Browsing by Subject "Reflective practice"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Open Access
Educating the mindful design practitioner
(Elsevier, 2021-05-06) Altay, Burçak; Porter, N.
Mindfulness applications are increasing exponentially across many disciplines. However, mindfulness theory and practice within design pedagogy is relatively scarce. What are the operational concepts and applications of mindfulness for acquiring design skills and ethical awareness? We explore these questions through a theoretical framework and two university-based studies where design students engaged in various mindfulness activities. Results show that meditation practices (formal mindfulness) and adopting a mindful approach to design tasks (informal mindfulness) can facilitate exploratory and creative thinking, increase sensory and spatial awareness, ‘free up’ one’s inner critic, and expand students’ empathetic horizons. These outcomes suggest mindfulness training is fruitful for the holistic development of students, supporting them to be truly reflective practitioners who creatively attend to the wellbeing of others and themselves.
Open Access
EFL teachers’ engagement in reflective practice via team teaching for professional development
(2017-05) Özsoy, Kadir
This study aimed to investigate Turkish EFL teachers’ engagement in reflective practices that were identified as reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, and reflection-for-action via their team teaching experiences for professional development purposes. In this respect, the study explored the experiences of five local English teachers who volunteered to team teach as a professional development activity in the course of four months at their institutions. The data were collected via two different instruments: reflective journals and interviews. All the qualitative data collected from reflective journals and interview transcriptions were analysed according to Boyatzis’ (1998) thematic analysis. After the printed copies were examined to define the codes and then colour-code the themes that emerged, the NVivo software programme was utilised to reread and recategorise the codes and themes, which were finally listed under the concepts of reflection-on, in, and foraction reflective types. The findings of the study revealed that through team teaching participants engaged in a) reflection-on-action by investigating their teacher identities and the dynamics of their teaching; b) reflection-in-action by exploring teaching practices, beliefs, and self; and c) reflection-for-action by probing ways to move towards a professional growth. Considering these results, this study supports the existing literature in that a) providing a collaborative and shared teaching experience adds a meaningful and productive dimension to reflective practice that ultimately entails a critical analysis of understandings and practices in teaching; and b) team teaching could serve its purpose best when it is undertaken as a voluntary, flexible, and periodical reflective professional development activity.
Open Access
EFL teachers' reflective practice via online discussions
(2015) Burhan, Elif
This study investigated EFL teachers‟ participation in reflective practice oriented (RP-oriented) online discussion forums. More specifically, it explored the reflection types (reflection-in, reflection-on and reflection-for-action) instructors engaged in. To this end, the study explored RP-oriented online discussions utilized in a methodology course by nine experienced English as a foreign language teachers who were students in a master‟s program in teaching English as a foreign language at a foundation university in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected through three different instruments: a background information questionnaire, RP-oriented discussions and interviews. All the qualitative data were analyzed according to Boyatzis‟ (1998) thematic analysis.Initially, each participant‟s data were printed out and examined to discover the themes that naturally emerged. After that, the emerging themes in the initial analysis were color-coded and related to three sensitizingconcepts, specifically a) reflection-on-action b) reflection-in-action and c) reflection-for-action. The findings of the study revealed that in RP-oriented discussion platforms participants engaged in a) reflection-on-action by considering their past experiences both as learners and teachers, b) reflection-in-action by sharing their beliefs and teaching practices c) reflection-on-action by defining their intentions on reshaping their future practices as well as providing suggestions for their institutions. Considering these results, this study challenged the results of studies that have investigated the use of reflective practices in online-asynchronous discussion platforms and provided further directions in identifying successful utilization of RPoriented online discussions in in-service teacher education.
Open Access
Investigating the relationship between the reflective practices and the possible language teacher selves of EFL instructors at a Turkish state university
(2020-06) Özsoy, Özge
The aim of this study was to investigate whether there was a statistically significant relationship between EFL instructors’ reflective practices and their possible language teacher selves. This correlational quantitative study was conducted with 94 EFL instructors working at a school of foreign languages at a state university in Turkey. The data were collected via an online survey, which was designed to investigate EFL instructors’ engagement in reflective practice, and their perceived levels of possible language teacher selves. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results of the analyses revealed that EFL instructors sometimes engaged in reflective practice, and they had a high level of ideal language teacher self. The results also revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between EFL instructors’ overall reflective practice and their possible language teacher selves. Practical, cognitive, learner-related, and meta-cognitive types of reflective practice were found to have a statistically significant relationship with at least one type of possible language teacher selves.
