Prospective Teachers’ Conceptions of Reflective Teaching: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Reflective teaching is believed to stimulate critical thinking and inquiry among teachers while improving teacher effectiveness and student learning. As a result, teacher training programs have begun to include courses on reflective teaching in their curricula. The purpose of this study is to explore the conceptions of prospective teachers about reflective teaching after attending a semester-long course on reflective teaching. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological research design and semi-structured interviews to access the participants’ lived experience and their interpretations. Purposive sampling was used to select ten prospective teachers enrolled in the MPhil Educational Leadership and Management Program of a private university. The data analysis revealed that teachers need to be aware of reflective teaching for their professional development. It has revealed an area of policy implementation regarding prospective teachers’ conceptions of reflective teaching and ascertained that the course of reflective teaching should be offered at the initial level of teacher training programs.