A Study of Teachers’ Practice and their Perception of Reflective Teaching

This research aimed at (1) discovering the EFL teachers’ perception and practice of the notion of reflective teaching; (2) figuring out the levels of reflectivity the teachers reflect in their teaching practice; and (3) acknowledging the impediments that prevent teachers reflecting in their teaching practices. The subjects of this study were four teachers of English at four different Junior high schools in Maros. This research was a qualitative research. It was used in figuring out the phenomenon of each teacher related to reflective teaching practice. Open-ended questionnaire, observation, semi-structure interview, and teaching journal were the instruments in collecting the data and in analysing them, the researcher used qualitative data analysis. The findings of this study show that the four teacher respondents recognize the notion of reflective practice in their teaching. How they define reflective teaching and recognize the characteristics, and the importance of being reflective teachers are related to their perception of reflective teaching. On the other hand, the teachers practiced reflective teaching by using several reflective teaching tools as suggested by Richard and Lockhart (1996). They also used action research, peer observation, teaching journal, students’ feedback, and video recording as the tools in their practice reflective-in-action, on-action, and for-action as suggested by Schon, 1983; Killion and Todnem, 1981. Furthermore, by using Moon (2004)’s level of reflectivity, this study shows levels of reflectivity in the teachers’ journal, two teachers were at the descriptive level, one teacher was at dialogic level, and last teacher was at critical level. Although they have practiced reflective teaching, they still face some impediments that prevent them to be reflective teachers. They claimed that they did not get the knowledge of being reflective teachers when they were students of university. They were also lack of time and heavy workloads. Moreover, in doing group-reflection, they still face difficulties in encouraging their colleagues who lacked of readiness and focus of being reflective. Key words: Perception, Reflective Teaching, Levels of Reflectivity, Impediments