Proceedings of the 55th International Academic Conference, Vienna

REFLECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES BETWEEN THEORY AND REALITY IN A DEMANDING SOCIETY

KHALID AADA

Abstract:

Being a teacher implies enjoying the stages that students have to go through in order to learn; provide an environment conducive to learning; have an academic preparation to be successful. At various points in this process, unlearning is needed to relearn and make sense of a new experience. Being a teacher means recognizing that teaching is a transformative process for both students and teachers. The teaching activity can be defined as the set of actions, carried out inside and outside the classroom, aimed to promoting student learning in relation to the objectives and competencies designed in a planning and a specific institutional context. This leads us to reflect on the importance of developing a framework, as realistic as possible, of the methodology, objectives, content, assessment criteria and activities that are intended to be carried out with the students throughout the school year. But how far can we delimit the dimensions of this reflection? Why is reflection needed? what does the reflection represent for a teacher? Are we talking about an action, stage or a whole process? Why is it important to reflect on the act of teaching? What happens when a teacher begins to think and act not like a technical expert, but like a thoughtful professional? What does reflection in the teaching-learning process represent? Why does the professor need to reflect, invent, and differentiate? The main purpose of this work is to present a pedagogical tool that could help to see and understand the teaching-learning process beyond a simple interaction between the professor and his students, and thus to contribute to the improvement of the study planning. In this article, readers and teachers interested and passionate in this field of education will focus their attention to the importance and the need of being a professional reflexive not only in a narrow perspective but at a global scope, including the way how students learn from the cognitive dimension, especially those who need more assistance. Is it a complex process? Yes, but to reach that deep understanding of what is happening will have the benefit to take the teaching-learning vision from practice dimension to a significative purpose, and would complement any didactic training that teachers perform to make practical decisions, allowing them to reach the established objectives.

Keywords: Educational practice, Professional reflective, Reflection, Reflective teaching, Self-reflection

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2020.055.001

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