Effectiveness of professional development training on reflective practice and action research: a case study from Ecuador

This paper presents the author's attempt to develop her understanding of reflective practice and also verify its effectiveness as a method to improve her teaching, through her own action research. Developing her personal interpretation of Schon's concepts and definition of ‘reflective practice’, the author elaborates a model that is used to analyse her own processes of ‘reflection‐in‐action’ and ‘reflection‐on‐action’ in teaching first‐year architectural students. She also emphasises the importance of the concept of ‘role‐frame’ in informing the whole reflective process, presenting the way she sees her own role‐frame and how it affects her practice.

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of male and female English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers regarding using reflective practice as a professional development tool and the obstacles that hinder them from adopting reflective practice. To achieve this, a quantitative approach was employed to collect data. A questionnaire with a study sample of 73 teachers was utilized as a research instrument. The findings showed that EFL teachers have positive perceptions towards reflective practice in general and that they believe it is a helpful tool to enhance their professional development. However, it was evident from the data that teachers rarely implemented the reflective tools such as reflective journal, lesson reports, and peer observation. Female EFL teachers were found to be more involved in reflective practice than male teachers. The results also revealed that the biggest obstacle that hinder EFL teachers from utilizing reflective practice was related to the institution fixed policies. Based on these findings, this study provides some implications and recommendation that will hopefully foster Saudi EFL teachers understanding and use of reflective practice.

Action research is a powerful tool for teachers to engage in reflective practice and drive educational improvement in addressing context-specific issues within schools. While action has been widely recognized as a valuable tool for improving teaching practices, there remains a limited understanding of the specific motivations, challenges, and difficulties teachers face in conducting action research, particularly in the context of public schools in the Philippines. Existing studies often focus on quantitative data, leaving a gap in narrative-driven, teacher-centered insights. This study explored the motivations, challenges, and difficulties of teachers at Isulan National High School (INHS) face when conducting action research. A narrative research design was employed to capture in-depth responses, with data collected through semistructured interviews. Five teachers were selected using purposive sampling to represent various positions, including Teacher I to Master Teacher II. Thematic analysis revealed that teachers are primarily motivated by a desire for positive change, real-world engagement, skill enhancement and personal growth, collaboration, and adaptability in addressing educational challenges and improving pedagogical practices. However, significant challenges hinder their ability to conduct action research effectively. These include time constraints due to heavy workloads, resistance to change from colleagues and administrators, sustainability issues in implementing research findings, negative perceptions and attitudes toward research activities, and a lack of conceptual knowledge about research methodologies. Despite these barriers, participants believed that action research is vital for professional development. It provides opportunities for skill enhancement, critical reflection, self-improvement, and exploration of innovative strategies to impact teaching and learning positively. Furthermore, the study recommends the need for targeted professional development programs, improved resource allocation, and the establishment of a supportive research culture. These measures are essential to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of action research in enhancing educational practices at INHS.

This edited volume explores reflective practice in higher education from multiple perspectives in a common context: Oman's national higher education system. The authors of the chapters address how higher education institutions can create opportunities for academic staff to engage in reflective practice, leading to gradual shifts in their pedagogical awareness and behavior in class; how reflective practice supports professional development; how teaching observation practices can create a culture of improvement and excellence in teaching and learning; how reflective practitioners can effect institutional change; promotion of reflective practice among students and the resulting benefits; enhancement of student academic support; and the promising intersection between reflective practice and AI tools for professional development. The case studies detailed by the authors show how reflective practice can be successfully implemented for the benefit of diverse stakeholders across higher education. "Reflective Practice for Elevating Higher Education: Voices from Oman offers a rare and deeply insightful exploration of reflective practice grounded in the unique context of Oman's higher education system. What makes this volume especially valuable is its rich combination of personal narratives, empirical studies, and practical frameworks that address not only teacher education but also professional development, quality assurance, and the emerging challenges of AI in higher education. The inclusion of the voices of administrators, policymakers, and educators creates a multifaceted perspective that will resonate well beyond Oman's borders." Hayo Reinders, Senior Professor of TESOL and Director of Research, Anaheim University

