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Reflective Practice and Professional Development

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1.0 Introduction

Reflective practice is synonym to educators at any level; from pre-school to higher

education, it helps to improve local practice in educational setting. Professional

development on the other hand, usually refers to the available opportunities of ongoing

learning for teachers as well as other education personnel (Education Week,

2009).Firstly, it is best to understand the definition of both reflective practice and

professional development before looking at how both complement each other.

Reflective practice refers to the ability of a practitioner to reflect back on the action he or

she does in classroom. The implemented action will be reviewed and evaluated by the

practitioner in order to improve the next lesson. In the course of reflecting the action, it

can involve professional peer monitoring or mentoring by senior teachers to produce

better plan for the next action. This is supported by Schon (1987) as he views reflective

practice as a way for beginners in a discipline to recognize consonance between their own

individual practices and those of successful practitioners. Therefore, reflective practice is

always associated with a practitioner tapping on the expertise of another successful

practitioner.

As for professional development, we can conclude that in general it is an ongoing effort

in gearing towards to the betterment of teacher‟s career in teaching profession. ERIC

defines professional development as “ Activities to enhance professional career growth”

whereas Lange (1990) points out that “Teacher development is a term used in the

literature to describe a process of continual intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal

growth of teachers”. In short, professional development is crucial to determine the

whereabouts of a teacher‟s career path as it is a platform for teachers to sharpen their

practice.

Therefore, this essay seeks to discuss the role of reflective practice in professional

development for pre service and in service teacher as well as the use of Action Research

in reflective practice.




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2.0 Why professional development?

Teachers need to be equipped with the knowledge on professional development.

Professional development allows teachers to identify their self-strengths and weaknesses

with the aim of focusing on possible ways to create a brighter path in teaching profession.

In order to enhance the professional growth of a teacher; especially pre-service and

novice teachers, it is essential for them to recognize their individual strengths and

implement it in classroom instruction. On the other hand, the ability to recognize

individual weaknesses provides opportunity for teachers to learn and rectify their

practice.

Ferguson & et. Al as cited in Darling Hammond (1997) mentions that “ Research shows

that each dollar spent on recruiting high-quality teachers and deepening their knowledge

and skills nets greater gains in student learning than any other use of an education

dollar .” Similarly to our country Malaysia, SPM graduates are recruited by the minister

of education year in and year out to train teacher trainees of different subjects that are

competent in both curriculum and extra-curriculum. The purpose is none other than to

produce quality teachers which hopefully in return will produce quality students as well.

In fact, professional development also serves as a motivation to teachers so that their

performance in classroom and the school in overall will not remain flat or decrease.

Otherwise, teacher will be demotivated to teach if what they do is only teaching without

any room is given to expand their career. With a reward that benefits not only teachers

but students too, professional development increases teacher‟s both intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation to improve their practice. Darling-Hammond (1995) states that “Teacher

content-are knowledge related to the number of content classes taken, has also been

shown to have positive effect on student achievement .” With the desire and action in

gearing toward professional development, teachers will involve in many training seminar

as well as furthering study in related content-area to become better practitioner in

classroom.




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Other than the mentioned above, professional development helps teachers to cope with

changes at school, be it in the curriculum, extra-curricular activities or even among

students. This is because professional development creates opportunity for teachers to

learn new things which include both knowledge and skill that help them to manage the

changes occur around them. Especially with the present era of technology, it is highly

important for teachers to be involved in workshop or training courses related to the use of

technology so that they are not left behind by the students. For example, blogging is a

trend among the students now therefore it is a very interactive and wise approach to use

this method to teach writing in classroom. Students will find the new way of learning to

be interesting hence increasing their motivation to learn as well as to improve in writing.

This serves as personal satisfaction for teachers as they feel satisfied with their job and it

is also a way to combat burnout among teachers.

From another perspective, professional development is also a means of overcoming

isolation between teachers. Senior teachers often have wider knowledge on teaching

practice based on their experience in related content-area hence for pre-service and

novice teachers to catch up is by tapping on professional development as a means of

upward mobility in both expertise and career status. The new pay scheme SBPA (Saraan

Baru Perkhidmatan Awam) allows teachers in Malaysia to climb the promotion stairs

faster than the previous scheme. This helps to ease teachers in improving their pay scale

as well as to relieve their economic burden.

Overall, the explanations above complement the definition of professional development

in which it refers to activities to enhance professional growth and it is also a process of

continual intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth of teachers as defined in ERIC

and Lange.




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3.0 Reflective practice in professional development

Reflective practice involve teachers to ask themselves „what we do and why we do it ?‟ in

the course of understanding and being a part of professional development. As suggested

by Schon (1996), “ Reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one's own

experiences in applying knowledge to practice while being coached by professionals in

the discipline”, the ability to reflect in pursuing professional development takes teachers

to a higher level in understanding the actions they implement throughout the course of

advancing their career growth.

