THE ROLE OF CRITICAL REFLECTIVE TEACHING IN TEACHING PRACTICE FOR THE 21st CENTURY: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Newly qualified teachers will soon be required to prove themselves in the classroom before they get a licence to teach. This is one of a number of initiatives to be spearheaded by the South African Council of Educators (SACE) in an attempt to improve and ensure the quality of teachers entering the profession and to guarantee their readiness to meet the requirements of 21st century teaching. A number of research studies emphasize the importance of nurturing reflective teaching during teaching practice. Student teachers’ approach to teaching practice is often very ‘mechanical’: they do not relate it to their training, nor do they actively develop, process and/or reflect on their teaching practice experiences. Moreover, education faculties find it difficult to facilitate appropriate reflection and debriefing on teaching practice. As a result, much of the professional development for innovative teaching has little effect on classroom teaching and learning. The aim of this research was to explore how student teachers at the Central University of Technology could be assisted to improve the practice of critical reflective thinking and teaching during their teacher training programme so as to satisfy the requirements of 21st century teaching. To ensure a solid foundation for carrying out the empirical phase of the study – the selection of participants, data collection strategies, data analysis and the reaching of valid and reliable findings ‐ the researcher explored the most important theories of critical reflection and reflective teaching, as well as the nature of adult learning and the application of contemporary learning theories in the context of adult learning in order to establish a conceptual framework for this study. The literature review focused on 21st century teaching and learning, including critical skills needed by teachers and prospective teachers to face the challenges of education in a postmodern society. The study was undertaken within the interpretative paradigm, following a qualitative approach and, more specifically, a case study design. Data was collected by means of document analysis (teaching curricula and student portfolios), classroom observations (including the preparation and integration of teaching media) and focus group interviews. In a nutshell, the core findings revealed that, although there are elements of critical reflective teaching in the teacher training curricula of the Central University of Technology (CUT), students are oblivious to the fact that critical reflection and reflective teaching form an integral part of the theory and practice of teaching and learning, and that critical reflection and reflective teaching run like a golden thread through all aspects of teaching practice – the planning (and actual presentation) of lessons, including the lesson objectives, the preparation of teaching media, the lesson content, learner involvement, and assessment activities. In brief, they regard reflection as a standalone, as something separate to the teaching and learning process. Students moreover raised concerns about their lecturers’ and mentor teachers’ lack of knowledge of reflective teaching and, consequently, their inability to model it to their students. Together with a few recommendations, a framework for reflective teaching at the CUT is proposed to address these concerns. It is believed that this framework will assist student teachers to use critical reflection as a means to enhance their teaching practices in keeping with the demand for creative, innovative, collaborative and productive 21st century teaching and learning.