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UNIT ONE: MEANINGS AND THE BASIC

CONCEPTS OF REFLECTION

This unit gives the basic introduction about the concept and related terms of reflection. It covers
varies subtopics that are used as a spring board for the next units. It discusses the meaning of
reflection, reflective thinking and reflective practice. Moreover, it deals with different categories
of reflection which are divided in terms of its nature, process and levels of practice. Lastly, the
unit will address the enormous benefits of practicing reflection on daily base for learners as well
as for teachers.

Unit learning outcomes

Upon completion of this unit the candidates will be able to:

 understand the basic concept of reflection

 apply the levels of reflective practice to their daily teaching and learning process

 value the benefits of reflection

Section one: Meanings and natures of Reflection

What is ‘reflection’ mean to you?

Its derivation is the Latin refectere, meaning “to bend back.” It has applications in grammar,
physics, and psychology.

 Grammatically, a pronoun is reflexive if it used as an object to refer to the subject of a

verb, as in “I prepared myself for the journey.”
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 In physics, reflection is the return of light, heat, or sound after striking a surface.

 In psychological terms, reflection refers to a mental image or representation.

Considering the meanings of reflection given above, what common things you
can draw out?

From the above meanings of reflection used in different context, we can understand that the
original Latin meaning of “bending back” is apparent in each of these cases. In another way, to
clarify more about the metaphor of “reflection”, think about looking at your reflection in a mirror
and you will get your image shown back to you. Through the mirror, the image of yourself is
bending back to you so that you can clearly see the defect or the beauty of your body.

Having said this much about the general meanings of the word “reflection”, let us see how the
scholars define it as follows:
 Reflection involves “a state of doubt, hesitation, perplexity, or mental difficulty, in
which thinking originates.” It is “an active, persistent and careful consideration of any
belief or supposed form of knowledge” (Dewey, 1933).

 Reflection means thinking about what one is doing. It entails a process of

contemplation with openness to being changed, a willingness to learn, and a sense of
responsibility for doing one’s best. ( Jay, 2003).
 Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience,
think about it, mull over & evaluate it. It is working with experience that is important
in learning’ (Boud, R. & Walker,1985).

The term reflection is used to describe a vast array of practices. Just as with other popular terms,
reflection can have a multitude of meanings as it is translated into professional teacher
development. Since reflection is so complex and its varieties so numerous and unique,
researchers have identified categories of reflection to describe how it looks in real life. They
divided it in terms of its nature, process and the level of practice. Now let us see each categories
of reflection in detail.
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1.1. Nature of reflection

The nature of reflection is considered as one of the categories of reflection. In this material, the
three natures of reflection are addressed as follows.

Returning to experience

It refers to recollection / recalling of memory situations, events and activities that happened in
the past.
 description of what you did or plan to do (and why)
 description of how you approached something or how it worked and how it did not.
Connections

Reflective connections are the most frequent source of influence on teachers’ practical decision
making. In these moments of reflection, teachers connect a particular aspect of their teaching
experience with plans for instruction, moving from experience to reflection to action. The
teacher may back to his/her experience as student and ask questions to connect his past
experience to his/her presence .For instance:

 what was the feeling back there as a student? Did I feel good or bad when I think of my
experience as a student? Why?
 which teacher was my favorite? Why?
 am I teaching my students the same way that I loved to be learned as student?

Evaluation

It refers to evaluation of experiences and development of a teacher. The subcategories of

evaluation are:

 giving an opinion
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 examining what you have learned.

 drawing conclusions about your own development
 evaluating your knowledge or functioning
 investigating whether you have achieved your learning objective
 examining what you found difficult and progressing

Case

Aby is a new English teacher who is hired in Joint Military College. She is very committed teacher
who always puts her students interest first .She is always thinks back about every class lesson she
had. She simply writes on her journal about every activity of her students as well as herself. She
thinks about her experience as high school students learning an English lesson. She liked her 9 th
grade English teacher because all the session was fun. There is less control of the teacher,
discussion, debates, essay writing were the popular methods he used. That was the year she
thought she learned the language as her own best. Wherever she thinks about this learning
experience she smiles. Therefore, she uses frequently the methods of her teacher in her classroom.
When she sees her students’ gradual progress, she proud of herself.

 Identify the tree more important actions Aby did

 Do you think the three actions help her to be successful? If yes /no how?

1. 2. Process of reflection

Reflection engages in the process of carrying back and forth between thinking and action.
However, the process may appear differently in different situations. One useful way to
understand the complexity of reflection is to consider when the reflection takes place.
According to Schon (1983), he divided them in to two categories:
 Reflection-in-action (thinking on your feet)

 Reflection-on-action (retrospective thinking/thinking back).

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a) Reflection-in-action (thinking on your feet)

It takes place in the midst of action, not after t the task or the experience is accomplished. It
involves a surprise (an unexpected behavior that challenges one knows in action), a response to
surprise or conducting an action experiment on the spot by which we seek to solve the new
problems. We test our new way of seeing the situation, and also try to change that situation at
instant for the better. Reflection in action is not method that the teacher uses but it shows the art
and a talent of the teacher.

b) Reflection-on-action (retrospective thinking/thinking back)

It is the most familiar image of reflection involves a sequence of action then thought. It is an
action to look back your practice or experience after it is accomplished to see how it went – what
went well, what did not, what could be changed for the next time.

Figure 1-Process of Reflection

Read the following scenarios and respond to the following questions:

a. What are issues of individuals?
b. Which types/processes of reflection each case represents?
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c. What are the solutions you propose to make the individual a better reflective
person?

Case one

Almaz is knowledgeable and smart English teacher .she planned her lesson carefully before she entered
to her class. Some of times she accomplished what she planned and sometimes she fails to do that.
However, when she came out of the class, she cares less even to think about if she did as she planned.

Case two: Alem is a civic teacher in high school. He is very committed teacher in the school. He has
mostly used student centered method like brainstorming, pair or group discussion and presentation.
Sometimes, he uses lecture methods when need .But one day, during his lecture, he realized that only
few are seemed following, the rest looked bored; some of them are sleeping. Suddenly, he stopped
lecturing and started to tell them jokes. All students were burst to laugh .Then he came back to his
lecture.

Case three :

Helen is freshmen student in college. She was very competitive students in high school. She has a good
study habit. However, when she went to the library to study, some boys frequently had interrupted her and
took her out the library and talked to her. When she came back to her study she barely focused on. As a
result, she re admitted for a semester. When she comes back after a semester, she continually goes out
from library to talk and hear what boys have to say .she doesn’t even know that this is the reason for her
failure.

Case four:

Seifu is a mathematics teacher in high school. He is young, handsome and energetic. At the first year of
his employment, he used to go out with many girls, including his female students. In the fall of the year,
he found himself HIV positive after free HIV check up arranged in the school. Though it was a shocking
experience for him, he managed to calm himself and look back what he did in the whole year. He
remembers all the girls he went out with and the unsafe sexes he had.
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Section Two. Reflective thinking and reflective practice

Reflection, reflective thinking, reflective practice and reflective teaching are often used
interchangeably in some literatures, although they have slight distinctions. To get clear
understanding of these terminologies, reflective thinking and reflective practice will be discussed
in detail separately.

2.1. Reflection as thinking process

The domain of thinking Processes encompasses a range of cognitive, affective and metacognitive
knowledge, skills and behaviors. It is organized in three dimensions:

• Reasoning, processing and inquiry

• Creativity
• Reflection, evaluation and metacognition.

c) Reasoning, processing and inquiry

The Reasoning, processing and inquiry dimension encompasses the knowledge, skills and
behaviours required to enable teacher students to find out the world around them, and to use
critical thinking to analyse and evaluate information they encounter. Students learn to assemble
and question information and develop opinions based on informed judgments. They also develop
the capacity to transform information into coherent knowledge structures.

d) Creativity
The capacity to think creatively is a central component of being able to solve problems and be
innovative. In the Creativity dimension, teacher students learn to seek innovative alternatives and
use their imagination to generate possibilities. They learn to take risks with their thinking and
make new connections.
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e) Reflection, evaluation and metacognition

Learning is enhanced when individuals develop the capacity to reflect on, and improve their
existing ideas and beliefs. In the Reflection, evaluation and metacognition dimension, teacher
students learn to reflect on what they know and develop awareness that there is more to know.
They learn to question their perspectives and those of others. They evaluate the validity of their
own and others’ ideas. They also develop their metacognitive skills in planning, monitoring and
evaluating their own thinking processes and strategies.
Cases: Identify the dimension of the thinking processes of the following cases and justify.

1. The teacher gives a student a starting story and let everyone finish it by their own.
2. Given a politician speech, students draw out the weak and the strong side of the speech
with justification.
3. After HIV/AIDs awareness program, students look back their sexual experience they
had because of the lack of this awareness. And, they decided to change and control their
unsafe sexual behavior for the future.

2.2. Reflective thinking

What is reflective thinking?

To understand the meaning of reflective thinking, we have to first define Critical thinking since
both are used synonymously. Critical thinking is used to describe as:

"... the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable
outcome thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in
solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when
the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of
thinking task. Critical thinking is sometimes called directed thinking because it focuses on a
desired outcome." (Halpern, 1996).

Reflective thinking is a part of the critical thinking process referring specifically to the processes
of analyzing and making judgments about what has happened. It is an active, persistent, and
careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge, of the grounds that support that
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knowledge, and the further conclusions to which that knowledge leads. For instance; learners are
aware of and control their learning by actively participating in reflective thinking – assessing
what they know, what they need to know, and how they bridge that gap – during learning
situations (Dewey 1933).

To sum up, critical thinking involves a wide range of thinking skills leading toward desirable
outcomes and reflective thinking focuses on the process of making judgments about what has
happened. However, reflective thinking is most important in prompting learning during complex
problem-solving situations because it provides students with an opportunity to step back and
think about how they actually solve problems and how a particular set of problem solving
strategies is appropriated for achieving their goal.

How can we prompt and support reflective thinking in the class room?

When students are faced with a difficult problem, reflective thinking helps them to become more
aware of their learning progress, choose appropriate ways to explore a problem, and to build the
knowledge they need to solve the problem. Thus, in the classroom, the teacher has to aware of
the following features of reflective thinking that able students engage in reflective thinking:

1. Perplexity/puzzle, confusion, doubt.

The teacher has to provide a problem or scenario
2. Conjectural anticipation/guessing the reasons behind.
The teacher provides many opportunities to engage students in gathering information to
look for possible causes and solutions for a problem given.
3. Careful survey (examination ,inspection, exploration, analysis)
The teacher will give activity sheets to help students evaluate the evidence they gather
and questions that prompt them to consider alternatives and implications of their ideas
4. Consequent elaboration of the tentative hypothesis/suggest solutions.
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The teacher will prepare questions and activities that prompt students to draw
conclusions from the evidence they gathered and pose solutions

5. Taking one stand upon the projected hypothesis as a plan of action, doing something
overtly to bring about the anticipated result and thereby testing the
hypothesis/evaluate and monitor the implementation of the solution.

The teacher will provide opportunities for students to choose and implement the best
alternative and encourage them to monitor and reevaluate their results and findings
throughout the entire unit.

Problem/scenarios

Reflective
Collect data/search for
thinking
Proposed solutions information

Analyze data

Figure 2-Reflective Thinking

Additionally, to create conducive environment for reflective thinking in the classroom, the
teacher can

 provide enough wait-time for students to reflect when responding to investigation.

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 provide emotionally supportive environments in the classroom encouraging re-examina-

tion of conclusions.
 prompt reviews of the learning situation, what is known, what is not yet known, and what
has been learned.
 provide real tasks involving ill-structured data to encourage reflective thinking during
learning activities.
 prompt students' reflection by asking questions that seek reasons and evidence.
 provide some explanations to guide students' thought processes during explorations.
 provide a less-structured learning environment that prompts students to explore what they
think is important.
 provide social-learning environments such as those inherent in peer-group works and
small group activities to allow students to see other points of view.

 provide reflective journal to write down students' positions, give reasons to support what
they think, show awareness of opposing positions and the weaknesses of their own posi-
tions.

What do you think teacher as reflective thinker should be?

Teacher as reflective thinker choose to be

Active:-Voluntarily and willingly taking responsibility for personal actions.

Reflective:-Searching for information and solutions to problems that arise in the classroom;
identifying the strengths and needs of individual students.

Persistent:-Being committed to thinking through difficult issues in depth; consistently and

continually modifying teaching approaches.

Relational:-Striving for quality interactions in the classroom to set the tone for learning.
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Evidence seeking:-Trying new approaches while documenting their effectiveness and making
adaptations based on evidence in the form of student learning.

Although persistent and careful thinking is important to the reflective teacher, such thinking does
not automatically lead to change and improvement. But, it is also important for teachers to
translate their thoughts into reflective practices or actions.

2.3. Reflective practice

What is reflective practice?

Reflective practice is:

 a dialogue of thinking and doing through which one becomes more skilled (Schön,
1987).
 a process that helps teachers think about what happened, why it happened, and what
else could have been done to reach their goals (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981).
 an inquiry approach that involves a personal commitment to continuous learning and
improvement (York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, & Montie, 2001).
 the practice of analyzing one’s actions, decisions, or products by focusing on one’s
process for achieving them (Killion & Todnem, 1991).
 a critical, questioning orientation and a deep commitment to the discovery and analysis of
information concerning the quality of a professional’s designed action (Bright, 1996).
 a willingness to accept responsibility for one’s professional practice (Ross, 1990).
 a systematic and comprehensive data-gathering process enriched by dialogue and
collaborative effort (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2004).
 The capacity to think creatively, imaginatively and, eventually, self-critically about
classroom practice (Lasley, 1992).
 an ongoing process of examining and refining practice, variously focused on the
personal, pedagogical, curricular, intellectual, societal, and/or ethical contexts associated
with professional work (Cole & Knowles, 2000).
2.3.1. Levels of reflection practice
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The levels of practice are one of the classifications of reflection. They indicate in what level an
individual is practicing reflection. The topic addresses from simple to complex levels that one
can develop to. There are three major levels of reflective practice (Day; 1993; Farrell, 2004 and
et al). These are:

 An initial level focused on teaching functions, actions or skills, generally considering

teaching episodes as isolated events.
 A more advanced level considering the theory and rationale for current practice.
 A higher order where teachers examine the ethical, social and political consequences of
their teaching, grappling with the ultimate purposes of schooling.
The short summary of the levels presented here are stand for and adopting the terminology of
technical reflection, contextual reflection, and critical reflection respectively.

Technical Reflection
At the first level, teachers’ reflections focus on strategies and methods used to reach
predetermined goals. They are concerned with what works in the classroom to keep students
quiet and to maintain order, rather than with any
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consideration of the value of such goals as ends in themselves. It is the lowest level of reflection.

