Reflective practice and teaching creativity within the framework of postmethod pedagogy: perspectives and practices of Indonesian ELT practitioners

Abstract

Postmethod condition (PMC) serving as the epistemological base for theorizing the pedagogical shift from method-based to postmethod-oriented pedagoy is the mainstay of this research. PMC is a sort of pedagogical awareness that methods are no longer practical and valid means for conducting ELT. Postmethod pedagogy (PMP) functioning as the onthological base for the new direction in the domain of ELT is a practical device of PMC. PMP as a theory of practice is characterized by three parameters of pedagogy: the parameters of particularity, practicality and possibility (PPP). PMP is arguably the way forward in the field. However, as a theory of practice, PMP is considered quite theoritical and sensibly not very practical in the complex world of practicing teachers. Upon this state, I was tinkering of other more practical means to realize such “liberating” pedagogy.
Two other relevant and related pedagogical constructs that in many mays can potentially serve as practical mechanisms of PMP are included in this study. They are vastly known as reflective practice (RP) and teaching creativity (TC). RP as widely perceived is a kind of judgemental thinking while teaching and critical evaluation after teaching in order to reframe a more informed practice of teaching. TC which is often in tandem with RP is a sort of making endless “surprise” to learners as we are enabled to find novel and relevant ways to engage students in active, interactive and dynamic learning circumstances. To a certain extent, these two share the pedagogical features of PMP such as teacher-learner empowerment and independence. Despite the fact they (PMP with RP and TC) are not interchangeable, in this study I proposed RP and TC as the practical mechanisms of PMP. Hence, this study investigates the extent to which Indonesian ELT practitioners are engaged in the postmethod paradigm in terms of its pedagogy of particularity, practicality and possibility through the enactment of RP and TC as its proposed mechanisms. The purpose of this study is to provide insights and understanding of what it is actually that Indonesian ELT practitioners are thinking, understanding, doing and what they are trying to achieve in their classroom activities. This study potentially adds to our understanding of how local teachers that enact their “localized” PMP in local contexts through the mechanisms of RP and TC can strengthen the paradigm shift from method-based into postmethod-based pedagogy. This study upholds the belief that RP and TC play a vital role in situating PMP in practice.
This descriptive study integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches known as mixed-method approach (MMA) with an emphasis on qualitative aspects. The investigation commences from quantitative to qualitative part employing online questionnaire, classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and documents. This study involves 100 respondents for the questionnaire, 4 senior high schools English teachers and 4 university lecturers for observations and
interviews. The analysis is focused on how Indonesian ELT practitioners view and implement their RP and TC in their teaching practices within the framework of “localized” PMP. The study aims to provide answers for four research questions: 1) what are the perspectives of Indonesian ELT practitioners on reflective practice and teaching creativity? 2) In what ways are Indonesian ELT practitioners reflective in their classroom practice? 3) In what ways are Indonesian EFL teachers creative in their classroom practice? 4) To what extent do the findings of RP and TC suggest the realization of localized PMP in Indonesian contexts? The data were analysed using factor analysis (FA) for the quantitative data and content analysis (CA) for the qualitative data.
The findings suggest that overall Indonesian ELT practitioners were reflective and creative in their teaching practices. As it stands, Indonesian ELT practitioners orchestrated their RP mostly in two ways: publically and privately or collectively and individually. Uniquely, all these were done not systematically but intuitively. The findings also evince that their RP was locally-guided, classroom-based mode of practice. Their TC was marked by their approaches in empowering their students to learn and assisting their students to cope with their learning circumstances. Their RP and TC in the classrooms were actualized to engage their students in learning. These suggest that they performed their teaching reflectively and creatively. Another significant finding insinuates that all of the participants did not employ any method-based approach (i.e. Communicative Language Teaching, Task-based language learning, Audio-lingual etc.) in their practice. The participants preferred to use their own theory of practice which was based on their understanding and sense of plausibility or principled pragmatism of their day-to-day practice. This implies that the notions of PMC and PMP actually have been practiced by Indonesian ELT practitioners in their localized and contextualized models through their teaching reflectivity and creativity. These particular contexts-based teaching have marked PMP as the bottom-up practice of teaching. Conclusively, this study suggests that Indonesian ELT practitioners are PMP-oriented (reflectively and creatively driven), not as what is orchestrated globally, but as what is perceived and understood locally.

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