D BING 1107160 Chapter2
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical literature from the areas of
reflection and reflection practice: elements, level, and issues concerned in the
reflection; the English language teacher education, the teacher knowledge and its
relation to the reflective teaching practice; and relevant research that has been
conducted about pre-service teachers and their development in reflective teaching
practice. The intention is to establish an analytical framework for this present
study.
2.1 Reflection and Reflective Practice
Many works of literature talked about definitions of reflection, reflective
thinking, and reflective practice. However, such conceptions on reflection and
reflective practices have come to ―loose and fuzzy treatment‖ of the concept
(Fath‘i & Behzadpour, 2011, p. 245). The tradition of reflection or reflective
practice can be traced back to Dewey‘s (1910, 1933) ideas about reflection and
reflective inquiry. Reflection or reflective inquiry to Dewey (1933) is considered
as ―active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of
knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to
which it tends [that] constitutes reflective thought‖ (p. 16, as cited in Farrell,
2012). His philosophical stance on reflection for personal and intellectual growth
is considered to be psychological (Ryan, 2012). His approach is closely related to
―the nature of reflection and how it occurs‖ (Ryan, 2012, p. 208). Later, in 1970s,
Freire‘s (1972) and Habermas‘ (1974) works lead the others‘ works on critical
reflection (see Brookfield, 1995; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Mezirow, 1990). The
notion of reflection was then further developed by Schon (1983, 1987) by
proposing the concept of ―reflection-in-action‖ and ―reflection-on-action‖.
However, as not all thinking can be considered as reflection (Dewey, 1933), it
also implies to teaching that not all thinking about teaching can be categorised as
reflective teaching. Reflective teaching only applies to the teacher when he/she, as
Zeichner and Liston (1996) assert, keeps questioning his/her teaching goals,
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values, beliefs, and assumptions in the context he/she is dealing with. ―Technical
rationality‖ (Farrel, 2004, p. 31) deals with technical knowledge and cognitive
aspects of teaching practice by beginning teachers, as applies as well to the preservice teachers.
To summarize Dewey‘s (1933) conception on reflective teaching, it is about:
active concerns; cyclical process; monitoring, evaluating and revising practice
continuously; evidenced-based classroom inquiry; attitudes of open-mindedness,
responsibility, and wholeheartedness; teacher judgement based on evidences and
insights; collaboration and dialogue with colleagues; and creative mediation of
teaching and learning framework.
Zeichner and Liston (1987) argue that reflection lends itself to the ―way of
thinking about educational matters that involves the ability to make rational
choices‖ (in Ying & Leng, 2002, p. 3) which summarized by Calderhead (1989)
as the activity in which the teacher educators do the interaction, interpretation in
the analysis and solution of complex and ambiguous problems they encounter in
the classroom. Furthermore, Chitpin, Simon and Galipeau (2008) argue that the
kind of knowledge-base that is being developed through reflective approaches is
much more comprehensive because it is directly tuned into what the teachers
actually know (Clarke & Otaky, 2006; Cornford, 2002; Fatemi, Shirvan, &
Rezvani, 2011; Generett & Hicks, 2004) about the teaching and learning process
in the classroom. A decade later, Brookfield (1995) has established that critical
reflection is very important aspect of the larger process of reflection and that
without the habit of critical reflection, the risk of making poor decisions and bad
judgement has existed.
Rodgers (2002), revisiting Dewey‘s (1933) conception on reflection, restates
that reflection is a meaning-making process, a ‗systematic, rigorous, and
disciplined way of thinking‘ (p. 845), an activity that involves in a community and
interaction with others, and shapes the individual with ‗attitudes that value the
personal and intellectual growth of oneself and of others‘ (p. 845). This is further
shaped by Farrell (2012), who also reexamined Dewey‘s (1933) conception of
reflective practice that it is not isolated introspection but evidenced based. The
evidenced-based activity, he further states, requires the teachers to keep collecting
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data about their teaching and make use of the data as source of information of
their decision making. In this study, therefore, reflection is defined as the process
in which problems pertaining to classroom teaching contexts came into the
participants‘ mind, and the time when their assumption, beliefs, and ideas were
challenged by situation as regard solution to be sought.
Reflection and reflective practice have been established by many
philosophers, theorists, teacher educators and researchers. John Dewey, Donald A.
Schön, and Stephen D. Brookfield are the key theorists foregrounding concepts of
reflection and reflective teaching. They have influenced the writings on reflection
in teacher education (Edge, 2011; York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, & Montie, 2006;
Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Therefore, reflective thinking and reflective practices
could not be discussed without including the theories and practices of Dewey,
Schön, and Brookfield.
2.1.1 Dewey’s Influence and Criticism on his Work
According to Dewey (1933), reflection has held the implication that something
is either believed in or disbelieved in through another source which could
guarantee as the grounds of belief or disbelief. He defines reflection as a particular
way of thinking in which judgement has been suspended during further inquiry.
The function of reflective thinking has been to make meaning out of the
encountered experiences and the ability to make sense of and assign value to
events which occur in someone‘s life (Rodgers, 2002).
In teaching context, Dewey (1933) stresses the importance of teaching being a
process of problem solving and that reflective thinking led to a better quality of
teaching (Kirk, 2000; Farrell, 2012). He argues that teachers who were proficient
in their teaching skills, but who lacked an inquiring and curious mind,
experienced staleness in their professional development and growth (Mewborn,
1999; Pishghadam, Zabihi, & Kermanshahi, 2012). Dewey has reminded mankind
that reflection, nevertheless, can be rigorous, complex, intellectual, and emotional,
and that it takes time to do it well (Rodgers, 2002).
Some scholars, however, criticized Dewey's notion of reflection on several
grounds. Cinnamond and Zimpher (1990), for instance, noted that Dewey's notion
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of reflection implies a sense of linearity and sequencing as if reflection is a plan
for action. They also noticed that his perspective on reflection is not an interactive
or dialogical process since he takes it for granted that a given ―individual student
teacher learns to reflect on a particular experience individually‖ (p. 58). In a
similar vein, Rorty (1987) argues that Dewey had defined reflection in such a way
as to indicate that ―a correct account of the nature of thought would make possible
the sort of improvement in thinking which had been promised in the past by
others‖ (p. xvii). Moreover, Dewey failed to include individuals' emotions in his
definition of reflection (Salzberger-Wittenberg, Henry, & Osborne, 1983).
2.1.2 Schön’s Influence and Criticism on his Work
Schön (1983, 1987) has emphasized the value of uncertainty as an important
aspect of professional reflective practice. Schön‘s comprehensive elaboration
relative to intuitive reflective practitioners has been in contrast with Dewey‘s
association of reflective thinking with the scientific method (Fendler, 2003). The
definition of reflection that has been pronounced by Schön has generally been
understood to be artistic and based on practice (Fendler, 2003; Schön, 1983,
1987). Moreover, Schön (1987) has implied that the relationship between practice
competence and professional knowledge needs to be explored in order to make
better use of handling professional artistry.
Professional artistry has been referred to as the kinds of competence
practitioners have displayed in unique and conflicting situations of practice
(Schön, 1987). According to Schön (1983), ―it is this entire process of reflectionin-action which is central to the ‗art‘ by which practitioners sometimes deal well
with situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict‖ (p. 50).
Schön (1983) has held the belief that most practitioners have viewed themselves
as technical experts, with a tendency to want to stay in control of circumstances
due to the feeling that uncertainty has been considered as a threat and a sign of
weakness. Increasing the use of reflection-in-action, therefore, would be helpful if
technical problem solving were to be placed within a broader context of reflective
inquiry and linked to the art of practice and research (Schön, 1983). The term
―reflection-on-action‖, as opposed to ―reflection-in-action‖, refers to what the
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practitioners deal with after they came across the situation. It takes place
sometime later after a particular event when there is time when the practitioners
reframe and restructure their thinking related to what they have come to deal with
(Schön, 1983). Journal writing or reflective teaching journal writing, therefore, is
considered as one of the act of reflection-on-action (Rayford, 2010).
However,
there
are
several
criticisms
addressed
towards
Schön's
conceptualization of reflection. Eraut (1994), for instance, argued that when the
task is to be performed in a very short time, the scope for reflection will definitely
be very limited. In addition, Munby and Russell (1989) expressed doubts about
the
psychological
reality
of
reflection-in-action.
Nevertheless,
Schön's
conceptualization of reflection has been really significant in that many training
and education programs adopted it not only in organizing experiences but also in
the teaching of content.
2.1.3 Brookfield’s Influence on Becoming Critically Reflective Teacher
Brookfield (1995) has emphasized that the most important feature of critical
reflection was to focus on hunting assumptions. Assumptions have been defined
as obvious beliefs that give meaning and purpose, yet have been taken for granted
without the need to be stated explicitly (Brookfield, 1995). The challenge has
been to become aware of implicit assumptions that have determined how and why
individuals think and act a certain way. Further, Brookfield (1995) has
distinguished between three broad categories of assumptions.
The three categories that Brookfield (1995) has established have included
paradigmatic assumptions, prescriptive assumptions, and causal assumptions.