Typical questions the teacher asks at the level of technical reflection are:

 did I spend too much time on group work today?

 how can I keep students on-task?

 did I have enough (too many) activities?

 how can I get students to pay better attention?

Contextual Reflection

Teachers engaging in contextual reflection attempt to understand the theoretical basis for
classroom practice and to foster consistency between supported theory (what they say they do
and believe) and theory-in-use (what they actually do in the classroom). Teachers reflecting at
this level can determine when there is conflict between what they practice and what they preach
(e.g., seeing themselves as humanistic yet belittling students when they persist in disobeying
rules).

Typical questions the teacher asks at the level of pedagogical reflection are:

 how can I improve learning for all my students?

 how can I build in better accountability for cooperative learning tasks?

 am I giving my students the opportunity to develop decision-making skills?

 what else can I do to help students make connections to prior knowledge?

 is there a better way to accomplish this goal?

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Critical Reflection

Critical reflectivity is interchangeably used as the dialectical level. At this stage, teachers reflect
on the moral and ethical implications and consequences of classroom practices on students. They
extend their considerations to issues beyond the classroom to include democratic ideals.
Acknowledging that classroom and school practices cannot be separated from the larger social
and political realities, critical reflective teachers strive to become fully conscious of the range of
consequences of their actions.

Critical reflection is mostly considered as a higher-order level of reflection. It adds the following
dimensions:

 questioning of underlying assumptions, biases, and values one brings to bear on their
teaching.
 conscious consideration of the ethical implications and consequences of practices on
students and their learning.
 examination of how instructional and other classroom practices contribute to social
equity and to the establishment of a just society.
 extended awareness beyond immediate instructional circumstances to include caring
about democratic foundations and encouraging socially responsible actions.

Typical questions the teacher asks at the level of critical reflection are:

 do all students in my class have daily opportunities to be successful?

 who is being included and who is being excluded in this classroom practice?

 how might the ways I group students affect individual student’s opportunity for success?

 does this classroom practice promote equity?

 do I have practices that differentially favor particular groups of students (e.g., males, fe-
males)?
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Figure 3-Levels of Reflective Practice

Reflective activity:

What important points you get from this lesson?

Demonstrate your plan to apply the three levels of reflection in your future classroom situation?
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Case 1.
Zemen is very intellectual High school biology teacher. She believed that education has to equip
students not only with theoretical knowledge but also the life skills that help them to survive
outside of the school, as result, in most of her lesson, she manages to prepare examples and
cases accordingly in order to aware students the current challenges like gender stereotypes and
HIV/AID and their impacts.
1. Which level of reflection Zemen has practiced? Why?

Case 2.
Ayele is a teacher in primary school. After each of his class, he evaluates his and his students
actual activities against his lesson plan to know whether he achieved them or not.
1. Which of level of reflection Ayele has practice? Why?

2.4. Tradition of reflection practice

There are five different traditions of reflective practice as described by Zeichner and Liston
(1996). This framework ties different types of reflection to traditions in educational reform,
emphasizing that each of the types derives from different underlying assumptions about the aims
of education.

1. Generic tradition; It emphasizes reflective practice in general as central to teaching and

teacher education, without a particular focus on the content, quality, or context of
reflection when a teacher merely describes the situation in the classroom. In short,
generic reflection is thinking about work and students.
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2. Academic tradition: teacher education mainly emphasizes the teacher’s role as a

scholar and subject matter specialist. That is, academic reflection is thinking about
content and instruction.

3. Social Efficiency tradition: The social-efficiency tradition focuses on the scientific

study of teaching to provide the basis for building a teacher education curriculum, whose
major manifestation in recent years is the Competency/Performance-Based Teacher
Education (C/PBTE) programs. C/PBTE was stimulated partly by applications of
behaviorist psychology to the training of personnel in industry and the military during
and after World War II. Social efficiency reflection, in short, is about thinking about
improving methods of instruction.

What is the basic difference you get from these three traditions? Write what you
understand by your own words.
4.
Developmentalist tradition: has its roots in the child study movement and assumes that the
natural order of development of the learner provides the basis for determining what
should be taught, both to pupils and to their teachers. This tradition has three aspects: (1)
the teacher-as naturalist, a movement that stressed the importance of skills in the
observation of children’s behavior and in building a curriculum and classroom
environment consistent with patterns of child development and children’s interests; (2)
the teacher-as-artist movement, in which the teacher/artist has a deep understanding of
the psychology of child development, and prospective teachers are provided with a
variety of experiences in dance, creative dramatics, writing, painting, and storytelling so
that they are be able to exemplify for their students an inquiring, creative, and open-
minded attitude; and (3) the teacher-as researcher movement, which focuses on fostering
the teacher’s experiential attitude toward practice. In short, the focus of developmentalist
reflection is thinking about student readiness.

5. The social reconstructionist tradition defines both schooling and teacher education as
crucial elements in a movement toward a more just society. the social reconstructionist
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tradition in teacher education, recommend that teacher educators should be: (1) directly
involved in teacher education programs in some capacity (e.g., as a teacher or
administrator); (2) engaged in political work within colleges and universities; (3) actively
supportive of efforts within the public schools to create more democratic work and
learning environments; (4) engaged in political work within professional associations and
in relation to state educational agencies; and (5) working for democratic changes aimed at
achieving greater social justice in other societal and political areas. Generally,the social
reconstructionist reflection gives emphasis on thinking about equity and social justice.

Reflective activity:

What important points you get from this lesson?

Demonstrate your plan to apply the three levels of reflection in your future classroom
situation?

Section Three. Benefits and issues of reflection

Why reflection?

The rationale for reflection: It

• aims to improve practice by learning directly from experience

• is engaged in a process of examining the fundamental assumptions implicit in practice

and experience and;

• is planning to change thinking and practices from this new awareness

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3.1. Benefits of Reflection

What are the benefits of reflection for teachers as well as learners?

Benefits of reflection for teachers Benefits of reflection for learners

Reflection is tied directly to experience. Individuals must have self-awareness as well as

awareness of their environment to practice reflection. Practicing reflection has a lot of benefit for
individuals. These benefits are categorized in to two for the sake of this material: Benefits of
reflection for learners and teachers

 The benefits of reflection for learners

Reflection helps learners to:

 understand what they already know (at individual level).They improve their
basic academic skills.

 identify what they need to know in order to advance understanding of the subject
(at contextual level). They develop a deeper understanding of subject matter

 make sense of new information and feedback in the context of their own
experience (at relational level) . Students start to relate the subject matter to the
non-academic world and to their own experience.

 guide choices for further learning (at developmental level). Students develop
personally by enhancing thier self-awareness, their sense of community, and their
sense of their own capacities. They also develop higher level thinking and
problem solving skills.
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 The benefits of reflection for teacher

Teaching changes from one context to the next. The skills you develop in one class may
be markedly different from those required in another while demonstrating or lecturing
environment or group discussion. Reflection is a process in which lecturers become
aware, or are supported to become aware, of the theory and motives behind their own
teaching, to reflect on this and take some deliberate steps to develop to pulling the
practitioner out of ‘auto-pilot’ and causing them to focus on some part of their teaching.
This realization may be caused by an unexpected experience or outcome or just a sense of
something is not quite right .For example, if during a tutorial, students do not respond or
engage well, and any questions are met with a wall of uncomfortable silence, the
instructor aware there is a problem somewhere. One option is to attribute blame for this
lack of interaction to the students and continue as planned. Another option is to reflect
on the teaching and learning to help to identify how the teaching may be changed to
initiate more discussion and student response.

Therefore reflection enables a teacher to:

 be conscious of our potential for bias & discrimination.

 make the best use of the knowledge available.
 avoid past mistakes.
 solve a problem or address an issue in the classroom
 to reduce confusion or frustration. Reflectivity is often a problem- or situation-based
activity.
 maximise our own opportunities for learning.
 result feelings of pleasure and self-satisfaction

Unless we make conscious & systematic efforts to critique our own practice, we will

 be unaware of how & when we are being discriminatory

 not make use of the knowledge base developed by our own profession
 continue to repeat the same mistakes
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 Our skills will decline rather than develop.

3.2. Issues of reflection

What are the barriers that hinder us to reflect on our experience? What could be the
solutions?

Possible Barriers of reflection

 Lack of time
 Lack of awareness about the purpose of reflection
 Fear of judgement and criticism
 being closed to feedback and defensiveness
 fear of professional arrogance

Solutions for the Barriers

Mentors or teachers should:

 be a role model, e.g. a mentor or teachers who reflects on their own practice
 Give time for reflection. To reflect effectively on your experience, you should
actively set a time from your each working day to reflect & analyse
 Provide Non-judgemental support to your colleague or your mentee.
 create as many opportunities as possible for engaging in reflection, e.g. pairs,
groups reviews and discussion

Section Four. Reflection vs. Technical rationality

What is technical rationality? Where is the concept derived from?

Technical rationality is when professionals make decisions and solve problems through `the
application of scientific theory and techniques. Technical rationality holds that professionals
possess specific, scientific and standardized knowledge. A first component of this professional
knowledge is basic science, which for a `major' profession such as medicine might include such
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knowledge as anatomy and physiology. From this basic science is derived applied science, which
is the knowledge guiding the everyday work of professionals. Finally, in the technical rational
model of practice, professionals are held to possess specific skills and attitudes, which are related
to the process of providing services to individuals and the community.
The dominance of technical rationality in the Western world related to the rise to reputation, over
some 300 years, of scientific and technological explanations for the workings of the world. The
decline of religion, superstition, and `fake knowledge', and their replacement with ideas founded
on positivistic science, were essential in creating the conditions for the rise of technical
rationality

Technical rationality was not able to account for much of what professionals do. The problems
professionals attempt to solve, for example, are rarely abstract or clear cut. Problems occur in
particular settings, and solutions therefore are found only in the specific contexts in which
problems are framed. Therefore, rather than base their decision-making and problem-solving on
the application of empirical science, professionals who enter into the `muddy low land’ always
use trial-and-error and `gut feeling'. In dealing with situations characterized by uncertainty and
uniqueness, positivistic knowledge may not have practical value that professionals reflect.

Take a minute and think about the issues of technical rationality and reflect what you understand

Reflection begins in working practice, particularly those areas of practice where professionals
are confronted with unique and confusing situation. Teachers may have acquired the theoretical
knowledge (technical rationality) of their subject or of the practice of teaching and learning.
This may explain their classroom practice as it should be, but it might not explain it as it actually
is. For example, trainee or new teacher might express the opinion that ‘this theory stuff is very
well, but it doesn’t work in the real world’ .Teacher trainer may be offended by the rejection of
theory, but their trainees may have a point. The real teaching environment is where theory is
applied, tested and evaluated. Theory is never used rigidly, nor does it provide all the answer to
problems teachers encounter. It is however, the starting point for developing teaching and
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learning in practice. Reflection, in and on action, allows as teachers continually improve their
practice and even to the development of practice based theory.

What do you think the basic difference between technical rationality and reflection? Which one
you prefer? Why?

Reflective Activity

What do you learn out of this section?

How do you get the lesson useful for you future classroom?
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Summary

Reflection means thinking about what one is doing. It entails a process of contemplation with
openness to being changed, a willingness to learn, and a sense of responsibility for doing one’s
best. To understand the complex concept of reflection, scholars are categorized it in to different
ways in terms of it nature; its process and its levels. The natures of reflection are three in type
which are returning to once experience (when an individual look back his/her experience and
simply describes it), attending to once helpful/obstructing experience (when one relates the past
feeling for the current practice) and last evaluating once experience (when someone judges his
past experiences). The next category is the process of reflection. It is divided in to two: reflection
on action and reflection in action. The former is when an individual deal with his /her experience
after the event is over, while the latter one is when an individual reflect in the middle of the
event. Reflection is also classified in terms of the level of its practice. It has three levels. The
initial level is when a teacher is only focused on teaching functions, actions or skills, generally
considering teaching episodes as isolated events. The more advanced level examines the theory
and rationale for once current practice. Reaching at the higher order is when teachers examine
the ethical, social and political consequences of their teaching, grappling with the ultimate
purposes of schooling. Practicing these natures, processes and levels of reflection has its own
benefits for teachers: it avoids past mistakes and makes us to be conscious of our potential for
bias & discrimination. It also maximise our own opportunities for new learning.

Exercise
 P a g e | 26

1. Explain the nature of reflection

2. What are the differences between reflection on action and reflection in action?
3. What is reflective practitioner?
4. How can we encourage reflective thinking in the classroom?
5. When do we say a teacher is contextual reflector? What qualities he/she should have?
6. What are types of traditional reflection? Explain each of them with example?
7. What are the advantages of reflection?
Assignment: 15%

While Meseret class is working on story writing, she notices that Wendu is not working
and is looking very frustrated. She asks him to brainstorm ideas for his story. He refuses,
saying that he can’t do it because he doesn’t know how to spell.
Potential teacher’s responses:

1. I would remind him that everyone is expected to be working. I would tell him to
use the dictionary if he doesn’t know how to spell the words. If he doesn’t get
started, I would tell him he can stay in for recess and do it then.
2. I would communicate that spelling is not important at this stage. What’s important
is to think of a story that the other students would enjoy reading. I would encour-
age him to use just the letters he hears for the words.
3. I would pair him with another student to work together.
4. I could allow him to dictate his ideas to me as I write them down.
5. Knowing that he has had little experience with the writing process, I would give
further explanation of the brainstorming process as well as provide lots of model-
ing.
6. I could ask him to draw pictures to illustrate his thoughts and then dictate the
story into a tape recorder.
7. I would remind myself not to merely respond to his refusal and to try to under-
stand what the message is behind his refusal. Then I would respond to both the
content and the emotion behind his words.
8. Because he has had some negative experiences with writing, making him appre-
hensive about putting his thoughts down on paper, I would try to build his confi-
dence. I would make sure I provided a great deal of encouragement for every ef-
fort he makes.

Activity Directions:
a. For each of the identified options, note if you think it indicates reflective thinking
 P a g e | 27

b. Then try to categorize the level of reflection evident in the teacher’s response.
 P a g e | 28

References
Chesswas ,R(2011) Classroom Observations with, for, and by Teachers:
The Role of Reflection in Improving Teaching and Learning in Pacific Resources for Education
and Learning.

Larrivee,B (2006) An Educator’s Guide to Teacher Reflection . Cooper, M.J(

Ed) U.S.A: Cengage Learning

Jay,K.J (2003) Quality Teaching Reflection as the Heart of Practice.

Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Osterman,F.K and Kottkamp,B.R( 1993) Reflective Practice for Educators Improving Schooling
Through Professional Development California:Corwin Press, Inc.