Recently Published Dissertations on Community and Junior Colleges

The quality of education in any country rests on school communities as a whole. However, the real implementers of innovations and changes in curriculum are teachers. Teachers, as practitioners, are the ones most often held accountable for successes and failures in educating schoolchildren. The way to facilitate teachers in handling challenges and keeping up with curriculum renewals is through constant support in the form of continuing professional development (CPD) by means of action research. Action research as CPD has been viewed as a critical platform for advocating change, which is the outcome of teachers’ ability and autonomy to lead in making informed decisions about their own practices. Given its usefulness, action research is found well established, vastly practiced, and widely published in Western countries. This has raised the question of the widespread use of action research as CPD in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region. Preliminary analysis reveals that in some SEA countries, such as Timor Leste, there is limited literature on action research, while in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, action research has been well documented. At the same time, there is an emerging trend in SEA countries to adopt different models of action research. In Malaysia, for instance, action research has been primarily classroom based, whereas in Indonesia, a critical and community based approach to action research seems to be prevalent. This suggests that the kinds of action research conducted in the different SEA countries may reflect variations in cultural, economic, and geographical landscapes. Given the importance of action research to teacher practitioners and school leaders, and in providing an identity to the action research approaches conducted in Southeast Asia, the historical trail of action research presents a window into the nature of CPD concerns of each country, as well as the successes and challenges of conducting action research as CPD for sustained impact.

This article describes a qualitative research project using a combination of action research and reflective practice. Six experienced registered nurses identified their tendency towards idealism in their palliative nursing practice, which they defined as the tendency to expect to be 100% effective all of the time in their work. Participants collaborated in generating and evaluating an action plan to recognize and manage the negative effects of idealism in their work expectations and behaviours. Participants expressed positive changes in their practice, based on adjusting their responses to their idealistic tendencies towards perfectionism.

In recent decades, three forms of practitioner research have emerged: Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Exploratory Practice. While Reflective Practice and Action Research focus on teachers-as-researchers, Exploratory Practice positions learners as co-researchers, alongside teachers, teacher educators, and others. This article adds to those which examine the notion of learners co-producing research by exploring the potential of multimodal methods for data generation and analysis; it does this by critically analysing posters produced by learners as they puzzled, explored, collaborated, and disseminated their developing understandings on a pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes course in the UK. Focusing particularly on these ‘sticky objects’, to which emotions and beliefs attach, I argue that learners, like teachers, can ask robust questions, engage in creative investigative practices, integrating research and pedagogy. I posit that learners can develop profound insights into their practice which contribute to theory-building more broadly. This ‘fully inclusive’ notion of co-produced research challenges traditional assumptions about who does what in research and pedagogy, indicating an ethical imperative for learners to be included as co-investigators contributing their understandings to developments in theory and practice.

In this paper we present and discuss the action research we conducted with the main purpose to investigate the proper ways to introduce action research to our student-teachers in the university so as to empower them in a lifelong professional development perspective. Although the obstacles we faced were many, it seemed possible and beneficial for our students to get involved in real action research projects in the framework of an undergraduate course. They had the chance to appreciate the theory and practice link, to investigate their implicit theory, to construct collective knowledge and to participate in reflective practices.

This article examines the use of first-person action research to improve the facilitation of a continuing professional development (CPD) project in Early Years leadership. The intention of this project was to support Early Years Leaders (EYLs) from a diverse range of Early Years settings in NW England to improve their practice and hence strengthen the quality of Early Years provision. The project gave rise to a nested action research inquiry carried out by both EYLs and the lead facilitator of the CPD. As the EYLs used the approaches offered by the facilitator to articulate and evaluate their experiences of leading Early Years provision, their sayings, the articulation of their expertise and burgeoning confidence in using that expertise, challenged the facilitator to find her own locus of knowledge. The article focuses on this process of building respectful partnerships for reflexive learning and how the facilitator, using her own overarching inquiry, developed insights into the process of facilitation itself. The concept of practice architectures was used as a framework to analyse the data. Findings include the importance of recognising diverse forms of expertise and where this lay and the emotional labour of relinquishing control of the process to enable authentic shared enquiry.

