Making sense of reflection: a comparison of beginning and experienced teachers’ perceptions of reflection for practice

Abstract

The importance of reflection for learning has been emphasised in professional education programmes. In teacher education, a number of researchers have claimed the success of various initiatives in developing teachers as reflective practitioners. However, there appear to be few studies comparing and contrasting beginning and experienced teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness of reflection for practice. The study reported here examined how reflection was used by experienced and beginning teachers who were formally introduced to the same model of reflection. The data were collected as part of two separate qualitative studies, one a study of 12 beginning teachers and one of 12 experienced teachers, via semi‐structured interviews. The findings suggested that both groups of teachers moved from being somewhat sceptical about reflection, to embracing reflection as a tool to analyse and modify their practice. A major difference between the two groups related to the scope, focus and impact of their reflective activities.

Keywords:

• reflection
• critical reflection
• student teachers
• experienced teachers
• initial teacher education
• in‐service education