Pultorak, G.E(ed) (2010) The Purposes, Practices, and Professionalism of Teacher

Reflectivity:Insights for Twenty-First- Century Teachers and Students .Lanham, Maryland • New
York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Additional material if available

Bright, B. (1996). Reflecting on “reflective practice.” Studies in the Education

of Adults, 28(2), 162-184

Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning.
London: Kogan Page.

Lasley, T. J. (1992). Inquiry and reflection: Promoting teacher reflection. Journal of Staff
Development, 13(1), 24-29.

Killion, J., & Todnem, G. (1991). A process of personal theory building. Educational
Leadership, 48(6), 14-17

Ross, D. D. (1990). Programmatic structures for the preparation of reflective teachers. In R. T.

Clift, W. R. Houston, & M. C. Pugach (Eds.), Encouraging reflective practice in education: An
analysis of issues and programs (pp. 97-118). New York: Teachers College Press.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tate, S. & Sills, M. (eds) (2004) The Development of Critical Reflection in the Health
Professions. London; Higher Education Authority.
 P a g e | 29

York-Barr, J., Sommers, W. A., Ghere, G. S., & Montie, J. (2001). Reflective practice to
improve schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

UNIT TWO: TEACHING AND REFLECTION

In unit one, I hope you have gotten skills and qualities that you need to develop to be a reflective
teacher. Now, in this unit, it is important for you to aware the difficulty and the dilemma of
teaching you have encountered and in order to overcome these challenges through reflective
practice. In addition, the unit also discusses how a teacher can learn and change and be lifelong
learner.

At the end of accomplishing this unit, you will able to:

 aware the challenges and dilemmas of teaching

 became a lifelong learner

 appreciate the different identity of teachers

Section One: The nature of teaching, complexity, dilemma

1.1. Nature of teaching complexity

Have you ever been afraid of becoming a teacher? Why?

What kind of difficulties you think you will face by being a teacher?

Facilitator: brainstorm individually and in group. Give them 5 min and let them reflect.

There are some of the major factors that make teaching more difficult or complex than other
professional practices. These complexities are resulted from problem of:
 P a g e | 30

 student’s cooperation,
 compulsory students,
 emotional management,
 structural isolation and chronic uncertainty about the effectiveness of teaching
 The problem of students’ cooperation
Teaching is a practice of human improvement. Any practitioners depend on their clients to
achieve any results. For example surgeon can fix the sickness of a patient who sleeps through the
operation, and a lawyer can successfully defend a client who remains silent during the trial. But,
success for a teacher depends heavily on the active cooperation of the student. The student must
be willing to learn what the teacher is teaching. Otherwise, a teacher is understood as having
failed. That is why you can’t be a good salesperson unless someone is buying, and you can’t be a
good teacher unless someone is learning.
As a result teachers must devote huge amounts of skill and effort in order to make students
cooperate. However, the result is far from to certain. The students still may choose to reject or
ignore the teacher’s effort and offer of improvement because of lack of interest, concentration,
and etc. Therefore, the effectiveness of the teacher becomes more difficult to establish.
 The problem of compulsory students
The teacher- student relationship is a form of institutionalized domination and subordination. . . .
The teacher represents the formal curriculum, and his interest is in imposing that curriculum
upon the children in the form of tasks; however pupils are much more interested in life in their
own world than in the dried out adult life which teachers have to offer (Waller,1965) .

In other words, students are likely to feel the pressure for school attendance as result of:
 their parents (who want school to take care of children during the day, to help them get
ahead, and even to educate them),
 the market (which makes school credentials mandatory for access to a good job),
 their own social desires (school is where their friends are).
Summarize and reflect your understanding of the above complexities of teaching
 The problem of emotion management
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One of the difficulty of teaching is teachers are required to establish and actively manage an
emotional relationship with students. Other professional practitioners in general are expected to
maintain a distinct emotional distance between themselves and the client. They focus on the
particular problem for which the client is seeking professional help, they are judged on their
performance in resolving this problem, they and the client are seen as independent agents
pursuing their own ends through the relationship.

Unlike most professional relationship, Teachers need to develop a broad relationship with
students for the purpose of understanding their learning problems. They also need to establish an
emotional bond to motivate the student to participate actively in the learning process. Managing
emotion become even more complex for the teacher to easily practice is because there is no
prepared guidebook for how to accomplish it for any particular teacher in a particular classroom.
Thus, teachers have to work things out on their own.
 The problem of structural isolation

Ever since the invention of age graded education early in the 19th century, teachers have found
themselves practicing their job within the four walls of the self-contained classroom. They
normally teach under conditions where they are the only professional in the room. They are left
alone to figure out a way to manage a group of 45-60 students and move them through the
required curriculum.
In this process, teachers have to work on control issue. Unless the teacher establishes control,
there will be no learning, and if the teacher does not control the students, the students will
control the teacher. To rise to this challenge, the teachers should establish classroom rules and
customs.
 The problem of chronic uncertainty about the effectiveness of teaching

The technology of teaching is anything but certain, and teachers must learn to live with chronic
uncertainty as an essential component of their professional practice. This uncertainty in the
teaching practice can arise from different reasons:
 P a g e | 32

 teachers have to operate under the kinds of scary conditions that introduce unpredictable
elements of will and emotion into the heart of the teaching and learning processes.(as it
is discussed in the problems of emotion management)
 What we know about teaching is always dependent on different overruling variables that
mediate between a teacher’s action and a student’s response. As a result, there is always
a dilemma in any instructional preparation: this works better than that, if other variables
are constant.
 we cannot measure the effect of teachers have on students. For example, a teacher can
measure how many of the spelling words introduced this week a student can spell or how
well a student can solve word problems which is covered in class. But, how these kinds
of lesson contribute to the most important outcomes of education, that is, the preparing
of competent, productive, and socially responsible adults. These outcomes are removed
from particular classroom interaction between teacher and student for many years by dif-
ferent reasons.
 the contradictory purposes that societies impose on the whole educational enterprise, that
is, in some ways, we want education to promote democratic equality (preparing compe-
tent citizens);on the other way, we also want education to promote social efficiency (pre-
paring productive workers); in addition, we want education to promote social mobility
(preparing individuals who can compete successfully for social goods). Yet, the kind of
teaching and learning that will be effective differs depending on whether the primary aim
is to prepare competent citizens or productive workers or social climbers.

 teacher does not know exactly his/her client because they are many and different. At one
level, the client is the student. At another level, the clients are the parents of the student.
At a third level, the teacher’s client is the community at large, which not only pays for
public education but also feels the effects of the teacher’s ability to produce competent
citizens and productive workers. Keeping all these clients happy is not an easy matter.
Are there additional challenges you have faced other than what is described?

Activity :Read the following cases and answer the question

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What is the challenge each teacher dealing with?

What is the teacher should do?
1. Getnet thinks that he does his best to teach his students yet most fail on his subject.
2. Kidane is serious and very strict teacher whom every student fears of.
3. Ashenafi observes some of students are side talking, giggling and engage in some other
activities during his class.
4. Almtsehay is a student in Meron’s class .She is obliged to marry a rich old man .Her
family decided that it is time for her to stop her education and start to establish family be-
fore she gets older. As a result she frequently cut classes. When Meron who is her home
teacher has found out that Alemtsehay is going to marry against her will, she decides to
fight for her student right and keep her in the school.

1.2. Nature of teaching dilemma

What is dilemma? Have you ever been in dilemma in your life or in your teaching
profession? What have they? How do you come out of it?

Facilitator: brainstorm individually and in group. Give them 5 min and let them reflect

A dilemma implies a situation where there is no clear easy choice or answer. Example, when you
only have two extra tickets to an event and three friends that want to go.

Dilemma can rise from different reasons:

 a genuine clash of values

 uncertainty about the facts of the case
 a failure to be unaccepted, a deficiency in courage, a misdirected desire to be popular,
and so on
 uncertainty about our position, our perceptions
 The merits of our decisions, and concerns about how they will be received and what their
results will be.
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What is teaching dilemmas? Construct your own definition

Teaching dilemma is when the teacher put in to the situations of two evils.

Some dilemmas of teaching:

 How to balance the needs and interests of some students over the needs and interests of
others. Eg. Students with special needs and girls and other normal students in my
classroom?
 What happens if there is a clash between the needs of individual teachers and those of in-
stitutions?
 Staying within your comfort zone or being prepared to take risks/become vulnerable.
(Eg. changing teacher –centred method that one familiar with to student-centred
method)
 For a teacher, balance between pursuing one’s own specific tasks (teaching, conducting
research, participating in the department meeting) and the moral duty, as an ‘academic
citizen’, and as belonging to a community (providing community service).
 How far should a teacher press students to participate in class (the shy, those for whom
there are linguistic & cultural barriers, the reluctant, other special needs and female stu-
dents) and whether to leave them alone after minimum non-pushy invitation to engage.
 How far to help students – can such help, at some point, go so far as to undermine or im-
pede the development of autonomy, self-reliance, independent and self-directed learning?
 The relative time and energy devoted to teaching as compared with research & writing
activities. Eg teaching load and Conducting Action research
 To what extent a teacher should disclose his /her problems faced to others. Does sharing
make one look like failure even though it is important for professional growth?

 How teachers use his/her power over students? To avoid using power in fear of under-
mining and belittling students or to use more power to gain respect and listened by stu-
dents.
 P a g e | 35

If you face one of the difficulties and dilemmas of teaching mentioned above in your class,
what would you do?

Activity: Identify the two conflicting ideas that create dilemma and propose how you are
going to deal with each case if it were you.

1. Samual is an excellent freshmen student. Unlike his best friends, he is disciplined

boy. They always request him to smoke cigarette and sit for ‘chat’. He does not
want to be isolated from them neither does change himself.

1. Belay is second year campus student. She is focused and average student. She has a
boyfriend whom they stayed for almost a year. He pushes her to start sex with him
and he threatens to leave her if she refused. She doesn’t want to start sex at this time
neither want him to leave her.

If you face one of the difficulties and dilemmas of teaching mentioned above in yourfuture
class, what are you going to do?

Section Two: The Professionalism Of Teaching: Teacher

Thinking, Creativity And Teacher Learning

2.1. Teacher Thinking

What knowledge and belief you think the teacher possibly can have?
 P a g e | 36

Facilitator: use silent sharing method. Group students and let them Share their ideas silently by
writing—one person at a time—one of their ideas on the flip chart in the middle of their table.
After they have finished doting down, let them quickly look at the ideas expressed at other
tables. What are the commonalities that you notice?

What is teacher thinking?

Teacher thinking is defined as “the set of cognitions, of mental representations that operates as
a lens through which teachers look at their job, give meaning to it and act in it” .Even though it is
difficult to observe and evaluate teachers’ thinking, their knowledge, beliefs and attitude that
directly and indirectly influence their thinking are widely discussed in literatures and in this
module as well.

There are different kinds of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs the teacher have:

 content knowledge refers to the depth of knowledge that a teacher has about the subject
itself – for example, their procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding of mathe-
matics topics, as well as of the connections between topics.
 pedagogical pedagogical knowledge is the knowledge teachers have about the ways stu-
dent learn particular topics – for example, a particular teaching methods to help students
understand the subject matter better.
 in addition to, general pedagogical knowledge is the knowledge a teacher have about
classroom management and the characteristics of his/her students.
 teachers have knowledge about the context of schooling, from knowledge of the school
in which he/she works, to the district, to the larger school system – for example, teachers
may have varying degrees of understanding of school financing at various levels, or of
how and where decisions are made about curriculum and resources.

 At even larger level, teachers hold personal value orientations and will have particular be-
liefs about the purposes of education and even the nature of knowledge.
 they have also beliefs about what it means to be a teacher – about the roles that teachers
should and do play, what the act of teaching requires, what makes for quality teaching.
 P a g e | 37

 Teachers also have different attitudes and expectations for different students, say, for fe-
male and male students, minorities and students with special needs.

2.2. Teacher Learning and Change

How teachers learn? And where can they learn?

Teachers’ learning and change is one of the concerns in education. One of the purposes of
education is to produce citizen who are capable of solving societal problems and bring change
to the betterment. Teachers play the greatest role in achieving this educational goal. They take
day to day responsibility of teaching and guiding students to their level and preparing them
step by step to the larger outcomes of the education. The question is how these teachers should
learn and train or change first to full fill their societal responsibilities. Teachers learn in

 pre service teacher education;

 in- service program: teaching practice

 reflective practice.

Which learning situations that you think you can learn more and better about teaching?
Why?

 Pre-service teacher education

Pre service education is the place where student teachers are trained for the future career.
These pre service programs have chosen different areas of knowledge on which to focus. Some
may have a content-heavy academic focus, while others focus more on the teacher’s personal
development or general pedagogical knowledge. However, in most of the pre service program,
there is no enough place given for reflective practice, interpersonal and communication skills,
interdisciplinary approaches, dialogue, teamwork.

As research showed that the effectiveness of pre-service teacher education on changing

teachers’ thinking before they begin teaching is limited. They recognize that teachers’
knowledge grows and their beliefs change through their actual practice.
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What do you think teacher education programs should add in terms of skills, knowledge
values?
Pre-service teacher education program should be designed to provide student teachers with a
strong foundation in a range of knowledge areas and prepare them for continued learning and
development throughout their career. Some of the attributes that have been proposed include: a
strong, clear and shared vision of education; a solid basis in multiple areas of knowledge;
opportunities to link learning and practice; and multiple opportunities for inquiry and
reflection, so that the process of reflection on practice can begin during pre-service education.

 In service program: The practicing teacher

Learning and change continues throughout a teacher’s career. Teacher learning and change
comes from studies of particular in-service or professional development programs, which
are designed to provide teachers with additional skills that they may need for teaching practice.

Why teachers need in service program?

Teachers need to be reorganized to accommodate the changing roles and functions within the
teaching system through in-service or professional development programs. These learning
areas can be: Health promotion, HIV/AIDS prevention, sex education, and life skills training,
different approaches to teaching, learning based on strong human relations and interpersonal
skills and computer skills. In general, the demands of the “new teaching profession” require the
acquisition of skills that are much larger in scope than those necessary to simply transmit
knowledge.

 Reflective practice

Why teachers need to learn to be reflective practitioners?

