European Journal of Social Science ISSN 1450:2267 Volume 42 No 3 March, 2014 Pg 291-301 1 PRACTICE AND LEVEL OF REFLECTIVITY AMONGST STUDENT TEACHERS OF UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA Azizi Yahaya 1 *, Gooh Mo Lee 2 , Halimah Maalip 3 , Zahari Hamidon 4 , Baharudin Arus 5 , Gan Lui Nam 2 1 University Brunei Darussalam, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Brunei 2 Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 3 Languange Academy, Universiti Tekologi Malaysia, Skudai 4 Open University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 5 School of Fine Art, Universiti Malaysia Sabah *Correspondent Author email: profazizi_yahaya@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This article is about student teachers’ reflectivity and to examine how reflective practice influences their professional and personal growth. The participants consisted of nineteen student teachers from the School of Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, who were undergoing twelve weeks of practicum. Data on student teachers’ reflectivity was sourced from their journal writings and structured interviews. The level of reflectivity of each participant was assessed through the use of a revised scale adapted from the literature. Results of the analysis indicate that student teachers were hardly reflective and mostly exhibiting descriptive reflection (level 2) based on Hatton and Smith’s level of reflectivity. Through interviews and analysis of their writings, reflective practice does benefit them in their professional growth. Student teachers stated that journal writing assisted them in evaluating their teaching methods, strengths and weakness and made room for them to grow in mentioned areas. An implication of the study is to provide explicit training of the use of reflective journals in teacher training. Keywords: reflective, teaching method , interviews and strengths Introduction Since the 1980’s, considerable importance has been placed on the process of professional reflection in teacher education programs around the world. The reflective pedagogy movement sparked off by Schon’s model of the reflective practitioner (1983; 1987) has become one of the most popular issues in teacher education. In the case of Malaysia, reforms in teacher education have moved towards a more school based model that emphasizes on inquiry-oriented practicum and the use of mentoring incorporating the clinical supervision by lecturers (supervisors) concerned. These changes have been the result of increasing influence of international trends in teacher education (Toh Wah Seng, 2001). This study explores some of the issues surrounding reflection among student teachers of public universities namely Universiti Sains Malaysia. The reflective practitioner concept was first introduced into the Malaysian teacher education curriculum in 1989 when the clinical supervision was implimented at the teacher training college level. The next concrete reference to reflection came in 1993 when Bahagian Pendidikan Guru (BPG) – a division of Ministry of Education, implemented process based course work into the teacher education curriculum (Lee Wai Heng, 2002). Since then, reflective practice and reflection have become increasingly important in the student teacher education program. Various program documents were referred to produce this program namely Dewey (1933), Ross (1989) and Shulman (1987). In 1996, a model of teacher development emphasizing knowledge construction based on students’ reflection was conceptualized. Two years later the practicum guidebook was revised because it is in during the practicum that reflection and student teachers’ knowledge are most obvious