Reflective professional development for teachers

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject Pedagogy - The Teacher, Educational Leadership, , language: English, abstract: Education is changing worldwide. The literature suggests that teachers need reflective professional development (PD) to effectively teach to the new standards and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. This mixed-method multiple-case study investigated the impact of a reflective professional development (PD) in early schoolteachers¿ instructional practices.

Teachers were asked to maintain Reflective Portfolios for a period of one month, in which they were supposed to discuss one incident daily, under the light of Gibbs reflective cycle. REPORT rubric based on Danielsons framework of teaching was used to assess the portfolios. The teachers were also analyzed via semi structured interviews using qualitative coding scheme. Case descriptions were written and all the collected data was used to explain the levels of reflection in teachers¿ instructional practices.