Based on the concept above, pre-service and novice teachers can benefit greatly in many

aspects of teaching by becoming a reflective practitioner as the concept helps them to

discipline their individual practice by tapping on the experiences and help from

successful practitioners. For instance, many educational institutions in the United States

started to design teacher education and professional development programs which gear

towards reflective practice as they found the concept encourages deeper understanding of

teaching style and ultimately, greater effectiveness as a teacher. (Joan, 2000). In fact,

UiTM‟s practicum program was also designed based on the same concept in which

teacher trainees are required to write a daily reflective journal as a means of reflecting

and evaluating the trainee‟s experiences in classroom implementation, school programs

and extra-curricular activities.

Reflective practice in professional development poses beneficial challenges to the

traditional teaching. It allows teachers to look at educational theories of scholars from

decades ago and reflect as to how these theories can be applied in classroom based on the

present educational setting and social needs. In other words, reflective practice brings

teachers to a different dimension of implementing educational theories rather than

depending on traditional teaching which may not be appropriate with the global

advancement in education. Arthur-Kelly, M. et al. (2007) points out that when teachers

reflect upon their practices, recognize their professional development needs, introduce

and evaluate changes and assist others in this process, they acknowledge the importance




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of lifelong learning and professional growth. Therefore, the challenge here is for teachers

to escape from the cocoon of traditional teaching and seek for changes that may

contribute to the betterment of their classroom implementation as well as refining a

brighter path in their professional growth.

In addition, teacher education program does not equip teachers to become effective

practitioner throughout their teaching career as it only prepares them in the beginning of

teaching. However, when the concept of reflective teaching is embraced by teachers, it

helps to build their internal commitment to study their own teaching and become better at

it over time (as cited in Manasse, n.d.). So the question is what do reflective teachers do?

Besides constant pondering over themselves on the question of „what ‟ and „why‟,

reflective teachers also engage with reflection, thinking reflectively, as well as using,

sustaining and practicing reflection. This somehow gives teachers a certain power in

teaching and it also helps them to exercise the control that they have in opening the

possibility of reshaping the everyday classroom life (as cited in Richards, n.d.). From the

same perspective, we can also say that reflective teachers also exercise the control that

they have over the possibility of determining the path of their professional growth.

There are five dimensions of reflection suggested by Zeichner & Liston (1996), the first

dimension is rapid reflection which involves immediate and automatic reflection – in-

action, the second dimension is repair which requires thoughtful reflection-in-action, the

third dimension is review, a less formal reflection-on-action at a particular point in time

followed by the fourth dimension which involves research, a more systematic reflection-

on-action over a period of time. Reflection-in-action takes place during the action itself

whereas reflection-on-action is to reflect actions that already happen. The next section

will discuss a more in-depth on the fourth dimension of reflection that is the use of

Action Research in reflective practice as a valuable tool for self-evaluation and

professional growth (Richards, n.d.)

.




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4.0 Action Research

Unlike traditional forms of research (empirical research) that requires researchers to do

research on other people, Action Research is also known as practitioner based research

that involves researchers to do research on themselves. McNiff (2002) defines action

research as “ A form of an enquiry conducted by the self into the self. You, a practitioner,

think about your own life and work, and this involves you asking yourself why you do the

things that you do, and why you are the way that you are.” This way helps teachers who

conduct action research to continue developing themselves and their work too.

It is important to take note that Action Research starts with the idea developed by the

researcher himself. It does not depend on a fixed hypothesis that controls the whole

research. The researcher has control on what is to be done in every step of planning,

implementing, observing and reflecting to see whether what the researcher has in mind is

carefully translated into the research. In this context, Action Research serves as a form of

self-evaluation that is utilized extensively in professional contexts such as appraisal,

mentoring and self-assessment (McNiff, 2002).

In professional development, Action Research is seen as a way of improving the work

teachers do in new ways. It is a platform to enhance professional growth but it also

emphasizes on professional learning among teachers. Other than capitalizing on the use

of Action Research to initiate and expand the experience in teaching profession, pre-

service and novice teachers are also able to grow professionally and extend their

knowledge professionally as they are not only trained to teach there is also learning that

takes place in developing and polishing their potential.

The idea of integrating Action Research into professional development programs allows

teachers to work from the point of view of the people who are learning. Teachers should

not rest and stop when they think they have reached a qualified status, instead, they

should maintain professional learning and view the process as a lifelong commitment.




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5.0 Reflection

Being a pre-service teacher and reflective practitioner myself, this task helps me to

rekindle and reinforce my knowledge on what reflective practice is about and how it is

associated with professional development.

An outsider might feel that being a reflective practitioner is difficult in the beginning but

once the concept of reflective practice is thoroughly embraced, it will then become

synonym and relevant to be practiced. I personally felt that being a reflective was never

an easy task in the beginning. I was unable to look at the bright side of the practice as I

found it to be tedious with the need to reflect regularly with what is being done.

However, as the process took place throughout my practicum, it has become my habit to

reflect on things that occurred not only within classroom and school but in my personal

life too.

