Inquiries into inquiry projects

The projects developed by the research teams foster inquiry and leadership for the improvement of student learning and reflective teaching. They expand conceptions of learning and teaching by linking to the community, crossing disciplinary boundaries, or involving teachers and students in new roles.unpublishe

Reflective Practices of English Teachers

Reflective teachers are effective teachers. With this notion, teachers have to practice reflective teaching inside their classes to emphasize that they are effective teachers. Since teachers' practices are not always expected to be reflective, this study discovered the junior high school English teachers' reflective teaching practices. It further investigated their reflective teaching practices through the help of their principals and students. This study is quantitative in nature. The findings revealed the English teachers' level of reflection, and their teaching practices. In-service English teachers need to undergo self-reflection to know more of themselves as teachers and to base modifications of classroom procedures. The school administration may conduct in-service training on reflective teaching practices since these in-service English teachers do not have any seminar-workshops on reflective teaching to develop themselves in their reflective teaching practices

Reflections in the Classroom: Learning to Market Education

Reflective practice has become a key trope within debates around teaching and learning in higher education. Yet, beneath this anodyne rhetoric, teachers and students are being disciplined in a manner that aligns so-called “standards” and professional development with the corporate strategies of educational institutions. Educational developers who seek to promote “standards” and “accountability” in the learning environment enforce the practice of “reflection” as a key educational experience and tool. Repetitive reflective exercises become the means and the monitoring of education. How should anthropology, a discipline that focuses on dynamics of diversity and structure, respond to this discourse, and the generic teaching methods that it promotes. And what are the links between these initiatives and the marketing of higher education as a quality-assured educational product? This article compares the author’s experience of teaching English to European teenagers in a small community centre to teaching anthropology to undergraduates in a large university. It uses the case of the HEA accredited teaching course that was meant to bridge these two, apparently distinct educational realms

The importance of epistemic cognition in student-centred learning

To infer the sophistication of epistemic thinking in a sample of undergraduate students, 25 participants completed a free-response task in which they were asked to give reasons for their agreement or disagreement with a small number of beliefs about the role of tutorials and of tutors in gaining knowledge. Responses were analysed according to King & Kitchener's (1994) stages of reasoning, revealing that the justifications offered were either at the stages of pre-reflective or quasi-reflective thinking with none exhibiting reflective thinking. The findings have two main pedagogical implications: first that good teaching be understood not as a set of performance skills which may only be opportunistically related to students' extant conceptualisations but as the locus through which students confront their own epistemic beliefs. A second implication is that to extend students' reasoning, teaching practices must focus explicitly on the difficult issue of what counts as evidenc

Professional Learning Portfolios for Argumentation in School Science

This paper reports on the use of portfolios in a continuing professional development programme to advance teachers’ skills in their pedagogy of argumentation. The programme adopted a cyclical process of expert input- teacher practice- sharing practice, in order for professional learning to include reflective analysis of growing accomplishment. Accomplishment was initially defined according to previous research and development on the teaching of argumentation, but was redefined during the programme as teachers shared practice and discussed their achievements. Portfolios were used to help teachers apply their learning, collate evidence of their accomplishment and share reflective analysis of practice with other colleagues on the programme. The paper includes extracts of two teachers’ portfolios; these provide evidence of each teacher’s developing accomplishment in the teaching of argumentation. Portfolios are idiosyncratic and are constructed according to an individual teacher’s motivations, interpretations and situations. Teachers need structure and guidance in creating purposeful portfolios that enhance reflective practice

Teaching Space Syntax Through Reflective Practice

12-15 June 200

The Situations That Can Bring Reflective Thinking Process In Mathematics Learning

This paper focuses on situations that can bring reflective thinking process in mathematics learning. Reflective thinking can be identified from the phases of the reflective cycle of teaching, the phases of reflection, and metacognitive activities designed for learning. In order to stimulate reflective thinking process is good to consider the prior knowledge and intuition student owned. Relevant prior knowledge and intuition is useful in solving problems to create the situations that can bring reflective thinking process namely, the selection of action or alternative solutions, and decision-making regarding actions or solutions created or obtained. Key Words: Reflective Cycle, Reflective Phase, Metacognitive Activity, Prior Knowledge, Intuition, Selecting Action, Decision Makin

A pedagogical tool for science teacher education: Content Representation (CoRe) design

The promotion of reflective practice amongst participants in teacher education programmes (e.g. Bain et al, 1999; Moon, 1999; Loughran & Corrigan, 1995; Shireen et al, 2003; Wallace & Louden, 2003) and the wider teaching community is widely championed for enhancing professional learning and growth