Paradigmatic assumptions, the first category, have been hard to recognize as
assumptions and have usually only been examined critically after a great deal of
resistance (Brookfield, 1995). The second one, prescriptive assumptions have
been defined as assumptions about what someone thinks should be happening in a
particular situation. The last, causal assumptions have typically been stated in
prescriptive terms to help him/her understand how different parts of the world
work and how conditions have allowed processes to change (Brookfield, 1995).
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However, developing these three assumptions has become a puzzling and
somewhat contradictory task (Brookfield, 1995).
Reflective thinking, as Brookfield (1995) further states, has become critical
thinking when it has included the two distinctive purposes of understanding how
considerations of power have distorted educational processes and interactions, and
how questioning assumptions and practices, that should make teachers‘ lives
easier, have worked against their best long-term interests. At times, teachers have
been confronted with the possibility that the assumptions they have been
experiencing have not really fit their situations. Having the ability to recognize the
difference between ―what is‖ and ―what should be‖ has often been the beginning
of being able to reflect critically (Brookfield, 1995).
As regards critical reflection, there are four critically reflective lenses have
been developed by Brookfield. The four lenses have included autobiographies as
learners and teachers, teachers seeing themselves through their students‘ eyes,
sharing colleagues‘ experiences, and exploring theoretical literature (Brookfield,
1995). Through the use of personal self-reflection, teachers have been made aware
of deep commitments and motivations they have possessed as teachers
(Brookfield, 1995). Further, according to Brookfield (1995), the problem with
teachers trying to see themselves through their students‘ eyes has led students to
be reluctant about being honest with their teachers. Despite the reluctance of
students to share honestly, a teacher who has experienced seeing his/her practice
through students‘ eyes has helped the teacher to teach more responsively
(Brookfield, 1995). Although most critical reflections have started individually,
the need to share with colleagues has become a collective endeavor. Sharing about
teaching experiences with colleagues has been reassuring and has helped teachers
to realize that the problems they have experienced were not unique (Brookfield,
1995).
Moreover, Brookfield (1995) has implied that it has often been difficult to get
teachers to read articles pertaining to educational theory and research. Teachers
have become skeptical about reading educational literature due to the fact that
most of it has been written by university education professors who have been
trying to obtain tenure rather than to help teachers (Brookfield, 1995). Even
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though most people would be tempted to use the autobiographical means for
reflective thinking, Brookfield (1995) has emphasized that in order to be a
critically reflective teacher one has to look through all four critically reflective
lenses.
2.2 Elements of Reflection
Dewey (1933) described reflection in terms of a sequence of five phases
(suggestions, problem, hypothesis, reasoning and testing). These elements of
reflection in the thoughts of the pre-service teachers can be discerned. Although
the five phases need not occur in a set order, the five together are what Dewey
considers to be a reflective sequence and are the ‗indispensable traits of reflective
thinking‘ (Dewey, 1933).
In outlining his five phases of reflection, Dewey (1933) discusses ways in
which the phases may overlap one another and how some phases might be
expanded depending on the problem at hand. He places the phases of reflection in
context by referencing the learning to both past and future actions and
experiences; reflection is not only ‗looking back‘ and it can persist for extended
periods of time. The systematization of reflective inquiry into teaching as
suggested by Dewey (1933) is ―structured to suggest that teachers look at their
experiences, review and examine these in light of what evidence they can collect
from their practice, and then plan what action they want to take as a result‖ (p.
10).
2.2.1 Suggestion
Suggestion is the state in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution
(Dewey, 1933). In other words, it is a doubtful situation which is understood to be
problematic, and some vague suggestions are considered as possible solutions
(Farrell, 2012). Suggestion comes to the person who is reflecting as a vicarious,
anticipatory way of acting. Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) further elaborates that in this
phase, possibilities and ideas emerged when trouble approach are incorporated.
Suggestions hence should be considered appropriately when they are overflowing,
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which resulting in the need to postpone judgement because they stimulate further
investigation.
In classroom settings, as Loughran (1996) illustrates, the teachers often do
things without stopping to consider why they do them. However, when a situation
arises which causes the teacher stop his/her activities and think, options for action
begin to come to his/her mind. In this state, when the teacher considers two or
more ideas, he/she is inhibited from doing action directly. These suggestions,
therefore, need to be examined so that the most appropriate course of action may
be followed. In teaching, as Loughran (1996) further describes, such situations
may be commonplace. In this case, it is important for the teacher to stop his/her
actions for a moment to consider these suggestions if a course of action is to be
carefully considered.
2.2.2 Problem
Dewey describes problem as the intellectualization of a mere emotional
quality by noting clearly the situation that ignite the trouble and then cause the
stoppage of action (Dewey, 1933). In other words, intellectualization is the state
where difficulty or perplexity of the problem that has been felt (directly
experienced) is intellectualized into a problem to be solved. Flower (1981), in a
more practical way, defines problem as
―a situation that occurs when you are in Point A but you want to be some place else, at Point B, and
there is an obstacle in your way … a problem is only a problem for someone; it is not impersonal
situation waiting for a solution. A problem only exists when someone feels a conflict or
dissonance‖ (Flower, 1981: 19-20).
Young, Becker and Pike (1970) argue that problem does not exist independent of
individuals, that there are only problems for someone. They continue stating that
―Problems arise when features of the image are perceived to be inconsistent with one another, to
clash in some way … when he discovers something in the nature of the world doesn‘t ‗fit‘ his
conception of it … When a person becomes aware of such inconsistency, he finds himself in what
might be called a problematic situation. The uneasy feeling that accompanies this awareness is
characteristic of the earliest stages of inquiry‖ (Young, Becker & Pike, 1970: 90).
Therefore, Dewey (1933) argues that it is the teachers‘ task to ―transform a
situation in which there is experienced obscurity, doubt, conflict, disturbance, of
some sort, into a situation that is clear, coherent, settled, harmonious.‖ (p. 100101). Illustrating Dewey‘s concept of problem, Loughran (1996) mentions that in
a classroom setting where the teacher action stops due to a puzzling or worrisome
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situation, the position may at first be viewed as a difficulty. This may lead the
teacher to reinspect the conditions which have led to the problematic situation.
When this happens, the situation becomes further defined and intellectualized so
that the teacher views it as a problem.
2.2.3 Hypothesis
Hypothesis is the action of using one suggestion after another as a leading idea
to initiate and guide observation and other operation in collection of factual
material (Dewey, 1933). In other words, in this aspect, a suggestion becomes a
more definite supposition that is testable and perhaps measurable. This guiding
idea (Farrell, 2012) is used as a leading idea, or hypothesis where the initial
suggestion can be used as a working hypothesis to initiate and guide observation
and other operations in the collection of factual material.
As further elaborated, the phase of reconsidering suggestion relative to the
implementation and outcome needs examination on the testing level by
scrutinizing more information and performing more observations (ZwozdiakMyers, 2009). This state, in a scientific sense, as Loughran (1996) elaborates, the
data relative to the problem helps to modify, adjust and develop the suggestion so
that the situation begins to take shape as a hypothesis. In a real sense, he further
describes, what was once seems to be just a possibility becomes something that
could be tested, validated or negated.
2.2.4 Reasoning
Reasoning is the state when the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition
as an idea or supposition (Dewey, 1933). In other words, reasoning links present
and past ideas and helps elaborate the supposition that reflective inquiry has
reached, or the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or
supposition. In a narrower sense, reasoning takes place when ideas lead to other
ideas depending on individual‘s prior knowledge and the culture at large. In this
state, as Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) argues that there is a linkage between
knowledge extension of the subject with individual‘s ideas, information and
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previous experience or knowledge. Hence, hypotheses, suggestions and tests
could be further developed.
Loughran (1996) states that in the learning and teaching context, reasoning
draws on the observations and experiences that are used to build the learners‘ or
teachers‘ store of knowledge. Their reasoning through a situation leads to the
linking of ideas and these links are enhanced by drawing upon their storage of
knowledge. Reasoning, he further explains, may also be a method in reinforcing
or better articulating the learners‘ or the teachers‘ belief. This may be by
comparing their views to their observations and experiences.
2.2.5 Testing
Testing is the phase when the hypothesis is being tested overtly or covertly
(Dewey, 1933) in order to give verification. Dewey further elaborates that testing
―either brings to light a new problem or helps to define and clarify the problem on
which he has been engaged. Nothing shows the trained thinker better than the use
he makes of his errors and mistakes‖ (p. 114). In other words, hypothesis testing
takes place when the refined idea is reached, and the testing of this refined
hypothesis takes place which can be by overt action or in thought (imaginative
action) (Farrell, 2012).
Reasoning, as Loughran (1996) further notes, leads to an understanding of the
natural consequences which might follow an action. For this reason, proving the
hypothesis depends on direct observation or experimental testing because the
consequences may not always lead to confirmation of the hypothesis being tested.
The value of reflective thought may be therefore be highlighted through
unsuccessful testing (Loughran, 1996).
