Reflective Practices: Process,Effectiveness, and Challenges
Supong Tangkiengsirisin, PhD
Language InstituteThammasat University• A form of cyclical and systematic inquiry

What isreflectivepractice?

• Teachers carefully collect evidence about theirteaching practices to analyze, interpret, andevaluate their experiences with the intention toimprove their future teaching (Farrell, 2016;
Mathew & Peechattu, 2017).
• A meaning-making process that enables teachers togrow (Rodgers, 2002)

What is reflective practice?
• Reflective teachers• aim at gaining better solutions• attempt to deepen their understanding of themselves• try to understand how the solutions they havediscovered connect to other experiences and ideas• RP is a key factor that brings change to"teacher identity" and "teacher quality".

Why
reflectivepractice?

• Teacher identity refers to the way teachers
understand themselves as teachers(Mockler, 2011) -- both personally andprofessionally.
• RP provides teachers with an opportunity for
their emotions, beliefs, and personalphilosophies of teaching to be challengedand refined (Walkington, 2005)

Why reflective practice?
• Reflective practice assists teachers in identifying what is going on
inside their minds.
• Teachers may change/improve their teaching in areas of classroom
activities, lesson planning, behavioral management, etc.

• a teacher-centered classroom
a student-centered classroom• classroom control through punishment
a relationship-building strategy(Alger, 2006)

Why reflective practice?
• RP contributes to the enhancement of teacher quality.​• Teacher quality refers to professional development – how ateacher learns particular knowledge and a set of skills within a specific context ofsituation (Koellner & Jacobs, 2015)​• Through RP, teachers' awareness of their teaching increases.
• Teachers can "unlearn" the ineffective teaching methods that may have
undesirable effects on students' learning experience (Ciampa & Gallagher, 2015)

Why reflective practice?

RP allows pre-service andin-service teachers to stop
for a moment to take alook into their pastexperiences.

Teachers can explore theirexperiences and discover“the truth” about
themselves through selfobservation, self-analysis,
and self-evaluation.

Whyreflectivepractice?

• RP supports the concept of “mindfulnesspractice” introduced by Mortari (2012).
• Teachers should be aware of their innerlives first before solving their classroom
problems or responding to students’needs.
• Teachers’ self-understanding has a strong
influence on their professional roles andbehaviors.

Reflective Practice Process• Three frameworks that can beused to guide and “scaffold” thereflective process in teacher
education:

Gibb (1988)– ReflectiveCycleGibb (1988)• How many stages does this framework have?
• 6 stages• shows the continuous development of teachers’ reflective thinking

Gibb (1988)• Stage 1: Description• What/how should teachers describe?
• Revisit the puzzling incident thatmade them curious or wish tounderstand better• Describe the details of the situation• Avoid making any judgements ordrawing any conclusions about theincident

Gibb (1988)• Stage 2: Feelings• What should teachers do at this stage?
• Explore the thoughts or feelings that they were having when
the incident occurred• Avoid making any analysis or judgements• Should be aware of how their thoughts and feelings wereimpacted by the incident

Gibb (1988)• Stage3: Evaluation• What/how should teachers evaluate?
• Can evaluate what was good or bad about theincident• Should consider both, although the incident
may seem totally negative

Gibb (1988)• Stage 4: Analysis• What should teachers do at thisstage?
• Teachers can justify or critiquetheir actions based on their
existing knowledge, on therelevant academic literature, oroutside perspectives.

Gibb (1988)• Stage 5: Conclusion• How should teachers conclude?
• Teachers bring together what
they have reflected on
previously• Teachers draw logicalconclusions about what they
have learned or what they
could have done differently

Gibb (1988)• Stage 6: Action plan
• What should teachers do at thisfinal stage?
• Teachers suggest a plan forimprovement in a similar
situation based on theprevious stages of the cycle

Korthagenand Vasalos(2005) – TheOnion ModelKorthagen and Vasalos(2005)• Assumption: Teachers canunderstand the true meaning of asituation only when their reflection
touches them personally and gives
them opportunities to explore
themselves as teachers.
• The analogy of an onion torepresent teachers’ reflection atdifferent levels, moving from theoutside to the inside.

Korthagen and Vasalos(2005)
The first layer• Teachers explore the challenges thatthey face.

The second layer• How teachers cope with the challenges
mentioned in the first layer.

The third layer• Teachers reflect on what they can
actually do to solve the challenges.

Korthagen and Vasalos(2005)
The fourth layer• Teachers explore what their assumptions or beliefs
are toward their challenges.
The fifth layer• Their assumptions/beliefs about themselves arereflected.
The last layer• Teachers explore what inspires and gives meaning
to their lives or their profession.

