Reflective Practices: A Comprehensive Report on Teacher Development

This report delves into the concept of reflective practices as a crucial tool for teacher development. It begins by defining reflective practice and exploring various theories such as Gibbs' Reflective Cycle, Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle, and John's Reflection Model. The report analyzes the benefits of reflection in action and reflection on action, highlighting how these practices can improve teaching quality and foster continuous learning. A reflective essay discusses current performance requirements, tools for reflective teaching, the importance of feedback, and promoting equality and diversity in the classroom. Furthermore, the report includes a development plan outlining goals for improvement, action steps, the use of technology, and strategies for sharing knowledge with colleagues, ultimately emphasizing the importance of continuous self-assessment and adaptation in the teaching profession.

REFLECTIVE PRACTICES:
A MEANS TO TEACHER
DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents.
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Reflective Practice.......................................................................................................................3
Theories Of Reflective Practice...................................................................................................4
Benefits To Practice Of Reflection In Action And Reflection On Action..................................6
TASK-2............................................................................................................................................8
Reflective essay ..........................................................................................................................8
Current performance requirement to own teaching practices......................................................8
Different tools for use in reflective teaching ..............................................................................9
Importance of feedback .............................................................................................................10
Extent to which own practice is inclusive and promotes equality and diversity...................11
TASK-3..........................................................................................................................................11
Development Plan......................................................................................................................11
Goals to improve own practice using reflection .......................................................................11
Action plan.................................................................................................................................12
The effectiveness of newly acquired knowledge and skill on practice .....................................13
Use of technology in keeping the practice up to date................................................................13
Knowledge and Skills shared with the Colleagues ..................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Reflective practice is a practice which by assessing the tasks and actions already
performed decides areas of improvement for the future actions. The reflective practice helps in
paving the way for the future course of action. The following report is divided in three sections :
Case Study, Reflective Essay and development plan. The sections represent the information
regarding the reflective practice of teaching (Farrell, 2018.).
The case study will explain the meaning on Reflective Practice and various theories of
reflective practice to understand the conduct of reflection. It analysed the benefits or reflection
in action and on action for better results and improvement in the teaching practice.
Second, the reflective essay will present the requirements in the existing performance of
teaching and the tools which are used for reflective teaching. It will also present the ways to be
adopted to promote equality and diversity.
Lastly, it will present a development plan which will identify the goals for improvement
and an action plan. It will also assist the technologies and resources which should be used to
keep our practice updated and the ways to share the knowledge and skills with the colleagues.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Reflective Practice
Reflective practice is the method or process which asses an individual or group's actions to
undertake necessary steps and improve the process of continuous learning. It pays attention to
theories and values which help in determining the everyday actions and examining reflexively
and reflectively the practice of learning. In this practice, people learn by assessing their own
activities and learning procedure. This process can be used by teachers as its is an effective
methodology for them to enhance and develop their skills and teaching methods to make it easier
for the students to learn (Slade, and et.al., 2019). The teacher can use this to look back at the
actions and experiences of the past to improvise the future actions and ascertain better outcomes,
thus improving the overall performance of them.
The continuous assessment of the teaching practice helps in making improvement in the
acts and the actions performed. Thus, the reflective practice ascertains some steps of practice
which should be conducted such as gaining awareness, planning about the action to perform and
take necessary action, ascertain the impact and lastly, on the basis of the steps perform and adjust

