The concept of reflection is probably as old as educational discourse itself. It is an inseparable element of teaching and learning, allowing teachers to identify and solve problems (Dewey, 1933) related to their teaching practice or learning various aspects of their profession. Although teachers have always been in some way engaged in reflection, it is only during recent decades that the notion has become a well-established theoretical concept in the field of education (Farrell, 2019).The basic premises behind reflective practice are that it helps teachers to apply theory to practice, leads to improved classroom practice and enables practitioners to grow professionally by learning from classroom-related experience (Cirocki & Farrell, 2017).This article is a review of the notion of reflective practice in teacher education. This article will review two aspects: (1) the concept of reflective practice and reflective practitioners and (2) critical views of reflective practice. 

The Concept of Reflective Practice and Reflective Practitioners

Reflection, and reflective practice, play a fundamental role in teacher learning and professional development (Widodo & Ferdiansyah, 2018) because it gives teachers the opportunity to self-assess their teaching knowledge and practice, as well as share thinking and practices in informal groups or well-established communities of practice. Reflective practice has been operationalised in different ways, including learning through and from experience, evidence-based observations, and examination of critical incidents (Arslan, 2019). Regardless of the different approaches, it can be defined as thinking about classroom events, experiences, or critical incidents, before, during and after their occurrence, in ways that allow for deep introspection and evaluation.

From an ecological perspective, reflective practice embraces three levels: surface reflection, pedagogical reflection, and critical reflection (Larrivee, 2008). With surface reflection, teachers emphasise technical methods to achieve specific goals. Pedagogical reflection involves reflecting on instructional theories and approaches, and connections between theory and practice; teachers aspire to achieve consistency between advocated theory and theory-in-use. Critical reflection involves teachers reflecting on the moral and ethical implications of their classroom practices on students and themselves as lifelong learners. It involves an in-depth analysis of both personal and professional belief systems as well as educational practices.

Preparing teachers to become reflective practitioners is a frequently articulated goal in teacher education (Cirocki & Farrell, 2017). Similarly, the construction of reflective identity in practitioners has become a prominent theme within a transformative education discourse. Thus, as reflective practitioners, teachers are no longer technicians or curriculum transmitters who follow a subscribed model of education. Instead, they serve as autonomous decision makers who continually learn from their experience and reconstruct this experience through reflection (Schön,1983). Reflective practitioners are also committed to lifelong learning, as they engage in continuing reflective practice and professional identity (re)construction (Cirocki & Farrell, 2017). Sustained reflective practice is therefore challenging, as it requires that teachers regularly play various roles, often going beyond those of curriculum transmitters. To fulfil the various roles well, as Qinhua, Dongming, Zhiying and Hao (2016, pp: 6-7) state, reflective practitioners are required to; (i) acknowledge the theory and value of life-long learning, (ii) demonstrate strong motivation to learn, coupled with a sense of responsibility, (iii) show clear self-perception, in addition to continual self-reflection and self-assessment, (iv) display self-direction, self-adjustment and control their learning process, (v) be effective in using diverse learning methods, strategies, approaches and resources to assist their own learning and (vi) assess the effects of their own learning and use their learning in solving problems, facilitating future learning. 

Critical Views of Reflective Practice

Although the concept of reflective practice established itself as a major component in teacher education, it is not without criticisms based on various aspects. The establishment of reflective practice in teacher education programmes has in fact, created more contradictions, tensions and dilemma. 

A Delusive Concept 

The vagueness of the concept of reflective practice has been an on-going subject of dispute by many notable scholars of the field. The literature pertaining to the idea of reflection “has witnessed a loose and fuzzy treatment of the concept” and “its various conceptions galore” (Fat’hi & Behzadpour, 2011, p: 245). One dispute is the concept of reflection formulated by Dewey and the type of reflection propagated by Schön. Dewey’s notion of reflection is a form of practice in the field that will eventually lead to professionalization and is a means to control “action that is merely repetitive, blind and impulsive” (Dewey, 1933, p: 17). Schön on the other hand viewed reflection as an intuitive, personal, and non-rational activity in which practitioners make “new sense of the situations of uncertainty or uniqueness” of the teaching experience (Schön, 1983, p: 61). The tensions between Dewey’s notion of reflection which is both scientific and rational in nature and the reflection proposed by Schön, which is more of an intuitive-based concept has resulted in a state of confusion as to what the term exactly means.

