Valley Peters, "Inquire Within: Reflective Practice in Teaching".
The article is available on the following website:
Peters raises the three-step process, "describe-analyze-take intelligent action", as an important element for reflective practice. As this triad shows, we can define the reflective practitioner as a new type of practitioner who can master both elements of binary opposition, theory, and practice, without placing a disproportionate emphasis on either of them.
English education has been undergoing a paradigm shift from teacher training based on a methodology to teacher development based on reflective practice. According to this shift, teachers are required to consider their teaching methods and performances from all perspectives by observing their own teaching and other teachers' teaching.
As a reflective practitioner, further development and improvement are required for a teacher through his/her own experience beyond the range of the general methodology common to every teacher.
For further development and improvement, a teacher needs to be a self-directed teacher who maintains his/her autonomous thought. A self-directed teacher is not a passive teacher who accepts and applies all the syllabi and the methods created by other teachers; he/she is rather an active teacher who can produce the class materials and the activities that are suitable for his/her students.
Teachers will be developed by changing their sense of values and eliminating stereotypes and prejudice. Not only growing upward toward the goal, but teachers should also move flexibly toward various directions. By the accumulation of the process of "describe-analyze-take intelligent action", and their continuous effort for the reflective practice, a teacher will be able to achieve the status as an authentic reflective practitioner.