the course of action as per the requirements. The reflective practice helps in achieving better
performance. The teaching is a form of art and practice, which needs improvement continuously
thus it is the teacher's obligation to analyse and evaluating the work done and try to attain better
performance in his specialized area of learning to ensure good impact on the learners (Zahid,
and Khanam, 2019).
With the help of reflective practice, a teacher can identify the various dimensions he can
possess. To improve the profession, there should be continuous evaluation of the new techniques
and skills to update the old skills, this helps in change in the technique of teaching. The change is
only possible after the continuous assessment of our own individual practice of teaching. As per
the study conducted, there are number of theories which can be adopted to improve the
reflective teaching practice but it is recommended to adopt the Cambridge International
Education teaching by the teachers to perform the reflective practice effectively (Ravanal
Moreno, 2021). The process includes the way of teaching, self assessment of the teaching
method, impact on the technique on the learners and consider the new techniques and methods to
improve the teaching technique and the same journey should be repeated to maintain the
continuous evaluation and performance of teacher.
It is summarized that the reflective practise of teaching is a conceptualized way of assessing
the way of teaching of a teacher to improve the existing teaching skills and maintain the
effectiveness. The process helps a person in understanding from own practices and experiences
and increase the performance level by adopting and updating new ways.
Theories Of Reflective Practice
The reflective practices are developed to ensure growth and development in the
professional practice. This helped in improving and learning the new ways and ideas by keeping
in view the past experiences. The improvement is necessary as the outcomes and the results of
the students are dependent on the efforts, skills, intelligence, hard work and knowledge of the
teacher. It also emphasizes on the process how the knowledge is transmitted to students and
learners to enhance their knowledge (Rucinski, 2020.). The need of developing the skills
enforced on developing new theories and models of reflective practice which can be used by
teachers in developing and ensuring high performance in the professional skills. Thus, there are

various theories with regard to the reflective practice which can be adopted by the teachers such
as Gibbs Reflective cycle, John's Reflective Model, and Brookfield Reflective model.
The Gibbs’ Model of Reflection
This is the famous and most used model for reflective practice. The researcher Graham
Gibbs with the help of debriefing structure presented the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. The cycle
represents six stages to carry out the reflective practice :
 Description : This stage of the cycle answers the question of what happened. It descries
the actions what the teacher performs while teaching the learners. The stage doesn't
involve any judgements it only specifies the actions and cause of action.
 Feelings : This stage emphasize on the feelings and reactions of the teacher from the
actions performed, how does he felt and what he thinks of the work performed.
 Evaluation : The third stage of the cycle, evaluate the experiences from the actions
performed. The teacher from the evaluation specifies the good and bad experiences from
the techniques and methods used for teaching (Adeani, Febriani, and Syafryadin, 2020).
The circumstances are evaluated at this stage to get more knowledge about the peril.
 Analysis : This stage focuses on exploring the situations and tasks. It suggests the other
ways to be undertaken to conduct the teaching practice. This stage ensures improvements
and expansion in actions and what are the changes that a teacher should consider
developing the practice more effectively.
 Conclusion : The conclusion stage of the cycle emphasize on achieving the learning
objectives of the reflective practice. It will suggest some new ways and techniques to be
adopted after evaluating and analysing the experiences.
 Action Plan : The last stage of the reflective cycle ascertain the steps that should be
taken if any specific improvement is assessed by the reflective learning practice. It will
define the ways that should be adopted to deal with the situations in different-different
ways.
Kolb – Experiential Learning Cycle
The learning cycle presented by the David Kolb has two levels : Four learning styles and
a four stage learning Cycle. The Kolb's theory emphasize on the cognitive process of the learner.
The theory represents the idea of change from the experience, experimentation, reflection and

