Reflective Practice and Professional Development

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Introduction

Reflective practice is synonym to educators at any level; from pre-school to higher education, it helps to improve local practice in educational setting. Professional development on the other hand, usually refers to the available opportunities of ongoing learning for teachers as well as other education personnel (Education Week, 2009).Firstly, it is best to understand the definition of both reflective practice and professional development before looking at how both complement each other.

Reflective practice refers to the ability of a practitioner to reflect back on the action he or she does in classroom. The implemented action will be reviewed and evaluated by the practitioner in order to improve the next lesson. In the course of reflecting the action, it can involve professional peer monitoring or mentoring by senior teachers to produce better plan for the next action. This is supported by Schon (1987) as he views reflective practice as a way for beginners in a discipline to recognize consonance between their own individual practices and those of successful practitioners. Therefore, reflective practice is always associated with a practitioner tapping on the expertise of another successful practitioner.

As for professional development, we can conclude that in general it is an ongoing effort in gearing towards to the betterment of teachers career in teaching profession. ERIC defines professional development as Activities to enhance professional career growth whereas Lange (1990) points out that Teacher development is a term used in the literature to describe a process of continual intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth of teachers. In short, professional development is crucial to determine the whereabouts of a teachers career path as it is a platform for teachers to sharpen their practice.

Therefore, this essay seeks to discuss the role of reflective practice in professional development for pre service and in service teacher as well as the use of Action Research in reflective practice.
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Why professional development?

Teachers need to be equipped with the knowledge on professional development. Professional development allows teachers to identify their self-strengths and weaknesses with the aim of focusing on possible ways to create a brighter path in teaching profession. In order to enhance the professional growth of a teacher; especially pre-service and novice teachers, it is essential for them to recognize their individual strengths and implement it in classroom instruction. On the other hand, the ability to recognize individual weaknesses provides opportunity for teachers to learn and rectify their practice. Ferguson & et. Al as cited in Darling Hammond (1997) mentions that Research shows that each dollar spent on recruiting high-quality teachers and deepening their knowledge and skills nets greater gains in student learning than any other use of an education dollar. Similarly to our country Malaysia, SPM graduates are recruited by the minister of education year in and year out to train teacher trainees of different subjects that are competent in both curriculum and extra-curriculum. The purpose is none other than to produce quality teachers which hopefully in return will produce quality students as well.

In fact, professional development also serves as a motivation to teachers so that their performance in classroom and the school in overall will not remain flat or decrease. Otherwise, teacher will be demotivated to teach if what they do is only teaching without any room is given to expand their career. With a reward that benefits not only teachers but students too, professional development increases teachers both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to improve their practice. Darling-Hammond (1995) states that Teacher content-are knowledge related to the number of content classes taken, has also been shown to have positive effect on student achievement. With the desire and action in gearing toward professional development, teachers will involve in many training seminar as well as furthering study in related content-area to become better practitioner in classroom.

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Other than the mentioned above, professional development helps teachers to cope with changes at school, be it in the curriculum, extra-curricular activities or even among students. This is because professional development creates opportunity for teachers to learn new things which include both knowledge and skill that help them to manage the changes occur around them. Especially with the present era of technology, it is highly important for teachers to be involved in workshop or training courses related to the use of technology so that they are not left behind by the students. For example, blogging is a trend among the students now therefore it is a very interactive and wise approach to use this method to teach writing in classroom. Students will find the new way of learning to be interesting hence increasing their motivation to learn as well as to improve in writing. This serves as personal satisfaction for teachers as they feel satisfied with their job and it is also a way to combat burnout among teachers.

From another perspective, professional development is also a means of overcoming isolation between teachers. Senior teachers often have wider knowledge on teaching practice based on their experience in related content-area hence for pre-service and novice teachers to catch up is by tapping on professional development as a means of upward mobility in both expertise and career status. The new pay scheme SBPA (Saraan Baru Perkhidmatan Awam) allows teachers in Malaysia to climb the promotion stairs faster than the previous scheme. This helps to ease teachers in improving their pay scale as well as to relieve their economic burden.

Overall, the explanations above complement the definition of professional development in which it refers to activities to enhance professional growth and it is also a process of continual intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth of teachers as defined in ERIC and Lange.

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Reflective practice in professional development Reflective practice involve teachers to ask themselves what we do and why we do it? in the course of understanding and being a part of professional development. As suggested by Schon (1996), Reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one's own experiences in applying knowledge to practice while being coached by professionals in the discipline, the ability to reflect in pursuing professional development takes teachers to a higher level in understanding the actions they implement throughout the course of advancing their career growth.

