Reflective Teaching as a Tool for Teacher Professional Development

Reflection has long been known as an important component for teacher professional development, and it has been widely researched. However, little is known about how teachers reflect on their teaching. Aiming at finding out how in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers reflect on their teaching activities and how their self-reflection impacts their professionalism, the current study employs a qualitative case study as its research design. It involved six in-service EFL teachers at various levels of education, such as kindergarten, elementary, junior, and senior high schools, who were taking the postgraduate program in English Education at FKIP Universitas Tanjungpura as the research participants. The data for this study were obtained through questionnaires and interviews, as well as the written analysis of participants' teaching videos. After being analyzed qualitatively, the findings of this study indicate that most respondents reflect on their teaching activities at a very basic level. In relation to the impact of their reflective teaching on their professionalism, however, overall, respondents thought that their reflection activities helped them know their weaknesses and strengths in teaching, which encouraged them to become better teachers.

A Telecollaborative International Exchange for Foreign Language Learning and Reflective Teaching

This chapter shares the reflections on a joint international research educational project, involving Columbia University students studying Italian, and Italian pre-service teachers enrolled in an MA in Teaching Italian as a Foreign Language at the University of Urbino, Italy. The northern hemisphere autumn term 2014 iteration of the project is taken as a case study to discuss the effectiveness of teleconferencing for foreign language learning and teaching. The results showed that the videoconference sessions positively affected the learning process of students, and simultaneously fostered reflective teaching in pre-service teachers.

THE CONCEPTS OF LATAIF QURANIYYAH AND AL-SUHBAH AS RECENT INNOVATION IN REFLECTIVE TEACHING

Learning methods in this Industrial Revolution 4.0 era extensively uses computers. This leads to effective abandonment of teacher-student relationship, namely al-Suhbah (Human bonding through social interaction). Excessive concern for syllabus completion and achievement in final exams focus on the cognitive domain of students, but neglect their psychomotor and affective domains. Reflective Teaching is very important in the aspect of students affective domain. Thus, this study highlights the combination of Lataif Quraniyyah (Quranic Subtleties) and al-Suhbah (Human Bonding) concepts as the main thrust for emphasizing the affective domain in order to balance it with the cognitive and psychomotor domains. This teaching innovation was implemented for students taking the course PPPN3103 al-Quran Education, for Semester 1 Session 2019/2020, and surprisingly proved effective in producing very positive results and impact on achieving the objectives or course learning outcomes outlined in Reflective Teaching.

Relationship between Reflective Teaching and Teacher Autonomy among Iranian EFL Experienced and Novice Teachers

The present study was an attempt to examine the relationship between reflective teaching and teacher autonomy among Iranian EFL experienced and novice teachers. The study was conducted with a sample of 100 EFL teachers that were selected by convenience sampling from language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. In order to neutralize the role of gender, as an intervening variable, an equal number of male and female participants were invited to take part in the study. Out of participants, 50 of them were experienced and 50 were novice teachers (those teachers who had fewer than five years and more than five years of teaching experience were considered novice and experienced participants). The participants were requested to fill out two questionnaires measuring reflective teaching and teacher autonomy. The descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. The findings showed that there was a strong positive relationship between the experienced teachers' reflective teaching and their teacher autonomy and there was a moderate positive relationship between the novice teachers' reflective teaching and their teacher autonomy. The results of the present study will be useful for EFL teachers to have effective teaching. Obviously, reflective teaching would help teachers to foster their independence.

Enhancing the quality of student teachers’ reflective teaching practice through building a virtual learning community

Microteaching and reflection remains an important technique that pre-service student teachers can use to practice their teaching in a safe environment. However, improvements in teaching are not guaranteed without the support and feedback from peers. Previous studies suggest that a learning community supported by information technology promotes improved pedagogical decisions. This study aimed to examine whether virtual learning communities can facilitate student teachers’ reflection upon their teaching practice. A video database with both text- and voice-comment functionalities was designed to facilitate the process of giving peer feedback and improve the quality of teaching practice. Student teachers’ experiences in using the video database were collected through a questionnaire survey and feedback recorded within the database. Findings indicated that student teachers demonstrated a better understanding of concepts and theories relevant to the teaching of the chosen language skill area. While only some student teachers reflected on their reflective teaching practice more effectively with voice-comment features, most of them did peer evaluation of relevant principles and techniques used in their microteaching. Although feedback on the comment functionalities was divided, student teachers trusted that the microteaching videos with their own reflection and peer feedback were good evidence of their learning outcomes. Future research should examine what types of peer feedback in virtual learning communities may work more effectively in enhancing the quality of reflective teaching practice.