conceptualization. To conduct the necessary changes or develops the methods of teaching, the
four stages of learning cycle should not be avoided. The four stages are :
 Concrete Experience : This stage emphasizes on the current experience of an individual.
If the teacher wants to improve its existing learning styles or develop new learning style,
this stage helps in reinterpretation and learning of new styles.
 Reflective Observation : The reflective observation focuses on observing the existing
practice and methods of teaching and find out the deviations. It will suggest some new
ways that can be adopted to achieve better results (Idris, Din, and Tajuddin, 2020.).
 Abstract Conceptualization : This stage of the theory conceptualizes about the new
ideas or modify the existing concept with the help of the teaching experience analysed
and evaluated.
 Active Experimentation : The active experimentation stage emphasizes on
implementing the new methods and concepts from the evaluation of the previous steps. It
is basically experimenting the new ideas for effective teaching practice.
John's Reflection Model :
The John's reflection model is introduced by the Christopher John. The model is used for
the structured reflection practice. It is used to analyse and structure the decision-making process
which is complex and difficult. The framework includes five questions which gives a clear view
of the reflection.
According to the model, the thinking process by the reflective practitioner should have
external and internal focus. Internal focus means to consider the feelings, thoughts,and emotions
of the individual while the external focus emphasize on considering the situation and the
incidents experienced. To conduct the activity of focusing on task, the cue questions of the
model should be considered which includes Aesthetic Questions, personal Questions, Empirical
Questions, ethical Questions and reflexive Questions.
Benefits To Practice Of Reflection In Action And Reflection On Action.
The practice of reflection is needed in order to improve the teaching practice. Being a
teacher, it is required for the reflective practitioner to develop and grow with the changing
standards of the society. It is the obligation of the teacher to review the changes timely and
update their skills and knowledges as per the requirements. Thus, reflective practice is the best
practice to be used to make improvements and changes in one's ability and adopt the ways to

sharpen the existing skills (Ferguson, 2018.). The reflection practice is bifurcated in two parts
that is reflection on practice and reflection in practice. Thus, the benefits are also divided in two
parts. The reflection in practice focuses on rectifying the mistakes of the teacher which he
adopted while improving and developing the skills while the actual course of action. It is a
dynamic practice and requires focus and attention to achieve higher results. The benefits of
reflection in practice are :
 The actions developed should be understood in a better way.
 The reflective in practice helps in development of the skills and focusing on the abilities.
 Examining the performance will help in identification and reduction of the minor
mistakes and will assess the strengths and weaknesses of individual.
 It improvises the teaching practice quality and boosts up the learning practice.
 In this practice, it is easier for the practitioner to innovate and enhance the creativity level
of himself.
 The proper attentiveness of the person become easier due to increase in the inclusive
practice of the performing activity.
The other practice that is reflection on action is conducted after the event of action has
occurred and the action is analysed. In reflection on practice, a plan is drafted known as
improvement plan to improvise results and performance in the teaching practice. This is the most
viable and flexible plan which should be used for the development of skills by the teacher
because it considers wide range of experiences (Cirkovic-Miladinovic, Dimitrijevic, and Ilic,
2021). It is termed as the retrospective contemplation practice as it used the experiences and
information to uncover knowledge for a situation. The benefits of the reflection on practice are :
 The on practise helps in evaluating the performance and activities by preparing the
development plan, the plan also helps in improvising the weaker areas.
 The learning process is supported with the help of reflection on practice as it helps the
teacher in analysing the skills and the mistakes that should be improved to attain the learning
outcomes.
 It helps in achieving the better understanding of the refractive process of the learning
practice.
 The profession is continuously developed by adopting the reflective practice.

 It is more helpful in generating judgements and be an independent learner along with the
teaching practice.
 It helps the teacher in adding more experience by observing and generating new practises
along with the existing practice of teaching .
 Monitoring of the teaching practice tasks help the teachers in achieving bigger size of the
lacunas.
TASK-2
Reflective essay
Current performance requirement to own teaching practices
Reflective practice of teaching can be referred to as a scenario in which the teacher is
constantly eager to learn new and innovative techniques of teaching, for which, they constantly
reflect upon their own actions performed within the classroom. As a teacher, reflecting upon my
own actions helps me in identifying the flaws that are existent within my pattern of teaching and
which needs to be improved by me in order to provide the students with enhanced learning
experience. With the help of using reflection-on-action practice of teaching, I have determined
the areas in which I have a scope for improvement. As a teacher, it is my duty to continuously
improve myself for the purpose of improving my practices of teaching and makes the learning
experience for the students easy and fun (Rekaa, Hanisch, and Ytterhus, 2019). For the same, I
need to certainly work on some of my skills. I have analysed that I need to work on my
communication skills. Though, I’m good at communicating, but it needs to be enhanced in order
to make the studies fun and joyous for the students to gain an understanding of the subject. For
the purpose of enhancing my communication skills, I will read different types of books, write
about certain areas on my own. These things will help me in widening my perspective and
increasing my knowledge and skills that can be used for the benefit of the students. I will
constantly ask for feedbacks from the students, colleagues, seniors and my family member about
what they feel when I explain something to them. Do they feel, there is a requirement for me to
work on something that can be of help for the students. The feedback received from students can
also help me to understand the issues that they are facing with my patterns of teaching. This in
turn will help me to formulate strategies which could help in further improvement and provide
the students with an improved learning outcome.

