The reflective journey of Saudi EFL pre-service teachers: An analysis of three reflective modes

The importance of reflection in enhancing teachers’ Professional Development (PD) has been widely acknowledged. Reflection is initially developed in Teacher Education (TE) programs, and then becomes a part of a teacher’s education throughout their career, specifically when they engage in Reflective Practice (RP) (Farrell, 2015). Within initial TE, practicum has been recognised as the most important part, where Pre-service Teachers (PSTs) assume that they will put what they have learned in theory into practice. However, they spent more time in school as a learner than as a trainee teacher. They also have their own personal characteristics and attributes that influence the way they put what they have learned into practice during practicum. Hence, RP is recognised as a vital tool that helps PSTs to learn from their experiences. The majority of the literature focuses on how to promote reflection within initial TE (Donyaie & Afshar, 2019, p.2), or explores the practitioner's perception towards reflection (Riyanti, 2020) . Yet, little is known about the complexity of reflection as an individual skill in a situated context during practicum, in which reflection is examined based on the individual’s beliefs, abilities, skills, and knowledge (Farrell, 2018).Adopting a qualitative case study, this study offers an in-depth examination of the reflective journey of three Saudi EFL PSTs during practicum, all of whom engaged in three Reflective Modes (RMs) (i.e., individually, dialoguing with a mentor, and with their peers). Their reflection is examined in relation to content and quality in order to track their reflectivity development. Through the reported reflection, the study further aims to establish the contribution of these reflective tools on the participants’ learning through practicum, highlighting their trajectories in becoming teachers. The study brings together data from a wide variety of sources, such as Reflective Journals (RJs), individual reflective dialogue (IRD) with a mentor, group reflective dialogue (GRD) with peers, interviews, documents, and class observations (COs). The findings showcase the complexity of the PSTs’ reflective thinking. Although the participants were similar, in that they were all female EFL PSTs who came from the same context, they navigated the three RMs differently. Their biographies, backgrounds, previous learning experience, and attitudes all influenced their reflective journey to become English teachers. Methodologically, the study highlights the value of a qualitative case study that investigates the three main RMs from a situated perspective