An Individualistic Approach

The individualistic nature of reflective practice is yet another point of disagreement among advocates of reflective practice. The consequence of the disagreement has given rise to the question of the relative benefits of individual and collective reflection in the literature on reflective practice. Many practitioners assert that leaving reflections in the hand of the individual to analyse and make a valid judgement is difficult as the individual may believe that it seems much safer and secure not to reflect as they do not see anything wrong. A position also supported by Mann and Walsh (2013) who claim that “RP is often presented as an individual process that does not fore-ground collaboration or participation in a community of practice” (p: 296). On the other hand, studies examining pre-service and novice teachers’ reflective thinking and engagement (Cirocki & Widodo, 2019) concluded that for deeper, richer and more critical articulation of reflective thought and engagement to develop there has to be guidance, feedback and some form of collaboration to support it. 

The Dominance of the Written Forms 

Mann and Walsh (2013) put forth the argument that there appears to be a dominance of written forms of reflective practice at the expense of other possible forms. This issue has also surfaced as a point of contention among reflective practice scholars who appear to be divided on this. Reflective journals have been widely used in teacher education programmes and have also been the focus of many studies related to reflective practice. Reflective journal writing either done individually or collaboratively provides the individual meta-cognitive opportunities to connect new and existing knowledge. Having established the importance of written journals in developing reflective practice in teacher education, contrasting views on the use of written journals have also been raised. Mann & Walsh (2013) caution about written forms of reflection claiming that when the focus of reflection is on the writing itself, practitioners can find themselves more concerned with “completing the reflective task” (p: 297) which may prioritise reflection as a product rather than a process. 

Is it Possible for the Novice?

There appears to be conflicting perspectives in introducing reflective practice in pre-service teacher training. Akbari (2007) in his polemic paper on reflections presented the argument that “reflection cannot be introduced at all the stages of teacher development” (p: 200) more so in the early stages of teacher development as they could be counter-productive because survival strategies take priority. He goes on further to add that novice or beginning teachers are more concerned with the image they portray rather than “any real and meaningful creativity or innovation aimed at improved classroom performance” (Akbari, 2007; p: 200). This claim is supported by other advocates who posit that many new teachers tend to fall back on pre-conceived understandings of how they and their pupils should conduct themselves in the classroom which can hinder critically constructive practice and reflection. On the other end of the argument, several researchers have pointed out that with appropriate conditions and spaces for professional dialogue/collegial discussions in addition to suitable facilitation approaches and sustained feedback (Foong, Md Noor & Nolan, 2018; Martinez, 2018) novice teachers can be guided to understand and re-construct their teaching knowledge, which is very much what reflective practice advocates.

Conclusion

This article has reviewed a fundamental cornerstone of teacher education, reflective practice by highlighting two aspects which are the concept of reflective practice and reflective practitioners as well as some critical views of reflective practice. Despite, its ambiguity in different research-based contexts, reflective practice still remains a crucial component in teacher training and development.

References

Akbari, R. (2007). Reflections on reflection: A critical appraisal of reflective practices in L2 teacher education. System, 35(2), 192–207.

Arslan, F.Y. (2019). Reflection in pre-service teacher education: Exploring the nature of four EFL pre-service teachers’’ reflections. Reflective Practice, 20(1), 111-124.

Cirocki, A., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2017). Reflective practice in the ELT classroom [special issue]. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 6(2).

Cirocki, A., & Widodo, H. P. (2019). Reflective Practice in English Language Teaching in Indonesia: Shared practices from two teacher educators. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 7(3), 15-35.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of reflective thinking to the educative process. Boston, MA: D. C. Heath.

Farrell, T. S. C. (2019). Reflective practice in ELT. London: Equinox.

Fat’hi, J., & Behzadpour, F. 2011. Beyond Method: The Rise of Reflective Teaching. International Journal of English Linguistics, 1(2), 241–252.

Foong, L.Y.Y., Md Nor, M., Nolan, A. (2018). The influence of practicum supervisors’ facilitation styles on student teachers’ reflective thinking during collective reflection. Reflective Practice, 19(2), 1-16. 

Larrivee, B. (2008). Meeting the challenge of preparing reflective practitioners. The New Educator, 4(2), 87-106.

Mann, S & Walsh, S (2013). RP or RIP: A critical perspective on reflective practice. Applied Linguistics Review, 4(3), 543 -579.

Martínez, J.M.G. (2018). How effective is collaborative reflective practice in enabling cognitive transformation in English language teachers? Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspective 19(4), 427 – 446.

Qinhua, Z., Dongming, M., Zhiying, N., & Hao, X. (2016). Adult competences for lifelong learning. Aalborg: River Publishers.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. (Reprinted in 1995)

Written by Shubashini Suppiah