusiastic in their teaching profession but students nowadays are diverse in their learning styles and they need different approaches to be taught. Therefore, this study advocates teachers to reflect on their teaching practice to use technology specifically digital storytelling as a teaching method in the classroom. The single case study involved a pre-service teacher who underwent a micro-teaching session in teaching literature. The instruments used were peer observation checklist, the artefacts of digital storytelling, video recording, and reflective journal. The findings indicated that the participant was able to be more aware of her strengths and weaknesses in the crafts of storytelling, personalise her own learning and improve her teaching practice. The implications are for the educators to encourage pre-service teachers to use digital storytelling in the classroom, provide coaching and support to improve their crafts of storytelling in the teaching of children’s literature as well as use digital storytelling as a tool for reflective practice in teacher education.

EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN THE CONTEXT OF STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHER EDUCATION

Being one of the most popular theories of professional knowledge in the last 30 years, reflective practice has been widely adopted not only by practicing teachers in their working environment, but in pre-service teacher education as well. Meeting the need to respond to the challenges posed by the society nowadays, higher education is undergoing radical changes calling for the proper implementation of student-centered studies. In the context of such a paradigm shift there is a strong urge for the concept of reflective practice to be examined more carefully so that it could be put into effect in the studies of higher education. The paper seeks to respond to this problem by offering an in-depth analysis of the attributes characteristic of the concept of reflective practice in the paradigm shift. Based on the thorough review of scientific works dealing with the concept of reflective practice in teacher education, the current study reports on the insights regarding the development of this concept for reflective practice to be successfully applied in the process of teacher education.

A failure of dialogue? a critical reflection on a discussion between a teacher trainer and a pre-service second-language teacher

Reflective practice in teacher education often involves dialogic communication between teacher educators and teachers. This essay asks what constitutes authentic dialogic engagement in discussions between a pre-service second-language (SL) teacher and her university supervisor. Written as a self-critical reflection, the paper first describes the author’s thoughts and feelings about a post-teaching session he conducted with one of his supervisees and identifies possible disconnections existing between them. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s of genuine dialogue, this paper reflects on the dispositions that foster a dialogic relationship between teacher educators and pre-service and in-service teachers.

Reflective Practices for Teacher Education

Studies on reflective practice in teacher education are increasingly getting more attention at least in the last 2 decades. This article discusses concepts of reflection and how it is implemented in educating pre-service teachers on their early stage of professional learning. The purposes of doing the reflection for pre-service teachers are not only for illuminating their professional learning experiences, but also to critically reflect their vocation as teachers, including the values which may be dictated to them through rigid regulations. Reflection in teacher education is crucial as it connects well with learning in that learners use reflection to exercise their mind and to evaluate their learning experiences. Besides, this article also highlights some perceived difficulties to implement reflective practice, as well as ways how to promote reflection.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2012.150102

Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective models of John Dewey and Donald Schön

In this paper, I take issue with the overuse of reflective practice in teacher education, arguing that the term ‘reflection’ is often utilized without a comprehensive understanding of its quite diverse parentage. In efforts to clarify the term, I trace the ideological lineage of reflective practice in education, detailing the rationalist-technicist model offered in the work of John Dewey and the experiential-intuitive model as it appears in the work of Donald Schön, highlighting the key differences in their respective approaches to reflection through critique. I demonstrate that both models bifurcate knowledge and experience, privileging the former at the expense of the latter. I conclude with a brief exploration of Van Manen’s tacit knowing and its potential for reflective practice in teacher education. Ultimately, this work cautions against an uncritical adoption of reflective models, stressing that in doing so, the very spirit of reflective practice can be undermined.

Quality reflective practice in teacher education: a journey towards shared understanding

This paper describes the process followed by a group of four primary and secondary teacher educators at a university in Sydney, Australia, to develop a collective understanding of the nature and value of reflective practice. The project developed a framework and set of indicators to assess the quality of pre-service teachers’ reflective writing and provide targeted feedback to support their ability to reflect on classroom practice. The process of developing the framework highlights the value of collaborative coding and collegial discussion as methods for establishing common understanding and shared practice of reflective writing in teacher education.

A pathway to play in early childhood education developed through the explicit modelling of reflective practice in teacher education in Abu Dhabi, UAE

This is a practitioner-based research inquiry into reflective practices during an in-service professional development course for Emirati early childhood teachers at a university in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The course focused on child-centred learning through play. During the course, reflective strategies were explicitly modelled by the lecturer through thinking-aloud protocol, sharing of reflective diary entries and interactive discussions. Students reflected on their teaching practices in reflective diaries and on their experiences of explicit modelling of reflective practices in semi-structured interviews. The inquiry’s three phases examined: (a) the content of teacher educator reflective practices; (b) how participants reflected on their teaching and, (c) how participants benefited from the explicit modelling of reflective practices during the course. Findings showed the teacher educator reflected on essential elements of teacher reflective practice. Importantly, students also evidenced reflection on key concepts and on how their developing reflective awareness had positive repercussions for child-centred, play-based practices.

