The Impact of Reflective Practice on EFL Prospective Teachers’ Teaching Skill Improvement

Year 2018, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 18 - 38, 02.01.2018

Yenni Rozimela Yuli Tiarina

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study conducted to see the extent to which reflective teaching can
improve prospective EFL teachers’ English teaching skill and help them cope with adjusting to teaching
in the real context. This empirical action research employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses.
Twelve prospective-teachers undertaking teaching practicum at five different junior high schools in a city
of Padang, Indonesia and eleven cooperating teachers were involved. The prospective teachers were
required to do reflection on a regular basis using a guideline given prior to the commencement of this
study. The data were collected through a teaching performance test, observation, interviews, and
journals. The result of the analysis of the teaching performance test show that the practice of reflection
improved the prospective teachers’ skills over the three cycles of the teaching practicum indicated by the
average teaching scores they gained and the scores of each teaching component. Moreover, the results of
observation and prospective teachers’ journals indicate that reflective practices reduced their problems
and difficulties they faced of teaching in a real context. Another interesting finding from the interview
and journal analysis was that the improvement of a teaching component was influenced by their
attention to their conception of that particular component. In addition, their reluctance of using English
as classroom language was apparently due their students’ low English ability and the cooperating
teachers’ underestimation of its importance. 

Keywords

Reflective Practice, Teaching Skill, Reflection, Prospective Teachers

References

• Ahmad, I., M.Rauf, A.Zeb,. S.Rehman, &W.Khan. (2012). Teachers’ perceptions of classroom management, problems and its solutions: Case of government secondary schools in Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(24), 173-181.