Different tools for use in reflective teaching
Tools and techniques of reflective teaching can be understood as an instrument that helps
the teachers in reflecting upon their actions and take steps which can help them in improving
their methods of teaching within the classrooms. Similarly, in order to improve my performance,
I will make use of these tools and provide the students with effective learning outcome. Firstly, I
will provide the students with index cards. Index cards are blank papers which will be provided
to the students within the classroom (Masuwai, ). The main objective behind giving these cards
to the students is to ask for feedback. In these index cards, they have the opportunity to write
their doubts related to the subject which they are unable to communicate with me while I am
teaching within the classroom. They can also write their issues with my pattern of teaching or
any other issue that they are facing within the classroom because of me. These index cards will
maintain the anonymity of the students and help me in formulating strategies which can be of
help for the betterment of the students. Secondly, I will conduct surprise test within the
classrooms. These tests will be conducted as soon as I finish teaching a particular topic to the
students. Conducting of surprise tests will help me in determining the understanding of the
students towards the particular topic and the subject as a whole. On the basis of the surprise tests,
I will be able to alter my strategies and identify the students who are facing issues with
understanding. It will also help me in listing out the students that requires special help and
attention for gaining a better understanding of the students. Another tool that can help me in
improving my practice of teaching and conducting the process reflection is sticky notes. Under
these sticky notes, they can provide me with feedbacks which they feel I am lacking (Krischler,
Powell, and Pit-Ten Cate, 2019). They can share their point of views and opinions on that piece
of paper with respect to my teaching skills. If they mention any good comments with regard to
my skills of teaching, it will encourage me to work on my skills to provide them with a better
experience of classroom teaching. And, on the other hand, if they have any negative comments
or feedbacks with relation to my pattern of teaching, this will work as tool of constructive
criticism for me and guide me in enhancing my skill set for the same.
I can also make use of close ended and open-ended questionnaires for the purpose of
conducting the process of reflection. Closed ended questions are questions which are presented
with a list of options, from which the respondent needs to make a choice in order to answer a
particular question. On the other hand, open-ended questions are only questions which are asked

by the interviewer and the respondent has the scope to answer the question in the way he wants
to address the situation (Paseka, and Schwab, 2020.). Similarly, I will provide the students with
a list of open-ended as well as closed ended question which are to be answered by them. The
closed ended questions will help in analysing the responses of the students when they a limited
choice and the open-ended questions will provide with an understanding of the responses when
the students are free to answer what they want. And, then I will compare and contrast the
responses received for the purpose of formulating strategies which can help me to improve my
teaching skills, and help me to enhance the process of classroom teaching.
Importance of feedback
Feedbacks received from different sources play an important role in formulating
reflective practices. I can make use of feedbacks in order to improve my skill set and conduct the
process of reflection. I can make use of feedbacks in order to understand the problems of each
and every student present in the classroom. With the help of the feedbacks, the students have the
opportunity to present their opinions with respect to my teaching skills in front me. On the basis
of the feedbacks provided by the students, I can determine the areas where I have the scope to
improve my teaching skills and standards. I can also determine those students that requires
special attention if they are facing any troubles in understanding the concepts (Haidari,
Katawazai, and Yusof, 2020). Feedbacks received from the students can help me in analysing
my actions within the classroom and take actions for the same. Feedback is a kind of democratic
approach. Since, I will ask for feedbacks within the classroom from each and every student, no
student will feel discriminated with my way of conducting the process of reflection. Similarly, If
I ask for feedbacks related to my way of teaching as well as ask them share their practice of
teaching with me, it will help me in comparing the strategies and implementing the practices that
are used by my colleagues and have been proven successful. Asking for feedback from the
students will develop a feeling of importance within the minds of students as their opinions,
issues, problems and doubts are being heard and acknowledged within the classroom. Feedbacks
also helps in maintaining a safe, healthy and happy environment within the classrooms as the
students have the option to convey their feedbacks with respect to anything that bothers them
within the classroom.