There are many reasons for teachers to develop as reflective practitioners. The most
important is that teachers need to be reflective in order to deal with the inevitable
uncertainties and dilemma involved in everyday decisions that affect the lives of students.
 P a g e | 39

Since teaching is a complex and dilemma-ridden job, the need of ongoing learning as well as
the capacity to be reflective is become mandatory. Because today’s classroom represents
increasing diversity among students, a teacher has to accommodate and adjust to this greater
range of differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, developmental levels, motivation to
learn, and achievement. Being responsive to this vast array of students’ needs requires
teachers who are reflective. Engaging in reflection helps teachers recognize behaviors and
practices which impede their potential for tolerance and acceptance-the vital elements for
meeting the needs of all students in a diverse society moving toward a global community

Another reason for developing as reflective practitioners is that it frees teachers from routine
and impulsive acts, enabling them to act in a more deliberative and intentional manner. While
following routine helps teachers manage the task of teaching, if teachers become slaves to
routine they eventually come to feel powerless to influence their future careers. Routine
action is guided by circumstance, tradition and external authority while reflective practice
entails voluntary and willingly taking responsibility for considering personal action.

A final reason is that emerging beliefs about quality teaching support teachers developing as
reflective practitioners. What constitutes quality teaching is evolving. Major curricular
changes that provide greater emphasis on socialization, and collaboration require
fundamental changes in the way teachers view their role. These changing classroom demands
redefine the teacher's role as social mediator, learning facilitator, and reflective practitioner.
Being able to function in these roles begins with teacher self-awareness, self-inquiry and self-
reflection. In fulfilling these roles, teachers in turn help students to learn to exercise self-
direction, self-regulation and self-reflection – those qualities that are fundamental for
democratic citizens.

From the above reading, where did you better learn about teaching profession? Is that from
pre service, or in service program or through reflective practice? Why do you say so?

Section Three: Teaching roles, change in society and

reflection
 P a g e | 40

3.1. The role of teachers in the society

What do you think the role of teachers in the society?

A teacher’s work can never end. From the role of everyday

t e a c h i n g p r o c e s s t o managerial to the role as a member of the society,
teachers play various roles to ensure t h a t t h e e d u c a t i o n s y s t e m a n d t h e
society as a whole move along side by side. The roles of teacher in the
society are classified into three main areas:

 knowledge and skill,

 social inclusion and
 Professional development of the teacher’s role.
 Knowledge and Skills – a local issue

One of the defining characteristics of teachers across the centuries is that the teacher has a
distinctive fund of knowledge and skills that are ‘transmitted’ to learners.

‘If you can read this, thank a teacher’. This is one of the roles which society has expected from
its teachers for centuries. Literacy ability of children is strongly associated with the educational
provision of teachers and schools in which they can work. And, of course, the favorable home
circumstances of parents sharing books with their children and engaging them in word games
are likely to reflect the work of teachers a generation earlier.

 Social inclusion – a societal issue

The diversification of the teacher’s role has given greater attention to the social inclusion of all
the students for whom the teacher has responsibility. Developing an understanding of children,
so as to make teaching and learning developmentally appropriate, has long been part of the
teacher’s role. A growing awareness of the range of students’ special needs, and recognition of
the implications of population migration, has led to national policy initiatives driven by social
justice and harmonization agenda. Teaching has become more diversified not only to address
different learning needs but also different first languages among the teacher’s students.
 P a g e | 41

 The professional development of the teacher’s role – a continuing issue

Teachers are increasingly called upon to help young people become fully autonomous learners
by acquiring key skills, rather than memorising information: teachers are asked to develop
more collaborative and constructive approaches to learning and are expected to be facilitators
and classroom managers rather than ex-cathedra trainers. These new roles require education in
a range of teaching approaches and styles. In addition, classrooms now contain a more
heterogeneous mix of young people from different backgrounds and with different levels of
ability.
To equip the teaching body with skills and competences for its new roles, it is necessary to
have both high-quality initial teacher education and a coherent process of continuous
professional development, keeping teachers up-to-date with the skills required in the
knowledge-based society throughout their careers. Evidence has consistently shown that
investing in teachers is the most productive investment for increasing school effectiveness and
improvement.
3.2. Teaching and Change in society

As the century goes, education has emerged at the forefront of the world’s concern over its
own future. The challenges of the coming century to eliminate poverty and ensure
sustainable development and lasting peace will fall to today’s young people.
Educating the young to meet these challenges has become a priority objective for every
society. The young generation is entering a world which is changing in all spheres –
scientific and technological, political, economic, social and cultural.

What will be the teacher roles in the changing world?

It is often viewed that a societal change that has great impact on the teacher’s work centered
mainly on its technological side. The development of ICT has bigger effect o n a
teacher’s work compare to that of the changes in political,
e c o n o m i c , a n d environmental side.
As t h e s t u d y i n d i c a t e d , t e a c h e r s w h o i n t e n s i v e l y u s e d i n f o r m a t i o n
t e c h n o l o g y e m p h a s i z e d , m o r e t h a n o t h e r t e a c h e r s , t h e importance of
using information technology for facil itating students’ participation in progressive
 P a g e | 42

inquiry, collaborative learning, the learners’ active engagement in knowledge formation

process, and learn ability of intelligence.

The impact of economic and political change however does little to the work of a teacher
w h e n c o m p a r e d t o t h e technology which brings greater impact on a teacher’s work in a
changing society.

What are the challenges of the teachers in the changing world?

Teachers will be facing a lot of challenges especially in the age of globalization
that promises a degree of social change from time to time. When a social change takes place,
challenges for teachers will increase and vary. The change in
e c o n o m i c s , p o l i t i c s , technology, cultures and others in a community will deter
the type of challenges that a teacher may be facing. A change in culture, say, the culture
in the rural areas differs from the culture in the urban areas, would give a
challenge to teachers in their teaching. Students may be a lot passive than
students from urban areas and there will be only little teacher-student interaction. A
change in technology may result to poor effectiveness of learning, where the
unfamiliarity of students’ surroundings lowers the pace of teaching.

In the economical term, meanwhile, the students may find it hard to get books,
stationeries, and even to buy uniforms. Another challenge a teacher faces is that
a lot of children are not as prepared for school as they need to be. They come without a
lot of literacy experience. They come into the classroom holding books upside down,
or not knowing where the books start. Teachers will also face the environment of
gangsterism and the attitude problems which do not come from the students
only, but the parents as well.

Section Four: Relationships in teaching: How are we

getting on together?
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A teacher's relationship can be divided into three main areas: the relationship with students,
which mean the “ordinary teaching”, and the relationship with other staff members, the
relationship with societies at large. Teachers link together to students, other teachers, school
administrators, families, and community members to foster the learning success and healthy
development of their students. The nature of these interactions among different stakeholders
varies depending on the teachers' intent and the needs of their students. Now let us review the
four major relationships the teachers have with:

 students

 school Staff
 parents
 community

 Teachers and Students

What kind of relation you except teacher should have with his/her students?

The relationship between teacher and student has been a focus of inquiry for over 2000 years,
since Plato, Socrates, and Confucius established much of the philosophical guidelines for
teaching. By emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge through dialogue, each philosopher
stressed a commitment to the teacher-student relationship.

The 20th century has witnessed the proliferation of ideas fostering teacher-student
relationships. In the early 1900s, John Dewey and other progressive educators theorized that
children flourish if allowed to grow freely in their own way at their own rate without being
forced or limited by too much teaching. Maria Montessori similarly argued that children
should discover knowledge for themselves and learn by doing with a clear emphasis on
sensory perceptions.

At the other end of the continuum, B. F. Skinner and other proponents of stimulus-response
learning theory defined teachers as transmitters of knowledge and students as passive
recipients. According to their respective theories of associationism and behaviorism, the
classroom teacher presented content to children and conducted drill-and-review as children
memorized the material.
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How is the relationship between teachers and students now a day?

The relationship between teacher and student was redefined with t he advent of cognitive
psychology. Following the principles of constructivism, teachers and students were said to
construct knowledge jointly. Teachers and students were believed to constitute a community of
learners which engages in social discourse and produces common understandings. Teachers
were seen as facilitators who guide and enrich children's learning activities, with students
serving as co-contributors to the learning process.

Psychologists have recently addressed the psychosocial dimensions of teachers' relationships

with students. Research on resilience indicates that caring teachers who express concern for
students and act as confidants, role models, and mentors can contribute to children's capacity to
overcome personal vulnerabilities and environmental adversities

 Teachers and School Staff

What do you think the relationship teachers and school staffs should be?

Teachers' relationships with their peers, other school staff, and school administrators have been
researched for decades. These studies reveal that teachers are often isolated from their peers
and other school professionals.

What do you expect the experience teachers should do for you when you are newly
employed?

Professional relationships among teachers adhere to norms that govern the ways teachers ask
for and provide help. Research on professional development reveals that interactions among
mentors and mentee are often reserved, non-problematic, uncritical and not focused on the
classroom practice. However, relationships between mentor teachers and new teachers should
be about maintaining harmony and support, rather than developing competence.

What should be done to increase the positive relationship between teachers and school staff?

To increase the quality of teachers' work- relationships requires professional and

organizational change through, for example, the establishing a positive relationship between
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participative decision-making and classroom instruction, noting an increase in innovations

adopted by schools, professional development activities, teacher exchange of ideas and
knowledge, and improved understanding of learning and classroom instruction.

 Teachers and Parents

To what extent teacher and parents should communicate? Why?

Teacher-parent relationships impact students' learning and well-being and many teachers
attempt to involve parents in school management or classroom activities. These parent-
involvement efforts help establish and foster parent-teacher relationships, and include parents
in educational interventions, which are significantly more effective than those without parent
involvement.

What are the advantages of parents’ involvement in the school?

Parent involvement programs promote a number of desirable student outcomes, including:

decreased teen pregnancy and drop-out rates, increased graduation rates, and improved
achievement and school attendance. Teachers can encourage and support parental involvement
through home visits and parent teacher conferences. Parents who participate in these programs
are more likely to further their own education by attending classes and are more able to provide
increased support to their children and their children's learning needs. Caring parents and
teachers who act in concert can strengthen the effects of educational and social interventions.
When there are positive relationships among parents and teachers, the resources of the home
and school contexts are amplified, providing a greater likelihood of positive outcomes for
children.

 Teachers and the Community

What the teachers and the community relationship involves?

To create rich, nurturing educational environments in the classroom, schools need to maximize
the use of resources available in their communities. Teachers can incorporate parents' skills and
knowledge and local organizations and programs into their curriculum to offer students
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supplementary information to complement their basic course work. Many teachers collaborate
with local universities, museums, and community service organizations to expand the cultural
resources available to students and enhance their educational experience. Teachers can forge
relationships with outside agencies and community members to provide children with the best
possible learning environment.

To meet the diverse needs of students in our public schools, community services and service
providers are often connected to the children's school experience. As organizations, schools
have the advantage of having the most frequent contact with students an d therefore the
potential to truly benefit children through the integration of school-linked services in meeting
the children's needs . Teachers may work with social workers, family counselors, local health
care providers, and others to address and fulfill the needs of their students.

Activity: Read the case and respond to the following questions:

a. Identify the roles of Girma
b. How is his relationship with others? Why?

Girma is an English teacher in grade 8.He focuses on students’ communication skills. He uses
different teaching strategies that each and every student can learn easy. For instance he uses
role play, audio visual material-movies, presentation. He encourage active participation of
students in classroom especially girls and students with special needs. As a result, everybody
feels recognized and participate freely. He also can see the progress of their English
communication skills However, he concerned about some students who continually cut his
class to go’ chat and shisa’ houses which is found around the schools. When he knew that, he
made these students to call upon their parents. After the long discussion with the parents, the
students came back to his class but cut others. Recognizing this problem again, Girma decided
to work with the principal to dig out the root reasons to lead for the permanent solutions. They
prepare a two days workshop and call for the parents, and other governmental and
nongovernmental organization to discuss on the issues and solutions. As the result of the
workshop, the school and the stakeholders decided to displace ’ chat and shisa’ houses from
the surrounding of the schools and build recreational places instead.
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Section Five .Professional identity: knowing oneself as a

teacher

What is professional identity?

Professional identity refers to the set of attitudes, beliefs, experiences, ideals and principles that
define a person in their professional career. Generally, they tend to determine who we interact
with in our professional lives. These interactions and professional experiences proceed to define
one's professional identity (www.ask.com).

What kind of teacher you want to be?

Any teacher will gain professional identity throughout the process of experiencing teaching.A
teacher's disposition can be divided into four main areas as follow:

Able/Unable
The able teacher sees students as having the capacities to deal with their problems. The teacher
believes students or other people in the school community are able to find adequate solutions to
events in their own lives.

The unable teacher sees students as lacking the necessary capacities to deal effectively with their
problems. The teacher doubts students’ abilities to make their own decisions and run their own
lives. If the teacher believes a student is able, the student will try to do his/her job to the best of
his/her ability. If the teacher believes a student is unable, the student will often avoid
responsibility.
Identified/Unidentified
The identified teacher relates easily with people, especially with people from diverse
backgrounds. The unidentified teacher feels oneness only with those of similar belief and feels
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apart from all others. If the teacher feels a student can learn, then he/she will employ the most
effective methods, as opposed to the teacher who makes materials for a general few and ignores
the necessary adaptations that guarantee all students have access to the general education
curriculum.
Larger/Smaller
The teacher identified as being larger has a global or broad perspective beyond immediate
context. The smaller teacher has a very narrow focus on specific goals. The effective teacher
understands the purpose of education is to have a long term, positive impact on a child’s growth
and development.
People/Things
The people teacher is concerned with the human aspects of day-to-day life. The attitudes,
feelings, beliefs, and welfare of students and fellow community members are prime
considerations in his/her thinking. The things teacher is preoccupied with all the impersonal,
detail-oriented management aspects of education. The effective teacher is not a concrete thinker
concerned with what is right in the school setting but instead focuses on what is appropriate for
the individual or situation. The teacher focused on things as a first priority will put schedules and
rules ahead of looking for the cause of the problem.

From the above classification of teachers’ dispositions, where do you categorize yourself?
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The following cases show the different dispositions of teachers. Identify the types of
dispositions of each teacher.
1. Abebe always compares the quality of his students with his own back ground. Thus, he
always upset when the students ask simple questions.
2. Zewdu is a new teacher assigned in college. He grew up in the city. He does not social-
ize with other teachers because he thinks that they are not his type and his ethnical
group. As a result, he always feels lonely and depressed.
3. Alemu, most of the time, prepare different teaching aids like diagrams, pictures or real
objects before he enters in to the class.
4. Almaz always saves 15 minutes of her class time for open discussion .For instance, the
contribution of women in to the world; the damage of HIV in our country’s economy;
the advantage of time management and others.

Section Six. Teachers as lifelong learners

What is lifelong learning?

Lifelong learning is not rooted in any particular moral or professional commitment. Lifelong
learning for teacher becomes an individualistic enterprise, its purpose to consume skills while
turning teaching into an endless human resource development project. One way for a teacher to
be lifelong learner is by continuously developing his/her profession.

What is Continuous Professional Development (CPD)?