Open Access
Oslo and its aftermath: lessons learned from track two diplomacy
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2012) Çuhadar, E.; Dayton, B. W.
Since the collapse of the Oslo peace process and the violence that followed, many scholars have reflected upon the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Most of this analysis has focused on official negotiations without considering the substantial role that unofficial peace efforts have played in peacebuilding, both prior to and after Oslo. This article, in contrast, seeks to better understand the application of "track two" diplomacy to the Israeli-Palestinian case. It reports on a self-reflection effort by numerous Israeli-Palestinian peace practitioners to better understand what has worked, what has not, and how new initiatives could be more effectively organized and carried out in the future. The research presented is based on an inventory of seventy-nine track two projects that occurred between Israelis and Palestinians between 1992 and 2004, personal interviews with many of those who organized and oversaw these projects, and two focus group meetings that brought together a total of forty practitioners. In this article, we seek to better understand two issues: (1) how track two initiatives have changed in scope, organization, and intent; and (2) how track two practitioners have sought to disseminate their work beyond the participants of those initiatives. Our findings present an overall picture of the Israeli-Palestinian second track practice and identify a number of trends and common types of practice. Among the trends we have identified are the following: during the peace process years, more track two initiatives were undertaken with elite/professional participants than with representatives of the grassroots, but in the subsequent decade-and-a-half, Israeli-Palestinian grassroots, track two initiatives gradually replaced senior-level track two exchanges; most of the grassroots initiatives we studied were relationship focused, whereas those involving elite participants are outcome focused; the track two community subscribes to a set of theoretical propositions about which conditions and contexts facilitate the transmission of track two insights and ideas to the political process, but these propositions have yet to be validated; and track two specialists do little strategic planning about ways to most effectively transfer track two insights and ideas to the political process. Our research also identified four distinct, but not mutually exclusive, approaches to practice: the psychological, the constructivist, the capacity building, and the realistic interest.
Open Access
Postmethod Pedagogy and reflective practice: current stance of Turkish EFL teachers
(2015) Dağkıran, İpek
Current discussions about the methods in English language teaching show the dissatisfaction with the outcomes of the implementations of the conventional teaching methods. The postmethod pedagogy argues that traditional methods have limiting and limited effects on both language learners and teachers. In this sense, postmethod pedagogy, which highlights the importance of location specific, contextsensitive and teacher-generated educational settings, values teachers’ decisions during teaching and highlights the importance of actual practices of teachers. One of the overarching features of postmethod pedagogy is that it highly emphasizes the role of the teachers as decision-makers. Teacher reflection is seen as a major component as teachers with the help of self-observation, self-analysis and self-evaluation can shape and reshape classroom learning and teaching. This process can only occur with teachers who have a sense of plausibility, which means subjective understanding of the teaching they do”. It is claimed that one of the consequences of the postmethod era can be regarded as the rise of reflective practice in language teaching. In this sense, a reflective teacher is defined as a critical examiner of classroom practices who comes up with different ideas to enhance students’ learning and be able to put these ideas into practice. This quantitative study, with the participation of 347 Turkish EFL teachers, investigated their perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and reflective practices. The data was collected in Turkey via a nation-wide online survey consisting of two separate sets of questionnaires focusing on postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice. The survey also includes a set of questions to obtain demographic data. The data gathered via this survey was also analyzed to see whether there is a relationship between teachers’ perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and their reflective practices. The results of the quantitative data revealed that Turkish EFL teachers do not have resistant attitudes towards the postmethod condition and they also seem to be open to changes with regard to altering the current methods in line with the needs of the students. Moreover, when Turkish EFL teachers’ responses to the five elements of reflective practice were considered, it was seen that most of the reflective activities are sometimes engaged in. The analysis of the relationship between postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice revealed that the principles of postmethod pedagogy and elements of reflective practice interrelated with each other specifically with regards to local needs, critical reflections on teaching and sociopolitical issues in teaching/learning environment.