Continuous Teacher Development Through Reflective Teaching

BANGLADESH RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS JOURNALISSN: 1998-2003, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Page: 69-78, January - February, 2013CONTINUOUS TEACHER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH REFLECTIVETEACHING AND ACTION RESEARCHMd. Harun 1 * and Suravi Al- Amin 2Md. Harun and Suravi Al-Amin (2013). Continuous Teacher Development Through Reflective Teaching andAction Research. Bangladesh Res. Pub. J. 8(1): 69-78. Retrieve fromhttp://www.bdresearchpublications.com/admin/journal/upload/1308114/1308114.pdfAbstractTeaching is a tough and challenging job and teachers should develop themselvescontinuously to teach effectively. This paper explores different aspects of reflectiveteaching and action research as a means of continuous professional development(CPD). Though reflective teaching and action research are two important ways ofteacher education and teachers’ professional development, these two techniquesare not practiced, especially at the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and HigherSecondary Certificate (HSC) level teachers of English Language Teaching (ELT)context in Bangladesh in a wide range. These two techniques of teachereducation, if executed systematically, may exert significant influence in improvingteachers’ overall proficiency. Ways of how practitioners can reflect on their classeseffectively and carry on action research for further betterment of english languageclassroom practice in our context and benefits from these reflective teaching andaction research have also been shown. The results indicate that reflective teachingand action research may significantly contribute to the betterment of ESL/EFLclassroom practice. Moreover, suggestions for promoting the practice of reflectiveteaching and action research among our teachers have been given.Key words: Continuous Professional Development (CPD), Professional Development (PD),reflective teaching, action research, process of reflection.IntroductionIn Bangladesh english language teaching practice has got momentum over the years.Though the shift of importance is now on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) atSSC and HSC levels after the 1990s, we are not getting the desired outcome of it due tomany obstacles in our english language teaching sector. Our ESL/EFL teachers’ lacks offamiliarity with the latest second/foreign language teaching methods, techniques andstrategies are mainly responsible for this condition. Moreover, lack of pre-service and inserviceteacher training and teacher development programs is an acute problem forwhich our english language teaching practice lags behind, especially in the rural areas ofBangladesh. At this point, to get rid of the present situation both top-down i.e. initiativesfor teacher development from Education Ministry and bottom-up process i.e. teachersthemselves taking responsibility of their self development are necessary. Reflectiveteaching and action research influence positively in developing classroom instructionduring and after teacher training program. The paper mainly focuses on two issues: thebenefits of reflective teaching and action research and the possible problems to continuethese two things.At present many projects along with English in Action (EiA) a UK based organization arelaunched here to improve the english language teaching condition from primary tohigher secondary education in Bangladesh. This can be illustrated from the followingcitation:*Corresponding Author’s email:1Lecturer in English, Comilla University.2 BA in English and MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from Dhaka University

Harun and Al-Amin‘However, government and non-government organizations took a number ofinitiatives by means of in-service teacher training programs to support Englishteachers to cope up with CLT based teaching. UNICEF funded in English subjectbased training for primary English teachers through Primary EducationDevelopment Project-II (PEDP-II). At secondary level, major government initiativewas the Teaching Quality Improvement (TQI) project which was launched in 2006with a target to train 28000 English teachers. BRAC, the largest non-governmentorganization involved in both primary and secondary education, is also workingwith secondary english teacher training through PACE program. Another project‘English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP)’ funded by Departmentof International Development (DFID) was initiated to train secondary Englishteachers from 1997 and continued until the mid of 2008 before it got the fundrestricted (Hamid and Baldauf, 2008). ELTIP started again in collaboration with TQIto continue supporting in English teachers’ in-service training.’