It :

 indicates that learning for the sake of improving professional practice (HDP
hand book, 2011).
 consists of any educational activity which helps to maintain, develop or increase
knowledge, problem-solving, technical skills or professional performance stan-
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dards, all with the goal that to provide a better students’ learning
(www.en.wikipedia.org).
 is the means by which professionals maintain and enhance their knowledge and
skills. The world is moving ever faster so on-going CPD is essential to support you in
your current role as well as helping you with career progression. CPD is all about up-
grading knowledge, skills and capabilities to remain effective and competent
(www.cips.org).

In short CPD is:

“Anything that makes me a better professional” (HDP hand book, 2011)

6.1. Approaches to CPD

What approaches or methods you used to continuously develop your profession?

Continuous professional development has employed in schools or higher institution in different

ways as follows:
 Teacher career development in schools including:

 whole-college training days the induction,

 mentoring and assessment of individual teachers
 peer observation
 Collaborative planning and evaluation, and self-evaluation.

 Looking beyond a particular school, teachers might build networks by:

 visiting other colleges

 attending conferences
 undertaking joint training exercises with other schools
 joining teacher networks, and
 Engaging with specialist subject associations.
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 Outside the school environment, teachers might:

 attend short courses by NGOs

 study for higher degrees eg. mastering the second degree, PHD

 Finally, looking towards the wider community, teachers might:

 Sometimes provide opportunities for community learning.

Which methods of CPD you mostly engage in to your college?

6.2. Rational and purposes of CPD

What do you think the purpose of CPD?

The rationale and the purpose of CPD can be summarized in four categories as follows:

 Greater authenticity and commitment to learning.

Continuous professional development programs for teacher increases their involvement in

learning activities such as professional reading, attending workshops, and joining in-school
groups to explore particular teaching-related topics .It also increases the ownership of
teachers for professional growth and levels of what they described as teacher confidence
and enthusiasm.

 Increased focus and personal accountability in learning.

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Continuous professional development is believed to help teachers focus, developing a clearer

sense of purpose and meaning in their teaching and learning activities. And , it increases
insight into one’s own teaching, and helping define a personal vision for one’s practice.

It also increases a personal accountability of teachers that goal-setting creates: When it’s
written down, he/she begin to relate everything that happens to that goal. They take more
responsibility for their own professional development and they do much more “conscious
planning” for their growth, and more thinking around questions such as, “How will I know
when I get there? What will it look like?”

 Teachers’ self-affirmation through learning.

Continuous professional development program in the schools increases competence and

growth rather than deficits and judgment. For examples, end-of-year discussions with
teachers about their growth plans tend to highlight their accomplishments, positive changes
and affirming incidents throughout the year that otherwise might be forgotten.
Develops teaching-learning

Summary

When comparing teaching profession with other profession, it has its own unique characteristic
that makes it a challenging job. These complexities are resulted from problem of: student’s
cooperation, compulsory students, emotional management, and structural isolation and chronic
uncertainty about the effectiveness of teaching. In addition to these complexities, facing teaching
dilemma in every day base is evident. Teaching dilemma is when the teacher put in to the
situations of two evils. For instance balancing your needs versus department need; compromising
your believes versus the college value; to what extent you should disclose your problems faced
to others and the like. The way teachers train to change their practice determines their capacity to
overcome these and other challenges and dilemmas of teaching. Teachers’ can learn and change
through different means: pre service teacher education; in- service program; and reflective
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practice. From the three of them, various studies found that reflective practice is the best of all
mechanism teachers’ learn and change their roles, practices and beliefs in ever changing world.
To equip teachers with necessary knowledge, attitude and skills of teacher as reflective
practitioner is an essential way for enhancing them to be a lifelong learner. One way for teachers
to be a lifelong learner is by continuously developing their profession. Continuous professional
development refers to anything that makes teachers a better professional.CPD can be employed
through different strategies in institutions: an induction program for new staff, visiting other
college for sharing experiences, attending conferences/short courses and study for higher degrees
for updating and upgrading your knowledge, values and skills of your specific areas of teaching.

Exercise

1. What makes a teacher job difficult when comparing with medical doctors?
2. How teachers’ learn and change better?
3. Do you think that practicing reflection is a good solution for overcoming teaching com-
plexities and dilemmas? Why?
4. What kind of relationship recommended between teachers and students?
5. What activities should a teacher do to continuously develop his/her profession?

Assignment: 10%

1. What challenges do you think you will face as a teacher? List five challenges and discuss how
it affects you and the teaching process?

2. Have you ever been in dilemmas in your life? Mention 3 dilemmas and discuss how you
overcome it.

References
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Beijaard, Douwe and et al (1999) Teachers' perceptions of professional identity: an exploratory

study from a personal knowledge perspective. ICLON Graduate School of Education, Leiden
University: Netherlands.

Beard, Roger (2008) What Is the Role Of The Teacher Today? Paper Presented At The Epp-Ed
Hearing On Teacher Quality: Does It Really Matter? Institute of Education, University of
London

Hinde, Elizabeth () Reflections on Reform: A Former Teacher Looks at School Change and the
Factors that Shape It. Arizona State University East

Jean Lightfoot,J. Brenda(2005) Nature of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors’ Reflective

Practices. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. University of Texas: U.S.A.

Lyons, Nona ()Dilemmas of Knowing: Ethical and Epistemological Dimensions of Teachers'

Work and Development .Harvard University

Richardson, Robin (2004) Teacher Educators as Agents of Change– reflections and priorities
Multiverse conference.Woburn House: London

Pultorak, G. Edward(ed)(2010) The Purposes, Practices, and Professionalism of Teacher

Reflectivity Insights for Twenty-First- Century Teachers and Students. Rowman & Littlefield
Education:Lanham, Maryland • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Journals

Beswick, Kim and Muir, Tracey (2007) Stimulating Reflection on Practice: Using the Supportive
Classroom Reflection Process: Mathematics Teacher Education and Development Special Issue
2007, Vol. 8, 74–93.University of Tasmania
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Estevem ,M. Jose(2000) The Transformation of the Teachers’ Role at the End of the Twentieth
Century: new challenges for the future. Educational Review, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2000: University of
Ma´laga

Webb, Rosemary and Vulliamy, Graham (2002) The social work dimension of the primary
teacher’s role. Taylor & Francis Ltd: Research Papers in Education ISSN 0267-1522 print/ISSN
1470-1146 .Also available online http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Fullan.G Michael(1993) The Professional Teacher :Why Teachers Must Become Change Agents.
Educational Leadership Volume 50 Number 6 March 1993

Website

http://www.ehow.com/info_7870344_personal-characteristics-necessary-effective-
teaching.html#ixzz1x95wUSf5
www.ibe.unesco.org/(Organization/workshops)

UNIT THREE: THE NOTION OF REFLECTIVE

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TEACHING

What do you learn from the previous unit? I Hope you have learnt a lot about the basic concepts
of reflection; the major classification of reflection. In this unit, you will learn how you can
practice reflection in teaching and learning process .In addition, you will know the qualities and
the skills you need to develop to be a better reflective teacher. Thus, the unit starts from defining
reflective teaching to the reflective strategies in which you can practice in your teaching context.

Unit Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit the candidates will be able to:

 understand the meaning of reflective teaching

 characterize the qualities of reflective teacher

 practice the different strategies of reflection in their teaching

Section One: Meanings of reflective teaching

What is Reflective Teaching?

We should ridicule a merchant who said that he had sold a great many goods although no one
had bought any. But perhaps there are teachers who think that they have done a good day’s
teaching irrespective of what [students] have learned

-John Dewey, How We Think

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What counts as a “good day’s teaching”? How do we know it when we see it? Despite efforts to
quantify, grade, test, and otherwise assess teaching and learning, it remains difficult to tell on a
daily basis whether students are actually buying the goods teachers offer. Unlike the merchant,
who can count his wares to see how many have sold, teachers must approach self-evaluation
more creatively. For many accomplished teachers acclaimed for the quality of their practice, to
do so involve ongoing reflection.

Reflection means thinking about what one is doing. It entails a process of contemplation with
openness to being changed, a willingness to learn, and a sense of responsibility for doing one’s
best. Perhaps this process seems natural, and indeed it may be; but it also poses a challenge.
Consider a metaphor of “reflection.” Think about looking at your reflection in a mirror and
you’ll get a sense of how easy it can be to “reflect,” or to see an image shown back to you. Yet it
is much more difficult to truly look at yourself. It can be painful to face your imperfections,
uncomfortable to acknowledge your strengths, and both odd and inspiring to glimpse yourself
from another point of view. Such are the dualities of seeing your own reflection. So it is with
reflection in teaching. Reflective teachers face the challenge of truly seeing themselves and
their teaching. For instance, students learn when teachers teach well. But how do teachers know
when they’re teaching well? How can they be supported and encouraged to think about the
quality of their teaching and its impact on student learning? .Unlike non-reflective teachers,
reflective teachers approach their practice with openness, wholeheartedness, and responsibility,
looking for the better path to take, the edges that need to be smoothed, and the changes they need
to make in their practice to improve learning for students.

Therefore, reflective teaching necessarily encompasses the critical self evaluation of teachers,
which can be difficult emotionally. Dewey (1933) defines reflection as “…active, persistent, and
careful consideration of any belief or practice…”As teachers, we can reflect on classroom
decisions and events, but reflection also involves the emotional, passionate, and intuitive side of
teaching.

1.1. Routine action Vs Reflection action

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What kind of actions considered routine and reflective for the teacher’ Job?

Routine action is guided primarily by tradition, external authority and circumstance. In reflective
teaching, teachers engage in active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed
form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and its consequences. Thus
reflective teachers consistently assess the origins, purposes and consequences of their work.

Today’s professional knowledge requires that teachers employ the reflective approach which
is-‘plan, act, reflect, evaluate’-rather than the traditional application approach: ’plan, implement,
evaluate’

To understand the routine and reflective actions of teachers more, read the following case
carefully.

Case 1:Reflective Teachers Vs. Non-Reflective Teachers

Teachers who operate at a non-reflective level react without conscious consideration of
alternative responses. Settling too quickly on only one explanation of a behavior or situation
leads to a narrow range of potential solutions.

Non-reflective teachers react to individual classroom situations without connecting them to other
events. Their orientation is reactive, attributing ownership of problems to students or others.
They view student and classroom circumstances as beyond their control, seeing themselves as
victims of circumstances. They are willing to take things for granted without questioning,
justifying teaching methods without exploring alternatives. They enforce predetermined
standards of operation without adapting or restructuring based on students’ responses.

Reflective teachers spend a lot of time thinking about classroom interactions and consider both
the intended as well as the unintended consequences of their actions. They engage in the
thoughtful reconsideration of everything that happens in their classroom with an eye toward
improvement. Non-reflective teachers often fail to recognize dilemmas, have little impetus for
improvement, and are consequently unlikely to achieve their professional potential.
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While all teachers make mistakes, what differentiates non-reflective from reflective teachers is
that reflective teachers recognize, learn from, and strive to correct their mistakes.

List activities of

a. What reflective teachers do?

b. What non- reflective teachers do?

Section Two: Becoming a reflective teacher

How can we become reflective teacher?

There are attitudes and skills you should develop to be a better reflective teacher. According to
Dewey (1933), there are three essentials attitudes and practices that characterize a reflective
teacher.

2.1. Three essential attitudes of reflective practitioners

The three essential attitudes or habits of mind first described by Dewey are still considered the
foundation of reflective practice. They are:

 open-mindedness,

 responsibility, and

 wholeheartedness.

 Open-mindedness

Open-mindedness is a willingness to consider new evidence as it occurs and to admit the

possibility of error. Open-mindedness means being open to other points of view, appreciating
that there are many ways to view a particular situation or event, and staying open to changing
your own viewpoint. Part of open-mindedness is also letting go of needing to be right or wanting
to win.
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It requires hearing different views as valid ways of thinking, not as threats. Open-mindedness is
described as “an active desire to listen to more sides than one, to give full attention to alternative
possibilities, and to recognize the possibility of error even in our most dear beliefs.”

Being open-minded requires the capacity to criticize oneself. Teachers who are unable to
acknowledge their errors tend to blame their students for any problems that arise. For example, if
90% of the class fails a test, teachers who are open-minded consider the possibility that the
material, method or approach was lacking, rather than accuse students of not studying.

Open-minded teachers continually seek new information that might challenge their taken-for-
granted assumptions about teaching, thus enabling them to envision a broad range of potential
solutions and making it more likely that dilemmas will be resolved.

 Responsibility

Responsibility is the careful consideration of the consequences of one’s actions, especially as

they affect students. Reflective thinking leads to responsible action. Responsibility refers to a
teacher’s willingness to examine all decision making (e.g., decisions about curriculum,
instruction, evaluation, organization, management) from a coherent philosophical framework of
teaching and learning.

Responsibility is the willingness to acknowledge that whatever one chooses to do will impact the
lives of students in both foreseen and unforeseen ways. Demonstrating responsibility means
owning the many positive and negative ways your actions might influence others, regardless of
how things turn out.

 Wholeheartedness

Dewey believed that when people are thoroughly interested in a cause, they throw themselves
into it with a whole heart. Teachers who are wholehearted approach all situations with the
attitude that they can learn something new. The “need-to-know” is the driving force for their
learning. Wholeheartedness is characterized as “a commitment to seek every opportunity to
learn.”

From the above reading, which qualities do you think you have? And which qualities you need
to improve for the future?
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2.2. Three essential practices for becoming a reflective practitioner

While it’s not possible to prescribe a step-by-step procedure, there are actions and practices that
are fundamental to developing as a reflective practitioner. The following three practices are
essential:

 Solitary reflection,

 Ongoing inquiry, and

 Perpetual problem-solving.
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The first creates an opening for the possibility of reflection while the others allow for a way of
developing teaching practice that accepts uncertainty, recognizes contextual bounds and
considers multiple plausible explanations for events and circumstances.

 Solitary reflection

Making time for thoughtful consideration of your actions and critical inquiry into the impact of
your own behavior keeps you alert to the consequences of your actions on students. It’s
important to engage in systematic reflection by making it an integral part of your daily practice.
Keeping a reflective journal is one vehicle for ensuring time is set aside for daily reflection.

Teachers also need reflective time to consider the inevitable tradeoffs involved in everyday
decisions that affect students. Any effort to become a reflective practitioner involves negotiating
feelings of frustration and insecurity. Taking solitary time helps teachers come to accept that
such feelings are a natural part of teaching.

 Ongoing inquiry

This practice involves unending questioning of the status quo and conventional wisdom by
seeking your own truth. Being a fearless truth-seeker means examining the assumptions that
underlie both classroom and school practices.

