Understanding own teaching: becoming reflective teachers through reflective journals

Reflective journal facilitates teachers to reflect on their teaching and then generate feedback for the improvement of their classroom practices. This study examined how in-service English teachers in a MA Linguistics program at a US Mid-Western University perceived the influence of reflective journals toward their teaching attitudes. At the time of the research, participants were 25 years of age or older. The findings generated from interviews indicated that most participants were convinced that reflective journals help them become reflective teachers. It also found that most in-service teachers regard reflective journals as an effective tool to increase teaching awareness, and thus improve their performance during teaching.     

Use of Photovoice in Processing Race-Based Topics in a Multicultural Counseling Course

This phenomenological study assessed master-level students’ experiences of using photovoice, a creative learning activity, in a race-based multicultural counseling course. Students were asked to engage in weekly written reflections regarding a course-related photographic image, with the goal of more deeply processing cognitive and affective reactions to the course. Data analyzed included focus groups, student written responses, and photos. Findings indicated use of photovoice as a means for processing cognitions, which allowed students to deepen learning by extending a racialized lens outside of the classroom. Students also indicated use of the tool to process emotional reactions at various stages of the course, allowing learners to creatively and visually express feelings as they surfaced.     

Writing SMARTER goals for professional learning and improving classroom practices

Writing SMART Goals has recently become an integral part of the landscape of teacher professional learning in Australian schools, including both teacher professional development and performance management in classroom practices. This paper discusses the origins of SMART Goals and the diverse terms and definitions associated with such goal setting. Anecdotal evidence suggests that for some teachers, writing personal, professional or teaching and learning goals may be a daunting task. For school leadership teams, these goals often are the basis for operationalising school improvement over time. We make a case for clarity with SMART Goals within the context of each school, as interpreted and supported by school principals and leadership teams working with their staff. This paper concludes with some tentative suggestions for school leaders intended to improve SMART Goals, and teacher professional learning, over time. We hope this clarification and our suggestions support writing more effective learning goals for both teachers and students over time.     

‘It’s OK to feel totally confused’: reflection without practice by preservice teachers in an introductory education course

In the following article, we describe our research with preservice teachers (PSTs) engaged in an introductory course in curriculum, instruction, and technology. Typically, efforts to engage PSTs in reflection focus on the student-teaching experience. We assert there is potential for PSTs to think deeply about their identities prior to actual classroom experience. Our research concerns the development of reflective pedagogical thinking by PSTs, stimulated by a variety of curricular, instructional, and technological learning experiences. We will highlight the pedagogical innovations we employed to stimulate PSTs to engage in meaningful reflection prior to their student-teaching experiences. We will describe our learning experiences and nontraditional grading scheme in the course, and examine the impact of those practices on PST reflective writing.     

Collective reflection in practice: an ethnographic study of Swedish police training

Although reflection has been viewed as an individual process, increased attention has been given to how reflective processes are socially anchored. The present article contributes to this knowledge through an examination of how collective reflection is enacted in the context of police education. The article is based on a one-year ethnographic study of police recruits undergoing training, and the main sources of data collection were participant observations and field interviews. The data were inductively analysed, and a model that differentiates amongst ‘specular’, ‘dialogic’ and ‘polyphonic’ reflection processes is presented. The findings suggest that collective reflection involving multiple individuals adds complexity to reflective processes and that these processes may take on more diverse forms than has been acknowledged, as previous research has mainly focused on dialogic collective reflection. The implications of these findings, such as how increased complexity may counteract the benefits of collective reflection, are also discussed.     

Developing pre-service teachers’ confidence: real-time coaching in teacher education

Teacher quality continues to be of major concern in the Western world, and identifying the most effective approach to teacher training remains a contested area. It has been argued that teachers resist change because they lack motivation, have inadequate knowledge and expertise to modify their practices, and are reluctant to take risks for fear of having their confidence damaged. While remaining skeptical of such a deficit view, our interest is in pedagogic approaches which seek to better prepare teachers for teaching in contemporary society and, thus, to enhance their ‘effectiveness.’ This article discusses the use of a Real-Time Coaching (RTC) model designed to enhance pre-service teachers’ practical skills for contemporary classroom teaching. The model focuses upon pre-service teachers micro-teaching while simultaneously gaining feedback via a headset in real time; this is then combined with multiple collaborative feedback cycles within a learning community in order to foster reflective practice. To collect information about participants’ experiences with the RTC process, two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants. Our findings indicate the RTC model has the capacity to foster a sense of confidence and ownership of learning by developing practical skills alongside affective attributes such as resilience, efficacy, and a disposition toward continual improvement.     

An embodied perspective on judgements of written reflective practice for professional development in Higher Education

This paper gives an embodied perspective on the use of judgements of reflective practice and reflective writing for professional development in Higher Education. Programmes for professional development in Higher Education and recognition processes for academics have become prevalent in the UK and internationally. These programmes and processes often assume, implicitly or explicitly, development or evidencing as a ‘reflective practitioner’ through pieces of reflective writing which is then judged against competencies or attainments. However, this focus on reflective practice and reflective writing is not always critical, and does not examine the different theoretical and practical interpretations of what it means to reflect, or the impact of assessing such reflections. Taking an embodied stance allows a new view into a contested area that is more habitually connected with cognitive rather than corporeal processes.     

Feedback on reflection: comparing rating-scale and forced-choice formats for measuring and facilitating teacher team reflective practice

This study focused on elements of measurement and feedback for teacher reflective practice. The measurement component examined the use of the Survey of Reflective Practice: A Tool for Assessing Development as a Reflective Practitioner to measure reflective practice and promote reflection, and compared educator responses using rating-scale and forced-choice item formats. The feedback component observed teachers and mentors collaborating to set goals that facilitate growth as a reflective practitioner. Results suggest the instrument can be used to measure and facilitate a teacher team’s level of reflection with one important caveat: our results indicate that there may be a threshold level of reflection necessary before teachers can benefit from the examined collaborative process. In addition, results suggest that the forced-choice item format might help mentors move away from a judging and evaluating mindset to a mindset of thoughtful analysis of the conditions and qualities that most accurately describe the team’s reflective behavior.     

Double narrative of a researcher and the researched: the journey of English-language learning

As I embarked on my PhD study in Australia, I felt excited because my study was born out of reflection on my own journey of English-language learning. I decided to use my experiences as a touchstone for an understanding of the experiences of others like me. The study presented here is part of a larger study and is a double narrative that explores the researcher’s and the four participants’ experiences of learning English language in their home country contexts and also in Australia while they are studying in an Australian tertiary context. Through a reflective practice, I have reflectively studied my and the participants’ experiences with language learning strategies (LLS) to improve English-language skills and to better socialise into Australian academic and social discourses as international students. By linking the researcher and the researched closely, this research makes a contribution to English learning and teaching on the development of English-language skills of international students through the use of LLS. It provides some implications to institutions and advice to students like me.