(Hasan, 2012)70Yet teachers are not attaining the desired proficiency and most of them are incompetentfor dealing with a communicative classroom. Although teacher development has been afamiliar notion in the English Language Teaching (ELT) profession for the last few decades,it is still relatively new and has received insufficient attention (Huimin, 2010). If this is thesituation of our English Language teaching, then there is hardly any alternative toteachers taking individual attempts i.e. doing action research, practicing reflectiveteaching etc. to develop their professionalism. By doing so, they can significantly improvetheir classroom practice.Literature ReviewContinuous Professional Development: The idea of Continuous Professional Development(CPD) or Professional Development (PD) means that professionals continue developingthemselves throughout their tenure of active profession as opposed to stoppingdeveloping once they start doing the job. To develop one professionally, both reflectiveteaching and action research can contribute significantly and these will help foster theidea of ‘Continuous Professional Development’ (CPD) (Roy Edwards, 2010).Roy (2010) defines continuous development as,‘a systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill,and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution ofprofessional and technical duties throughout the working life’ (Roy Edwards, 2010).According to this definition CPD is a life-long learning process.To quote Rubina Khan (2008),“Professional development includes a cluster of activities related to theenhancement of career growth and refinement of the skills of the practitioner.”(p.169)This is an all inclusive definition of professional development.Khan also clarifies that“Professional development may range from activities like attending pre-serviceand in-service training, participating in conferences, seminars, workshops, joiningteacher associations, reading books and articles etc.” (p.169)This paper does not include all scope and means of professional development, rather itdiscusses only reflective teaching and action research as a means of professionaldevelopment. Though reflective practice and action research have been introduced andbeing practiced in language teaching for ages in most of the ESL/EFL contexts, and itsbenefits have been immense for practitioners, it is not known to many a languageteacher; nor do many practice it here in Bangladesh. Here both of the terms ‘ActionResearch’ and ‘Reflective Approach’, as processes of teacher education and teacherdevelopment are discussed as one essentially follows the other.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/

Continuous Professional DevelopmentThough many of the teachers of our country reflect on their classes infrequently, they canhardly do it methodically and almost none take action research projects in our context.That is why the present paper aims at defining, exploring and suggesting some methods ofpracticing reflective teaching and undertaking action research projects by theBangladeshi english language teachers.Reflective Teaching: Before defining what reflective teaching is and how does it work, wehave to understand what the term ‘reflection’ signifies.Richards (1996) defines,‘Reflection or “critical reflection” refers to an activity or process in which anexperience is recalled, considered, and evaluated, usually in relation to a broaderpurpose.’(Richards, 1996)Simply, ‘reflection’ refers to the process of thinking back about our past action. Hopkinsand Antes (1990) observe that reflective practice has also been defined in terms of actionresearch. Action research, in turn, is defined as a tool of curriculum developmentconsisting of continuous feedback that targets specific problems in a particular schoolsetting (Hopkins & Antes, 1990). So, we can say that reflective teaching means thinkingabout and critically analyzing one's own teaching in order to improve teaching practice.The other synonymous terms of reflective teaching are self-evaluation, teachingexperience, teacher researchers, teacher effectiveness etc.Dewey (1933) talked about reflective teaching extensively in his writing. According to him,“[Reflective thinking is] active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief orsupposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and thefurther conclusions to which it tends.” Dewey (1933From the above definitions of reflective teaching we can summarize the features ofreflective teaching as:-understanding the teaching and learning situations well-thinking about one’s past action-analyzing the action critically-identifying the problems pertinent to teaching and learning situations- solving the problems in the best way that the present context supports-reaching a definitive goal for better classroom practice.Action Research: Action Research is a kind of research in which the practitioners engagethemselves in professional development in classroom- based-action research. The term‘action research’ has been defined in many ways. Some calls action research to be‘cooperative inquiry’, while others ‘collaborative inquiry’ (coined by John Heron in1971),research “with people” than “on people”, ‘participatory action research’ (Paulo Frerie,1970) etc. These terms clearly indicate the nature and scope of action research.Stenhouse (1975) views action research as “an approach to solve professional practicalproblems.” This definition is very apt and tenable.Corey (1949) defines action research as,“The process by which practitioners attempt to study their problems scientifically inorder to guide, correct and evaluate their decision and action is what a numberof people have called action research.” (Corey,1949)So, it can be agreed that action research is concerned with looking into professionalinquiry from inside and entirely involves the actors, the persons engaged in practice andprofession.Additionally, Corey (1949) opines“Action research is a process for studying problems by practitioners scientifically totake decision for improving their current practices.” Corey (1949)Hence, this type of research essentially entails the idea of reflective teaching in whichpractitioners teach in classroom; teachers may record a particular class or classes usingaudio or video records or take a written account. Then they reflect on both the positive &negative aspects of that class. Next, they take a proper action to improve the overallhttp://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/71

Harun and Al-Amincondition of classroom practice then onward. It is always better to carry on actionresearch in group; as one individual may not notice all important aspects of a particularclass. If such a kind of research and reflection are carried on in a group mode, then it ispossible for practitioners to ruminate on various aspects of the classes that one individualfails to do.Nunan(1992) defines action research as,“A form of self –reflective inquiry carried out by practitioners, aimed at solvingproblems, improving practice, or enhancing understanding. It is oftencollaborative.”(Nunan: 229)Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) talk about three defining characteristics of actionresearch. These are (a) it is carried out by practitioners (for our purpose, classroomteachers) rather than outside researchers; (b) it is collaborative; and (c) it is aimed atchanging things. They also define action research as a group activity. (cited in Nunan,1992)Cohen and Manion (1985) offer the following features of action research:“first and foremost it is situational; it identifies and solves problem in a specificcontext. The next feature of action research is that it is collaborative. Lastly, it aimsto improve the state of affairs within the educational context in which the researchis being carried out.” (qtd in Nunan,p.17)Briefly, we can say that action research aims at understanding the teaching and learningsituations; studying the problems related to educational settings, developing thepractitioners’ proficiency and effectiveness that ultimately leads to learners learning thelessons. Hence, we can say that reflective teaching and action research serve the samepurpose i.e. improving language teachers’ classroom practice.The primary responsibility for carrying out action research and deciding on courses ofaction research falls on the practitioners themselves. Hence, action research may veryoften be conducted on self-finance mode i.e. practitioners themselves provide money forcarrying on the research project. And it does not require a huge amount of money.Action Research ModelNunan (1992) also gives seven steps in the action research cycle which are presented anddescribed bellow-Step 1 : Initiation: A teacher comes to the author with a problem: Hiscurrent group of students do not seem interested or motivated. What should be done?Step 2 : Preliminary Investigation : We spent some time collecting baseline data throughobservation and recording classroom interaction.Step 3 : Hypothesis: After reviewing the initial data we formed thehypothesis that the students are unmotivated because the content of the classroom is notaddressing the needs and interest of the students.Step 4 : Intervention: The teacher devises a number of strategies forencouraging the students to relate the content of the lessons o their own backgroundand interest.Step 5 : Evaluation: After several weeks the class is recorded again. There ismuch greater involvement of the students and the complexity of their language andstudent-led interaction is enhanced.Step 6 : Dissemination : The teacher runs a workshop for his colleagues andpresents a paper at a language conference.Step 7 :Follow-up : The teacher investigates alternative methods ofmotivating students.Figure :1.1 Steps in the action research cycle.( After Nunan 1992)From the above figure we firstly, find that the research is initiated by the practitioner and isderived from a real problem in the classroom. Secondly, the research is collaborative--72http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/

