Teachers Developing Practice: Reflection as Key Activity

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 24, Issue 7, October 2008, Pages 1717-1728

The article is based on a research and development project conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose of the text is to show how a project involving a researcher and a teacher team encourages the teachers to reflect on teaching processes. Furthermore, the text also aims to show what the form and content of such reflection processes could be. Theories on reflection are presented as the framework in which illustrations from practice are analysed. Findings from the project show that when teachers question their own practice, they can transcend their teaching, meaning they can think of and see new things. In connecting theory and practice, the article concludes that teachers are shown in this way how to reflect before action, reflecting on prior experiences by using theory, and how they can reflect in action and on action, connecting theoretical concepts to their teaching practice. In this way theories can serve as a tool in reflection processes.