 Perpetual problem-solving

Perpetual problem-solvers are never satisfied that they have all the answers and constantly seek
new information. Problems present opportunities to find better solutions, build relationships, and
to teach students new coping strategies. The classroom serves as a laboratory for purposeful
experimentation. A practice or procedure is never permanent. New insights, understandings and
perspectives can bring previous decisions up for reevaluation at any time.
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WANTED
Case 2: A Reflective Practitioner
A person who is inherently curious; someone who doesn't have all the answers and isn't afraid to
admit it; someone who is confident enough in his or her ability to accept challenges in a non-
defensive manner; someone who is secure enough to make his or her thinking public and
therefore subject to discussion; someone who is a good listener; someone who likes other people
and trusts them to make the right decisions if given the opportunity; someone who is able to see
things from another's perspective and is sensitive to the needs and feelings of others; someone
who is able to relax and lean back and let others assume the responsibility of their own learning.
Some experience desirable but not as important as the ability to learn from mistakes (Osterman
& Kottkamp, 1993).

Activity Directions:

1. List all the qualities that are sought in this want ad.
2. Categorize the above mentioned qualities in the three majors area of attitudes
3. Which ones do you possess as a person?
4. Which one is your greatest strength?
5. Which one is your biggest challenge?

2.3. Adapting reflection in to one’s teaching repertoire: Some tips

Mention some methods that you think facilitate reflection in classroom.

Some Tips you may want to use for facilitating reflection teaching in the classroom:

 prepare a framework for guiding the discussion.

 lead the group by actively engaging each student.
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 set the tone by establishing norms of behavior such as: anyone in the group may
speak at any time — no hand-raising is required, but the rules of polite conversa-
tion are followed.
 no profanity or sexual innuendoes are necessary to make a point.
 speakers should be respectful, open-minded, and not aim to put anyone down.
 insist that responses are clear, coherent sentences, not just a few words.
 clarify students' responsibilities and expectations (write them down and copy for
all).
 arouse interest and commitment to the service learning.
 assess the values, knowledge, and skills that each student brings to the project.
 develop background information about the people and problems the students will
encounter in the service situations to sensitize them and help to revise any mis-
conceptions.
 develop and practice any skills that will be required, including being active ob-
servers and questioners of experience.
 get closure on emotional/affective issues by the end of each reflective session.
 leave some cognitive/topical issues open until the next session to give group
members an opportunity to think more about them.

Section Three: Strategies/ Opportunities for reflection

In what way do you reflect your experiences?

To develop the habits of mind necessary to become reflective practitioners, preservice and
novice teachers often need to be explicitly prompted to think, respond, and act in new ways.
Reflection is enhanced when mentoring or coaching is provided that allows teachers as learners
to tap into their own realm of experiences, reflect on those experiences, and construct personal
meaning to inform their developing practice. Reflection, especially critical reflection and self-
reflection, are complex constructs requiring strategically constructed mediation or facilitation.
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In addition, establishing self-monitoring and self-reflective activities early on can promote the
kind of self-awareness that allows preservice teachers to hear and listen to their own voices.
Focusing on what they already know and believe about teaching has proven to be a useful
starting point

Strategies of reflection help both teachers and students to address problems and learning
challenges, deepen their understanding, and generate new insights. In addition to their reflection
about their own practice, teachers may provide reflection exercises or assignments, examples,
and challenges to enhance other teachers’ and students’ learning. So the question presents itself,
how can teachers reflect, what tools can be used to facilitate the reflective process?

Strategies/ Opportunities for reflection that have been found to be useful in promoting reflection
include journal writing, teacher narratives, autobiography, metaphor, critical incidents, support
groups, critical friends, and action research. Merging these task structures in creative ways and
utilizing them individually, collaboratively, and with facilitated coaching is likely to have the
greatest potential for promoting higher-order reflection.

 Teacher narratives (autobiography and metaphor)

 Critical incident
 Portfolios
 Case study analysis
 Student input
 Action research

 Teacher narratives (autobiography and metaphor)

Narratives other than journal writing can render a rich understanding of what takes place in the
minds of developing teachers as they construct their reality of teaching. Teacher narratives are
stories written by and about teachers and can be used as the source of narrative inquiry (Cole,
2000). It is a more disciplined from of writing than journaling in that it has a structure and a
 P a g e | 66

focus, the intent to communicate a story. Either keen observers or teachers themselves write real
stories about teaching that illuminate the realities, dilemmas and rewards of teaching.

Reflecting on teacher narratives can yield insights about motivations for teacher actions, the
complexities of teaching, and about teachers. Teacher narratives can also be specifically
designed to be used as case studies with the explicit purpose of reflecting on a specific problem.
Using a vehicle of case story writing based on teaching experiences helped pre service teachers
move toward critical reflection.

Autobiographical sketches, also called personal histories, are a specialized form of teacher
narratives .These stories of a more personal and in-depth nature offer insight into the past to
uncover preconceived theories of practice. When teachers write about their own biographies and
how they think these have shaped the construction of their values, then they are able to see more
clearly how social and institutional forces beyond the classroom and school have had an
influence.

Some scholars advocated the use of metaphors to help teachers become aware of their teaching
identities and develop alternative ways to think about an issue. The reflection that occurs in the
examination of personal teaching metaphors involves reframing the lens through which a teacher
perceives a problem. It attributes a critical reflection of a practitioner.

Metaphors bear the images teachers have of themselves as teachers, their professional identity.
The practical theories of teachers are often expressed as metaphors as opposed to the more
logical forms of expression.

Through metaphors teachers can elaborate and turn abstractions into real images, helping to give
them firmer handles on slippery concepts such as teaching.

The following metaphors written by beginning teachers offer a glimpse of the images teachers
have of themselves as teachers:

A teacher is like a song creating memories and bringing comfort when you hear it.

A teacher is like a candle melts itself and gives light for another
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 Critical incident

Though generally conceived as a self-generated incident, a critical incident could also be a

carefully chosen real-world example or case study of a teaching dilemma intended to serve as a
springboard for reflection. Examining a critical incident can be a tool for deepening the level of
reflection. Writing about critical incidents or dilemmas rather than typical daily events promoted
critical reflection in novice teachers.

Descriptions of high and low moments in their practice, or details of significant incidents that
stand out in their lives as teachers, provide the impetus to grapple with problems and dilemmas
becoming the basis for critical investigation. By sharing critical incident responses, teachers
come to realize that their individual stories have generic qualities and themes embedded within
them. They discover that their personal struggles are not so different from those experienced by
their colleagues.

 Portfolios
Professional portfolios vary from online documents to 3-ring binder folios. Portfolios are
designed to encourage novice teachers to reflect about important areas such as state and/or
national teaching standards and to document evidence of their knowledge and experience of
each. Portfolios can be developed over the course of an entire teacher education program to
demonstrate growth in knowledge and skill and can provide evidence of achievements.

Portfolios can promote reflective thinking at various levels of deliberation on practical teaching
matters as well as at higher levels of questioning institutional goals. The routine of reflecting on
practice through portfolios can provide the novice teacher with a cognitive link between past
experiences and newly encountered challenges. Discovering ways to understand present
circumstances through previously acquired knowledge can help to generate new problem-solving
abilities.
 Case study analysis
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Case study analysis can be a valuable method for stimulating teacher reflection. Teachin through
case study requires preservice teachers to review unique and challenging situations and to reflect
on potential solutions

Case studies can present complex situations that require difficult analysis and depend on both
instructor expertise and high levels of student comprehension. Case study written reflections
could be shared and discussed with peers in an effort to learn about alternative ways of
approaching problems.

 Student input

Some studies indicated that college teacher use student input, in its varied forms, as a reflective
tool. Faculty believes that student comments are very important; they learn a great deal from
student evaluations as well as direct comments from the students. Additional forms include but
are not limited to students’ products, course evaluations, and informal student feedback.

 Action research
It is:
 an inquiry-based research that follows a process of examining existing practices, imple-
menting new practices, and evaluating the results, leading to an improvement cycle.
 a powerful tool for change and improvement at the local level. To do action research is
to plan, act observe and reflect more carefully, more systematically, and more rigorously
than one usually does in everyday life.

Action research has been a popular methodology in education for those who maintain that
practitioners are more likely to make better decisions and engage in more effective practices if
they are active participants in educational research .Thus,educators are working in their own
environment, with their own students, on problems that affect them directly. They are at the
place where research and practice intersect and real change can occur. Results of their actions
can be seen first-hand, and they can build on this information.
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The main purpose of action research is to improve the understanding of teaching practice and to
influence or change some aspect of whatever is the focus of the research. It is participatory
research and usually involves collaboration between researchers. The evidence collected is
qualitative and meaningful to those involved.

Reflective Activity

Which reflective strategies you are familiar with and which one are new for you?

Plan to use one of the new strategies for you to reflecting upon your teaching experience

Summary
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No teacher knows, on daily basis, whether students are actually buying the lesson he/she offers.
However reflective teaching helps a teacher to get evidence on how good is his/her teaching
practice. Reflective teaching is when a teacher reflects on classroom decisions and events, but it
also involves the emotional, passionate, and intuitive side of teaching. Reflective teacher spend a
lot of time thinking about classroom interactions and consider both the intended as well as the
unintended consequences of his/her actions. They engage in the thoughtful reconsideration of
everything that happens in his/her classroom with an eye toward improvement.

Therefore, if you decide to be a better reflective teacher that enables you to know how well your
teaching practice is and how students are buying what you offer on daily basis, you should
develop the three essential attitudes and skills. These are: open-mindedness (is a willingness to
consider new evidence as it occurs and to admit the possibility of error), responsibility (is the
careful consideration of the consequences of one’s actions, especially as they affect students),
and wholeheartedness (is a commitment to seek every opportunity to learn). In addition, the three
essential skills or practices that you need to have are: Solitary reflection (spent time everyday for
thoughtful consideration of your actions after lesson is over), ongoing inquiry (examining your e
assumptions that underlie both classroom and school practices) and perpetual problem-solving
(Problems present opportunities to find better solutions, build relationships, and to teach students
new coping strategies). Developing this attitudes and skills will enormously empower you to be
confident enough to claim your strength and gaps for improvement of students learning and it
enables you to deal with the classroom circumstances, events and decisions with less trouble.
Here are some reflective strategies that you can easily use in your teaching context in order to
enhance your reflective thinking abilities and practice: Teacher narratives (autobiography and
metaphor); critical incident; portfolios; case study analysis; student input and action research.

Exercise

1. How do you describe reflective teaching by your own words?

2. What is open-mindedness for teachers?
3. What are the advantages of spending time for careful consideration of what has hap-
pened?
4. What are the basic differences between reflective and non reflective teachers?
Assignment: 15%
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Read the following given scenarios and:

 Discuss what happened and why.
 Discuss resources that might be accessed for deciding what action you could take.
 Decide on appropriate actions to solve the problem.

Teaching Scenario 1
While teaching a math lesson on multiplication, I realize that several of my students haven’t mastered
their addition facts. They have to count each item to figure out the arrays that I am using to demonstrate
that multiplication is repeated addition. They are not able to complete the repeated additions because of
their lack of basic skills.

Teaching Scenario 2
My nine-grade class and I read a descriptive paragraph and discuss the words that make it “descriptive.” I
ask my students to write a paragraph about their favorite place using as many descriptive words as
possible. About half of my students seem to have no idea how to begin.

Teaching Scenario 3
I have several students in my class who are just learning English. They all speak Amharic at home. I
need to do something to help them understand the instruction in my class. What can I do?

Teaching Scenario 4
I have a student included in my classroom from a learning disabilities resource class. He has great
difficulty keeping up with any writing tasks in my class due to his poor fine-motor skills. He tries to keep
up, but it takes him twice as long as any of my other students to do any written work.

Teaching Scenario 5

While teaching a social studies lesson about the Civil War, I realize that my students are obviously disin-
terested: passing notes, having to be redirected to the text, and talking to one another. We are reading a
chapter in the social studies book and answering the questions at the end of the chapter.
Reference
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Martínez, F. José and et al (2009) Classroom Assessment Practices, Teacher Judgments, and
Student Achievement in Mathematics: Evidence from the ECLS. Routledge /Taylor and Francis
Group: Stanford University. ISSN: 1062-7197 print/1532-6977 online DOI:
10.1080/10627190903039429

Mitchell, Kerry and Poskitt, Jenny (2010) How do teachers make overall teacher judgments
(OTJs) and how are they supported to make sound and accurate OTJs? NZARE Conference,
Auckland.

Chiappetta, Eugenel(1997) Inquiry-Based Science Strategies And Techniques For Encouraging

Inquiry In The Classroom

Pultorak, G. Edward(ed)(2010) The Purposes, Practices, and Professionalism of Teacher

Reflectivity Insights for Twenty-First- Century Teachers and Students. Rowman & Littlefield
Education:Lanham, Maryland • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Websites

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/credit-c.html

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub3.html

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub7.html

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index_sub2.html

www.edu.gov.mb.ca/ks4/docs/support/multilevel/chap6.pdf

http://teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.html

http://rtweb.info/books-and-resources/reflective-teaching/becoming-a-reflective-teacher/3-developing-an-
evidence-informed-classroom

www.education.auckland.ac.nz/..

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/03/creating-classrooms-we-need-8-ways-into-inquiry-learning/

http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Overall-teacher-judgment/Making-an-overall-teacher-judgment

Unit Four: Action Research as a Strategy

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for Reflection

In previous units, I believed that you have learnt about what reflection is and how you can
practice it to the day to day bases of your life. Moreover, they have made you uncover the
different available strategies of practicing reflection in teaching and learning process. This unit is
an extension of the previous unit .It particularly focuses on action research, as one of the
strategies of reflective practice. It is believed that as a teacher, you should undertake action
research to solve the practical problems you may encounter in your teaching practice .Therefore;
the unit will give you an opportunity to know about action research in detail and to start
practicing it by developing the proposal.

Unit learning outcomes:

 Understand the concept of Action Research

 Appreciate the purpose of conducting Action Research
 Start to prepare for a Group Action Research Proposal

Section One: Meanings and nature of Action Research

In order to undertake an action research project within educational settings, we need to begin by
giving some thought to the question: 'What is action research?' This, in turn, raises two further
questions:

What is research?

What is educational research?

What is action research?

Research:
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is a 'systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which aims to contribute to the advancement of
knowledge and wisdom'( Bassey, 1999)

Educational research:

'is critical enquiry aimed at informing educational judgements and decisions in order to improve
educational action' ( Bassey, 1999)

Action research:

 is a process of systematic reflection, enquiry and action carried out by individ-

uals about their own professional practice (Frost, 2002, p. 25).

 is a term used to describe professionals studying their own practice in order to

improve it(GTCW, 2002a, p. 15).

 is an enquiry which is carried out in order to understand, to evaluate and then

to change, in order to improve some educational practice (Bassey, 1998).

 combines a substantive act with a research procedure; it is action disciplined by

enquiry, a personal attempt at understanding while engaged in a process of
improvement and reform' (Hopkins, 2002).