Harun and Al-Amin74Figure: Action Research CycleSource: Whitehead (1985)From the above action research cycle we find it that we have to make a plan on thenature of the research i.e. the problem identification and determining on the way andarea of information to be gathered. The next step of the cycle includes action. Itmeans conducting the class while data on the class may be obtained for monitoring.Here teachers may record the class or note down important points on which they willreflect later. The next step requires the researcher to ponder over the importantobservations regarding the classroom procedures. The practitioner-teacher discardsthe negative aspects of the class and promotes the good aspects. Thus, practitionerscan bring about a revolutionary change in their practice of english languageteaching as well as in other fields of education and life.HypothesisH1—If english teachers of secondary and higher secondary levels of Bangladesh practicereflective teaching and undertake action research projects, they will be able to developprofessionalism continuously.MethodologyParticipants: For the present research purpose, forty english language teachers fromdifferent schools/ colleges of Dhaka city were selected randomly. The forty participantscomprise of twenty five teachers of SSC and fifteen of HSC levels. They gave theirvaluable opinions regarding the research topic. A questionnaire containing somequestions related to current condition of practicing reflective teaching and doing actionresearch by the english language teachers of SSC and HSC levels of Bangladesh was usedfor data collection.Instrument: The researchers used a questionnaire for data collection. Moreover, they alsotalked to the participants personally to get more in-depth information and substantiatetheir opinions that they gave on the questionnaire.FindingsA small scale survey was conducted and forty english language teachers of Dhaka citywere interviewed for the research purpose.From the study, it is found that the majority of the interviewed teachers are not familiarwith the terms ‘action research’ and ‘reflective teaching’. Twenty three among fortyteachers answered that they did not know the terms. The rest of the teachers knew theterms. All the interviewed teachers opined that both reflective teaching and actionresearch would be really helpful for promoting teachers’ professionalism and makeclassroom practice effective and enjoyable.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/

Continuous Professional DevelopmentLimitation of Reflective Teaching and Action Research:As nothing goes without criticism, action research is not a different case. The first andforemost weakness of action research is that it does not contribute to generalizedknowledge creation. Hence, it differs from experimental research in many ways.Moreover, ethical questions regarding action research results may pose a greatapprehension to any particular community. As may happen in any context that the groupmembers carrying on action research projects may feel reluctant to share their classroomrelated problems with others fearing to develop a negative image of them among theircolleagues.Concerning this problem Thornton (2006) comments-'There is hardly any culture of collaboration, mutual support and sharing ofprofessional experiences among teachers.’ (Thornton,2006)This is true in case of Bangladesh also. Moreover, if there is no incentive exceptprofessional development many individuals will not undertake action research projects.Their unwillingness to carry on action research projects and reflective practice is anotherhindrance to teacher development. Moreover, many teachers only reflect on their classesunmethodically but do not strive for improving classroom practice.The following are some of the major problems of doing reflective teaching and actionresearch in Bangladeshi context:Time Factor: The EFL/ESL teachers along with other subject teachers have to remain sobusy with classes and private tuition and other things that hardly get any time to reflectback on their classes. For this reason, they cannot manage time to implement reflectivepractice and action research projects.Technique: From the observation it is found that most of the teachers of our country donot know the techniques of carrying out action research and they do not even reflect ontheir previous classes systematically. Seer lack of technical knowledge makes them lagbehind.Practice: To practice reflective teaching is a persevering act, but most of our teachers arenot as persevering as that can lead to improve their teaching efficiency.Power Problem: Another practical problem in the continuation of action research andreflective teaching is that of power conflict among the group members. As the processesrequire group activities, no individual can carry on such projects alone. In this regardsometimes problems arise concerning decision making and other aspects of the projects.Contextual Factors: The success of both reflective teaching and action research dependsmuch on some contextual factors e.g. logistic support, infrastructural fitness, educationalatmosphere and ambience, attitude towards education etc. Where there exists a