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Figure 2.1 Levels of use of the reflective phase (cited from Loughran, 1996, p. 87)
Figure 2.1 illustrates the levels of use of reflective phase or elements of
reflection as suggested by Loughran (1996). Loughran argues that suggestions,
problem, and hypothesis exist in the first phase of reflective cycle, while
reasoning and testing occur in the second phase of reflective cycle. It is because
the teacher‘s reflection is mostly engaged with the first three elements
(suggestions, problem, hypothesis), while reasoning and testing sometimes occur
in the teacher‘s reflection process due to their challenge for more justification for
the acts taken, being taken, and will be taken.
2.3 Levels of Reflection
Burton (2009) argues that the teachers‘ quality or level of reflection is likely to
be highly influenced by their sense of responsibility which then underpins the
effectiveness of reflection in and on action, besides the purpose of reflection. In
terms of category, a body of literature exists regarding the kinds of level or quality
of reflection with variety of terminologies (see, for example, Grimmett,
Mackinnon, Erickson, & Ricken, 1990; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Jay & Johnson,
2002; Kember, McKay, Sinclair, & Wong, 2008; Lee, 2005; Moon, 2006; Schon,
1983, 1987; Sparks-Langer & Colton, 1991; Taggart, 1996; Valli, 1997; Van
Manen, 1977). Van Manen‘s (1977) is believed to be the first study in developing
level of reflection. Therefore, most studies from 1990‘s until 2000‘s used Van
Manen‘s categories or some adapt or develop them (See Appendix 1).
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Van Manen (1977) categorized the level or focus of reflection into three. They
are first, technical rationality, which contains context free generalizations about
teaching and learning which is not connected to any specific incident from the
classroom experience but rather about teaching or classroom in general. Second,
practical rationality, which contains context specific reflection, about teaching
and learning based on the example of classroom experience, incidents, and
specific students‘ actions. Third, critical rationality, which contains multicontextual covering specific incidents or actions across other teaching context.
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of technical reflection is characterized by the
application of tacit knowledge in order to attain the rigid objective and efficient
performance on daily basis. Teachers only focus on concerns about aspects of
their own practice while social contexts are being of less consideration. This, as
Tinning (1995) says, is parallel to Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) first level of reflective
teaching of applying research finding into practice where teachers are concerned
with technical application of knowledge and basic curriculum principles, such as
whether students are on-task.
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of practical reflection is identified by the process in
which assumptions, experiences, goals, meanings and perceptions which underpin
teaching and learning activities are analyzed and clarified. Teachers become more
concerned
with
clarifying
assumptions
while
addressing
educational
consequences, for example if and how goals are being met. Hatton and Smith
(1995) describes this level as where the teachers‘ assumptions as well as teaching
and learning process are embedded in, and negotiated through, language.
Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) second level of reflective teaching, that reflection is a
careful consideration among choices of good teaching, is parallel to this level
(Tinning, 1995).
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of critical reflection is distinguished when teachers
focus on the moral and ethical concerns of ‗the worth of knowledge and the nature
of the social conditions necessary for raising the questions of worthwhile-ness in
the first place‘ (p. 227). Teachers begin to consider the cultural, social and
political aspects into their practical actions, challenge their assumptions and
finding answers to their practice as they realize that ‗universal consensus, free
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from delusions or distortions, is the ideal of a deliberative rationality that pursues
worthwhile educational ends in self-determination, community, and on the basis
of justice, equality, and freedom‘ (Van Manen, 1977, p. 227). Tinning (1995)
view the similarities of this level with Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) third level of
reflective teaching when the teachers begin to further develop their new
understandings of their practical actions. In other words, in this level the teachers
is concerned with worth of knowledge without a personal bias by posing such
question as whether the content was important to the students or not.
Developing Van Manen‘s level of reflection, Hatton and Smith (1995), in their
study at the University of Sydney focusing on reflective teaching, investigated the
nature of reflection in teaching with the purpose to identify types of reflection in
students‘ writing. They categorized four types of reflection in the student
teachers‘ writing. They are descriptive writing, descriptive reflection, dialogic
reflection, and critical reflection (see Appendix 2 for the criteria). For the purpose
of this study, the following summarizes Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) theoretical
framework of level of reflection and related theory pertaining to Hatton and
Smith‘s (1995) descriptive reflection and dialogic reflection which was modified
in this study.
2.3.1 Descriptive Writing (Non-Reflective Writing)
At the lowest level in Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) category lies descriptive
writing which is also called as non-reflective writing. The writing is not
considered as reflective when it only reports literature or describes events that
occurred in the classroom. As Hollingsworth and Eastman (1988) argue,
descriptive writing gives access to the readers to get a mental picture of an object,
person, or idea, and how it operates by providing dimension, colors, surroundings,
origins, placement, and other information. In this category, the teachers/preservice teachers give no attempt to justify the events. In other words, reasons for
what happened are not provided. This type of writing, however, is commonly
found in the pre-service teachers‘ teaching journals. It usually becomes the point
of departure for the pre-service teachers before they come into more descriptive
reflection or dialogic reflection.
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2.3.2 Descriptive Reflection
Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that descriptive reflection writing is
reflective in nature, as there is not only a description of events presented but there
are some attempts in the writing to provide reason/justification for events or
actions but in a reportive or descriptive way. Hatton and Smith (1995, p. 48) pose
a related example such as 'I chose this problem solving activity because I believe
that students should be active rather than passive learners'. In this way, the
teacher gave his/her justification for his/her action to choose certain activities for
the students. This is what the researchers say as reflection which is based
generally on one perspective/factor as rationale.
Moreover, in this type of writing, as Hatton and Smith (1995) further state, it
is a common for the recognition of alternate viewpoints in the research and
literature which are reported. Such related extract Hatton and Smith (1995, p. 48)
chose from their study is 'For example, Tyler (1949), because of the assumptions
on which his approach rests suggests that the curriculum process should begin
with objectives. Yinger (1979), on the other hand argues that the 'task' is the
starting point.' This is what Hatton and Smith (1995) argue as reflection which is
based on the recognition of multiple factors and perspectives.
In this study, this level was modified as regards the participants‘ data of
reflection. Such modification was established as data indicated that within Hatton
and Smith‘s (1995) categorization in this level, there are three types of data
occurred. First, data revealing description of phenomenon/phenomena with simple
justification/reasoning and presented in descriptive way, was therefore categorized
as Low Level (L1), as illustrated by the following vignette.
―Another problem I faced in the classroom was when I was presenting my teaching material, the Infocus suddenly was in trouble and I couldn‘t go further with my explanation in detail and clearly.‖
(Extract from PST 1‘s reflective journal).
The above example contains simple justification for the phenomenon (in this case
a problem) took place in the PST‘s class during her teaching and learning process.
Second, data exhibiting description of phenomenon/phenomena with more
complex justification/reasoning and presented in descriptive way, was therefore
categorized as High Level (L2), as exemplified in the following extract.
―The teaching and learning process was still dominated by me. Why? Because when I asked them to
discuss in group, they still highly relied on me by asking about what the passage discussed. They
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were still not aware of the benefit of discussion with their friends. They were more sure that the
right answer is from the teacher. However, I helped them by mingling around guiding each group
and checked the things they didn‘t understand.‖ (Extract from PST 1‘s reflective journal).
The abovementioned extract contains more complex reasoning for the teaching
and learning process which took place in the PST‘s classroom.
Third, data showing description of phenomenon/phenomena with mental
realization (emotional reaction) but only provided with insufficient reasoning to
satisfy the category of dialogic reflection was therefore categorized as Transition
Level (TL), as illustrated by the following example.
―In my teaching, at first I thought Oh, teaching a small class and quiet class is fun. My second
teaching was speaking and still the continuation of the first meeting about expressing satisfaction
and dissatisfaction.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
In the aforementioned example, the blue typed is the sentence indicated as
transition level category because it does contain mental realization I thought,
which characterizes dialogic reflection; however, this evaluative sentence does
not contain sound reasoning for why she thought that teaching small and quiet
class was fun as evident from the following sentence which talks about a different
context.
Pertaining to the modification to this level, another scrutiny was attempted
into Halliday and Mathiessen‘s (2014, p. 603) functional grammar relative to ―the
lexicogrammatical resources of cohesion‖. Following Halliday and Mathiessen‘s
(2004, 2014) suggestion in text analysis using functional grammar, each entry was
divided into each sentence in order to locate the two fundamental relationships of
logico-semantic relation, i.e. expansion (elaboration, extension, and enhancement)
and projection (locution and idea).
Expansion indicates the relation of phenomena as being of the same order of
experience, whereas projection indicates the relation of phenomena of one order
of experience (the processes of saying and thinking) to phenomena of a higher
order (semiotic phenomena – what people say and think) (Halliday & Mathiessen,
2014, p. 443) (see Table 3.4 in Section 3.6.2.1 for the subtypes in these categories
along with their definition and for further discussion of steps in data analysis
regarding levels of reflection). Halliday and Mathiessen‘s (2004, 2014) logicosemantic relation was also deployed throughout the analysis of dialogic reflection.
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Regarding the modification in this level, further categorization along with samples
from PSTs‘ data can be traced in Appendix 4.
2.3.3 Dialogic Reflection
In this level, Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that the reflection demonstrates
a 'stepping back' from the events/actions leading to a different level of mulling
about, discourse with self and exploring the experience, events and actions using
qualities of judgement and possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesizing.
