Effect of Reflective Teaching Practices on the Performance of Prospective Teachers

The present research aims to examine the effect of reflective teaching practices on prospective teachers' performance. Reflective teaching practice helps teachers to plan, implement and improve their performance by rethinking about their strengths and weaknesses. An experimental study within an action research was conducted by the researchers. All prospective teachers of sixth semester in a women university's teacher education program were the population of the study. From total 40 students, 20 students were taken as experimental group and the rest of 20 students were taken as the control group. During the action research, a cyclic process of producing a module, training teachers for the reflective practices and then observing them during their practicum for replication of reflective practice was done by the researchers. The researchers used a set of tests and a rubric for assessing prospective teachers' performance before, during and after their training as well as their teaching practice. Finally, the module was modified with the help of findings. It was found that the training had improved the skills and performance of teachers during training as they revised and modified their teaching strategies through reflective practice. However, they were not able to practice all of the reflective skills in their practicum. The training module was revised in the light of findings and microteaching strategies were further improved. The study has implications for teacher training programs to include reflective practice training modules as part of their course work for refining their practicum.