Abstract
This chapter discusses different views of reflection as a goal for teacher education. First, we examine the different ways in which reflection has been thought about as a goal for teacher education around the world. Next, we discuss three questions in relation to this work (a) the degree to which reflective teacher education has resulted in genuine teacher development, (b) the extent to which the goal of reflection in teacher education has contributed to educational equity, and (c) the relationships between the goal of preparing reflective teachers and what we know about the material realities of teachers work. Following an examination of the use of reflection in one country, China, which explores the influence of global and local forces on the use of reflection in Chinese teacher education, we examine several general trends in the development of the concept of reflection in teacher education in the last 25 years.
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- 1.
For example, see Peck and Tucker (1973).
- 2.
This more subtle form of control is accomplished while claiming to empower teachers, a point that will be explained below.
- 3.
- 4.
As will be discussed below, throughout the world there has been a tendency toward the deprofessionalization of teaching although the nature of the changes in teaching and the extent to which teachers’ abilities to exercise their judgment in the classroom have been reduced has varied by country (e.g., Robertson 2000; Tatto 2007).
- 5.
The term “practical theory” has also been used to describe the knowledge that teachers generate through an analysis of their practice (Handal and Lauvas 1987).
- 6.
See Hoffman-Kipp et al. (2003) for a discussion of how developments in learning theory (e.g., cultural-historical activity theory) support the idea of reflection as a social practice.
- 7.
See Cole (1997) for a discussion of the obstacles to reflection in the conditions of teachers’ work and their effects on teachers’ perspectives.
- 8.
Some empirical evidence is beginning to emerge that current requirements for state program approval and national accreditation have begun to interfere with teacher educators’ their efforts to educate teachers because of the need to compile masses of data for program reviews that go beyond the bound of reasonableness.
- 9.
Walkington (2005) has argued that this shift in the literature on supervision and mentoring has not necessarily been accompanied by shifts in practice.
- 10.
It should be noted that the role of emotions and imagination in reflection by teachers has been a topic of discussion for many years (e.g., Hullfish and Smith 1961).
- 11.
This criticism does not necessarily apply to developmental frameworks of teacher reflection that encourage a progression toward more competence in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty (Moon 2004).
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Zeichner, K., Liu, K.Y. (2010). A Critical Analysis of Reflection as a Goal for Teacher Education. In: Lyons, N. (eds) Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85744-2_4
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