Based on the concept above, pre-service and novice teachers can benefit greatly in many aspects of teaching by becoming a reflective practitioner as the concept helps them to discipline their individual practice by tapping on the experiences and help from successful practitioners. For instance, many educational institutions in the United States started to design teacher education and professional development programs which gear towards reflective practice as they found the concept encourages deeper understanding of teaching style and ultimately, greater effectiveness as a teacher. (Joan, 2000). In fact, UiTMs practicum program was also designed based on the same concept in which teacher trainees are required to write a daily reflective journal as a means of reflecting and evaluating the trainees experiences in classroom implementation, school programs and extra-curricular activities.

Reflective practice in professional development poses beneficial challenges to the traditional teaching. It allows teachers to look at educational theories of scholars from decades ago and reflect as to how these theories can be applied in classroom based on the present educational setting and social needs. In other words, reflective practice brings teachers to a different dimension of implementing educational theories rather than depending on traditional teaching which may not be appropriate with the global advancement in education. Arthur-Kelly, M. et al. (2007) points out that when teachers reflect upon their practices, recognize their professional development needs, introduce and evaluate changes and assist others in this process, they acknowledge the importance
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of lifelong learning and professional growth. Therefore, the challenge here is for teachers to escape from the cocoon of traditional teaching and seek for changes that may contribute to the betterment of their classroom implementation as well as refining a brighter path in their professional growth.

In addition, teacher education program does not equip teachers to become effective practitioner throughout their teaching career as it only prepares them in the beginning of teaching. However, when the concept of reflective teaching is embraced by teachers, it helps to build their internal commitment to study their own teaching and become better at it over time (as cited in Manasse, n.d.). So the question is what do reflective teachers do? Besides constant pondering over themselves on the question of what and why, reflective teachers also engage with reflection, thinking reflectively, as well as using, sustaining and practicing reflection. This somehow gives teachers a certain power in teaching and it also helps them to exercise the control that they have in opening the possibility of reshaping the everyday classroom life (as cited in Richards, n.d.). From the same perspective, we can also say that reflective teachers also exercise the control that they have over the possibility of determining the path of their professional growth.

There are five dimensions of reflection suggested by Zeichner & Liston (1996), the first dimension is rapid reflection which involves immediate and automatic reflection inaction, the second dimension is repair which requires thoughtful reflection-in-action, the third dimension is review, a less formal reflection-on-action at a particular point in time followed by the fourth dimension which involves research, a more systematic reflectionon-action over a period of time. Reflection-in-action takes place during the action itself whereas reflection-on-action is to reflect actions that already happen. The next section will discuss a more in-depth on the fourth dimension of reflection that is the use of Action Research in reflective practice as a valuable tool for self-evaluation and professional growth (Richards, n.d.)

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Action Research

Unlike traditional forms of research (empirical research) that requires researchers to do research on other people, Action Research is also known as practitioner based research that involves researchers to do research on themselves. McNiff (2002) defines action research as A form of an enquiry conducted by the self into the self. You, a practitioner, think about your own life and work, and this involves you asking yourself why you do the things that you do, and why you are the way that you are. This way helps teachers who conduct action research to continue developing themselves and their work too.

It is important to take note that Action Research starts with the idea developed by the researcher himself. It does not depend on a fixed hypothesis that controls the whole research. The researcher has control on what is to be done in every step of planning, implementing, observing and reflecting to see whether what the researcher has in mind is carefully translated into the research. In this context, Action Research serves as a form of self-evaluation that is utilized extensively in professional contexts such as appraisal, mentoring and self-assessment (McNiff, 2002).

In professional development, Action Research is seen as a way of improving the work teachers do in new ways. It is a platform to enhance professional growth but it also emphasizes on professional learning among teachers. Other than capitalizing on the use of Action Research to initiate and expand the experience in teaching profession, preservice and novice teachers are also able to grow professionally and extend their knowledge professionally as they are not only trained to teach there is also learning that takes place in developing and polishing their potential.

The idea of integrating Action Research into professional development programs allows teachers to work from the point of view of the people who are learning. Teachers should not rest and stop when they think they have reached a qualified status, instead, they should maintain professional learning and view the process as a lifelong commitment.

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Reflection

Being a pre-service teacher and reflective practitioner myself, this task helps me to rekindle and reinforce my knowledge on what reflective practice is about and how it is associated with professional development.

An outsider might feel that being a reflective practitioner is difficult in the beginning but once the concept of reflective practice is thoroughly embraced, it will then become synonym and relevant to be practiced. I personally felt that being a reflective was never an easy task in the beginning. I was unable to look at the bright side of the practice as I found it to be tedious with the need to reflect regularly with what is being done. However, as the process took place throughout my practicum, it has become my habit to reflect on things that occurred not only within classroom and school but in my personal life too.