Learning and Sharing through Reflective Practice in Teacher Education in Italy

John Dewey (1933) argued that learning from experience is enriched by reflecting on experience and Donald A. Schön (1987) theorized that reflective practice represents an important factor to improve professional activity. Jack Mezirow, (1991, 2000) gives reflection a central role in learning because through it we become aware of the ways in which we interpret reality and give meaning to actions and behaviour. From this theoretical framework this paper describes a case study about the benefits produced by reflective practice on students during teacher training in Italy, with a particular focus on the connection between reflection, self-awareness and learning. In particular it analyses the experience of reflective practice of thirty-five pre-service teachers’ education, with a qualitative approach, “Clinica della Formazione” of Riccardo Massa (1987, 1990). Based on these results we would like to prepare a model of reflective practice for pre-service teachers and teachers in service.

Reflective Practice in Teacher Education in Ghana

This paper examined the import of adopting reflective practice in the preparation of teacher trainees in the colleges of education in Ghana. It looked at the various dimensions of the knowledge base of teacher education curriculum in Ghana and various policy documents, especially the Colleges of Education Act, Act 847, which elevated the status of training colleges to tertiary institutions. Data from varied documents were explored and analysed from a discourse analytic perspective to ascertain how reflective practice is integrated into the pedagogy of teacher education in Ghana. The paper identified the adoption of reflective practice, with emphasis on artistry, which is reflection-in-action, as a suitable pedagogical skill to complement what the colleges of education are currently doing to actualize their mission. Policy recommendations included the restructuring of the curriculum of the colleges of education to address the development of students’ tacit knowledge by interfacing theory and experience. Research recommendations included an action research on teacher effectiveness using reflective practice.

Evaluation of reflective practice in teacher education

Teacher education based on ‘reflective practice’ consists of observing, analysing and reflecting on teacher performance in order to improve professional practice. This article presents the results of an evaluation of a programme on mathematics teaching carried out using reflective practice. It was targeted at 284 teachers in various stages of the education system, using an approach that combines quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews and reports) methods. While the study shows that the education programme generates high levels of satisfaction, pedagogical appropriateness and learning, its achievements in effectiveness are moderate. Although, in general, what is learned through teacher education is implemented in the classroom, it is done so in an isolated fashion, in other words, individually and without becoming a part of the culture of the school. The results show little evidence of its impact on student learning. The article offers proposals for improving the education programme, while, at the same time, analysing the usefulness of the approach and evaluation tools employed.

Has Reflective Practice Done More Harm than Good in Teacher Education?

Why do we emphasize reflective practice so extensively in pre-service teacher education? What evidence do we have that frequent references to reflection are improving the quality of the teachers we prepare for certification and careers in teaching? Whatever reflection and reflective practice are, they are not ends in themselves; hopefully, they are means to the end of better teaching practices and better learning by students in schools. In this article I explore reflection and reflective practice from several perspectives, including my personal experiences as a teacher educator working with individuals preparing to become teachers of physics. The question asked in the title captures my fear that the ways teacher educators have responded to and made use of the concepts of reflection and reflective practice may be doing more harm than good in pre-service teacher education. To begin, I consider teacher education practices before and after the arrival of the term reflective practice. I then consider elements of Schön’s (1983) work and review five articles about reflective practice in teacher education; this is not a formal literature review, but rather an effort to show how virtually every article about reflective practice seems to be driven by its author’s personal perspective. The article continues with personal interpretations and illustrations and concludes with five generalizations about teacher education practices that indicate that much more work needs to be done if references to reflection are to do more good than harm in preservice teacher education programs.

Exploring the Relationship between Self-Regulated Learning and Reflection in Teacher Education

Literature on teacher learning has shown links between being a self-regulated learner, reflecting effectively on one’s own practice, and being described as an “adaptive expert”. For instance, the metacognitive skills needed for effective reflection on teaching practice are seen as critically important to developing adaptive expertise in the context of the highly complex classroom environment. Similarly, self-regulated learning is often defined, at least in part, in terms of using metacognitive skill to adapt one’s approach to complex learning situations or problems. Although there is rich literature on reflective practice in teacher education, less is known about measuring teachers’ self-regulated learning or the relationship between self-regulated learning and teacher reflections. This research examines reflective practice and self-regulated learning through pre-service teachers’ written reflections. The study makes a novel adaptation of a rubric designed to evaluate teacher education candidates’ reflections to measure self-regulated learning. Findings suggest that the rubric could also be useful in understanding the self-regulated practices of teacher education candidates.