Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
126
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
ABSTRACT
The following article discusses the characteristics and nature of reflective skills in foreign language teaching and
learning. The formation and development of reflective abilities focuses on planning, analyzing the educational
process, working on mistakes, and working on difficulties and problems that may arise in the future process of
education.
KEYWORDS
Reflective behaviour, non- reflective level, comparative/pedagogical reflection, active experimentation, abstract
conceptualization.
INTRODUCTION
A crucial component of the educational process is
reflection, which gives instructors useful tools to
recognize and address issues pertaining to a variety of
facets of their line of work.
In the context of education, the idea of reflection dates
back to definition. Dewey attempted to draw
comparisons
between
routine
and
reflective
behaviour. He characterized reflection as deliberate,
active, ongoing, and careful consideration of one's
views as opposed to routine activity that is derived
from basic principles and regulations. In contrast to
passive knowledge transmission through standard
processes
evolved
over
years,
reflection
is
characterized as a methodical approach to inquiry that
stresses the constructivist teaching approach and
creative problem solving as a tool that employs critical
thinking.
Reflective teaching provides English language
teachers with a very vital tool suggesting helpful ideas
to deal with demanding teaching situations. Expanding
knowledge
of
the
teaching-learning
process,
Research Article
THE NATURE, CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPORTANCE OF REFLECTIVE
PRACTICE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING
Submission Date:
October 15, 2024,
Accepted Date:
October 20, 2024,
Published Date:
October 25, 2024
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/pedagogics-crjp-05-10-21
Jonibekova Mehriniso Umarbek Qizi
Teacher Of Uzbekistan State University Of World Languages, Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://masterjournals.
com/index.php/crjp
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
127
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
increasing one's capacity and strategic alternatives as
a language instructor, and improving the calibre of
learning chances for students in language classrooms
are the three functions of reflective teaching for
educators. In addition, it aids students in realizing their
current level of knowledge, identifying gaps in their
knowledge, and obtaining feedback on their progress.
Mathew conducted a study on the role of
reflective teaching in creating an effective learning
environment for English language skills in the
classroom. The study's findings included improved
academic achievement for students (through the
collection of detailed information about English
language
classroom
situations,
such
as
individual/group tasks and the selection of appropriate
content) and enhanced professional development for
teachers. Reflective teaching offers a rich language
learning environment and resources for realizing
mastery of English language skills. Reflective teachers
consider their instruction critically and seek out
examples of successful instruction. This critical analysis
can draw on a variety of sources: Brookfield (2017) lays
out four crucial source
s: “students’ eyes, colleagues’
perceptions, personal experience, and theory and
research.” Teachers can learn from these sources and
reflect on their instruction using a variety of tools and
techniques, from informal to formal, personal to inter-
collegial. Reflective teaching, for instance, can involve
investigating educational research, evaluating student
assessments, observing in the classroom, and self-
evaluation. Reflective teaching is an ongoing practice
that enhances efficient and student-centered teaching
because every semester's students and their needs are
unique. In order to do this, instructors must possess
the necessary abilities and competencies, such as
subject-matter
knowledge
and
communicative
competence, in order to teach using appropriate
methodologies, improve their students' social
interactions, and be effective in their roles. Similarly,
reflective teaching helps educators make wise
decisions by guiding them through a methodical
process of thinking, writing, and discussing their work
while considering how their own instruction and that
of their colleagues affect students' learning.
Therefore, the main goal of reflective education is to
identify significant events through experience and
collaborative observation. Reflective practice can also
be defined as the process of consciously analyzing
one's theoretical and practical experiences in order to
comprehend one's current activity. Reflection can be
understood as an intellectual process that involves
using learners' minds to realize sustainable and lasting
learning in the face of relatively difficult and uncertain
learning tasks or experiences for which there is no right
or wrong answer. As a result, additional processing of
the students' cognitive and affective domains is
required. In order for practitioners to enhance their
reflectivity on learners' thinking, understanding, and
interest through analyzing their teaching from other
perspectives beyond their "egocentric" view, they
must be trained to reflect on the content and the
application of specific teaching approaches, according
to numerous researchers who affirm that reflection is
essential to understanding the flexible classroom
environment.
According to Brookfield, instructors' decisions on
which teaching methods to use and how to implement
them are greatly impacted by the ideas, models, and
images of teaching that they have internalized from
their own experiences as students. Because of this, the
majority of teachers continue to rely mostly on talk and
chalk, possibly because they lack the skills or the
motivation to create and implement a variety of
cutting-edge teaching strategies, according to
research findings. This in turn shows how little creative
instruction is supported by the educational system.
Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
128
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
According to Farrell and William and Grudnoff,
inexperienced teachers could not benefit from
instructional reflection to the same extent as more
seasoned teachers because they lack the experience
that more seasoned teachers have gained. In an
investigation of how novice and experienced teachers
perceived instructional reflection, Lee found that while
teachers initially did not see the advantages of
educational reflection, they eventually came to
understand its value and the ways in which it could be
applied to improve their teaching abilities. Because of
this, it's important to assess how well instructors
understand, conceive, and apply reflective education in
order to assist students acquire higher-order thinking
abilities that will help them compete globally. More
precisely, analyzing experience, taking a step back,
repeating, being more honest, being clear, improving
understanding, and drawing conclusions are all steps
of reflective practice, according to a research by
Rodgers. In terms of complexity, reflective levels can
be divided into three categories: low (surface), middle
(pedagogical), and high (critical). The efficiency of
teaching strategies and remembering theoretical
details of learning experiences are covered at the
lower/first/surface/descriptive stages of reflection
(e.g., Shall I do it again and in a better way?). At this
level, educators are expected to employ a range of
tactics to the curriculum and the teaching-learning
process in order to efficiently and successfully
accomplish predetermined educational objectives.
Reflective practice has developmental features that
range from low reflection levels that deal with
technical aspects of teaching to higher reflection levels
that focus on achieving educational goals. Additionally,
there is a level known as the “nonreflective level”
where teachers fail to take ownership of the risk that
students take on, viewing themselves as victims of
circumstances, taking things for granted without
questioning them, and failing to modify their
instruction based on the needs and preferences of
their students. The second level, which he refers to as
"comparative/pedagogical reflection," consists of
theoretical and practical teaching approaches in which
educators work to achieve consistency between their
"espoused theory"
—
what they say, believe, and
value
—
and their "theory-in-use," or what they actually
do in the classroom. This involves backtracking,
exploring, and taking various assumptions into
consideration in order to verify the associations of
experiences. The most advanced kind of reflection,
referred to as critical reflection, involves analyzing
causes within a more comprehensive experiential
context by analyzing an incident and situating it within
more significant moral, social, ethical, or historical
contexts. Here, educators are required to address
more general moral and ethical issues related to
teaching (the social and political aspects of education),
either directly or indirectly going beyond the question
of how well a lesson is taught with the only goal of
accomplishing educational objectives. Teachers can
learn about the moral and ethical consequences of
critical reflection for both their career as lifelong
learners and their teaching practices.
In his 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner, Donald
Schön presented ideas like reflection-on-action and
reflection-in-action, which clarify how professionals
approach work-related issues with a practice-improved
improvisation. The ideas of reflective practice,
however, date back far further. John Dewey was one
of the early authors of reflective practice earlier in the
20th century, with his examination of experience,
interaction, and reflection. Soon after, pertinent ideas
of human learning and development were being
developed by other researchers, including Kurt Lewin
and Jean Piaget.
According to some academics, ancient writings like the
Meditations of the Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius
Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
129
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
and Buddhist teachings include the first examples of
reflective practice. Interest in the cyclical pattern of
experience, the integration of theory and practice, and
the deliberate application of lessons learnt from
experience were central to the development of
reflective theory. Since the 1970s, there has been an
increase in the amount of literature and attention
devoted to experiential learning, as well as the creation
and use of reflective practice. "Reflection is an
important human activity in which people recapture
their experience, think about it, mull it over, and
evaluate it," adult education professor David Boud and
his colleagues noted. Working with experience is what
makes learning so crucial. It is possible for someone to
be subconsciously learning while they are experiencing
something, but it can be challenging to connect
feelings, experiences, and ideas into a logical flow.
Rethinking or recounting events allows one to classify
experiences, feelings, concepts, and so on. It also
allows one to contrast the expected outcome of a
previous action with its actual outcome. Taking a step
back from the action allows one to critically analyze a
series of occurrences.
Reach, Touch, and Teach, written by Terry Borton in
1970, popularized a basic learning cycle based on
Gestalt therapy. It consists of three inquiries that ask
the practitioner: What, So what, and Now what? This
analysis begins with a situation's description, which is
followed by a close examination of the circumstances
and the creation of knowledge gleaned from the
experience. Practitioners then consider how they
might better themselves and the effects of how they
reacted to the encounter. Later, practitioners in fields
other than education
—
like nursing and other helping
professions
—
adapted Borton's concept.
