Reflection: A Renewed and Practical Focus for an Existing Problem in Teacher Education

Reflection has been a component of teacher education programs for many years. The introduction of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS) into Western Australian schools appear to have brought a renewed focus to this. For universities involved in teacher education, reflection remains a complex construct that requires scaffolding and nurturing. The question remains, however, how to effectively do this. This paper provides a practical focus to developing reflection by outlining strategies that address this issue. Through the scaffolded implementation of an Action Research project for pre-service teachers, this research project identified a number of key recommendations. Firstly, there is a need for a strong model of reflection to be used consistently across degree programs; secondly, reflective processes should be embedded in practice; and finally, universities need to be mindful of the assessment of reflection and the impact that this assessment has on the reflective process