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Sharing personal teaching stories provides opportunities for enhanced wellbeing and learning for both experienced and pre-service teachers. This paper shares the results of a qualitative pilot study that used narrative inquiry to collect and share teacher stories. The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase collected humorous stories from experienced teachers recalled from the first years of their teaching career. Thematic data analysis investigated the wellbeing and learning impact on those teachers when sharing their stories. The second phase invited pre-service teachers to read and evaluate the impact of humorous stories when preparing for their first school placements. Thematic data analysis investigated the wellbeing and learning impact on pre-service teachers reading these stories. The analysis from both phases demonstrated recurring themes regarding the importance of teacher-student relationships for teacher wellbeing. The results also showed that the sharing and reading of stories had beneficial outcomes such as enhanced wellbeing and enhanced learning for both the teacher storytellers and the pre-service teacher readers. This study provides evidence that the inclusion of real-life stories offers a valuable addition to Initial Teacher Education programs as a way of developing professional and reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe an innovative professional development program for practicing k-12 teachers, called Initiatives in Educational Transformation, that is designed to enable classroom teachers to reconceptualize their roles and transform their teaching by developing their reflective practice (Schön, 1983). The program is built around a philosophy of teaching and learning that emphasizes moral professionalism (Sockett, 1993), school-based inquiry, continuous improvement and collaborative work in teams. While few of the efforts to foster change in schools and classrooms begin their analyses with the voices and experiences of teachers, in this paper we turn to the voices and experiences of teachers to begin to explore the role of reflective practice in educational transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents some recent experiences of reflective practice within a UK university business school by two lecturers who are currently reading for doctoral degrees in education, and is partly based on material presented at 'The First International Theorising Education Conference' at the University of Stirling in June 2010. It describes how, having agreed to meet regularly to discuss the implications of postmodern educational theories for their practice, the authors set about holding a series of 'learning conversations', each beginning with a presentation and discussion of a reading from educational theory or philosophy of education and with no further agenda than a 'live encounter with the other'. The paper includes a review of some useful texts dealing with both the practicalities and some theoretical frameworks within which to locate reflective practice. There follows a discussion of the rationale for using unconventional ways of presenting (and re-presenting) experiences of this kind of activity. The authors use a layered text technique to illustrate one way of doing this, and to present (re-present) parts of learning conversations held between January and June 2010. The essential claim of this paper is that while a great deal of literature on reflective practice seems to concentrate on 'reflection on practice', there is also a need for discussions about the interface between educational theory and pedagogical practice as a particular means of moving ourselves beyond the limits of a self-referential context into a more open-ended and critical space in which we learn to name our experience in new ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research supervision is crucial and the literature very well emphasizes the fundamental role that research supervisors play in the entire process of research work. We are novice researchers and student-teachers, who have tried to manifest the strong link between the theory and practice of research supervision by reflecting on their concerted efforts of research under the supervision of a senior faculty, an Assistant Professor at the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) Karachi, Pakistan. We narrate how, initially, our supervisor gauged our conceptual and intellectual level of understanding of the areas to be researched, our emerging professional needs, helped us to examine or explore that particular topic or area, and how she created a working environment in which the consensus between the research supervisor and the supervisees developed. The paper illustrates how the constructive feedback from the supervisor helped to bring clarity and focus when writing and presenting the research proposals, and how the supervisor's critical questioning brought rigor in the data analysis and took us as researchers to a desirable level of producing the research text. This paper also highlights how the research supervisor, as a mentor, contributed to the development of our research skills as supervisees and enabled us to carry out research following the requirements of quality and ethics in qualitative educational research. Although the paper reflects the learning experiences of us as two student-teachers, from the broader perspective of research supervision it also provides some useful groundwork for both novice researchers and research supervisors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an action research study conducted in 2015 with five in-service English language teachers from an ELT undergraduate programme of a university in the central part of Mexico over a period of 9 weeks by means of two video recorded classroom observations and different spaces for professional dialogue (a focus group, one on one feedback discussions and personal interviews). Overall, the study revealed that teachers have the ability to be critically reflective about their teaching given the appropriate conditions which Reflective Practice (RP) necessitates such as opportunity, time, and assistance from others, often lacking in everyday teaching scenarios, traditional evaluative classroom observations and conventional teacher education programmes. Hence, by challenging the 'status quo' of classroom observations in this context, the RP processes carried out helped teachers understand and reconstruct their teaching knowledge especially in terms of students' responses to their instructional decisions and the impact this had on how their classes unfolded. It promoted an alternative way to fulfil the goal of teacher development, not through a 'transmission' model of education but through a process in which teachers learn and continue to develop their skill in dialogue within a professional community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which the reflection presented in student teachers' teaching practicum contributes to the development of their professional knowledge. The paper addresses the task of investigating the quality of teacher reflection in its guided forms. By using the procedures of guided reflection, this paper builds a conceptual account with which to structure and describe the forms of reflection presented in student teachers' reflective talk. Based our results, there is a need to investigate more closely what creates changes in teachers' knowledge and what kind of reflective processes can contribute to such changes. We hope that the procedure