 When applied to teaching, [action research] involves gathering and interpreting

data to better understand an aspect of teaching and learning and applying the
outcomes to improve practice* (GTCW, 2002),

 is a flexible spiral process which allows action (change, improvement) and re-
search understanding, knowledge) to be achieved at the same time' (Dick, 2002).
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 is usually described as cyclic, with action and critical reflection taking place
in turn. The reflection is used to review the previous action and plan the next one'
(Dick, 1997).
 is an approach which has proved to be particularly attractive to educators because
of its practical, problem-solving emphasis ...' (Bell, 1999, p. 10).

Furthermore, Action research is not a 'thing' or an object of study. When we speak about action
research we are always speaking about people investigating their work with other people. The
divergence of opinion in the literature about how we understand action research reflects how we
understand human enquiry in general, whether we observe life from a distance, or whether we
are active participants, and what implications this has for the form of theories we generate
McNiff (2001).

According to McNiff, Lomax and Whitehead, (1996) a common sense view of action research is
this:

 we review our current practice,

 identify an aspect we want to improve,
 imagine a way forward,
 try it out, and
 Take stock of what happens.
 we modify our plan in the light of what we have found, and continue with the 'action',
 monitor what we do,
 Evaluate the modified action, and so on until we are satisfied with that aspect of our
work.

An examination of these definitions suggests the following: Action research is referred to

variously as a process, enquiry, and approach, flexible spiral process and as cyclic. It has a
practical, problem-solving emphasis. It is carried out by individuals, professionals and
educators. It involves research, systematic, critical reflection and action. It aims to improve
educational practice. Action is undertaken to understand, evaluate and change.
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From the various definition of Action research given above, can you draw the common
natures or features of Action Research?

Section Two: Action research Vs other types of education

researches

What difference do you think between action research and other research you are familiar
with?

As a starting point, it is useful to examine some texts that discuss a broad range of approaches to
engaging in research. These reveal that there are: (1) many different types of research; and (2)
numerous views as to the nature of each, how it should be conducted and what it aims to achieve.
For example, when discussing social research, Robson (2002, p. 26) cites the following:
'ethnography, quantitative behavioural science, phenomenology, action research, hermeneutics,
evaluation research, feminist research, critical social science, historical-comparative research,
and theoretical research'. It is useful to compare this list with some examples offered by Blaxter
et al (1996, p. 5): 'pure, applied and strategic research; descriptive, explanatory and evaluation
research , exploratory, testing-out and problem-solving research; covert, adversarial and
collaborative research; basic, applied, instrumental and action research'. When reading general
texts, you will see many references to these (and other) kinds of research. At this stage, it is
important to note several points. First of all, do not be confused or distracted by the 'labels' that
are attached to various kinds of research. Instead, ask yourself:

1. What sorts of practices are being engaged in by those who undertake action research and other
kinds of research etc.?

2. What rationale is offered to undertake action research or other kind of researches?

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The basic characteristics shared by all of these all kinds of researches is that they are, or aim to
be, planned, cautious, systematic and reliable ways of finding out or deepening understanding.
(Blaxter et al 1996). However, there are basic differences between action research and the rest
kind of researches.A number of parameters is used to compare this differences. The table below
has a detailed note as follows.

Areas Formal/Applied Research Action Research

Training needed by the Extensive On own or with consultation

researcher

Goals of research Knowledge that is Knowledge to apply to the local

generalizable situation

Methods of identifying the Review of pervious research Problems currently faced

problem to be studied

Procedure for literature Extensive More brief

review

Sampling Approach Random or representative Students or clients with whom

sampling they work

Research design Precise control, long time Looser procedures, change

frame during study: quick time frame:
control through triangulation

Data Analysis Statistical test; quantitative Focus on practical, not statistical

techniques significance; present raw
material
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Application of results Emphasis on theoretical Emphasis on practical

significance significance

2.1. The Rationale for undertaking Action Research

What is the rationale for undertaking action research?

The idea that teachers should be 'reflective practitioners' or should engage in 'reflective practice'
has gained popularity due, in large part.As practitioners, they should:

(1) engage in the study of their own practice; and

(2) develop their own educational theories deriving from that practice. Action research provides
an appropriate medium to enable these two aims to be achieved.

Action research undertaken for an academic award is essentially and inevitably a form of
apprenticeship and success depends on one's ability to do several things with a certain degree of
skill. Indeed, the ability and willingness to ask pertinent questions, to test assumptions, to ask for
reasons and evidence to support arguments, and to engage in systematic thinking about
relationships between theory and practice, are essential attributes of the researcher (and this
irrespective of whether the activities engaged in are conceived of as being theory- or data-
driven).

A focus on relationships between theory and practice leads us on to consider the notion of 'the
teacher as researcher'. While the idea that teachers should be regarded as researchers, or as
practitioner-researchers These teachers developed hypotheses about their teaching which could
be shared with other teachers and used to enhance their own teaching'. More recent initiatives in
advancing the cause of teacher research include the proposal that teaching should move
increasingly towards being a research-based profession. This would involve practitioners
 P a g e | 79

undertaking research activity as an important aspect of their role, with a view to gathering data
about a range of issues including strategies for effective learning and teaching.

Teachers should be at the forefront of educational research and that classrooms provide an ideal
context within which to test educational theories. Unless teachers are fully involved in research
being undertaken, they will not wish to be consumers of the findings that emerge from it.
Furthermore, teachers have lacked opportunities (other than those offered within higher degree
courses) to take on a more substantial role in the research process.

The relationship between research and teachers' professional development is a close one. At the
present time, a welcome and much-needed debate is taking place about the nature of continuing
professional development (CPD) for teachers and how this might be improved. Action research
as conceptually explained earlier is the most effective way and tool for teachers’ professional
development. These days’ high schools, colleges and higher education institutions in our country
have designed CPD in their policy and practically introduced into their teacher daily roles and
responsibilities. Similarly, many other scholars argue that all teachers should be entitled to high
quality and well-planned CPD provision throughout their career. However, such an entitlement
carries with it certain responsibilities: to develop oneself professionally and to ensure that
professional knowledge and skills are constantly updated. CPD activities take many forms.
These range from attending courses to school based learning and undertaking action research.

Activity:

1. Beside to the above mentioned reasons of doing action research, add some more reasons
why teachers should conduct action research in their institutions?
2. Do you believe that action research is a scientific way of one’s professional
development? How?
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Section Three: Steps in Action Research

What are the steps in action research?

The basic process of conducting action research consists of 4 to 9 steps or components. For your
action research project, you can follow all the 9 steps (presented here under) or arrange them in
to 4 components, namely: 1) Planning, 2) Acting, 3) Developing, and 4) Reflecting.

Step 1. Identify an issue/a problem/an area of focus, and limit it

Step 2. Learn more about your issue (formal and informal information gathering)

Step 3. Review Related Literature (in formal aspect otherwise it is optional)

Step 4. Plan and develop a strategy for your study

Step 5. Gather data

Step 6. Analyze and interpret the data

Step 7. Develop a plan of action

Step 8. Take appropriate action and share/communicate your results

Step 9. Reflect on the overall process and the results

Basically, action research begins with the finding of a starting point (mostly implicit) for
development within one’s practice and having the will to invest energy in pursuing it. Then,
through conversations, interviews and other formal methods of collecting evidence, and through
examination of the information gained, the situation is clarified, put into practice, and the
research process may enter a new stage of clarification of the situation, which will lead to the
development and putting into practice of further action strategies.

Step 1: Identifying an issue and limiting it for investigation

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Your research topic should reflect an issue of importance to you as a teacher. It should lend itself
for investigation of issues of concern by formulating questions. As there is no reason to invest
resources (time, effort, material, money) on issues that have little or no importance, you should
make sure that your topic and the emergent questions are interesting and important to you, to
your students, to your faculty, to your fellow teachers, to the profession and to the society at
large.

As part of step 1, your research questions should come from and directly related to the issue or
problem that you have chosen to explore. If you develop more than one question, each needs to
be related to the others, and together they need to be related to the overall issue or problem at
hand. Also make sure that your questions are answerable. This may mean different things to
different contexts and different people: may be scope or size, feasibility, importance, etc. To
develop answerable questions, you may brainstorm about the overall of the problem or issue with
your students, with other teachers in your department, and others as appropriate.

Step 2. Learning more about your issue/topic

After a topic (an issue) for research is identified, there is a need to problematic and develop it in
the form of researchable questions. Your research questions as well as the topic itself can be
reworked as you learn more about the topic and think about what intervention you hope to use in
your classroom and what kind of data you'll need to gather.

This is a step of gathering information through talking with other teachers, administrators,
students, etc. Alternatively, you may need to read more sources. As you search for specific
sources that increase your knowledge of the topic, you'll find more and more others that will
help.

Step 3. Reviewing Related Literature

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Related literature refers to any existing source of information that can shed light on your topic
selected for investigation. These sources of information may include books, research journals,
web sites, manuals, modules, school documents, policies and guidelines, and the like.

Review of related literature helps you to:

 make informed decision about the research focus and plan;

 provide guidance for defining or limiting the problem;
 develop an appropriate design for your action research project
 select legitimate instruments or techniques for collecting your data;
 Connect your research to others’ insights, discoveries, recommendations, etc;
 Indentify topics;
 Establish a connection between your action research project and what others have said,
done, and discovered before you.

However, some scholars considered this step as optional.

Step 4. Develop a Research Plan and a Strategy for Your Study

Developing a research plan is a way of charting the actual research undertaking. It is a means of
deciding how you want to approach your study and consequently a decisive stage for success.
Research planning includes conversion of your topic to research questions and the selection of
an appropriate design for collecting and analyzing your data. In traditional educational research,
the development of a research design and plan for collecting data is known as the research
methodology. In designing action research study, there are several specific decisions to be made
during this step. In most cases, once the topic is identified and focused, it is then appropriate to
state one or more research questions and possibly to develop from those questions specific ones.
A research question is a fundamental question inherent in the research problem. It is the question
the action research seeks to answer through conducting study. It provides the guiding structure to
the study itself. Every part of the action research study should be done so as to facilitate answers
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to the research questions. The following activity deals with some guidelines for good research
questions.

There are three major characteristics that make a good research issues and questions.

1) The issue you have chosen to explore must be important--to you, to your fellow
teachers, to your students, to your school. In most cases, the issue will either be a
problem that needs to be solved or something that needs to be improved. After all,
research involves some extra time and effort. It makes no sense to devote time and exert
effort to work on something that is not important.
2) The questions are directly related to the issue or problem that you have chosen to
explore. If you develop more than one question, each needs to be related to the others,
and together they need to be related to the overall issue of concern to you, your students,
and your faculty.
3) The questions are answerable. To some extent, this criterion relates to the largeness
issue. But it also has to do with the type of information that is available to you. For
example, it would be very hard to study either graduates or dropouts from your school as
they might have gone far away.
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Activity

Using the Topic that you have identified, and limited in unit one, develop a plan for your research project. In doing
so, ask the following questions:

1) What do I want to do?

2) How will I collect and analyze the data?

3) What baseline and post-intervention data will I collect?

4) How often will I collect data?

5) How will I know that the process went well?

6) Have I communicated with key figures about this project to solicit support?

7) Do I have all the necessary permissions?

8) How will I remember to do the intervention?

9) Are there visual cues I can post?

10) How can I monitor consistency?

11) Have I developed all of the instruments necessary to gather the data?

12) Do I have readiness to handle the data safely and ethically?

Step 5. Collecting data

Activity

1. What is data?

2. What must be considered as projects are planned and data are collected?

3. What strategy may you use to collect data when your students do not regularly complete their
homework?
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Once you've identified your strategy, you will need to think about what overt, observable behaviors
you can measure to determine if your intervention has an impact. For this purpose, information is
important. Any information that can help you answer your research questions is data. Good data are
directly related to the questions; that is, they provide direct answers. It is advantages that you use
more than one strategy or source of information for each question because this helps to ensure that
the results will be valid. Data can come from almost anywhere, such as:

a) Tallies (e.g., lists of books read);

b) Demographic information;

c) Surveys, and test results;

d) Observations, interviews, and documents;

e) Recording one’s observations;

f) Tape recording and transcribing them word-for-word;

g) Documents;

h) Portfolios or students’ writing; attendance information, test and, or any-thing else

that already exists and might help to answer your questions.

Some examples of primary data collection methods

This is a small selection of primary data collection methods. The key to action research is to select data
collection methods that that are appropriate for small scale qualitative research.

Questionnaires:

 Have we explained clearly the purpose of the research?

 Is it clear that the information given is confidential and anonymous?
 Have we considered the design of questions (open or closed)?
 Have we conducted a pilot of the questionnaire to be sure of the language, reliability and validity?
 How many questionnaires should we issue and to whom?
 Is the sample size representative?
 What is our acceptable return rate?
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Interviews:

 Have we prepared our questions?

 Will this be a structured or semi-structured interview?
 Who will conduct the interviews?
 Who will be interviewed and is this representative sample?
 How long will the interviews last?
 Where will the interview take place and are the arrangements suitable?
 What do we expect to find out?
 Have we thought about the design of open and closed questions?
 Have we explained the purpose of the interview, thanked the participants and at the end explained
what happens next?
 Have we asked their permission?

Observations:

 Are we observing students or teachers or both?

 Have we explained the purpose of the research and asked permission to observe?
 How many persons will be observed and is this a representative sample?
 Have we agreed a suitable observation checklist to be used?
 Are we giving feedback to the student/teacher after the observation?
 Have we explained what will happen after the observation?

Field notes:

 Have we systematically kept notes of the group?

 Do the notes document significant aspects of the action?

Audio recording:

 Have we decided the points to be covered?

 Have we organised transcription of the tapes?
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 Have we explained the reason for the recordings?

Digital recording:

 Have we booked the equipment?

 Do we know how to use the digital camera?
 Have we considered how to limit the effects of being filmed?
 Have we considered involving the students in the?
 Have we asked permission to film?

Clearly state how you will ensure that the evidence gathered is comprehensive and valid.

Using the table below, outline advantages and disadvantages of the following data collection methods:

Activity:
Method Advantages Disadvantages

Interview

Observation

Digital recording

Field notes

Questionnaire

Research Ethics:

Research ethics must be considered as projects are planned and data are collected. If you seek
information from or about your students, you need to first seek their permission to use the
information. This usually involves simply explaining that you are doing a research project,
describing the information you want to use, underscoring that their participation is voluntary, and
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promising confidentiality--that you will not use the person's actual name or any other identifying
information in reports of the project. Before you begin your intervention, you will need to gather
baseline data. Knowing how your students responded or performed before the beginning of your
study gives you a starting point for comparing study results. You need to know your student’s
homework completion rate before you enact your strategy so you will know if there has been a
change as a result of the intervention. The baseline and post-intervention data must be gathered
in the same fashion for your study to be valid and reliable.

