Importance of Reflective Thinking in ESL Students

This report discusses the importance of reflective thinking in ESL students and the patterns on the reflective thinking skills. Different models related to reflective thinking will be discussed and their use will be justified followed by the methods that ESL teachers can adopt in order to enhance reflective thinking in students. Lastly, the strategies for increasing development of problem based solutions for students will be suggested for the teachers and an appropriate conclusion will be developed.

PRINCIPLE AND
PRACTICE OF TESL
METHODOLOGY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Reflective thinking skill patterns and their justification..............................................................3
Contribution of ESL teachers in developing reflective thinking.................................................5
Use of reflective thinking to enhance the thinking abilities of students......................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Reflective thinking can be defined as the process where an individual analyses and
makes positive or negative judgements about the experiences that they have faced i.e. the things
that have already happened (Lindh and Thorgren, 2016). On the basis of the judgements thus
formed, conclusions to be applied in future are developed by the individuals. This report will
discuss the importance of reflective thinking in ELS students and the patterns on the reflective
thinking skills. Different models related to reflective thinking will be discussed and their use will
be justified followed by the methods that ELS teachers can adopt in order to enhance reflective
thinking in students. Lastly, the strategies for increasing development of problem based solutions
for students will be suggested for the teachers and an appropriate conclusion will be developed.
MAIN BODY
Reflective thinking skill patterns and their justification
Reflective writing is that type of writing where an individual re accounts a past-
experience or their own experience and is generally done in an unstructured manner i.e. there is
no particular structure that is to be followed (Choy, Yim and Tan, 2017). The reflective thinking
and writing, for me, can be done by following some particular patterns:
Remembering the past-experience: Under this I identify a significant experience in the past that
affected me deeply and the impact that, that particular experience had on me. For instance, I still
remember the time when I was leading the football team and the day we played the homecoming
game for my school was in particular a very enthralling experience. Although we lost the match,
yet the responsible manner in which we played and the support of my team that I was able to
garner were some key things that I remember. I think all of them relied on me and really trusted
that I will take decisions that will be beneficial for the entire team and the support of entire
brotherhood of my team made it a very empowering experience.
Analysing the event: Here I analyse different aspects that occurred during the entire event and I
try to incorporate the different perspectives that were associated with the event. Johns Model of
reflection is one such reflective model that can be used to analyse the entire experience (A basic
introduction to reflective writing, 2019). Through this model I can analyse the experience of the
poetry club that I began in my school. In the first stage of reflection, I can state that my main
motive was to enhance involvement of students in some literature clubs as well because we were
not getting adequate exposure to such literary or enhancing activities. Then at the second stage of

Johns model, I illustrate the influencing factors. For opening the poetry club, the major factors
that influenced me was that I was good at writing and framing sentences and I found put that
there were many like me who loved writing. I decided that the creative ideas of all of us needed
to be portrayed through a medium. In the third stage, I evaluate that whether the task could have
been done in a better way and when I think back, I conclude that my awareness campaign
regarding the club was not very effective and I could have made more members attached to my
club. If I had the adequate members for my club, it would have been more influential. The last
stage expects me to detail my learning and I can state that I learnt a lot regarding the manner in
which club is handled. I learnt how to manage different people and the vast amount of activities
that are to be integrated together in order to perform the job successfully. I can also conclude that
I learnt how to delegate different roles and duties and then evaluate the performance of club
members assigned with such duties and roles.
Thinking carefully: Under this, the contribution of a particular event in the progress of the
individual and its contribution in their development is evaluated. Here I can elucidate that there
have been many instances when I have been able to develop learning that have contributed me in
present and will contribute in the future. When I was a part of the study group in my class, I had
tough time integrating with other class members and I often found my ideas clashing with those
of others. By the assistance of this group I learnt how to coordinate with different people and I
also learnt how to present my view without contradicting or offending someone who has a
different opinion.
Therefore, I can adequately state that the tools related to reflection that have been
specified in the book by authors, Sukhato and et.al., (2016), such as the Johns model of
reflection, Gibbs Model, Schon Model etc., are effective tools in understanding, analysing and
recounting the entire experience which is the ultimate objective behind understanding the
concept of reflective learning. These models help in distinguishing the good experiences from
the bad ones, and they also help in identifying that what was the learning amongst all this. I have
had many such experiences and by the use of such categorization and models, I was able to
effectively charter those experiences and was able to pinpoint those learnings. When we lost the
homecoming match under my leadership., I learnt that how I had to still keep up the motivation
level of people who were working under me and who trusted me. I learnt from poetry club that
despite the criticism which I am bound to face in life, I have to stay true to my cause and