The earlier work by John Dewey and Jean Piaget had a
significant influence on learning theorist David A. Kolb.
Kolb's reflective model, which is based on the
conversion of information into knowledge and
emphasizes experiential learning, is derived from Kurt
Lewin's writings as well. This happens after a situation
has happened and involves a practitioner thinking back
on what happened, grasping the concepts that were
encountered in general, and then putting these broad
understandings to the test in a different scenario. In
this method, a practitioner builds on their past
experiences and expertise by consistently applying and
reapplying the knowledge that is formed from a
situation.
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CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
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OCLC
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1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
Learning scientist Graham Gibbs talked about how
Kolb's experiential learning cycle's reflection step can
be facilitated through the use of systematic debriefing.
The following is how Gibbs outlines the phases of an
elaborately planned debriefing.
•
(Initial experience)
•
Description
"What happened? Don't make judgements yet or try to
draw conclusions; simply describe."
•
Feelings
"What were your reactions and feelings? Again don't
move on to analysing these yet."
•
Evaluation
"What was good or bad about the experience? Make
value judgements."
•
Analysis
"What sense can you make of the situation? Bring in
ideas from outside the experience to help you."
"What was really going on?"
"Were different people's experiences similar or
different in important ways?"
•
Conclusions (general)
"What can be concluded, in a general sense, from these
experiences and the analyses you have undertaken?"
•
Conclusions (specific)
"What can be concluded about your own specific,
unique, personal situation or way of working?"
•
Personal action plans
"What are you going to do differently in this type of
situation next time?"
"What steps are you going to take on the basis of what
you have learnt?"
To help with structuring reflection on learning events,
Gibbs' recommendations
—
often referred to as "Gibbs'
reflective cycle" or "Gibbs' model of reflection"
—
can
be broken down into the following six separate stages:
•
Description
•
Feelings
•
Evaluation
•
Analysis
•
Conclusions
•
Action plan
Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
131
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
Moreover, professor of nursing Christopher Johns
developed constructed mode of reflection that
practitioners have supplementation of a guidance to
obtain deeply understanding of their practice. It is
intended to be implemented by sharing with a mentor
or colleague, which allows the experience to be turned
into learned information more quickly than it would be
through reflection alone. Johns emphasizes the value
of practical experience as well as a practitioner's
capacity to obtain, comprehend, and apply knowledge
obtained through empirical methods. "Looking out" at
the circumstance encountered and "looking in" at
one's own thoughts and feelings are the two ways that
reflection happens. Johns elaborates on the idea of
"looking out" at a situation by referencing Barbara
Carper's work. The guided reflection incorporates five
patterns of knowing: the situation's aesthetic,
personal, ethical, empirical, and reflexive components.
Johns' model is thorough and permits thought on a
wide range of significant topics.
Reflection is neither a linear, uniform, or homogeneous
process. Nguyen Nhat Quang (2022) builds an iceberg
of reflection using Fleck (2012)'s taxonomy of reflective
practices.
Volume 05 Issue 10-2024
132
CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGICS
(ISSN
–
2767-3278)
VOLUME
05
ISSUE
10
Pages:
126-132
OCLC
–
1242041055
Publisher:
Master Journals
In other words, reflection is made up of several layers
that correspond to four stages. The tales of reality that
descriptive reflection presents, devoid of any
multilateral descriptions or analyses that might
advance a shift in individual viewpoint, are merely the
top of the iceberg. Submerged under the surface,
dialogic reflection reflects the connections and
interdependencies of experiences through cyclical
cycles of self-questioning in search of justifications for
actions. This procedure can provide the reflectors
several meanings after determining these causes.
transformational reflection, which comes after
multiple cycles of dialogic reflection, enables reflective
practitioners to return to problems with new
approaches that might produce outcomes that are
more welcome and transformational than those from
previous cycles. The deepest level of reflection, known
as critical reflection, looks at what, why, and how an
incident or sequence of episodes transpired using an
ecologically comprehensive lens that takes into
account social, historical, political, and cultural
variables. This goes beyond the reflection-on-action
process.
To conclude, it is crucial to remember that not all
reflective activities can penetrate all four levels
because the depth of reflection depends on the
cognitive and metacognitive abilities of the reflectors
as well as their sociocultural upbringing. In order to
better their practice, teachers cannot examine their
acts objectively or consider the feelings, experience, or
results of their actions without reflecting first.
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Dewey J., How We Think: A Restatement of
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for
effective
classroom
instruction,
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no. 3, 205
–
211
3.
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Lee I., Fostering pre-service reflection
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