of guided reflection opens new opportunities for studying the development of teachers' professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of and reflection on writing prompts in mathematics education can allow pre-service teachers to enhance their own mathematical knowledge and broaden their understanding of students’ learning needs. In this paper, we share results from a study with secondary pre-service mathematics teachers who were asked to respond to writing prompts related to various mathematical concepts, reflect on their responses, and then give the same prompts to a group of college algebra students. Our analysis of the data shows that the prompts helped the pre-service teachers to reflect on their role as learners, student thinking and needs and classroom practices. We relate these findings to a framework for looking at pedagogical content knowledge and discuss the usefulness of writing prompts with pre-service mathematics teachers for expanding such knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the beginning steps of the author as a special education teacher in a large Southwest public school district in the US. The author discusses his first year of experience in a large US middle school as an inclusion teacher by using self-reflective practice in the form of excerpts from his learning journal to become aware and understand the complexities of becoming a special education teacher. The metaphor of the maze is introduced and used as the lens through which the author experienced his becoming a special education teacher and how the metaphor of the maze dominates the professional growth and identity of the author in the field of special education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurtured as a teacher and mentored as a mathematics education researcher, the reflective voice of a teacher-researcher-educator is portrayed in this paper. While drawing upon experience of creating teaching-learning environments, the author outlines the growth of praxis within her practice. She then outlines her coming upon narrative as a deployable unit of analysis with which to grasp teaching-learning practice. With narrative inquiry as strategy, she finally outlines examples of educational action research she is able to conduct. She argues in favour of empowering the praxis of teachers, recognising their language of practice and urges us to listen to their individual voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-service teachers in the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta compile a Professional Development Portfolio (PDP) which includes artefacts and reflective writings. The process of developing their PDP enables student teachers to grow and develop professionally. This paper explores whether the reflective learning skills which teachers acquire in their pre-service education are retained in their first year of teaching. The study suggests that these skills are internalised by teachers and used in an informal manner to help them reportedly cope better with their new role as effective teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of health professional groups have been looking at alternative models to the traditional 1:1 model of practice education in order to meet the increasing shortage of practice placements for pre-registration students. One such model that has been explored recently is the 2:1 or collaborative model where one practice educator takes responsibility for the education of two or more students. This paper presents the findings of a small research study undertaken to explore facilitation of learning in 2:1 collaborative models of physiotherapy practice education, and focuses on the potential for reflection with particular emphasis on peer reflection within the collaborative model. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen educators and eighteen third year physiotherapy students at a number of different NHS practice sites in southeast England. Additional focus groups were held with academic tutors and students at the end of the placement period. Findings from the study indicated that learning was facilitated in a variety of ways with students benefiting from peer learning and teaching approaches. Opportunities for peer reflection appeared to be increased in the 2:1 model. However, some practice educators highlighted the need for further guidance when promoting reflective practice. Further research into the role of reflection within 2:1 models and the facilitation of reflection during clinical education placements is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores problem-based learning as a dimension that adds context and framework to coaching and reflection. The process for problem-based learning is described as a healthy environment for reflection, discussion and problem solving. Results illustrate how teacher candidates move from micro-reflection to self-reflection to macro-reflection as they engage in a year-long teacher education program in a professional development school. Implications from the study suggest that problem-based learning is a valid process for the enculturation of teacher candidates to schools and to the profession of teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon the interrelationship between learning and changing, this study investigates how cyclical engagement in reflexive practice influences the teachers' professional development. We implemented our video-enhanced 'Reflexive Practice Triplication Model' which we developed in our specific context. We conducted the research with 8 secondary school teachers of English at a private K12 school in Ankara, Turkey. Drawing on multiple sources of data, we used a triangulation technique to reveal the qualitative and quantitative impact of reflexive practice. The findings showed that collaborative engagement in reflexive practice contributed substantially to EFL teachers' professional development traceable in the changes in beliefs on reflexivity, attitudes towards collaboration, contextual and pedagogical knowledge. The study provides implications as to how reflexive practice can be used in local contexts where specific needs are to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher candidates (TCs) must navigate personal, experiential, and theoretical discourses of learning to teach to establish a teaching identity. This article describes a critical case example of digital storytelling to imagine a future classroom. The qualitative research design situates the TCs' digital stories as a performance and analyzes the art form to consider how they might use these texts to imagine and make visible this negotiation. The critical case shows how the TCs used the digital story to make sense of personal experiences, their image of an ideal teacher, methods coursework, and the personal struggle inherent across these sometimes disparate voices of learning to teach. Findings indicate that digital storytelling expands TCs' reflective practice in the supportive environment of a teacher education program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present and outline depth-hermeneutics as a new application of a theoretically founded psychosocial approach, with the ambition of inspiring teachers to explore challenging aspects of their relational work with students. Empirical knowledge and psychodynamic theory suggest that teaching and learning are profoundly rooted in relationship based processes. Hence it is a prerequisite for improving learning and supporting teachers' professional development that challenging aspects in the student-teacher