Such reflection is analytical or/and integrative of factors and perspectives and
may recognize inconsistencies in attempting to provide rationales and critique.
Such example of student teachers‘ writing they pose as:
'While I had planned to use mainly written text materials I became aware very quickly that a
number of students did not respond to these. Thinking about this now there may have been several
reasons for this. A number of the students, while reasonably proficient in English, even though they
had been NESB learners, may still have lacked some confidence in handling the level of language
in the text. Alternatively a number of students may have been visual and tactile learners. In any case
I found that I had to employ more concrete activities in my teaching.' (Hatton & Smith, 1995, p. 19)
In this state, the student teacher was confronted with a situation which made her
stop and think about some possibilities why it happened. She tried to justify the
situation by coming with the reasoning and hypothesis.
This level of reflection also comes in two forms: (a) reflection which is based
generally on one perspective/factor as rationale, or (b) reflection which is based
on the recognition of multiple factors and perspectives. In this study, however,
this category was modified in light of data found in the participants‘ reflection.
Such modification was established as Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) categorization in
this level could not accommodate the range of pre-service teachers‘ dialogic
reflection which covered from the simple ones, provided with only simple
reasoning with mental realization, to more complex ones, occurred with complex
analysis, reasoning, justification which might contain alternatives and
metacognition.
As regards the modification to this level, Pisova‘s (2005, as cited in Syslova,
2015) reflective model (see Appendix 3) was found helpful in identifying the
range of dialogic reflection took place in the participants‘ data. Pisova‘s (2005, as
cited in Syslova, 2015, p. 76) suggested repeating stages of reflection are as
follows (apart from the numbering, quoted verbatim from Syslova, 2015, p. 76):
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a) Description is the objective recording of the phenomena, where the
phenomenon is education reality. The basis of this is the interactions between
the teacher and the child/children; however, it can be divided into partial areas
such as aims, educational content, methods and forms, etc. It is a basic mental
operation, the quality of which determines the quality of all the other stages of
reflection. In other words if the description is not of sufficient quality there
cannot be awareness of the real level of one‘s own professional skills.
b) Analysis means analyzing and researching more complex realities by breaking
them up into more simple ones. It is the ability to divide educational reality
into simple parts, e.g. using questions like: ―What did I do and why? How did
the child/children react? What was the situation about? What was the aim of
the situation? etc.‖ There is an assumption regarding the ability to identify
(describe) unambiguous facts.
c) Evaluation is the state of one´s being aware of the causes of the identified
phenomena, or it is the explanation of the causes of the discovered problems
or successes. Evaluation is the sign of understanding the educational reality,
which presupposes extensive theoretical knowledge as well as personal
capabilities enabling the person to be sincere to themselves. It means that the
evaluated person takes a position regarding themselves — either positive or
negative, looking for the answer to the question ―Why?‖ For example, Why
did I act this way? Why did the children react that way?
d) Proposing alternative procedures presupposes that the teacher has managed
the previous levels of mental operations and that he/she has had enough
theoretical knowledge as well as practical experience to be aware what action
could be more efficient, or what changes could support educational results of a
higher quality.
e) Generalisation in its basis a confrontation of one‘s own opinions with the
opinions of experts, e.g. authors of professional texts or university teachers. In
other words generalisation can be also designated as a capability to formulate
more general principles on the basis of one‘s own experience with educational
reality.
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f) Metacognition is thinking about mental processes. It is also the ability to
recognize how we react in stressful situations; where we prefer emotions to
sense. Metacognition focuses especially on assessing the decisive processes,
which means that the teacher is learning via this mental operation how he/she
solves problems, reacts and decides. This self-knowledge leads to a better
efficiency via auto regulative processes. Metacognition could also be
described as an ability to predict certain mistakes and limits of the human
mind with the aim of avoiding them or finding ways to get over them. It can
be referred to as self-reflection. (Pisova, 2005, as cited in Syslova, 2015, p.
76).
Therefore, by modifying Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) dialogic reflection using
Pisova‘s stages of reflection, it was established throughout the data analysis that
pertaining to dialogic reflection there were three categories, i.e. Low Level (L3),
Moderate Level (L4), and High Level (L5).
Low Level (L3) in dialogic reflection covers reflection containing with mental
realization about phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the phenomenon/
phenomena using qualities of simple judgement/analysis/reasoning (containing
description and/or analysis, and simple evaluation) such as in the following
example:
―It was my first teaching at class XI IPA2 on Tuesdays. I was really nervous because I left home
early in the morning with intention to accompany my teaching partner at class XI IPS 2 as she was
scheduled to teach at 7 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. and I was scheduled to teach at the second session at XI
IPA2. But because of the class was not attended by the scheduled teacher, I was asked by the
English teacher to teach in the class. Actually I was very nervous ever since the commencement day
of our field teaching.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The aforementioned example of reflective unit contains an evaluation about the
PST‘s anxiety towards her first day of teaching. The identified mental realization I
was really nervous is then followed by simple justification.
Moderate Level (L4) in dialogic reflection refers to mental realization about
phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the phenomenon/phenomena using
qualities of more complex judgement/analysis/reasoning (containing more
complex analysis and evaluation). The following vignette from PST‘s data
exemplifies this category.
―Considering the lesson plan, I felt it didn‘t go as I planned before since whenever I asked them to
do something like understanding passages, writing, or speaking, they just kept silence. While in
fact, before asking them to write or speak, I have provided them with explanation and sufficient
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examples using media. I found out that they are having trouble with grammar. For example, out of
the two sentences I asked them to make, none of them was correct. At last, I ended up explaining
grammar rather than focusing on what I have planned before. So, my lesson plan didn‘t work at
all.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The above extract contains evaluation about the lesson plan that the PST
implemented in her instructional setting. The evaluative phrase I felt it didn’t go
as I planned before is then followed by a course of reasoning and justification,
which was more complex than that of simple justification provided in Low Level
(L3).
Meanwhile, High Level (L5) in this level of reflection means reflection which
deals with mental realization about phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the
phenomenon/phenomena using qualities of more integrative analysis and
evaluation (containing alternative, generalization and/or metacognition) as the
following extract depicts.
―After the third meeting, I started to feel a bit annoyed since it seems that the students don‘t know
or perhaps they don‘t want to appreciate what I have done for their class so far; from preparing and
making teaching media, preparing teaching materials and explaining in front of the class until my
mouth went dry. But now, as I‘m reflecting it, I start to think about many things like: (a) the ways to
make them understand the material I‘m delivering to them because as far as I‘m concerned they still
don‘t get whatever I deliver to them, (b) the ways to make them want to do the tasks that I assign
them to do, or (c) maybe they‘re bored with the way I teach since I always use teaching media
which I put on the whiteboard and pair work technique.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The above example illustrates PST‘s evaluation on the students‘ response and
respect towards her and her teaching. This reflective thought unit covers an
integrative analysis, evaluation and metacognition.
2.3.4 Critical Reflection
In this highest level, Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that reflection
demonstrates an awareness that actions and events are not only located in, and
explicable by, reference to multiple perspectives but are located in, and influenced
by, multiple historical, and socio-political contexts. The related example of
student teacher‘s writing such as the following indicates the ability of the student
teacher to link the classroom situation with power relationship in wider context
seeing the classroom components, the teacher and the students, as part of the
social institutions within the society.
'What must be recognised, however, is that the issues of student management experienced with this
class can only be understood within the wider structural locations of power relationships established
between teachers and students in schools as social institutions based upon the principle of control'
(Hatton & Smith, 1995, p. 49)
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This considered-highest level of reflection, however, is not easy to attain by
reflective practitioners since this quality of reflection requires many experiences
in developing reflective practice and ultimately takes time for a reflective
practitioner to maintain critical reflection in their practices (Farrell, 2009;
Pishghadam, et al., 2012).
2.4 Reflective Teaching Practice
In the early 1990s, there was ―only a small portion of the pre-service
education programs feature reflection as a key aim and among these programs
reflective teaching has remained elusive‖ (Ali, 1998, p. 2). As the consequences
of post-method debate, reflective practices have been growing extensively over
the past decade (Farrell, 2012; Prabhu, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2001, 2003,
2006), especially where higher education is concerned (Brockbank & McGill,
2007; Campbell & Norton, 2007; Lyons, 2010), either as a practice to the teachers
or to the learners. As far as the teachers are concerned, being reflective assists the
teachers‘ lifelong professional development, enabling them to criticize teaching
and make better-informed teaching decisions (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981;
Farrell, 2006; Valli, 1997).
Reflective teaching is a teachers‘ process on structuring or restructuring
actions, beliefs, knowledge and theories that inform teaching for the purpose of
professional development (Lyons, 2010; Richards & Lockhart, 1996; Zeichner &
Liu, 2010). Reflective teaching emphasizes a constructivist approach to teaching
(Korthagen & Wubbles, 1995; Shahinkarakas, Yumru, & Inozu, 2010). Adopting
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter reviews the theoretical and empirical literature from the areas of
reflection and reflection practice: elements, level, and issues concerned in the
reflection; the English language teacher education, the teacher knowledge and its
relation to the reflective teaching practice; and relevant research that has been
conducted about pre-service teachers and their development in reflective teaching
practice. The intention is to establish an analytical framework for this present
study.