Farrell, 2015
• A holistic framework that combines all aspects of reflection• the intellectual and cognitive aspects of teaching practice• The non-cognitive aspects of teachers’ inner lifeReflecting onPractice(Farrell,2015)

Farrell, 2015
• Stage 1: Philosophy• Teachers reflect on their background and previous life
experiences.
• Stage 2: Principles• Teachers reflect on their assumptions, beliefs, and conceptions ofteaching and learning.
• Stage 3: Theory• Teachers examine the plans, teaching activities, and teaching
methods that they choose to see if they can be translated in theclassroom or not.

Farrell, 2015

• Stage 4: Practice• Teachers examine the observable actionsof both themselves and of theirstudents.
• Stage 5: Beyond practice• Teachers are encouraged to explore andexamine the moral, political, and social
issues that influence their practice both
inside and outside their teaching context.

Advantages of RP• What are some advantages of reflective practice?
• For pre-service teachers:• A bridge connecting the gap between theory and practice• Teachers can apply the theoretical knowledge and teaching techniquesthat they acquired in their coursework in the real classroom setting.
• Teachers can gain a better understanding of teaching in the real-worldcontext.
• Teachers can recognize the students’ needs and acknowledge thedifficulties in teaching that they may face in the future

Advantages of RP• For (in-service) teachers:• Can take informed actions that can be explained to others and thatcan be used to guide further action• Can become responsible for themselves and their students• Can develop confidence in teaching• Can encourage innovation• Can consciously develop a repertoire of relevant and contextspecific strategies and techniques
https://www.cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswrp/index.html

Advantagesof RP• A study by Ragawanti (2015) has reported on
how reflective practice helped pre-service
teachers improve their classroom management
skills.
• One of the study participants struggled withdealing with a noisy class. In response to theproblem, the participant chose different
methods to keep her students silent, such as
warning, scolding, and giving direct orders;
however, she failed.
• After reflecting on and evaluating the methods
that she used regarding this issue for a while,
she realized that keeping herself calm andpatient was a more effective strategy.

• Reflective teaching practiceChallenges• What are some challenges regarding the use of RP?
• Reflection is a concept that can be “too big, too vague, and too
general for everyday application” (Korthagen & Wubbels, 1995).
• Being critically self-aware is a skill that comes with experience.
• A depth of understanding is required to explore or examine one’s
personal theories of teaching and learning.

Challenges• Teachers’ tight teaching schedules and workload may make teachers
view RP as a time-consuming process.
• Due to the lack of time, teachers choose not to put much effort into
their reflection.
• RP can become counter-productive if pre-service teachers are forced
to do so to meet the requirements of the teaching practicum.

Challenges• Some reflective journals are filled with descriptions of classroom
routines.
• Unproductive and not congruent with the attributes of reflective
journals, which should be a thought-provoking tool.
• There is a need to take into account both the breadth and depth of
the reflection process (Tiainen et al., 2018).
• To become a reflective practitioner, pre-service teachers must learn tolook beneath the surface of a situation with a more critical lens.

Challenges• Edge (2002) asserts that reflection should notoccur in isolation, but in discussion withanother person. The reflective practice,therefore, should be considered as acooperative process that involves a “speaker”
and an “understander.”• Writing, according to Farrell (2016), is amethod of reflection that allows the writers tostop and think about what they want to say,then they “see” what has been written, andfinally they can reflect on their “written”
thoughts in order to gain greater insight into
their professional life.

Challenges• Reflective journals serve as a personal spacefor pre-service teachers to clarify their own
thinking process and to create a connection
between their theoretical knowledge andthe real classroom (Lee, 2008).

Using Technology to Enhance Reflective Practice• Using digital videos as a means to facilitate teachers’ reflection.
• Teachers can closely observe the dynamics of the classroom in action.
• Teachers can replay particular critical incidents.
• Teachers can conduct a deeper evidence-based analysis while responding to thequestions:• Which picture do you like most from your teaching activity?
• What makes you like it?
• What are you doing in the picture?
• What was your rationale behind this activity?
• How did you find the activity helpful for yourself or for your students?
(Cirocki & Widodo, 2019)

Implications
Sharing individual reflection with peer enables teachers toestablish new understanding about their teaching.

Their peers can ask reflective questions, help scaffold
underlying values and thoughts, voice alternative
perspectives, and challenge the assumptions of everyday
practice (Karnieli-Miller, 2020).

Conclusion

Reflective practicehelps teachers fix
problems inclassroom teaching.

Reflective practicealso pays close
attention toteachers’ inner lives.

Conclusion

Teachers should
be exposed todifferent
frameworks.

There is no “onesize-fits-all”
framework.

Conclusion

There was an explorationof how technology might
be implemented toenhance reflective practicein the technology-led era.

There are implications ofreflective practice inrelation to teachers’
identity and their quality ofteaching.

• Learning new techniques for teachingis like the fish that provides a meal
for today; reflective practice is thenet that provides the meal for therest of one's life.
Biggs (2003)

Thank you very much