highlyfavorable attitude toward education and a congenial atmosphere for education, thereaction research and reflective teaching are more prone to be successful than wherethere is no highly positive attitude to education. Moreover, the educational settings andinstitutions which are technologically advanced can create more favorable conditions forcarrying on action research and practicing reflective teaching. Moreover, in somecontext sharing of teaching experience may get negative propaganda i.e. weaknessesmay be revealed to a large number of people for personal enmity and other causes. Thisis true in case of Bangladesh where teachers do not share their teaching problems withother lest they should get wide publicity.Subject Factors: One of the many limitations of this paper is that the subjects interviewedare very few in number. That is why the findings, suggestions and other observations maynot be applicable in greater context.Research ImplicationVery little has been discussed about the ways of practicing reflective teaching and actionresearch by the english language teachers at secondary and higher secondary levels inBangladesh and there is dearth of research in this regard. This paper analyses qualitativelythe problems of practicing reflective teaching and action research the english languageteachers at SSC and HSC levels in Bangladesh and the tentative solutions to the problems.http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/77

Harun and Al-AminMore quantitative and qualitative researches need to be conducted, specially to find outappropriate ways of executing reflective teaching and action research.ConclusionAmid all these kinds of existing problems pertinent to our english language teachingsystem, we can hope for bringing about changes in our english language teachingsystem through practicing reflective teaching and action research. Though our Englishlanguage curriculum emphasizes on the development of four basic skills (reading, writing,listening and speaking) our english language teachers can not contribute to studentsdeveloping these skills as they themselves are not professionally competent. Teachers canbe greatly benefited from these two important ways of teacher development, if they justwill to benefit and develop their proficiency.AcknowledgementWe are very grateful to Dr. Rubina Khan who took much pain to check the overall progress of the paper and herformative suggestion regarding this paper proved very helpful for us. Additionally, Begum Shahnaz Sinha must bethanked for her close scrutiny over the paper and guidelines for developing it. Bijoy Lal Basu’s help has made usthankful to him. We also wish to extend our thanks to the participants who gave their valuable opinions on theresearch topic.ReferencesAshton, Sylvia. (1963) Teacher.Carr.W and Kemmis, S (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and ActionResearch.Cohen,L., and L. Manion (1985) Research Methods in Education. London: Croom Helm.Corey, S. (1953) Action Research to Improve School Practices. New York, ColumbiaUniversity, Teachers College PressDewey, J. (1933) How We Think. A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to theeducative process.(revised edn.), Boston:D.C. Heath.Edwards, Roy. (2010) “Teachers as Action Researchers”. Modern English Teacher. 19/2.Hamid, M.O and Baldauf, R. B., jr. (2008) Will CLT bail out the bogged down ELT inBangladesh. English Today. 24(3).Hasan, T. (2012) Bringing Changes In Teachers’ Professional Development Initatives:Learning from English in Action (EiA) Project in Bangladesh.Heron, J. (1996) Cooperative Inquiry: research into the human condition. London: Sage.Hopkins, C.D., and Antes, R.L. (1990). Educational research: A structure for inquiry. 3 rd Ed.Itasca, IL:F.E. PeacockHuimin,Z. (2010) “EFL Teacher Development A Reflective Model”. Modern English Teacher,19/2.Khan, R. (2008) Developing Professionally. The Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics: Vol. 1No.2 ISSN-2075-3098.Mc Taggart and Kemmis, S. (1988) The Action Research Planner, Victoria, DeakinUniversity PressNunan, D. (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge University Press.Paulo, F. (1970) Pedagogy of the Opressed. New York. Herder and Herder.Richards, J.C.and Lockhart, C. (1996) Reflective Teaching in Second LanguageClassrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University.Stenhouse (1975):- An Introduction to Curriculum Research And Development, London,HeinemannThornton, H. (2006) Teacher Talking: The role of collaboration in secondary schools inBangladesh. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education.Whitehead, J. (1985) An Analysis of an Individual’s Educational Development: the basis forpersonally oriented action research, in: Shipman, M. (ed.) Educational Research:principles, policies and practices, LewesWallace, M. J. (1991). Educating foreign language teachers: A reflective approach.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.78http://www.bdresearchpublications.com/journal/