I also noticed the importance of being reflective to understand many of the issues that occurred in our education system as the ability to reflect provides me a new perspective to look at things in a bigger picture. It has developed a skill within me to become critical, innovative and visionary. Therefore, I think that this is crucial for many pre-service teachers like me to realize how reflective practice can benefit us in professional development.

On the other hand, Action Research also benefits pre-service and in-service teachers greatly as it is a research method that allows teachers to improve their practice in classroom and also to widen their related-content area knowledge. Seen in this way, the ministry of education (MOE) has made Action Research as one of the available options for teachers to climb their career ladders. Therefore, I find that not only being reflective helps to promote and maintain lifelong learning but it also increases the rate of professional growth among teachers.

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Besides the significance of reflective practice, this task also provides me a clear and deeper understanding of what professional development is. In the process of writing, I discovered many essential reasons as to why teachers need to bother with professional development. Especially with the current demand and wide usage of ICT among young generation, children as young as 4 years old has a Facebook account proves that teachers need to evolve and move along with the advancement of technology too. ICT as a tool in professional development is not something unusual these days. The governments effort to upgrade teachers academic standard such as Program Pensiswazahan attempts to ensure present teachers at school to at least have degree eligibility. Therefore, ICT functions such as online forum and video conferencing are examples of how these teachers to cope with teaching and learning at the same time. To sum up my reflection, I find that being reflective doesnt just benefit pre-service teachers but it also helps in-service teachers to plant successful seeds in professional development. Merely depending on traditional forms of teaching and empirical research could only help teachers to develop their potential in teaching profession to a certain degree, however, being reflective and utilization of Action Research helps teachers to grow professionally by maintaining lifelong learning as well as seeking for changes in educational issues by improving the practitioners own practice.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper highlights the use of Action Research as a tool to promote professional growth among teachers as well as the role of reflective practice in professional development.

Action Research is highly recommended to teachers as it is a type of research that aims to improve the practitioners own practice. Instead of looking at problems in classroom from the perspective of students fault or lacking of ability, Action Research drives teachers to be reflective and look at the problems from the perspective of What can I do as a teacher to ensure that this problem will not occur in the next class?. For instance, a reflective teacher will not ask Was it the students who did not pay attention to my teaching? but in return, he will ask himself What can I do to make sure the students will listen to me in the next lesson?. These are types of questions pondered by reflective teacher while conducting an Action Research. It is most likely that Action Research requires more than one attempt to produce the outcome as expected by the teacher. However, in the course of administering the cycles of research, a teacher definitely will grow and learn valuable lessons from the process itself.

As mentioned earlier, becoming a reflective practitioner might not seem an easy task in the beginning. Nonetheless, as teachers embrace the concept and integrate it step by step in all aspects of teaching, the result of embracing this concept allows teachers to look at many educational issues in a whole new perspective whereby they seek ways to improve themselves as well as overcoming the issues. The question of What we do and why we do it is a catalyst that helps teachers to realize that it is not only the students who are learning and gaining all of the benefits in classroom but the teachers also learn to improve their own practice at the same time.

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Thus we can summarize that a teacher has to recognize the significance of professional development. It is not just a means to achieve better pay scale and a qualified status that can get one to be acknowledged by others. It is more about gaining self-satisfaction in learning to improve oneself in teaching field. Having said this, a reflective practitioner can grow professionally in teaching profession by helping the teachers to identify their own strength and weaknesses, to become quality teachers, to keep them motivated, to cope up with changes in educational setting and finally, to overcome isolation between them. These are all important elements to be considered thoroughly in order for teachers to enhance their professional growth in teaching.

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References

Nunan, D. & et. al (2001). Pursuing Professional Development: The Self as Source. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Arthur-Kelly, M. et al. (2007). Classroom Management: creating positive learning environment (2nd. ed.). Australia: Cengage Learning Ferraro, J.M. (2000). Reflective Practice and Professional Development (ERIC Digest). Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/reflective.htm McNiff, J. (2002). Action Research for Professional Development (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/ar-booklet.asp Richards, J.C. (n.d.) Towards Reflective Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/file/back_articles/towards_reflective_teaching.pdf Tina, L., Zoraini, A.B., & Norziati, M. (2010). Online In-service Teacher Professional Development in Malaysia: A New Possibility? Retrieved from http://eprints.oum.edu.my/409/1/online_tina.pdf Professional Development. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/professional-development/ Professional Development: Empowering Teachers to Continuously Improve Their Teaching Practice. (2009). (PowerPoint Slides).

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