relationship be taken seriously by being examined, with the aim of enabling and supporting learning from experience in reflective practice. We suggest that group-based depth-hermeneutics, a qualitative psychosocial method, may allow for analysis and interpretation of situations and relations in school that may be experienced by teachers as difficult or incomprehensible. Drawing on an empirical example from fieldwork in a Norwegian middle school, we illustrate the nature of a challenging situation and relation in teaching and show step-by-step how depth-hermeneutics can be adapted, adopted, implemented, and facilitated in teacher groups, to increase scenic understanding of such complex phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulated teaching practice and oral interviews were integrated into the English Teaching Observation and Practice class in a language teacher education program in a northwest city in Taiwan. This study discusses 43 pre-service elementary school English teachers’ learning and reflections from simulated teaching practice and oral interviews from videos, peers’ response cards, and reflections. The study has the following findings. First, the participants had never before experienced simulated teaching practice and oral interviews. Their contextual reflection was cultivated and was situated in a social context where they used reflection tools (their peers’ comments, instructor’s comments, and observation of classmates’ presentations) to help them examine their own strengths and weaknesses. Participants’ reflections mainly focused on knowledge and skills, but there were a few reflections on disposition. Suggestions on the effective design and implementation of simulated teaching practice and oral interviews for pre-service elementary school English teachers are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Working with young people in alternative schools poses particular challenges for the professional identity of educators. This research explored educator identity and development in practice in a network of alternative schools re-enfranchising young people. There was a focus on educator induction in the study. Different ways of being an educator were required in order to re-engage young people facing multiple complexities in their lives. A three-stage design experiment methodology was employed to investigate how ways of working, valuing and professional learning influenced educator identity and development. Iterative cycles of reflection embedded in the methodology allowed practitioners’ perspectives to influence the design of enhanced induction processes, leading to the prototyping of reflective practice groups as an induction strategy. Findings provide insights into the influence of reflective practice on educator identity and development in relation to two overarching themes synthesised in thematic analysis of interview data: relationships, and changing perspectives through reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The research aimed at tracing the perceptions pre-service student teachers had about reflection, their preparedness to become reflective practitioners and the constraints and limitations that hindered them from reflecting on their teaching. The research tools employed in this qualitative exploratory case study are: semi-structured-focused-group-interviews. The findings revolved around dimensions of various limitations and constraints. This embodied: language barrier, multi-layered tasks, nature and dimension of reflection, lack of reflection skills, absence of post development plan, emotional barrier, external locus of control and socio-cultural context of learning. The means pre-service student teachers used to reflect conveyed a series of limitations and constraints. The findings addressed areas which needed improvement. Recommendations were suggested to enhance critical and practical reflective skills among future teachers in Abu Dhabi. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During their studies, pre-service teachers are repeatedly asked to reflect. In this contribution we study the impact of learner control on critical reflection for two approaches to reflection: a non-linear approach and a linear approach. One hundred and seventy-six reflection assignments of pre-service teachers were used in the analysis. The results reveal that the reflection assignments - irrespective of the different conditions - contained few elements of critical reflection. A two-way ANOVA shows the main effects of approach to reflection and learner control on the degree of critical reflection. Further analyses reveal that students score higher on critical reflection when they reflect with a linear approach than when they reflect with a non-linear approach, and that the pre-service teachers in this study score better on the degree of critical reflection when they have more learner control. To conclude, we first make some methodological remarks and then discuss the practical implications of this current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years teachers have been encouraged to take up reflective practice because of its perceived ability to improve teaching and learning, but this has largely been limited to the West. The emphasis has not been widespread in developing countries and many educators are largely unaware of reflective practice and its perceived potential as a teacher development strategy. This article reports a study undertaken to understand and explore the process and consequences of engaging teachers in reflective conversations in Karachi, Pakistan. It describes how two English language teachers and a reflective coach reflected through conversations on their practices. The findings suggest that teachers in such contexts need to engage in reflective conversations if their practices are to improve. Also, the role of the reflective coach in this context appears to be fluid and evolving. The article also presents possibilities and tensions that are likely to emerge if reflective conversations are implemented as a teacher development strategy and a framework for using reflective conversations as a teacher development strategy in developing country contexts. Finally, implications of the study for schools and teacher development in Pakistan and similar contexts are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This account of a research project explores postgraduate in‐service teachers’ understanding and facilitation of active learning in primary, secondary and higher education in the UK. Qualitative data were elicited from nine teachers during 2003–2004 using video‐stimulated reflective dialogues of classroom practices illustrative of active learning. Outcomes of 18 dialogues have been taped, transcribed and analysed. The dialogues have begun to reveal teachers’ thinking, feelings and actions as facilitators of active learning. Findings, which are presented as case studies, indicate that teachers associate active learning, inter alia, with learner autonomy, empowerment, developing higher order thinking skills and cooperative group activities. Increasingly, teachers devolve the locus of control of learning to their learners with appropriate guidance, monitoring and interventions. Classroom practices reflect an emphasis on discourse between learners and with teachers, guided discovery learning and learning as an essentially social process. The evidence suggests that video‐stimulated reflective dialogues are an effective method for revealing teachers’ tacit knowledge about their pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]