Action research is fulfilling, frustrating, messy, confusing, and exciting--just like real life in fact. Nod Miller Action research is a powerful tool for continuing professional education. It assumes that people learn best when they work together and are focused on real problems that impact their work or community Reaching into the uncertain world of practice, action research engages the practitioner on a personal level and promises the opportunity to solve persistent problems. This article provides a brief description of action research, shares examples from the field of adult literacy education and suggests implications for the practice of continuing professional education. What Is Action Research? Over the years, action research has expanded to include a broad array of action inquiry technologies, making it difficult to provide a simple definition. In general, action research is an intentional, systematic method of inquiry used by a group of practitioner-researchers who reflect and act on the real-life problems encountered in their own practice. Often the research is conducted in partnership with academic researchers or professional development staff that help facilitate the process. This reciprocal process, in which practice and research inform each other, leads to new knowledge and increasingly effective action. Action research possesses a unique set of characteristics that make it suitable for continuing professional education, including control, collaboration and context. Practitioners-as-researchers control the research process and are responsible for the construction of new knowledge. Collaboration is central to the action research process. Researchers and practitioners collaborate as co-researchers, with each contributing expertise from their own area. Context is the final characteristic that sets action research apart from other types of research. Action research focuses on problems that occur within the context of everyday life. An Example From the Field The Center for Literacy Studies located at the University of Tennessee has used action research methods for professional development since its inception in 1988. As a part of its mission to bridge theory and practice, the center conducts professional development for most of the adult literacy programs in Tennessee. For the past 14 years, the center's staff members have conducted many action research projects focusing on a wide variety of subjects. As a result of our combined experience, we have developed a series of steps that often frame the action research we conduct. * Identify a topic. Topics are generally very broad and may come from a formal needs assessment, informal conversations with practitioners or comments from committees. * Recruit practitioner-researchers. Research groups may have as many as 20 participants, and all participants are generally volunteers. * Review the action research process and invite participants to contribute their insights to the upcoming process. The group might establish communication ground rules, expectations for one another and structures for their future meetings. * Select a problem or raise a question. As participants reflect on their practice and share experiences, they begin to ask questions, describe problems and share concerns. These become the focus of an action research project. Throughout the research, project members continue to reflect on and refine their original questions. * Collect and analyze information. Practitioner-researchers collect information that will lead to an understanding of the problem. Researchers use many common data collection methods such as surveys, interviews and observations; they may ask experts, research the literature, poll peers and examine records. The information collected is dictated by the problem to be solved. Collectively analyzing the information provided by different group members often stimulates people to reframe the problem, seeing it in completely new ways. …

This chapter discusses the apparent tension between science and reflective practice. The tension occurs when a scientist embarks on a training programme, or engages in professional development, in which reflective practice is an inherent part. We offer a new model of reflective practice referred to as Situated Reflective Practice (SRP) along with a range of strategies that assist reflective practice in groups.

Three teacher educators worked at a US community college with two adult education staff on a grant-supported project bridging high school dropouts from adult education to employment. The teacher educators’ apparently simple task of facilitating grant participants’ engagement with action research became confusingly challenging. The consultants engaged in ‘second-order’ action research to frame their process of reflective practice, thus deepening their understanding of the project’s complexity, the marginalization of adult education, and their adult education colleagues’ and other grant participants’ reflective practice. This shift in understanding, powered by their continuing reflective practice, precipitated a transformation of their theoretical framework. They moved from questioning the nature of their roles to a more complex understanding of their experience and identity as movement among and within overlapping communities of practice.

The study sets out to explore the benefits of Reflective practice for professional development in ESL teachers teaching undergraduate classes. There has been a shift in paradigm from teacher training to teacher education and from teacher education to teacher development. As a result, quality improvement through professional development became the responsibility of the teacher him/her self. The aim of the study was to find out whether teachers can learn, grow and improve professionally through their reflections. The study was conducted as a self-reflective inquiry within the framework of teachers’ day-to-day classroom activity. The study was open ended and exploratory in nature and its focus was on gaining access to the intricacies of professional development through reflective practice in the ESL teachers at undergraduate level, teaching both rural and urban students. It also provides the review of the literature, available on the utility of reflective practice in various fields of work. Data from the teacher participants is collected in three stages – pre-reflection data, whilst-reflection data through vignettes, audio-video recording, peer observation, and post-reflection data seeking teachers’ opinion on the utility of the reflective practice for teachers’ professional development. It presents the possibility of practicing reflection in regular classrooms, value of reflection for English teachers’ professional development, its value towards students’ learning, difficulties in implementing the practice, and facilities required for the effective implementation of this practice for teachers’ professional development. They indicate a wide range of possibilities that encompass teachers’ professional development that in turn results in effective classroom practice and indicate the way to further research in this area to help the teachers of English to meet out the global demands of the field effectively. It finally discusses the need for reflective practice as a means to develop ESL teachers professionally.

Despite the accumulated body of research on teachers' professional development few have offered a relationship between professional development and knowledge sharing or reflective practice. We investigated whether Iranian Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) teachers' reflective teaching and their knowledge sharing can predict their professional success. To answer the research questions a quantitative approach was utilized. Then, 264 faculty members through available sampling were recruited using three questionnaires, namely reflective teaching measurement scale by Akbari et al. (System, 38(2): 211-227, 2010), teacher professional development scale by Soodmand Afshar and Ghasemi (J Teach Lang Skills 37: 169-210, 2018), and Teachers' knowledge sharing behavior by Ramayah et al. (Eval Rev 38(2): 1-28, 2014). Findings showed that knowledge sharing has a significant relationship with professional development (P < 0.001). In addition, teachers' reflective practice has a significant relationship with professional development (P < 0.001). Based on the findings we suggest that TEFL teachers should promote their knowledge sharing and reflection to improve their professional development.