2.1 Reflection and Reflective Practice
Many works of literature talked about definitions of reflection, reflective
thinking, and reflective practice. However, such conceptions on reflection and
reflective practices have come to ―loose and fuzzy treatment‖ of the concept
(Fath‘i & Behzadpour, 2011, p. 245). The tradition of reflection or reflective
practice can be traced back to Dewey‘s (1910, 1933) ideas about reflection and
reflective inquiry. Reflection or reflective inquiry to Dewey (1933) is considered
as ―active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of
knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to
which it tends [that] constitutes reflective thought‖ (p. 16, as cited in Farrell,
2012). His philosophical stance on reflection for personal and intellectual growth
is considered to be psychological (Ryan, 2012). His approach is closely related to
―the nature of reflection and how it occurs‖ (Ryan, 2012, p. 208). Later, in 1970s,
Freire‘s (1972) and Habermas‘ (1974) works lead the others‘ works on critical
reflection (see Brookfield, 1995; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Mezirow, 1990). The
notion of reflection was then further developed by Schon (1983, 1987) by
proposing the concept of ―reflection-in-action‖ and ―reflection-on-action‖.
However, as not all thinking can be considered as reflection (Dewey, 1933), it
also implies to teaching that not all thinking about teaching can be categorised as
reflective teaching. Reflective teaching only applies to the teacher when he/she, as
Zeichner and Liston (1996) assert, keeps questioning his/her teaching goals,
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values, beliefs, and assumptions in the context he/she is dealing with. ―Technical
rationality‖ (Farrel, 2004, p. 31) deals with technical knowledge and cognitive
aspects of teaching practice by beginning teachers, as applies as well to the preservice teachers.
To summarize Dewey‘s (1933) conception on reflective teaching, it is about:
active concerns; cyclical process; monitoring, evaluating and revising practice
continuously; evidenced-based classroom inquiry; attitudes of open-mindedness,
responsibility, and wholeheartedness; teacher judgement based on evidences and
insights; collaboration and dialogue with colleagues; and creative mediation of
teaching and learning framework.
Zeichner and Liston (1987) argue that reflection lends itself to the ―way of
thinking about educational matters that involves the ability to make rational
choices‖ (in Ying & Leng, 2002, p. 3) which summarized by Calderhead (1989)
as the activity in which the teacher educators do the interaction, interpretation in
the analysis and solution of complex and ambiguous problems they encounter in
the classroom. Furthermore, Chitpin, Simon and Galipeau (2008) argue that the
kind of knowledge-base that is being developed through reflective approaches is
much more comprehensive because it is directly tuned into what the teachers
actually know (Clarke & Otaky, 2006; Cornford, 2002; Fatemi, Shirvan, &
Rezvani, 2011; Generett & Hicks, 2004) about the teaching and learning process
in the classroom. A decade later, Brookfield (1995) has established that critical
reflection is very important aspect of the larger process of reflection and that
without the habit of critical reflection, the risk of making poor decisions and bad
judgement has existed.
Rodgers (2002), revisiting Dewey‘s (1933) conception on reflection, restates
that reflection is a meaning-making process, a ‗systematic, rigorous, and
disciplined way of thinking‘ (p. 845), an activity that involves in a community and
interaction with others, and shapes the individual with ‗attitudes that value the
personal and intellectual growth of oneself and of others‘ (p. 845). This is further
shaped by Farrell (2012), who also reexamined Dewey‘s (1933) conception of
reflective practice that it is not isolated introspection but evidenced based. The
evidenced-based activity, he further states, requires the teachers to keep collecting
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data about their teaching and make use of the data as source of information of
their decision making. In this study, therefore, reflection is defined as the process
in which problems pertaining to classroom teaching contexts came into the
participants‘ mind, and the time when their assumption, beliefs, and ideas were
challenged by situation as regard solution to be sought.
Reflection and reflective practice have been established by many
philosophers, theorists, teacher educators and researchers. John Dewey, Donald A.
Schön, and Stephen D. Brookfield are the key theorists foregrounding concepts of
reflection and reflective teaching. They have influenced the writings on reflection
in teacher education (Edge, 2011; York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, & Montie, 2006;
Zeichner & Liston, 1996). Therefore, reflective thinking and reflective practices
could not be discussed without including the theories and practices of Dewey,
Schön, and Brookfield.
2.1.1 Dewey’s Influence and Criticism on his Work
According to Dewey (1933), reflection has held the implication that something
is either believed in or disbelieved in through another source which could
guarantee as the grounds of belief or disbelief. He defines reflection as a particular
way of thinking in which judgement has been suspended during further inquiry.
The function of reflective thinking has been to make meaning out of the
encountered experiences and the ability to make sense of and assign value to
events which occur in someone‘s life (Rodgers, 2002).
In teaching context, Dewey (1933) stresses the importance of teaching being a
process of problem solving and that reflective thinking led to a better quality of
teaching (Kirk, 2000; Farrell, 2012). He argues that teachers who were proficient
in their teaching skills, but who lacked an inquiring and curious mind,
experienced staleness in their professional development and growth (Mewborn,
1999; Pishghadam, Zabihi, & Kermanshahi, 2012). Dewey has reminded mankind
that reflection, nevertheless, can be rigorous, complex, intellectual, and emotional,
and that it takes time to do it well (Rodgers, 2002).
Some scholars, however, criticized Dewey's notion of reflection on several
grounds. Cinnamond and Zimpher (1990), for instance, noted that Dewey's notion
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of reflection implies a sense of linearity and sequencing as if reflection is a plan
for action. They also noticed that his perspective on reflection is not an interactive
or dialogical process since he takes it for granted that a given ―individual student
teacher learns to reflect on a particular experience individually‖ (p. 58). In a
similar vein, Rorty (1987) argues that Dewey had defined reflection in such a way
as to indicate that ―a correct account of the nature of thought would make possible
the sort of improvement in thinking which had been promised in the past by
others‖ (p. xvii). Moreover, Dewey failed to include individuals' emotions in his
definition of reflection (Salzberger-Wittenberg, Henry, & Osborne, 1983).
2.1.2 Schön’s Influence and Criticism on his Work
Schön (1983, 1987) has emphasized the value of uncertainty as an important
aspect of professional reflective practice. Schön‘s comprehensive elaboration
relative to intuitive reflective practitioners has been in contrast with Dewey‘s
association of reflective thinking with the scientific method (Fendler, 2003). The
definition of reflection that has been pronounced by Schön has generally been
understood to be artistic and based on practice (Fendler, 2003; Schön, 1983,
1987). Moreover, Schön (1987) has implied that the relationship between practice
competence and professional knowledge needs to be explored in order to make
better use of handling professional artistry.
Professional artistry has been referred to as the kinds of competence
practitioners have displayed in unique and conflicting situations of practice
(Schön, 1987). According to Schön (1983), ―it is this entire process of reflectionin-action which is central to the ‗art‘ by which practitioners sometimes deal well
with situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict‖ (p. 50).
Schön (1983) has held the belief that most practitioners have viewed themselves
as technical experts, with a tendency to want to stay in control of circumstances
due to the feeling that uncertainty has been considered as a threat and a sign of
weakness. Increasing the use of reflection-in-action, therefore, would be helpful if
technical problem solving were to be placed within a broader context of reflective
inquiry and linked to the art of practice and research (Schön, 1983). The term
―reflection-on-action‖, as opposed to ―reflection-in-action‖, refers to what the
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practitioners deal with after they came across the situation. It takes place
sometime later after a particular event when there is time when the practitioners
reframe and restructure their thinking related to what they have come to deal with
(Schön, 1983). Journal writing or reflective teaching journal writing, therefore, is
considered as one of the act of reflection-on-action (Rayford, 2010).
However,
there
are
several
criticisms
addressed
towards
Schön's
conceptualization of reflection. Eraut (1994), for instance, argued that when the
task is to be performed in a very short time, the scope for reflection will definitely
be very limited. In addition, Munby and Russell (1989) expressed doubts about
the
psychological
reality
of
reflection-in-action.
Nevertheless,
Schön's
conceptualization of reflection has been really significant in that many training
and education programs adopted it not only in organizing experiences but also in
the teaching of content.
2.1.3 Brookfield’s Influence on Becoming Critically Reflective Teacher
Brookfield (1995) has emphasized that the most important feature of critical
reflection was to focus on hunting assumptions. Assumptions have been defined
as obvious beliefs that give meaning and purpose, yet have been taken for granted
without the need to be stated explicitly (Brookfield, 1995). The challenge has
been to become aware of implicit assumptions that have determined how and why
individuals think and act a certain way. Further, Brookfield (1995) has
distinguished between three broad categories of assumptions.
The three categories that Brookfield (1995) has established have included
paradigmatic assumptions, prescriptive assumptions, and causal assumptions.
