Reflective Teaching

1007 Words5 Pages
One of the main factors which can have considerable effect on the development of reflective practice on teachers and students is the nature of instruction, which can partly be related to teachers, students, and an institution. It either enhances or hinders this development depending on its actual practice by teachers and students and the availability of resources and facilities. Concerning this, the results from the questionnaire, interviews, and classroom observations were found to show that teachers were not in a position to practise reflective teaching in their classrooms. Of course, the findings from the questionnaire seemed to indicate as teachers were attempting to conduct their actual classroom practices in light of reflective teaching…show more content…
Clearly, teachers’ teaching styles (the patterns of decisions they make when mediating their students’ learning) are greatly influenced by the interaction of factors like their experience as learners, institutional and curriculum factors, and the theories about teaching and learning to which they adhere (Díaz-Maggioli, 2004). In other words, as Richards and Lockhart (1996) elaborate, their belief systems have effect on the teaching styles they use in that teachers were once students, and their beliefs about teaching are reflections of how they themselves were taught. Besides, as they state, established practice has effect on their teaching styles in that within an institution or a nation, certain teaching styles and practices may be preferred; that is, any language teaching programme reflects both the culture of the institution (particular ways of thinking and doing things that are valued in the institution) and collective decisions in addition to individual teacher’s…show more content…
Regarding this, the findings revealed that the trend commonly used in the department and among teachers was using modular materials developed for common use by teachers in the department. There were also very few cases in which teachers were attempting to design tasks and activities depending on the nature of the course which they were teaching. Still, there were also trends, to some extent, of using internet as source for their teaching materials. Despite these few cases, the materials which teachers used were dominantly modular materials which seemed to be used and covered uniformly by all teachers and students with an intention to provide the same knowledge to all students across the same educational level. The trend seemed to give no attention to individual differences and needs on the part of both teachers and students. Besides, such prescribed, mandated, and imposed materials could not cater for contextual differences as the classrooms wherein teachers were teaching varied in their nature. This could have negative impact on teachers’ and students’ creativity and development of reflection, as

More about Reflective Teaching

Open Document