Universal Journal of Educational Research 7(12A): 18-26, 2019 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.071903 Pre-service Teachers' Reflection on Reflective Practices: A Malaysian Perspective S. Chee Choy, Joanne Sau Ching Yim, Daljeet Singh Sedhu * Research Centre for Educational Psychology and Instructional Strategies, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) Perak Branch Campus, Malaysia Received September 3, 2019; Revised November 24, 2019; Accepted December 3, 2019 Copyright©2019 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract This study aimed to explore the use of reflective thinking practices incorporated into classroom teaching by pre-service teachers (PSTs). Firstly, this study investigated the reflective thinking practices used by PSTs to analyse their teaching strategies and approaches in the classroom. Secondly, this study explored the ways PSTs use reflective thinking to analyse their teaching practice. The qualitative method employing semi-structured interviews was used in this study. A sample of 11 female final year PSTs enrolled in Bachelor of Education programmes in a Malaysian university, who had just completed their 16-week teaching practicum that was selected as the participants of this study. The data were analysed using the interpretive approach in order to allow the PSTs to voice their reflective thinking experiences. Analysis of the data yielded seven categories: Opportunities to reflect, Expression of feelings, Teaching awareness, Lifelong learning, Self-confidence, Self-assessment, and Self-belief. Overall, the findings of this study indicated positive perceptions by the PSTs about using reflective practices to help them teach. However, the findings also showed that the reflection carried out by the PSTs favoured the technical and practical levels rather than being able to critically analyse their own teaching process. The results also indicated that the PSTs were not open to negative feedback given by students, as they were looking more towards the popularity factor and acceptance from students than learning from the experience as a whole. A major implication of the present study was that Malaysian PSTs may not know how to effectively use reflective thinking to help them improve their teaching skills at the same time cultivate critical thinking. They seemed to focus more on being evaluated well by their mentors than the learning that occurred during their lessons. Keywords Reflective Practices, Reflective Thinking, Pre-service Teachers 1. Introduction Developing pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) ability to carry out critical and deep thinking has been the essential goal for learning and transformation in the Malaysian education system as stated in the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013). Felton and Kuhn (2007) further note that critical thinking, which is the process of analysing and evaluating something in order to form a judgement, requires considerable effort and students will engage in the cognitively complex process only if they reflect on it and perceive it is worth the effort. Hence, the function of reflective thinking is to make meaning and formulate relationships between learning experiences and create continuities which Rodgers, (2002) notes is an important step to the process of critical thinking. A critical point Dewey (1963) noted is that once students direct their attention to learn and perceive a fact, it is often limited by the context they are in and this is especially true in a classroom setting. The role of the teacher is to step in to stimulate reflection of the fact and to perceive more rather than less. Hence, it is crucial for teachers to have the skills to carry out reflective thinking themselves and eventually become a model demonstrating the process of such thinking. However, this is not the case as research has shown that teachers themselves often do not know how to be reflective or demonstrate reflective thinking (Black, 2005; Choy & Cheah, 2009; Choy & Oo, 2012; DeWitt, Alias & Siraj, 2016). According to DeWitt et al. (2016) critical thinking skills have been incorporated into the Malaysian school syllabus since 1994 and teachers have been trained in strategies to teach critical thinking during their pre-service courses using the infusion approach where every teacher is required to use teaching-learning methods and techniques which will stimulate, encourage, and develop the thinking abilities of students (Kuldas, Hashim & Ismail, 2015). DeWitt et al (2016) further noted that Malaysian teachers tended to teach facts, implying surface learning rather than incorporate the CITE THIS PAPER [1] S. Chee Choy , Joanne Sau Ching Yim , Daljeet Singh Sedhu , "Pre-service Teachers' Reflection on Reflective Practices: A Malaysian Perspective," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 7, No. 12A, pp. 18 - 26, 2019. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2019.071903.