Paradigmatic assumptions, the first category, have been hard to recognize as
assumptions and have usually only been examined critically after a great deal of
resistance (Brookfield, 1995). The second one, prescriptive assumptions have
been defined as assumptions about what someone thinks should be happening in a
particular situation. The last, causal assumptions have typically been stated in
prescriptive terms to help him/her understand how different parts of the world
work and how conditions have allowed processes to change (Brookfield, 1995).
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However, developing these three assumptions has become a puzzling and
somewhat contradictory task (Brookfield, 1995).
Reflective thinking, as Brookfield (1995) further states, has become critical
thinking when it has included the two distinctive purposes of understanding how
considerations of power have distorted educational processes and interactions, and
how questioning assumptions and practices, that should make teachers‘ lives
easier, have worked against their best long-term interests. At times, teachers have
been confronted with the possibility that the assumptions they have been
experiencing have not really fit their situations. Having the ability to recognize the
difference between ―what is‖ and ―what should be‖ has often been the beginning
of being able to reflect critically (Brookfield, 1995).
As regards critical reflection, there are four critically reflective lenses have
been developed by Brookfield. The four lenses have included autobiographies as
learners and teachers, teachers seeing themselves through their students‘ eyes,
sharing colleagues‘ experiences, and exploring theoretical literature (Brookfield,
1995). Through the use of personal self-reflection, teachers have been made aware
of deep commitments and motivations they have possessed as teachers
(Brookfield, 1995). Further, according to Brookfield (1995), the problem with
teachers trying to see themselves through their students‘ eyes has led students to
be reluctant about being honest with their teachers. Despite the reluctance of
students to share honestly, a teacher who has experienced seeing his/her practice
through students‘ eyes has helped the teacher to teach more responsively
(Brookfield, 1995). Although most critical reflections have started individually,
the need to share with colleagues has become a collective endeavor. Sharing about
teaching experiences with colleagues has been reassuring and has helped teachers
to realize that the problems they have experienced were not unique (Brookfield,
1995).
Moreover, Brookfield (1995) has implied that it has often been difficult to get
teachers to read articles pertaining to educational theory and research. Teachers
have become skeptical about reading educational literature due to the fact that
most of it has been written by university education professors who have been
trying to obtain tenure rather than to help teachers (Brookfield, 1995). Even
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though most people would be tempted to use the autobiographical means for
reflective thinking, Brookfield (1995) has emphasized that in order to be a
critically reflective teacher one has to look through all four critically reflective
lenses.
2.2 Elements of Reflection
Dewey (1933) described reflection in terms of a sequence of five phases
(suggestions, problem, hypothesis, reasoning and testing). These elements of
reflection in the thoughts of the pre-service teachers can be discerned. Although
the five phases need not occur in a set order, the five together are what Dewey
considers to be a reflective sequence and are the ‗indispensable traits of reflective
thinking‘ (Dewey, 1933).
In outlining his five phases of reflection, Dewey (1933) discusses ways in
which the phases may overlap one another and how some phases might be
expanded depending on the problem at hand. He places the phases of reflection in
context by referencing the learning to both past and future actions and
experiences; reflection is not only ‗looking back‘ and it can persist for extended
periods of time. The systematization of reflective inquiry into teaching as
suggested by Dewey (1933) is ―structured to suggest that teachers look at their
experiences, review and examine these in light of what evidence they can collect
from their practice, and then plan what action they want to take as a result‖ (p.
10).
2.2.1 Suggestion
Suggestion is the state in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution
(Dewey, 1933). In other words, it is a doubtful situation which is understood to be
problematic, and some vague suggestions are considered as possible solutions
(Farrell, 2012). Suggestion comes to the person who is reflecting as a vicarious,
anticipatory way of acting. Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) further elaborates that in this
phase, possibilities and ideas emerged when trouble approach are incorporated.
Suggestions hence should be considered appropriately when they are overflowing,
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which resulting in the need to postpone judgement because they stimulate further
investigation.
In classroom settings, as Loughran (1996) illustrates, the teachers often do
things without stopping to consider why they do them. However, when a situation
arises which causes the teacher stop his/her activities and think, options for action
begin to come to his/her mind. In this state, when the teacher considers two or
more ideas, he/she is inhibited from doing action directly. These suggestions,
therefore, need to be examined so that the most appropriate course of action may
be followed. In teaching, as Loughran (1996) further describes, such situations
may be commonplace. In this case, it is important for the teacher to stop his/her
actions for a moment to consider these suggestions if a course of action is to be
carefully considered.
2.2.2 Problem
Dewey describes problem as the intellectualization of a mere emotional
quality by noting clearly the situation that ignite the trouble and then cause the
stoppage of action (Dewey, 1933). In other words, intellectualization is the state
where difficulty or perplexity of the problem that has been felt (directly
experienced) is intellectualized into a problem to be solved. Flower (1981), in a
more practical way, defines problem as
―a situation that occurs when you are in Point A but you want to be some place else, at Point B, and
there is an obstacle in your way … a problem is only a problem for someone; it is not impersonal
situation waiting for a solution. A problem only exists when someone feels a conflict or
dissonance‖ (Flower, 1981: 19-20).
Young, Becker and Pike (1970) argue that problem does not exist independent of
individuals, that there are only problems for someone. They continue stating that
―Problems arise when features of the image are perceived to be inconsistent with one another, to
clash in some way … when he discovers something in the nature of the world doesn‘t ‗fit‘ his
conception of it … When a person becomes aware of such inconsistency, he finds himself in what
might be called a problematic situation. The uneasy feeling that accompanies this awareness is
characteristic of the earliest stages of inquiry‖ (Young, Becker & Pike, 1970: 90).
Therefore, Dewey (1933) argues that it is the teachers‘ task to ―transform a
situation in which there is experienced obscurity, doubt, conflict, disturbance, of
some sort, into a situation that is clear, coherent, settled, harmonious.‖ (p. 100101). Illustrating Dewey‘s concept of problem, Loughran (1996) mentions that in
a classroom setting where the teacher action stops due to a puzzling or worrisome
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situation, the position may at first be viewed as a difficulty. This may lead the
teacher to reinspect the conditions which have led to the problematic situation.
When this happens, the situation becomes further defined and intellectualized so
that the teacher views it as a problem.
2.2.3 Hypothesis
Hypothesis is the action of using one suggestion after another as a leading idea
to initiate and guide observation and other operation in collection of factual
material (Dewey, 1933). In other words, in this aspect, a suggestion becomes a
more definite supposition that is testable and perhaps measurable. This guiding
idea (Farrell, 2012) is used as a leading idea, or hypothesis where the initial
suggestion can be used as a working hypothesis to initiate and guide observation
and other operations in the collection of factual material.
As further elaborated, the phase of reconsidering suggestion relative to the
implementation and outcome needs examination on the testing level by
scrutinizing more information and performing more observations (ZwozdiakMyers, 2009). This state, in a scientific sense, as Loughran (1996) elaborates, the
data relative to the problem helps to modify, adjust and develop the suggestion so
that the situation begins to take shape as a hypothesis. In a real sense, he further
describes, what was once seems to be just a possibility becomes something that
could be tested, validated or negated.
2.2.4 Reasoning
Reasoning is the state when the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition
as an idea or supposition (Dewey, 1933). In other words, reasoning links present
and past ideas and helps elaborate the supposition that reflective inquiry has
reached, or the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or
supposition. In a narrower sense, reasoning takes place when ideas lead to other
ideas depending on individual‘s prior knowledge and the culture at large. In this
state, as Zwozdiak-Myers (2009) argues that there is a linkage between
knowledge extension of the subject with individual‘s ideas, information and
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previous experience or knowledge. Hence, hypotheses, suggestions and tests
could be further developed.
Loughran (1996) states that in the learning and teaching context, reasoning
draws on the observations and experiences that are used to build the learners‘ or
teachers‘ store of knowledge. Their reasoning through a situation leads to the
linking of ideas and these links are enhanced by drawing upon their storage of
knowledge. Reasoning, he further explains, may also be a method in reinforcing
or better articulating the learners‘ or the teachers‘ belief. This may be by
comparing their views to their observations and experiences.
2.2.5 Testing
Testing is the phase when the hypothesis is being tested overtly or covertly
(Dewey, 1933) in order to give verification. Dewey further elaborates that testing
―either brings to light a new problem or helps to define and clarify the problem on
which he has been engaged. Nothing shows the trained thinker better than the use
he makes of his errors and mistakes‖ (p. 114). In other words, hypothesis testing
takes place when the refined idea is reached, and the testing of this refined
hypothesis takes place which can be by overt action or in thought (imaginative
action) (Farrell, 2012).
Reasoning, as Loughran (1996) further notes, leads to an understanding of the
natural consequences which might follow an action. For this reason, proving the
hypothesis depends on direct observation or experimental testing because the
consequences may not always lead to confirmation of the hypothesis being tested.
The value of reflective thought may be therefore be highlighted through
unsuccessful testing (Loughran, 1996).
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Figure 2.1 Levels of use of the reflective phase (cited from Loughran, 1996, p. 87)
Figure 2.1 illustrates the levels of use of reflective phase or elements of
reflection as suggested by Loughran (1996). Loughran argues that suggestions,
problem, and hypothesis exist in the first phase of reflective cycle, while
reasoning and testing occur in the second phase of reflective cycle. It is because
the teacher‘s reflection is mostly engaged with the first three elements
(suggestions, problem, hypothesis), while reasoning and testing sometimes occur
in the teacher‘s reflection process due to their challenge for more justification for
the acts taken, being taken, and will be taken.
