THE JOURNAL OF ASIA TEFL
Vol. 16, No. 2, Summer 2019, 561-575
http://dx.doi.org/10.18823/asiatefl.2019.16.2.8.561
561
The Journal of Asia TEFL
http://journal.asiatefl.org/
e-ISSN 2466-1511 © 2004 AsiaTEFL.org. All rights reserved.
Reflective Teaching in an EFL Writing Instruction Course
for Thai Pre-service Teachers
Nguyen Thi Thuy Loan
Kalasin University, Thailand
Reflective practice has been proved to be a meaningful way of learning about teaching and various
aspects of teachers’ work by several studies in different EFL teaching contexts. In Thailand, despite
the commonly-reported problems about the English language education program for prospective
English teachers, a few studies were conducted on how to improve the situation. By employing the
reflective teaching approach, this study reports on how an educator assisted 48 Thai pre-service
English teachers to learn how to teach English writing in the Writing Instruction course. The findings
from the survey, the teacher-educator’s notes during the course and the focus-group interview showed
the considerable success of this teaching approach. Furthermore, the information from the evaluations
on micro-teaching performances by the teaching groups, their peers and teacher-educator, and the
students’ reflections on their teaching strengths and weaknesses and their plans for reconstructing their
teaching revealed some considerations for improvement. This study is thus expected to not only reflect
on how teacher-educators are trying to improve the quality of English preservice-teachers in Thailand
and to develop their experiences to be life-long learners, but also provide some insights to enhance
reflective prospective teachers in other educational settings with similar teaching and learning cultures.
Keywords: teacher education, reflective practice, student teaching, Thai EFL teachers, teaching
EFL writing
Introduction
Significance of Reflective Teaching
Reflective practice is an important tool in the practice-based professional learning settings where
people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal learning or knowledge
transfer. In fact, reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater
level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, which creates opportunities for
professional growth and development (Loughran, 2002). In the field of teacher-education, reflective
practice plays a central role as it facilitates teaching, learning and understanding (Amobi, 2005;
Kostiainen et al., 2018; Lieberman & Miller, 2000; Loughran, 2002; Schön, 1987). Due to the complexity
of teaching, teachers often question their practices for improving their students’ performance and for their
own professional development. When teachers carry out systematic enquiry into themselves and by
constantly looking into their own actions and experiences, they understand themselves, their practices and
their students. Reflective teaching or “a reflective conversation with the materials of a situation” (Schön,
1987, p. 31) is a process where teachers think over their teaching practices, analyze how something was
taught and how the practice might be improved or changed for their students’ better learning outcomes