Extent to which own practice is inclusive and promotes equality and diversity.
Inclusive practices of teaching can be defined as a method of teaching that helps in
determining that each and every student within the classroom is not same. Therefore, it is
important for a teacher to identify the characteristics, nature, understanding of students
individually and formulate strategies that are specific to the needs of individuals. For the same
reasons, I try to make my practice of teaching as inclusive as possible. While teaching my
students, I ensure that each and every student is being treated equally and that there is no
discrimination within the classroom (Gurbanova, and Ismaylova, 2018.). I make them
understand about the importance of cultural diversity and the value of treating each and every
individual with equality. I try to make them learn about to how to give respect to the people that
are coming from different backgrounds and how it will benefit them in developing their
personality when they grow up. I try to promote diversity within the classroom as it helps the
students in developing flexible nature and learn to adapt easily within new environments. Also,
they get the opportunity to learn new things by the cultures of different people and also develop
new ways of learning within the classroom.
TASK-3
Development Plan
Goals to improve own practice using reflection
Teaching is one of the most rewarding and respectful profession as it has the hold to
make a difference in the lives of the students (Finkelstein, Sharma, and Furlonger, 2021). A
teacher has certain responsibilities towards the students they teach and provide them with
necessary guidance as and when they are required. Therefore, it is important for a teacher to have
a set of skills within them in order to provide the students with enhanced learning experience.
With the help of the process of reflection, I have determined that I am efficient in some skills and
there are certain areas in which there is a need for me to improve. Being a teacher, I feel that it is
essential for me to have efficient and fluent communication skills, decision-making skills,
creative thinking skills, leadership and motivation skills, collaborative working skills, time
management skills, and lastly, the ability to resolve conflicting situations within a group of
people. By conducting the process of reflection-on-action, I have come to an understanding that I
am good at developing team collaboration between the students, time management skills,
leadership skills, creative thinking and decision-making skills. My creative thinking skills helps

me in linking the subject with fun activities which makes it easier for the students to remember
the important concepts. With the use of my ability to form teams between the students, the
students learn new and innovate ways from each other and learns to cooperate each other in
regard to their doubts (Ewing, Monsen, and Kielblock, 2018). I also make use of my creative
thinking for the purpose of determining ways to resolve a conflict that arises between them while
working collaboratively. However, I have identified that I do lack the ability to communicate
effectively with my students and also find it difficult to motivate them. These skills are
considered as crucial for a teacher to develop within themselves for the purpose of explaining
them important concepts and motivate them to get good grades.
Action plan
What am I good at? What am I not so good at?
With the help of the process of reflection, I
have identified that I am good at decision-
making, ability to indulge the students in to
collaboration while studying learning new and
innovative techniques which can help them to
remember things (Elif, and MASAL, 2020). I
am also good at creative thinking as I link the
important concepts related to the subject with
fun games within the classroom, as it makes it
easier for the students to understand important
topics related to the subject. I creatively
manage my time as well as the time of the
students. I pre plan my schedule and plan in
advance which topic needs more time and
when it should be explained to the students.
Similarly, reflection has taught me that I am
not good at certain skills and skills include
effective communication and motivation skills.
Effective communication is the most important
that should be present each and every
individual that plans his career in the field of
teaching. Effective communication is required
while explaining the concepts to the students.
On the similar note, motivation skills are
required for the purpose of motivating the
students to get good grades.
What practices I want to continue? What areas I wish to improve in?
In my opinion, I want to continue practising
time management skills, collaborating skills,
motivation skills for the purpose of
The areas I think I need to improve includes
effective communication skills and developing
motivation skills for the purpose of attracting