2.3 Levels of Reflection
Burton (2009) argues that the teachers‘ quality or level of reflection is likely to
be highly influenced by their sense of responsibility which then underpins the
effectiveness of reflection in and on action, besides the purpose of reflection. In
terms of category, a body of literature exists regarding the kinds of level or quality
of reflection with variety of terminologies (see, for example, Grimmett,
Mackinnon, Erickson, & Ricken, 1990; Hatton & Smith, 1995; Jay & Johnson,
2002; Kember, McKay, Sinclair, & Wong, 2008; Lee, 2005; Moon, 2006; Schon,
1983, 1987; Sparks-Langer & Colton, 1991; Taggart, 1996; Valli, 1997; Van
Manen, 1977). Van Manen‘s (1977) is believed to be the first study in developing
level of reflection. Therefore, most studies from 1990‘s until 2000‘s used Van
Manen‘s categories or some adapt or develop them (See Appendix 1).
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Van Manen (1977) categorized the level or focus of reflection into three. They
are first, technical rationality, which contains context free generalizations about
teaching and learning which is not connected to any specific incident from the
classroom experience but rather about teaching or classroom in general. Second,
practical rationality, which contains context specific reflection, about teaching
and learning based on the example of classroom experience, incidents, and
specific students‘ actions. Third, critical rationality, which contains multicontextual covering specific incidents or actions across other teaching context.
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of technical reflection is characterized by the
application of tacit knowledge in order to attain the rigid objective and efficient
performance on daily basis. Teachers only focus on concerns about aspects of
their own practice while social contexts are being of less consideration. This, as
Tinning (1995) says, is parallel to Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) first level of reflective
teaching of applying research finding into practice where teachers are concerned
with technical application of knowledge and basic curriculum principles, such as
whether students are on-task.
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of practical reflection is identified by the process in
which assumptions, experiences, goals, meanings and perceptions which underpin
teaching and learning activities are analyzed and clarified. Teachers become more
concerned
with
clarifying
assumptions
while
addressing
educational
consequences, for example if and how goals are being met. Hatton and Smith
(1995) describes this level as where the teachers‘ assumptions as well as teaching
and learning process are embedded in, and negotiated through, language.
Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) second level of reflective teaching, that reflection is a
careful consideration among choices of good teaching, is parallel to this level
(Tinning, 1995).
Van Manen‘s (1977) level of critical reflection is distinguished when teachers
focus on the moral and ethical concerns of ‗the worth of knowledge and the nature
of the social conditions necessary for raising the questions of worthwhile-ness in
the first place‘ (p. 227). Teachers begin to consider the cultural, social and
political aspects into their practical actions, challenge their assumptions and
finding answers to their practice as they realize that ‗universal consensus, free
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from delusions or distortions, is the ideal of a deliberative rationality that pursues
worthwhile educational ends in self-determination, community, and on the basis
of justice, equality, and freedom‘ (Van Manen, 1977, p. 227). Tinning (1995)
view the similarities of this level with Grimmett et al.‘s (1990) third level of
reflective teaching when the teachers begin to further develop their new
understandings of their practical actions. In other words, in this level the teachers
is concerned with worth of knowledge without a personal bias by posing such
question as whether the content was important to the students or not.
Developing Van Manen‘s level of reflection, Hatton and Smith (1995), in their
study at the University of Sydney focusing on reflective teaching, investigated the
nature of reflection in teaching with the purpose to identify types of reflection in
students‘ writing. They categorized four types of reflection in the student
teachers‘ writing. They are descriptive writing, descriptive reflection, dialogic
reflection, and critical reflection (see Appendix 2 for the criteria). For the purpose
of this study, the following summarizes Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) theoretical
framework of level of reflection and related theory pertaining to Hatton and
Smith‘s (1995) descriptive reflection and dialogic reflection which was modified
in this study.
2.3.1 Descriptive Writing (Non-Reflective Writing)
At the lowest level in Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) category lies descriptive
writing which is also called as non-reflective writing. The writing is not
considered as reflective when it only reports literature or describes events that
occurred in the classroom. As Hollingsworth and Eastman (1988) argue,
descriptive writing gives access to the readers to get a mental picture of an object,
person, or idea, and how it operates by providing dimension, colors, surroundings,
origins, placement, and other information. In this category, the teachers/preservice teachers give no attempt to justify the events. In other words, reasons for
what happened are not provided. This type of writing, however, is commonly
found in the pre-service teachers‘ teaching journals. It usually becomes the point
of departure for the pre-service teachers before they come into more descriptive
reflection or dialogic reflection.
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2.3.2 Descriptive Reflection
Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that descriptive reflection writing is
reflective in nature, as there is not only a description of events presented but there
are some attempts in the writing to provide reason/justification for events or
actions but in a reportive or descriptive way. Hatton and Smith (1995, p. 48) pose
a related example such as 'I chose this problem solving activity because I believe
that students should be active rather than passive learners'. In this way, the
teacher gave his/her justification for his/her action to choose certain activities for
the students. This is what the researchers say as reflection which is based
generally on one perspective/factor as rationale.
Moreover, in this type of writing, as Hatton and Smith (1995) further state, it
is a common for the recognition of alternate viewpoints in the research and
literature which are reported. Such related extract Hatton and Smith (1995, p. 48)
chose from their study is 'For example, Tyler (1949), because of the assumptions
on which his approach rests suggests that the curriculum process should begin
with objectives. Yinger (1979), on the other hand argues that the 'task' is the
starting point.' This is what Hatton and Smith (1995) argue as reflection which is
based on the recognition of multiple factors and perspectives.
In this study, this level was modified as regards the participants‘ data of
reflection. Such modification was established as data indicated that within Hatton
and Smith‘s (1995) categorization in this level, there are three types of data
occurred. First, data revealing description of phenomenon/phenomena with simple
justification/reasoning and presented in descriptive way, was therefore categorized
as Low Level (L1), as illustrated by the following vignette.
―Another problem I faced in the classroom was when I was presenting my teaching material, the Infocus suddenly was in trouble and I couldn‘t go further with my explanation in detail and clearly.‖
(Extract from PST 1‘s reflective journal).
The above example contains simple justification for the phenomenon (in this case
a problem) took place in the PST‘s class during her teaching and learning process.
Second, data exhibiting description of phenomenon/phenomena with more
complex justification/reasoning and presented in descriptive way, was therefore
categorized as High Level (L2), as exemplified in the following extract.
―The teaching and learning process was still dominated by me. Why? Because when I asked them to
discuss in group, they still highly relied on me by asking about what the passage discussed. They
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were still not aware of the benefit of discussion with their friends. They were more sure that the
right answer is from the teacher. However, I helped them by mingling around guiding each group
and checked the things they didn‘t understand.‖ (Extract from PST 1‘s reflective journal).
The abovementioned extract contains more complex reasoning for the teaching
and learning process which took place in the PST‘s classroom.
Third, data showing description of phenomenon/phenomena with mental
realization (emotional reaction) but only provided with insufficient reasoning to
satisfy the category of dialogic reflection was therefore categorized as Transition
Level (TL), as illustrated by the following example.
―In my teaching, at first I thought Oh, teaching a small class and quiet class is fun. My second
teaching was speaking and still the continuation of the first meeting about expressing satisfaction
and dissatisfaction.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
In the aforementioned example, the blue typed is the sentence indicated as
transition level category because it does contain mental realization I thought,
which characterizes dialogic reflection; however, this evaluative sentence does
not contain sound reasoning for why she thought that teaching small and quiet
class was fun as evident from the following sentence which talks about a different
context.
Pertaining to the modification to this level, another scrutiny was attempted
into Halliday and Mathiessen‘s (2014, p. 603) functional grammar relative to ―the
lexicogrammatical resources of cohesion‖. Following Halliday and Mathiessen‘s
(2004, 2014) suggestion in text analysis using functional grammar, each entry was
divided into each sentence in order to locate the two fundamental relationships of
logico-semantic relation, i.e. expansion (elaboration, extension, and enhancement)
and projection (locution and idea).
Expansion indicates the relation of phenomena as being of the same order of
experience, whereas projection indicates the relation of phenomena of one order
of experience (the processes of saying and thinking) to phenomena of a higher
order (semiotic phenomena – what people say and think) (Halliday & Mathiessen,
2014, p. 443) (see Table 3.4 in Section 3.6.2.1 for the subtypes in these categories
along with their definition and for further discussion of steps in data analysis
regarding levels of reflection). Halliday and Mathiessen‘s (2004, 2014) logicosemantic relation was also deployed throughout the analysis of dialogic reflection.
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Regarding the modification in this level, further categorization along with samples
from PSTs‘ data can be traced in Appendix 4.
2.3.3 Dialogic Reflection
In this level, Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that the reflection demonstrates
a 'stepping back' from the events/actions leading to a different level of mulling
about, discourse with self and exploring the experience, events and actions using
qualities of judgement and possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesizing.