Step 6. Analyze the data

Data analysis involves examination of the data in order to answer your questions. In traditional
quantitative research study, data analysis occurs following the completion of all data collection.
In traditional qualitative research study, it typically begins during data collection, continuous
throughout the remainder of the process of collecting data, and is completed following data
collection. Action research combines the two. Inasmuch as action research is more of qualitative;
it employs inductive process, involving the reduction of information that has been collected by
organizing it into important themes or categories or types and patterns. One way to find these is
to sort data into piles such that each pile shares some broader characteristic. You can then write a
summary that captures the essence of each broader characteristic. Together, these summaries
should answer your questions.

To prepare your data analysis, therefore, you may want to make sure all your data are on paper,
and you will probably want to read everything over at least once. If you have asked more than
one question, you will want to sort the data according to the questions. And you may want to
discard (or at least set aside) data that do not directly relate to the questions you have posed.
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In short, whereas qualitative data are analyzed in: a) inductive process, b) creating themes, and c)
using codes; quantitative data are analyzed in deductive process and using descriptive or
inferential statistics. In both cases, it is possible to achieve validity and reliability.

Step 7. Developing an Action Plan

Once the data have been analyzed and the results interpreted, the next step in the action research
process is the development of action plan, which is the ultimate goal of any action research
study. It is the action part of action research. The action part is a proposed strategy for
implementing the results of your action research project. As the action plan is implemented, its
effectiveness must be continually monitored, evaluated, and revised, thus affirming about the
cyclical nature of action research. The stage of developing an action plan consists of:

1) Captivating the results of your data analysis, your interpretations of those results and the final
conclusions drawn from the interpretations; formulating a plan of action for the future;

3) charting strategies for the future implementation of the treatments, interventions, revisions and
improvements to your instructional methods, and designs and proposal for the future action research
cycle;

4) informal-brief statements or simple descriptions about the:

a) implementation of a new educational practices.

b) a plan to reflect an alternative approaches to addressing the roblem;

c) a plan to share what you have learned with others interested in the topic such as other
teachers, administrators, PTA, or woreda education officers; or

d) any other next step you may take.

5) More formally written report:

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a. for presentations, and

b. as a complete report of your action research project [this is your duty in the course].

Reflection and organization are integral parts of this stage. You need to reflect and organize your
research. Here you have:

1) some sort of strategy for trying out, carrying out, or otherwise putting in to practice the changes
resulting from the findings of your action research project;

2) to ask and answer the following questions:

a) what was learnt from the study?

b) What should I do now?[based on what you have learnt from your study]

c) What can I recommend for actions, related to specific research questions?

d) Who is responsible for these actions?

e) Who needs to be consulted, informed, or approached for permission for the implementation
of future actions?

f) Who will monitor or collect future data?

g) What about a timeline for implementing the actions?

h) What about specification of any needed resources?

Developing an action plan demands to prepare action chart that delineates, in concise form
research questions, actions, actors, supporters, time, and resources. The components in the
following activities are important to guide you in your effort to develop an action plan for your
action research project.
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Activity: Use this form for developing an action plan for your project

Summary of Recommended Who is Who Who will Timeline Resource

Research actions Responsible? needs to Do What?

questions and
Teacher? be
Findings
Students? consulted,

Director? etc

others?

Step 8. Taking Action and Sharing/Communicating your Results

Take action as per your results findings. Next share/communicate your results and actions
through different means. The research findings can be accessible to others, for example, through
HDP final presentations, by the production of formally written reports, by putting brief accounts
of your research results in newsletters, leaflets, brochures, or by publishing in journals or in the
form of monograph or putting on Web site (if possible).

Among others, your results and actions could be accessible to others through:

1) Formally written report;

2) Presentations at department meeting, college discussions, woreda-wide deliberations and,

conferences at what so ever;
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3) Submitting for publications in academic journals (if possible); and

4) Electronic disseminations;

Sharing the results of your action research:

1) Reduce the gap between research/theory and practical application in educational settings;

2) Provides opportunity for you:

a) To gain additional insight in to your study and ultimately;

b) To reflect not only on the topic of your investigation but also on the action research process;

c) As a very rewarding professional experience;

d) To locally present highlighting (briefly and focusing)

 background information,
 purpose of the study,
 methodology,
 results,
 conclusions,
 action plan, and [action taken, if any]
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Activity

1) Were my questions answered?

2) Have I got the results I expected from the study?

3) Who do I want to share my findings with?

4) Can my results inform others in my school?

5) If the results are not what I expected, was it due to errors in data collection or other unforeseen situations?

6) What would I do differently next time?

7) What will my next study topic be?

8) Do the data support my questions?

9) Is the change "significant"—at least from my point of view?

10) How will I state my findings?

11) How will I represent my data—in a chart? Graphic?

12) What are my next steps?

Remember, action research can be an ongoing process. The answers you get from this project
will generate more questions. It, therefore, leads to more research. It can also suggest
refinements in programs or practices. In any event, the last stage of an action research process is
to share your findings with others. Lots of this sharing will be informal--planned or spontaneous
conversations or discussions. While writing the report of your project considers the three critical
purposes.

1) As you write, additional insights often occur to you. So in a way, the act of writing can
lead to further analysis or interpretation of your data and the issue.

2) Writing leaves a permanent record of the research that can be used by others in your
faculty or throughout the college where your department is found.

3) Writing enables contribution to the body of knowledge that exists beyond the researcher.

The final report serves the purpose of sharing the knowledge gained through action research with
others in a community of practice. Action researchers will need to decide what to write and to
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whom to write. You can also make presentations about your research at department meetings,
before college community, or at professional meetings. Whether you share through writing or
speaking, this final stage in the research process is important because others can benefit and learn
from your project.

An important part of the sharing artifact of the inquiry is using portfolio, which is important for
reflection. A good action research portfolio, like a report, documents practices at each step of the
inquiry. The accumulation of content provides critical mass for reflection and for recognizing
change of practice. There is no perfect template for an action research portfolio. One key idea,
however, is to be sure to document each cycle and gather pieces accordingly. That
documentation process should utilize both descriptive and reflective writing and become
appendix for your final report of your action research project.

Step 9. Reflecting on the overall Process and the Results

In action research project, reflection occurs before, during and after the research process. The
more formal reflection, nonetheless, comes at the final stage to reiterate the processes passed and
the results obtained. This stage is a learning process you experienced as a result of completing
your action research project. After the project has been completed, please take a few moments to
consider the process. Note that the action research process is empowering, allowing you to not
only identify and explore an issue close to your practice, but also to change the way you teach. It
is therefore, important to reflect upon your experience and the usefulness of the process for
improving teaching and learning·
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Activity

Consider the following questions as you develop a brief reflection to share with your HDP mentor or instructor.

1) What was the most interesting component in the project process?

2) What was the most challenging aspect of the project?

3) Will you do it again?

4) If so, why? If not, why not?

5) Did this experience affect your feeling of professionalism?

6) What did I learn about myself in the process of completing this project?

Overall, reflection within the processes is looking back on your action after collecting data, and
deals with:

 what thoughts come to mind?

 if you were to repeat the process, what would you change?
 what worked best for you?
 what most surprised you?

Final reflection is where you will take stock of your overall learning process during your action
research project. It might be helpful to think of a reflection as a set of connections between the
past, present and future. If this section is only a summary of events that happened, it is
inadequate as a reflection. A reflection provides a deep understanding of why events occurred as
they did, and how those outcomes helped you address your overarching question. At the
conclusion of a good reflection, you should ideally know more than you did when you began. If
you have not gained new insights about the problem and your problem-solving action, it is likely
that you are only summarizing. Reflection is a powerful learning experience and an essential part
of action research.
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Section Four: A simple approach to develop action research

proposal

Providing brief answer to each of the following “WH” questions will enable you to address the
basic action research proposal development steps as detail described in the above section of this
module.

1. What is my concern/issue?

Identification of the focus of your potential researchable issues or subjects within your
professional practice; Possible area for Action Research will be,

• Aspects of instructional planning Eg. Lesson plan skill

• Contents to teach:-Eg. reading skill, electrical design skill
• Instructional/teaching methods:-Eg. contribution of group member; participation in
classroom
• Learning assessments:-Eg. Performance
• Classroom management or environment:-
Eg. Misbehavior, lateness, missing classes

• Instructional materials:- reference books, teaching aids

• Gender issues/social inclusion .Eg. Participation ,performance; repetition, dismissal

Use the following criteria to evaluate your research topic:

a. Is it interesting?

b. Is it original?

c. Is it significant and important?

d. Is it feasible?
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e. Is it important?

f. Is it doable?

g. Is it ethical?

h. SMART

Example: How can we/I reduce the absenteeism of grade 9 ‘A’ students in Physics
classroom in Addisalem secondary school?

Activity: Choose your title and write it in question form or statement form but be specific

1. Introduction:
 Give a context to the research. Where are you going to conduct the research? Give brief
explanation about the context
 Introduce yourselves and
 Introduce your topic.

Activity: Write your introduction part

2. Why am I concerned?

 Why are so interested in the issue you selected than any issue.

 What is the objective of the research?

Example:
a. Reason:-As I/we have observed that some students did not continusly cut the
phsics class
b. The objective :- is to reduce the absenteeism of students in Physics class

Activity: State the one reason why you are interested in the problem. And
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State the objective of the research

3. How will I produce evidence of my influence?

The methods and instruments of data gathering should be stated from the possible options
given in literature but also as appropriate as to your issue and objective of the project.
Based on the example topic stated above, here are some questions that guide you how
you should select sources to get adequate evidence.
• How can you show things as they are before you take action?
• Who will be your research PARTICIPANT?
• How will you collect data?

Example:
a. Evidence:-observation and the attendance sheet for physics class
b. Participants:- absentees
c. Methods:-FGD/interview
Activity: How do you prove scientifically if the problem exists or not? Who are your
research participants? What method of data gathering will you use to know the causes of
the problem?

4. How will I analyze my data?

 What will you do after gathering data?
 What methods of data analysis will you use?

Examples: I analysis my data qualitatively

Activity: How will you analysis your findings?

5. What will I do based on what I found out?

 Suggest some possible actions that you can do to solve the problem
Example: Giving consistent reminder for the students about the importance of
attendance for physics class.
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Activity: suggest one or two solutions for your research problem

6. What kind of evidence can you produce to show that what you are doing is having
an impact?
 Gather data regularly and keep records of how you are monitoring and
evaluating each cycle
 Triangulate the data
Example: Checking frequently the attendance sheet for reasonable absenteeism and
unreasonable ones and research diary for recording my day to day observation for the
progress.

Activity: State how you will monitor and check the action progress

7. How will you evaluate that impact

 What data will you use to say how your practice has changed overall?
Example: compare and contrast the attendance sheets before and after actions is taken

Activity: In what evidence that will you prove your action has brought changes?

8. How do I ensure that any judgments I make are reasonable, fair and accurate?

Here the main concern lies in the process of identification of the root causes and
indicating of possible solutions, any judgments you make to data or action should be fair,
reasonable, and accurate. In this case, for instance, you can ask colleagues or refer
pedagogical guidelines before deciding to implement solution of a certain causes.
Example: I consider working with critical friend

Activity: What will you do to make your judgment on your actions or decisions or data
you collect fair and accurate?
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9. How will I transfer what I have learnt about my research?

Example: I will write formal AR report and submitted to the Physics department
Activity: what communication strategies will you use to share your Action Research
results?
11. Write resources and reference

 Write activities you will do to complete the Action research project against the
time it would take
 Write any reference materials in case you have used
Activity: write resources and reference if there is any

Summary

Action research is referred to various definitions as a process, enquiry, and approach, flexible
spiral process and as cyclic. It has a practical, problem-solving emphasis. It is carried out by
individuals, professionals and educators. It involves research, systematic, critical reflection and
action. It aims to improve educational practice. Action is undertaken to understand, evaluate and
change. The main rationale of undertaking action research in education is to link theory to
practice.

There are basic distinction between action research and other types of research. Some of the
differences are: training needed to conduct action research takes a few days comparing to the
time needed for applied or other researches; problem identified for action research is a problem
that encounter during practicing the profession while in other research you have to read the
related literatures exhaustively to identify the gap of the problem identified; for action research,
reviewing related literatures are optional but for other types of research it is mandatory.

To undertake action research, there are suggested steps that you can follow: staring from
identifying the problem, learn more about your issue (formal and informal information
gathering), review related literature (it is optional), plan and develop a strategy for your study,
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gather data, analyze and interpret the data, develop a plan of action, take appropriate action and
communicate your results and reflect on the overall process and the results of the action
research project. Following these steps carefully, you will make a fine Action research project
that can be a good model for other teachers to practice it easily.

Exercise

1. What is Action research? Define it by your own words.

2. What are the basic difference of Action research and other type of research?

3. List four methods of data gatherings tools and their advantages and limitation using them?

4. Why do we communicate and reflect on the overall results of Action Research?

5. What should you consider as a research ethic when you collect data?

Assignment: 15%

Develop action research proposal in group of 5 to 6 using the above example.

Reference

Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative action research for English language teachers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
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Carr, W & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming critical: Knowing through action research. Geelong,
Vic: Deakin University.

Cornwell, S. (1999). An interview with Anne Burns and Graham Crookes. The Language
Teacher, 23 (12), 7-9.

Fien, J. & Hillcoat, J. (1996). The critical tradition in research in geographical and
environmental educational research. In M. Williams (Ed.), Understanding geographical and
environmental education. London: Cassell.

Kemmis, S (1993) Action Research in M. Hammersley (Ed) Educational Research (London: The
Open University)

Lather, P. (1992). Critical frames in educational research: Feminist and Post-Structural

Perspectives. Qualitative Issues in Educational Research, 31 (2), 87-9.

McNiff, J. (1992) Action Research: Principles and Practice, (London: Routledge)

Ministry of Education (2011) Higher Diploma Programme For Teacher Educators Handbook.
Addis Ababa: Ethiopia

Pollard, A. (2008) Reflective Teaching, 3rd edn. (London: Continuum International Publishing
Group)

Reid, M. & Barrington, H. (2001) Training Interventions, 6th edn. (Trowbridge: The Cromwell
Press)

Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research, 2nd edn, (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd)

Reason, P. (1998). Three approaches to participative inquiry. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln
(Eds.), Strategies of qualitative research. London: Sage.

Turnbull, J (2009) Coaching for Learning (London: Continuum International Publishing Group)
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