Towards enhancing reflective practice and nurturing communities of practice amongst Natural Sciences student teachers at a University of Technology

Wendy Setlalentoa ()
Additional contact information
Wendy Setlalentoa: Central University of Technology, Free State

No 9411029, Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: The study focuses on reflections by Natural Sciences pre-service students at a university of technology on the development of reflective practice. This development is an ongoing process which starts during teacher education. Specific attention is paid to the self-reflection. Teachers? beliefs about themselves, about learning and its educational relevance and about learners if consistent with their action are vitally important for effective teaching. Grounded in Vygotskian perspective, the overall aim of teacher education program is best conceived as the development of professional identity. The study aims to examine emerging professional identity and how reflective self-evaluation during pre-service training done with the help of reflective activities to nature formation of communities of practice and professional development of students. A convenient sample of forty-eight (48) senior students was used through focus group discussions to collect qualitative data. The data obtained proved the crucial role of teaching practice, communities of practice and reflective activities in the study process of teacher education. The study highlighted the importance of teaching the capacity to be reflective at earlier points of the professional development, so that pre-service students can be more receptive to change throughout their career. Also, the importance of communities of practice in professional development.

Keywords: Professional; Reflection; Teacher identity; Communities of practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2019-10
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 50th International Academic Conference, Paris, Oct 2019, pages 206-215

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/iises-international- ... 94&iid=030&rid=11029 First version, 2019

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:iacpro:9411029

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of International Academic Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().