Such reflection is analytical or/and integrative of factors and perspectives and
may recognize inconsistencies in attempting to provide rationales and critique.
Such example of student teachers‘ writing they pose as:
'While I had planned to use mainly written text materials I became aware very quickly that a
number of students did not respond to these. Thinking about this now there may have been several
reasons for this. A number of the students, while reasonably proficient in English, even though they
had been NESB learners, may still have lacked some confidence in handling the level of language
in the text. Alternatively a number of students may have been visual and tactile learners. In any case
I found that I had to employ more concrete activities in my teaching.' (Hatton & Smith, 1995, p. 19)
In this state, the student teacher was confronted with a situation which made her
stop and think about some possibilities why it happened. She tried to justify the
situation by coming with the reasoning and hypothesis.
This level of reflection also comes in two forms: (a) reflection which is based
generally on one perspective/factor as rationale, or (b) reflection which is based
on the recognition of multiple factors and perspectives. In this study, however,
this category was modified in light of data found in the participants‘ reflection.
Such modification was established as Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) categorization in
this level could not accommodate the range of pre-service teachers‘ dialogic
reflection which covered from the simple ones, provided with only simple
reasoning with mental realization, to more complex ones, occurred with complex
analysis, reasoning, justification which might contain alternatives and
metacognition.
As regards the modification to this level, Pisova‘s (2005, as cited in Syslova,
2015) reflective model (see Appendix 3) was found helpful in identifying the
range of dialogic reflection took place in the participants‘ data. Pisova‘s (2005, as
cited in Syslova, 2015, p. 76) suggested repeating stages of reflection are as
follows (apart from the numbering, quoted verbatim from Syslova, 2015, p. 76):
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a) Description is the objective recording of the phenomena, where the
phenomenon is education reality. The basis of this is the interactions between
the teacher and the child/children; however, it can be divided into partial areas
such as aims, educational content, methods and forms, etc. It is a basic mental
operation, the quality of which determines the quality of all the other stages of
reflection. In other words if the description is not of sufficient quality there
cannot be awareness of the real level of one‘s own professional skills.
b) Analysis means analyzing and researching more complex realities by breaking
them up into more simple ones. It is the ability to divide educational reality
into simple parts, e.g. using questions like: ―What did I do and why? How did
the child/children react? What was the situation about? What was the aim of
the situation? etc.‖ There is an assumption regarding the ability to identify
(describe) unambiguous facts.
c) Evaluation is the state of one´s being aware of the causes of the identified
phenomena, or it is the explanation of the causes of the discovered problems
or successes. Evaluation is the sign of understanding the educational reality,
which presupposes extensive theoretical knowledge as well as personal
capabilities enabling the person to be sincere to themselves. It means that the
evaluated person takes a position regarding themselves — either positive or
negative, looking for the answer to the question ―Why?‖ For example, Why
did I act this way? Why did the children react that way?
d) Proposing alternative procedures presupposes that the teacher has managed
the previous levels of mental operations and that he/she has had enough
theoretical knowledge as well as practical experience to be aware what action
could be more efficient, or what changes could support educational results of a
higher quality.
e) Generalisation in its basis a confrontation of one‘s own opinions with the
opinions of experts, e.g. authors of professional texts or university teachers. In
other words generalisation can be also designated as a capability to formulate
more general principles on the basis of one‘s own experience with educational
reality.
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f) Metacognition is thinking about mental processes. It is also the ability to
recognize how we react in stressful situations; where we prefer emotions to
sense. Metacognition focuses especially on assessing the decisive processes,
which means that the teacher is learning via this mental operation how he/she
solves problems, reacts and decides. This self-knowledge leads to a better
efficiency via auto regulative processes. Metacognition could also be
described as an ability to predict certain mistakes and limits of the human
mind with the aim of avoiding them or finding ways to get over them. It can
be referred to as self-reflection. (Pisova, 2005, as cited in Syslova, 2015, p.
76).
Therefore, by modifying Hatton and Smith‘s (1995) dialogic reflection using
Pisova‘s stages of reflection, it was established throughout the data analysis that
pertaining to dialogic reflection there were three categories, i.e. Low Level (L3),
Moderate Level (L4), and High Level (L5).
Low Level (L3) in dialogic reflection covers reflection containing with mental
realization about phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the phenomenon/
phenomena using qualities of simple judgement/analysis/reasoning (containing
description and/or analysis, and simple evaluation) such as in the following
example:
―It was my first teaching at class XI IPA2 on Tuesdays. I was really nervous because I left home
early in the morning with intention to accompany my teaching partner at class XI IPS 2 as she was
scheduled to teach at 7 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. and I was scheduled to teach at the second session at XI
IPA2. But because of the class was not attended by the scheduled teacher, I was asked by the
English teacher to teach in the class. Actually I was very nervous ever since the commencement day
of our field teaching.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The aforementioned example of reflective unit contains an evaluation about the
PST‘s anxiety towards her first day of teaching. The identified mental realization I
was really nervous is then followed by simple justification.
Moderate Level (L4) in dialogic reflection refers to mental realization about
phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the phenomenon/phenomena using
qualities of more complex judgement/analysis/reasoning (containing more
complex analysis and evaluation). The following vignette from PST‘s data
exemplifies this category.
―Considering the lesson plan, I felt it didn‘t go as I planned before since whenever I asked them to
do something like understanding passages, writing, or speaking, they just kept silence. While in
fact, before asking them to write or speak, I have provided them with explanation and sufficient
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examples using media. I found out that they are having trouble with grammar. For example, out of
the two sentences I asked them to make, none of them was correct. At last, I ended up explaining
grammar rather than focusing on what I have planned before. So, my lesson plan didn‘t work at
all.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The above extract contains evaluation about the lesson plan that the PST
implemented in her instructional setting. The evaluative phrase I felt it didn’t go
as I planned before is then followed by a course of reasoning and justification,
which was more complex than that of simple justification provided in Low Level
(L3).
Meanwhile, High Level (L5) in this level of reflection means reflection which
deals with mental realization about phenomenon/phenomena or evaluating the
phenomenon/phenomena using qualities of more integrative analysis and
evaluation (containing alternative, generalization and/or metacognition) as the
following extract depicts.
―After the third meeting, I started to feel a bit annoyed since it seems that the students don‘t know
or perhaps they don‘t want to appreciate what I have done for their class so far; from preparing and
making teaching media, preparing teaching materials and explaining in front of the class until my
mouth went dry. But now, as I‘m reflecting it, I start to think about many things like: (a) the ways to
make them understand the material I‘m delivering to them because as far as I‘m concerned they still
don‘t get whatever I deliver to them, (b) the ways to make them want to do the tasks that I assign
them to do, or (c) maybe they‘re bored with the way I teach since I always use teaching media
which I put on the whiteboard and pair work technique.‖ (Extract from PST 2‘s reflective journal).
The above example illustrates PST‘s evaluation on the students‘ response and
respect towards her and her teaching. This reflective thought unit covers an
integrative analysis, evaluation and metacognition.
2.3.4 Critical Reflection
In this highest level, Hatton and Smith (1995) suggest that reflection
demonstrates an awareness that actions and events are not only located in, and
explicable by, reference to multiple perspectives but are located in, and influenced
by, multiple historical, and socio-political contexts. The related example of
student teacher‘s writing such as the following indicates the ability of the student
teacher to link the classroom situation with power relationship in wider context
seeing the classroom components, the teacher and the students, as part of the
social institutions within the society.
'What must be recognised, however, is that the issues of student management experienced with this
class can only be understood within the wider structural locations of power relationships established
between teachers and students in schools as social institutions based upon the principle of control'
(Hatton & Smith, 1995, p. 49)
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This considered-highest level of reflection, however, is not easy to attain by
reflective practitioners since this quality of reflection requires many experiences
in developing reflective practice and ultimately takes time for a reflective
practitioner to maintain critical reflection in their practices (Farrell, 2009;
Pishghadam, et al., 2012).
2.4 Reflective Teaching Practice
In the early 1990s, there was ―only a small portion of the pre-service
education programs feature reflection as a key aim and among these programs
reflective teaching has remained elusive‖ (Ali, 1998, p. 2). As the consequences
of post-method debate, reflective practices have been growing extensively over
the past decade (Farrell, 2012; Prabhu, 1990; Kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2001, 2003,
2006), especially where higher education is concerned (Brockbank & McGill,
2007; Campbell & Norton, 2007; Lyons, 2010), either as a practice to the teachers
or to the learners. As far as the teachers are concerned, being reflective assists the
teachers‘ lifelong professional development, enabling them to criticize teaching
and make better-informed teaching decisions (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981;
Farrell, 2006; Valli, 1997).
Reflective teaching is a teachers‘ process on structuring or restructuring
actions, beliefs, knowledge and theories that inform teaching for the purpose of
professional development (Lyons, 2010; Richards & Lockhart, 1996; Zeichner &
Liu, 2010). Reflective teaching emphasizes a constructivist approach to teaching
(Korthagen & Wubbles, 1995; Shahinkarakas, Yumru, & Inozu, 2010). Adopting