A Case for a Reflective Approach to Teaching ‘Practicum Debriefing’ with Implications for Teacher Educators and Education

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, the teaching profession has embraced the notion of the teacher as a reflective practitioner, which has led to an increased emphasis on teacher education programmes offering learning experiences that model and encourage reflective practice. This qualitative instrumental case study research explored the usefulness, benefits, and challenge of an innovative approach to teaching practicum debriefing—namely, an exercise called the reflective approach to teaching practicum debriefing (RATPD). Examples of the usefulness and benefits of the approach are (1) it encouraged student teachers to not only focus on observing the techniques and methods of teaching and the daily issues that teachers face in their practice, but to also consider self as a teacher and (2) it encouraged critical thinking, self-directed critical thinking, and self-awareness. The main challenge of the RATPD is that students are sometimes reluctant to share their perception and what they truly believe and feel about a particular issue or situation. Implications for teacher educators and education are discussed.