similarly, working in these teams and with other people have taught me some important virtues
of leadership.
The tools and models help in further developing the reflective skills where one can learn
to critically evaluate and justify that how an experience can be used as learning and the enhanced
reflective skills also help in improving the judgement and decision- making in academic,
professional and personal lives.
Contribution of ESL teachers in developing reflective thinking
ESL or TESL is basically formulated to improve the language and the communication
skills of the students that are originally weaker in such language proficiency. Teachers play a
very important role in enhancing the reflective skills of ESL students where they can
comprehend things better when they are able to think in more critical way (Reflective thinking,
2017.). Reflective thinking is a part of critical thinking and when a person uses reflective
thinking while indulging in critical thinking, it assists them in making judgements regarding the
experiences that are happening to them. There are certain strategies that can be adopted by
teachers in order to enhance the reflective thinking skills of ELS students:
Give time to reflect: The teachers should ensure that the students have adequate time to reflect
on whatever they are being taught. When they will be able to develop an understanding of their
own regarding the activities that they are indulging in, it will automatically expand their
reflective skills. Additionally, after the students have been given apt time to reflect, they must be
cross questioned by the teachers. When the students will give reasons regarding why they
perceive the situation to be like that the teacher will be able to develop an insight into the pattern
in which the student is thinking. This will help them in moulding the thinking in the correct
direction so that the students are able to develop their critical thinking skills in the correct
direction. Ultimately, this will help the students in learning correctly and reflect relevantly so
that correct understanding can be developed.
Emotionally Supportive environment: Whenever a student is engaged in the ESL learning
process, the teacher must provide them supportive and encouraging environments where they are
motivated to think as vastly and uniquely as possible. Since the cultural backgrounds of ESL
students is usually wider, this assists in increasing the exchange of ideas as well as evaluation of
the conclusions that are being drawn (Choy, Yim and Tan, 2017). Further, a teacher must
provide guidance at each stage of the students learning so that they are able to correct them

whenever the students starts developing incorrect perceptions. Under reflective learning, a
student must be encouraged to maintain a reflective journal at all times because when they will
record their experiences and the thoughts, the teacher can identify what they have learned and the
performance of students can be measured separately. The journal will help them in organizing
the thoughts in coherent manner and when these will be integrated with the learning sessions,
they will be able to learn and develop their thinking in a supportive and encouraging
environment.
Authentic tasks: In order to promote reflective thinking, the teachers should prepare realistic task
for their students that are not very well-structured or defined. For instance giving a vague outline
regarding a scenario and asking students to develop their own interpretations is the best way of
learning that how their thinking develops and the direction in which they mind goes on. This will
help students in exploring themselves and their ideas and when these will be compared to the
ideas of others the multitude of thinking will develop automatically (Bruno and Dell’Aversana,
2018). Finally, when teacher provides one ideal solution, they will be able to develop a
comparative approach of how they thought differently and the possibility that the ideal solution
could alter their thinking in a more exhaustive and correct manner is the biggest action of
developing the reflective thinking skills in a student. This will collectively help in ensuring that
the original thinking of the ELS students is not interfered with but it grows in a significant or
correct way.
Group learning: The students must often be put into groups during their learning sessions so that
they can learn how to present their thinking in a group and yet not contradict with the opinion of
others. Working in peer groups often helps in collective thinking and brainstorming and the
students can understand team work, cooperation and helping each other to enhance the
performance of a group as a whole (Lindh and Thorgren, 2016). Also, when they will learn to
present their views which are in opposition to a certain manner in which the other person is
thinking they will be able to identify strengths as well as weaknesses.
These points will help the teacher in fostering development of reflective thinking skills so
that the ESL students can widen their learning approach in the languages and this will also assist
them in developing their own thinking which is of critical importance in developing an
individual.

