Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities

Critical reflection in teachers’ professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers’ work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marjeta Šarić, Barbara Šteh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Ljubljana 2017-09-01
Series:Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.cepsj.si/pdfs/cepsj_7_3/pp_67-85.pdf
id doaj-52db6cc06f984198a3cb79515d0c7b67
record_format Article
spelling doaj-52db6cc06f984198a3cb79515d0c7b672020-11-25T03:43:01ZengUniversity of LjubljanaCenter for Educational Policy Studies Journal1855-97192232-26472017-09-01736785Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and PossibilitiesMarjeta ŠarićBarbara ŠtehCritical reflection in teachers’ professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers’ work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between the professed goals and the actual reflective practice of teachers remains. The article starts with a short overview of the different definitions of critical reflection in the context of teachers’ professional development and then underlines some empirical research findings on the problems that teachers and teacher educators face when putting reflective practice into practice, especially at the deeper and more complex levels of reflection. It continues with a consideration of teachers’ qualifications for in-depth reflection as well as the obstacles and challenges facing teachers and teacher educators. The obstacles occur at the level of individual teachers’ personal traits and at the level of the context in which reflection is done. Employing an analysis of the obstacles, the authors develop some guidelines on how to support teachers in their attempts at making critical reflection part of their teaching practice. It is crucial for this encouragement not to overlook the principal purpose of teachers’ critical reflection; to contribute to new insights, knowledge reframing, and the introduction of such changes in teaching that will support students’ learning and the development of the community for the better learning, work, and life of all its individuals.http://www.cepsj.si/pdfs/cepsj_7_3/pp_67-85.pdfcritical reflectionencouragement of critical reflectionprofessional development of teachersteacher learning
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Marjeta Šarić
Barbara Šteh
spellingShingle Marjeta Šarić
Barbara Šteh
Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal
critical reflection
encouragement of critical reflection
professional development of teachers
teacher learning
author_facet Marjeta Šarić
Barbara Šteh
author_sort Marjeta Šarić
title Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
title_short Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
title_full Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
title_fullStr Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
title_full_unstemmed Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
title_sort critical reflection in the professional development of teachers: challenges and possibilities
publisher University of Ljubljana
series Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal
issn 1855-9719
2232-2647
publishDate 2017-09-01
description Critical reflection in teachers’ professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers’ work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between the professed goals and the actual reflective practice of teachers remains. The article starts with a short overview of the different definitions of critical reflection in the context of teachers’ professional development and then underlines some empirical research findings on the problems that teachers and teacher educators face when putting reflective practice into practice, especially at the deeper and more complex levels of reflection. It continues with a consideration of teachers’ qualifications for in-depth reflection as well as the obstacles and challenges facing teachers and teacher educators. The obstacles occur at the level of individual teachers’ personal traits and at the level of the context in which reflection is done. Employing an analysis of the obstacles, the authors develop some guidelines on how to support teachers in their attempts at making critical reflection part of their teaching practice. It is crucial for this encouragement not to overlook the principal purpose of teachers’ critical reflection; to contribute to new insights, knowledge reframing, and the introduction of such changes in teaching that will support students’ learning and the development of the community for the better learning, work, and life of all its individuals.
topic critical reflection
encouragement of critical reflection
professional development of teachers
teacher learning
url http://www.cepsj.si/pdfs/cepsj_7_3/pp_67-85.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT marjetasaric criticalreflectionintheprofessionaldevelopmentofteacherschallengesandpossibilities
AT barbarasteh criticalreflectionintheprofessionaldevelopmentofteacherschallengesandpossibilities
_version_ 1715136177839800320