Developing Reflective Practices of Elementary School Teachers: A Collaborative Action Research Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of reflective practices of elementary school teachers through interactive workshops. This study used a collaborative action research design, and five-day interactive workshop sessions related to reflective practices conducted to introduce the participants to reflective practices. Most specifically, these workshops focused on building their cognition, affection, and behavior about reflective practices. The Purposive sampling technique was used to select 20 elementary school teachers with at least 1.5 years’ experience in elementary school. After the workshop, participants spend two months of reflective teaching practices. Then, interviews with the participants were conducted, and data were collected until saturation occurred. The analysis of the data revealed that the teachers developed positive beliefs and feelings towards reflective practices, but they lacked in some areas of practice because of the school environment. Implications of the findings are also discussed.