Teacher Professional Knowledge and Development for Reflective and Inclusive Practices

Ismail Amzat, Nena Padilla-Valdez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781315397689
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book brings together the practice of reflective teaching and the knowledge of inclusive practices in the context of teacher education and continuing professional development. It is a call to leverage reflective teaching for inclusive practices. The first part of the book provides an overview of what constitutes reflective practice in the 21st century and how teachers can become reflective practitioners. It also discusses how teacher professional development can be enhanced for reflective teaching practice. The second part of the book deals with teachers' knowledge development in order to create inclusive teaching and learning environments. It highlights the need for a responsive teaching climate, intercultural competency, pedagogical change and professional literacy. A reflective inclusive teacher is likely to anticipate the multiple needs of diverse learners in pluralistic settings, thus ensuring student success. This book will enhance the efforts of teacher educators and teaching professionals in building a culture of reflective and inclusive teaching practice in the classroom.

Part 1
Reflective practice in the 21st century

1
Reflective practices in the 21st century

Movement from 3Rs to 4Cs in the teaching profession

Grace Chibiko Offorma and Carol Adaku Obiefuna

Introduction

Education is an instrument for national development and the success of all other sectors is dependent on the quality of the educational programs and the teachers who are the curricula implementers. “The degree and quality of participation in life of a society depend, to a large extent, on the degree and quality of education received by members of the society,” (Ocho, 2005, p.25). Quality education is determined by the quality of teachers. No nation can rise above the quality of her teachers (FRN, 2004). No teacher can offer what he or she does not have.

Today, education plays a lot of roles in globalization of the world and competitiveness in the market economy. The global emerging issues call for effective training and retraining of teachers who will implement educational programs. Therefore, attention should be focused on the quality as well as the quantity of teachers produced to implement the programs, as quality teachers may face the challenge of large class management. This may affect their effectiveness in the classroom. Teacher quality determines the quality of the products of the educational institutions. The present knowledge economy in which memorization is antiquated requires learners to understand complex concepts and work with them creatively to generate new ideas, theories, products, and knowledge. They should be able to evaluate what they read critically and communicate clearly, verbally and in writing, and grasp scientific, technological, and mathematical thinking. Learners should be able to integrate and use knowledge to solve problems and take responsibility of their continued lifelong learning. These call for changes in content, pedagogies, skills, and learning environment, thus making it imperative for teacher education to be re-engineered. Teacher education has to be transformed in a manner that the teachers will have the capacity to translate educational philosophies so as to achieve educational goals.

Philosophies are transformed into national goals and stepped down to objectives, which are only achievable in the classroom with the aid of effective teachers. Akintade and Eyengho (2007) believe that the teacher is a very critical human resource for effective implementation and attainment of educational policies and objectives at the practical level of the classroom. According to Kolawole, Alade and Kolawole (2007) and Okala and Ogum (2007), the teacher is in charge of translating national policies, goals and objectives, knowledge, skills, competencies, values, and attitudes needed for sustainable livelihood of the society into practical terms for the society to attain its dreams and aspirations. This implies that education plays a vital role in the development of the society, and the teacher is the key player in this regard.

Globally, teaching and learning in the classroom are becoming more problematic, complex, and sophisticated. Teachers experience some challenges associated with teaching and learning, especially with new emerging issues in knowledge, skills, technology, and dispositions of the learners. Complaints from stakeholders have often called for changes. The enactment of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act of 2015, for instance, is a policy in response to the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education and other international human rights treaties that prohibit any exclusion from educational opportunities on the bases of socially ascribed or perceived differences, such as sex, ethnicity, language, religion, nationality, social origin, economic condition, ability, and inequalities existing in schools. Such policies often make administrators face extreme pressure to provide professional development for teachers to enhance their skills and knowledge base, and improve the teaching and learning environment to facilitate the teachers’ responsibilities and invariably, to promote students’ achievement. The teacher is the translator of educational policies and implementer of educational programs. Research has not relented in coming up with best practices in teaching and learning. One of such practices is the movement from 3Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) to 4Cs (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity) in the 21st-century classroom. These skills should be inculcated in the 21st-century teachers to facilitate production of functional members of the society.

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) focuses on equitable and inclusive quality education and promotion of lifelong learning. The slogan is “leave no one behind.” Consequently, the new projections by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2013) show that massive teacher shortage and incompetence will continue to deny and deprive millions of children the right to education. Such denials will hinder the children from acquiring problem-solving skills leading to lifelong education. To realize the SDG4, UNESCO called for massive investment in recruiting, supporting, and empowering teachers. Today, the global citizens are expected to communicate effectively and become economically competitive. These can only be attained through a well-planned and implemented educational programs. The process must accommodate every learner in the society. This implies that everyone must be given equal opportunity and equitably treated for the Post-2015 Development Agenda to be realized. Thus the 21st-century skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity must be integrated in teacher education programs for them to transfer the skills to the learners in the classroom.