Use of reflective thinking to enhance the thinking abilities of students
The complaint of the Malaysian teachers that students enrolled in ESL are more prone to
spoon-feeding rather than brainstorming their own solutions is a redundant cry or reason that can
be termed as a fruit of their own ill formed learning practices (Brookfield, 2017). When the
learning environment will be the one where there is a sample solution for every question, the
students will fail to develop their own solutions and this is ultimately bound to curb their
thinking and reflective skills. In order to address this problem, the teachers can change the
approach of imparting education to the students under ESL:
Lack of thinking capabilities: Students i.e. they have not yet started to indulge in reflective
thinking, but they are encouraged to develop and enhance their thinking capacities. Flipped
Learning approach, the students can be encouraged to develop their own pace of learning before
going to a classroom. This type of learning approach helps in increasing the peer to peer
communication of the students and the student to teacher communication also enhances
(Promoting reflective thinking in teachers, 2018). This type of learning enhances the
involvement of students in the learning before the session of the of normal class begins. This
technique can also be termed to be of the one where the reflective thinking is promoted within
the students. The flipped learning approach is generally adopted when the teachers want to give
their students more time to complete a project i.e. some technology related projects or usually in
digital learning. The teachers can use this model when they want the students to engage in new
learning which is particularly the case in ELS learning, and they are further motivated to engage
in developing their own reflective skills. Through the use of this technique, the teachers can
monitor the progress of their children before the class sessions actually begin. When the students
become more engaged in the learning process, they are able to attain the reflective thinking of
the students.
Increased stress and failure to generate own solutions: The core problem that students are
facing is them not generating their own solutions. KaAMS is the most appropriate model that the
teachers can use to facilitate the problem resolution process of the students whenever they are
left perplexed. The KaAMS is a reflective thinking model and in order to make students more
aware about their learning progress or in order to make them adept in dealing with the perplexed
problems if they face any (Aryani, Rais and Wirawan, 2017). This problem based learning model
will help the students in collecting, building and applying the knowledge that is relevant in

addressing the complex problems that are at hand. Under this technique, the teachers provide the
students those type of questions that will help them in developing multiple solutions on the basis
of different possible aspects of the single situation. The teachers also encourage students to
record all the ideas that they generate while developing a solution for the problems that they have
been assigned. Then amongst the different ideas that they have generated and the solutions that
they have hence developed, they are encouraged to choose the most plausible approach or the
most viable solution that they think will help in addressing the problem as exhaustingly as
possible. This tactic will reduce the tradition of copying the one sample solution and force the
students to develop their own solutions thus enhancing reflective thinking along with increasing
the learning skills.
The teachers of the Malaysian ELS students can use the strategies illustrated above
because (Choy, Lee and Sedhu, 2019). When they will not have one best solution, they will try to
develop their own solutions and this is the best way of making them take efforts for producing
their own solutions thus enhancing their reflective thinking skills as well. These techniques will
also help the teachers in keeping a record for the future regarding the performance of the students
and when they themselves will increase their efforts, the efforts o f the students will also rise
simultaneously.
CONCLUSION
The research above helps in concluding that the teachers can adopt a variety of strategies
that can be adopted in order to enhance the reflective thinking skills in the ELS students. The
report identified the use of group discussion techniques and the emotional support that teachers
can give to make them more comfortable with the reflective thinking. Further use of flipped
learning or KaAMS models and other similar reflective learning models was also suggested to
the problem that Malaysian teachers were facing regarding the spoon-feeding tendency of the
students.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Aryani, F., Rais, M. and Wirawan, H., 2017. Reflective learning model in improving student
critical thinking skills. Global Journal of Engineering Education. 19(1). pp.19-23.
Brookfield, S.D., 2017. Becoming a critically reflective teacher. John Wiley & Sons.
Bruno, A. and Dell’Aversana, G., 2018. Reflective practicum in higher education: the influence
of the learning environment on the quality of learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education. 43(3). pp.345-358.
Choy, S.C., Lee, M.Y. and Sedhu, D.S., 2019. Reflective Thinking among Teachers:
Development and Preliminary Validation of Reflective Thinking for Teachers
Questionnaire. Alberta Journal of Educational Research. 65(1),. pp.37-50.
Choy, S.C., Yim, J.S.C. and Tan, P.L., 2017. Reflective thinking among preservice teachers: A
Malaysian perspective. Issues in Educational Research. 27(2). p.234.
Lindh, I. and Thorgren, S., 2016. Critical event recognition: An extended view of reflective
learning. Management Learning. 47(5). pp.525-542.
Sukhato, K. and et.al., 2016. To be or not to be a facilitator of reflective learning for medical
students? a case study of medical teachers’ perceptions of introducing a reflective writing
exercise to an undergraduate curriculum. BMC medical education. 16(1). p.102.
Online
[Online]. Available through: <>
A basic introduction to reflective writing. 2019 [Online]. Available through: <
http://www2.port.ac.uk/media/contacts-and-departments/student-support-services/ask/
downloads/Reflective-writing---a-basic-introduction.pdf>
Reflective thinking. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <
http://www.hawaii.edu/intlrel/pols382/Reflective%20Thinking%20-%20UH/
reflection.html >
Promoting reflective thinking in teachers. 2018 [Online]. Available through: <
https://books.google.com.my/books?
id=cCC3t_1q07oC&lpg=PP1&ots=WBt3kkb9Nq&dq=reflective%20thinking
%20model&lr&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=reflective%20thinking%20model&f=false >
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