REFLECTIVE TEACHING AND ITS IMPACT ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

1. a. Received knowledge: (vocabulary of the subject and the matching concepts, research findings, theories, and skills)

1.1. Reflective teaching in foreign language contexts

1.1.1. -language teachers in general need to know about linguistics, education, psychology, and any other field that may affect the teaching/learning process. -Being theoretically illustrated will bridge the gap towards appropriate and efficient ESL/EFL instruction.

2. Theory vs. practice

2.1. The key to effective teaching is definitely a balance between theory and practice. Collin (1996) has said that some practitioners are skeptical about the value of theory and question its relevance, mainly because they do not how to use it.

2.2. we need to demonstrate our research base by conducting our own classrooms research(reflective practWe have to show that we understand the hows and whys of our theory and practice. (p. 57)

2.3. If practitioners are willing to invest time, effort and resources in this type of training, reflective practice can indeed be an effective means for professional growth.

3. Reflective teaching as professional development

3.1. For Wallace (1991) a teacher education course should include two kinds of knowledge for it to be professionally structured:

3.1.1. b. Experiential knowledge: ( developed knowledge-in-action by practice of the profession).

3.2. Suggested procedures for reflective teaching in EFL contexts

3.2.1. Being a reflective practitioner/action researcher demands teaching, thinking back, describing, investigating reasons, discovering new understandings, deciding what to do next (Black, 2001).

3.3. Teachers must reflect, analyze, and adjust or change their practice whenever it is necessary; otherwise, thinking would actually become a waste of time.

4. The concept has been around for more than 50 years. Richardson (1990) has stated that John Dewey was already discussing it in 1909 by suggesting that “a moral individual would treat professional actions as experimental and reflect upon the actions and their consequences” (p. 3).

5. For educators reflection involves “critical thinking” about past experiences or current experiences that occur or are occurring in classroom settings.

6. Historical background

6.1. Reflective thinking:

6.2. Schön’s distinctions in critical reflection has been investigated by Ross (1990) and Spraks-Langer and Colton (1991) by identifying five components of reflective thinking: 1. Recognizing an educational dilemma 2. Responding to a dilemma by recognizing both the similarities to other situations and special qualities of the particular situation 3. Framing and reframing the dilemma 4. Experimenting with the dilemma to discover the consequences and implications of various solutions 5. Examining the intended and unintended consequences of an implemented solution and reevaluating the solution by determining whether the consequences are desirable or not. (cited in Pickett, 1996, p.1)