Developing pedagogic skills of Libyan pre-service teachers through reflective practice

Abstract

Over the last two decades, teacher education (TE) has witnessed substantial changes in the way the divide between theory and practice is viewed. This has resulted in changes in the approaches used to deliver TE programmes. Since Dewey (1933), teacher educators have been concerned with how to prepare teachers who are reflective about what they are doing. Hence, there has been widely applied emphasis on the investigation of practice. This study describes the introduction of Reflective Practice (RP) to Libyan fourth-year trainee teachers to enhance their thinking about pedagogic skills. Its main aim is to examine to what extent trainee teachers will engage in a reflective practice (RP) programme, how they will reflect on their everyday understanding and practice and how they may improve their thinking about practice as a result.

It describes how an action research study was conducted with a group of 30 prospective teachers over a period of 14 weeks and involved three phases. The first two phases lasted twelve weeks. In the first phase, the participants engaged in general discussions on instructional strategies, and this paved the way for the second phase, where there was in-college teaching practice. Finally, the participants practised teaching for two consecutive weeks in a real-life context, i.e. in a secondary school.

The findings indicate that the implementation of RP in the Libyan context promoted a culture of observation and critical discussions in a setting that has traditionally been characterised as passive and non-reflective. The study indicates that RP is an essential component of pre-service teachers’ development. However, if we are to make more progress, we need to aim for more understanding of the pedagogic process that supports trainee teachers’ (TTs) pedagogic inquiry. This will require good collaborative work between colleges and schools, between educators and language tutors in schools and colleges, and among TTs themselves.

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ORCID for Rosamond Mitchell: orcid.org/0000-0003-0325-528X

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