I also noticed the importance of being reflective to understand many of the issues that

occurred in our education system as the ability to reflect provides me a new perspective

to look at things in a bigger picture. It has developed a skill within me to become critical,

innovative and visionary. Therefore, I think that this is crucial for many pre-service

teachers like me to realize how reflective practice can benefit us in professional

development.

On the other hand, Action Research also benefits pre-service and in-service teachers

greatly as it is a research method that allows teachers to improve their practice in

classroom and also to widen their related-content area knowledge. Seen in this way, the

ministry of education (MOE) has made Action Research as one of the available options

for teachers to climb their career ladders. Therefore, I find that not only being reflective

helps to promote and maintain lifelong learning but it also increases the rate of

professional growth among teachers.




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Besides the significance of reflective practice, this task also provides me a clear and

deeper understanding of what professional development is. In the process of writing, I

discovered many essential reasons as to why teachers need to bother with professional

development. Especially with the current demand and wide usage of ICT among young

generation, children as young as 4 years old has a Facebook account proves that teachers

need to evolve and move along with the advancement of technology too. ICT as a tool in

professional development is not something unusual these days. The government‟s effort

to upgrade teachers‟ academic standard such as „Program Pensiswazahan‟ attempts to

ensure present teachers at school to at least have degree eligibility. Therefore, ICT

functions such as online forum and video conferencing are examples of how these

teachers to cope with teaching and learning at the same time.

To sum up my reflection, I find that being reflective doesn‟t just benefit pre-service

teachers but it also helps in-service teachers to plant successful seeds in professional

development. Merely depending on traditional forms of teaching and empirical research

could only help teachers to develop their potential in teaching profession to a certain

degree, however, being reflective and utilization of Action Research helps teachers to

grow professionally by maintaining lifelong learning as well as seeking for changes in

educational issues by improving the practitioner‟s own practice.




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6.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper highlights the use of Action Research as a tool to promote

professional growth among teachers as well as the role of reflective practice in

professional development.

Action Research is highly recommended to teachers as it is a type of research that aims to

improve the practitioner‟s own practice. Instead of looking at problems in classroom

from the perspective of students‟ fault or lacking of ability, Action Research drives

teachers to be reflective and look at the problems from the perspective of „ What can I do

as a teacher to ensure that this problem will not occur in the next class ?‟. For instance, a

reflective teacher will not ask “Was it the students who did not pay attention to my

teaching?” but in return, he will ask himself “What can I do to make sure the students

will listen to me in the next lesson?”. These are types of questions pondered by reflective

teacher while conducting an Action Research. It is most likely that Action Research

requires more than one attempt to produce the outcome as expected by the teacher.

However, in the course of administering the cycles of research, a teacher definitely will

grow and learn valuable lessons from the process itself.

As mentioned earlier, becoming a reflective practitioner might not seem an easy task in

the beginning. Nonetheless, as teachers embrace the concept and integrate it step by step

in all aspects of teaching, the result of embracing this concept allows teachers to look at

many educational issues in a whole new perspective whereby they seek ways to improve

themselves as well as overcoming the issues. The question of “What we do and why we

do it ” is a catalyst that helps teachers to realize that it is not only the students who are

learning and gaining all of the benefits in classroom but the teachers also learn to

improve their own practice at the same time.




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Thus we can summarize that a teacher has to recognize the significance of professional

development. It is not just a means to achieve better pay scale and a qualified status that

can get one to be acknowledged by others. It is more about gaining self-satisfaction in

learning to improve oneself in teaching field. Having said this, a reflective practitioner

can grow professionally in teaching profession by helping the teachers to identify their

own strength and weaknesses, to become quality teachers, to keep them motivated, to

cope up with changes in educational setting and finally, to overcome isolation between

them. These are all important elements to be considered thoroughly in order for teachers

to enhance their professional growth in teaching.




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References

Nunan, D. & et. al (2001). Pursuing Professional Development: The Self as Source. Boston:

Heinle & Heinle

Arthur-Kelly, M. et al. (2007). Classroom Management: creating positive learning environment

(2nd.

ed.). Australia: Cengage Learning

Ferraro, J.M. (2000). Reflective Practice and Professional Development (ERIC Digest).

Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/reflective.htm

McNiff, J. (2002). Action Research for Professional Development (3rd

ed.). Retrieved from

http://www.jeanmcniff.com/ar-booklet.asp

Richards, J.C. (n.d.) Towards Reflective Teaching. Retrieved from

http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/file/back_articles/towards_reflective_teaching.pdf

Tina, L., Zoraini, A.B., & Norziati, M. (2010). Online In-service Teacher Professional

Development in Malaysia: A New Possibility? Retrieved from

http://eprints.oum.edu.my/409/1/online_tina.pdf

Professional Development. (2004). Retrieved from

http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/professional-development/

Professional Development: Empowering Teachers to Continuously Improve Their Teaching

Practice. (2009). (PowerPoint Slides).

http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/reflective.htm
















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