The teacher is responsible for the whole learning process involving critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Equity and quality in education according to the World Education Forum (UNESCO, 2015) is the cornerstone of a transformative education agendum. The transformation can only occur in a learning environment where learners can access, and actively participate in quality learning activities. Most often teachers are left in a dilemma on what practices are suitable for the learners. A critical reflective stance toward teaching helps to avoid traps of demoralization and self-laceration. It provides enough energy and sense of purpose that have real effect on those we teach, how we teach, and possible remedies to be adopted. This chapter examines the concepts of reflective practices and three distinct models of reflective practices: movement from 3Rs to 4Cs. These encourage equity and effective curriculum delivery in the classroom.

Concept of reflective practices

The term reflective practices has been viewed from different perceptions. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED online) defines it from the philosophical sense as “the mode, operation, or faculty by which the mind has knowledge of itself and its operations, or by which it deals with ideas received from sensations and perceptions.” Reflection in the context of learning has been described as the intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understanding and appreciation. It may take place in isolation of others or in association with others (Boud, Keogh and Walker, 1985). Johns (2000, p.34) equally describes reflection as “a window through which the practitioner views and focuses self within the context of her own lived experiences… and work towards resolving the contradictions within her practice between what is desirable and actual practice.”

The Dictionary of Nursing exemplified the definitions by using care analogy associated with the nursing profession and thus described reflection as the care considerations of personal actions which involve the ability to review, analyze, and evaluate situations during and after events. The analogy of ‘care’ can also be an attribute in the teaching profession where the ultimate aim of a teacher is to make an impact on the life of a learner. The care of the teacher is different from that of the nurse; while the nurse attends to patients singly, the teacher attends to a group of learners at the same time (Quinn, 1998). To ensure that all the learners were accommodated, there must be a self-appraisal or review of daily classroom activities. The self-appraisal of activities that have transpired can be described as reflection. In support of this assumption, Boud et al. (1985), contend that reflection is a process of learning through and from experience, new insight of self and practice. The reflective practices are also seen as lifelong processes whereby, unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective practice involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity. Teachers must use the reflective practice to promote active participation of the classroom. Active practice has been found to be an invaluable strategy in the classroom as it presents the learners with hands-on activities, which aid memory and enhance interest and motivation of the learners.

A reflective teacher as described by SchönSchön (1983) is one who considers past experiences and feelings in building new understanding. The teacher automatically knows what to do based on previous experiences. He therefore defines reflective practices as critical processes in refining one’s artistry and craft in a specific discipline. When a teacher examines the past and present actions, knowledge is generated to inform the future. Loughran (2002) describes reflective practices as crafted practices that carry very specific meanings and associated actions. Crafted practice is like a design where structures have been put in place, they are identifiable, sequenced, and systematically followed. They form the foundation on which skills are developed and acquired. Based on the foregoing, a reflective teacher is a teacher that observes classroom procedures; reflects on the teaching and learning problems, plans, and implements changes; and observes the effects. These skills should be inculcated in the 21st-century teachers to equip them for effective classroom delivery.

Types of teacher reflective practices

Three major types of reflective practices are presented here. They are reflection in action, reflection on action, and reflection for action. For Schön (1983), the first two terminologies distinguish reflection during an activity (reflection in action) and reflection after an activity (reflection on action). They can be regarded as the while and after (post) lesson activities of the teacher. Schön maintains that when someone reflects in action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context. Teachers may reflect on what they have done to discover how an action has contributed to the unexpected outcomes. A teacher can help a student who is not grasping a concept during the lesson by referring to the previous experiences and other sources, to offer a solution. Reflection on action is based on the limitations of reflection in action. A teacher can reflect on a particular issue after the lesson has taken place in order to make necessary changes that will improve future lessons.

Reflection for action is another form of reflective practice. Through the examination of the past and present actions, knowledge is generated to inform future actions. For example, where a problem is identified, the desired objectives are determined, strategies and activities are mapped out, knowledge is shared with fellow practitioners, and comparison is made between the previous steps and the present steps to identify the gaps for improvements.

Lots of questions have, however, been raised on the practicality of the reflection in action. How reflective is the active moment where the teacher is engaged with the children in his or her charge? Schön responds, “Both ordinary people and professional practitioners often think about what they are doing, sometimes even while doing it.” He suggests that reflections are concealed; they are inert while the actions from the reflections are overt. If the teacher was not reflecting, there may be no spontaneous insight that may lead...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Notes on contributors
• PART 1 Reflective practice in the 21st century
• PART 2 Teachers’ knowledge in inclusive practices
• Index