Postsecondary Instructors’ Reflective Teaching Practices Pertaining to Gender Differences and Teaching Experience

Abstract

Reflection and reflective practices are integral to teacher education; therefore, this study contributes to the growing literature on reflective practice by uncovering gender differences. The study explored the influence of gender differences and teaching experience on postsecondary instructors' conscious reflective teaching practice, using a survey of 226 male and 207 female EFL instructors working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results indicated that females scored higher than males on the total English Language Teaching Reflection Inventory (ELTRI) scores, except on the critical factor of the ELTRI, where males outperformed. The results also revealed that experienced instructor participants had a significantly higher score on the total ELTRI than novice instructor participants. The study proposes a tangible, flexible resource for reflective practices of applied, cognitive, affective, metacognitive, and critical reflection, and offers assistance to counter gender differences. The study recommends designing guides with effective and valid instruments for fostering reflective teaching practices. Policymakers in higher institutions should prepare systematic programs and provide remedial resources and events for instructors to target the most challenging areas for both genders. Future research should also consider other factors, such as the academic degree, cultural background, and linguistic differences that might affect the instructors' knowledge and reflective practice.

Exploring Saudi EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Using Reflective Practice as a Tool for Professional Development

“…Nearly more than half of the participants reflect over their strengths and weaknesses as language instructors and consider the significance of their teaching jobs. These findings are consistent with previous studies where they found that most teachers reported a positive involvement in the metacognitive aspects of reflective teaching (Almusharraf & Almusharraf, 2021;Moghaddam et. al., 2019;Noormohammadi, 2014).…”

“…Hence, female EFL teachers were found to be more engaged in reflective practices compared to their male peers in the present study. This finding aligns with those of other researchers (Almusharraf & Almusharraf, 2021;Alsayeud & Almuhammdi 2020;Poyraz and Usta, 2013;Rashidi and Javidanmehr, 2012), who all found that female EFL teacher adopted reflective practice more than their male counterparts. However, another study by Afshar & Farahani (2015) reported a contradictory result as they found that male EFL teachers outperformed their female counterparts in regards to reflective teaching.…”

“…This finding corroborates the finding of Alsayeud & Almuhammdi (2020), who found that EFL instructors were less engaged in the practical aspects of reflective teaching and they did not consider the use of reflective journals. It also aligns with the finding of Almusharraf & Almusharraf (2021), who concluded that teachers rarely utilized written reflection such as reflective journals, lesson reports, and teaching portfolios to improve their teaching practices. A possible explanation for these results may be, as noted by Day (1993), due to the fact that writing reflection is beyond teachers' job descriptions.…”

“…In most studies, female teachers showed a greater degree of involvement in reflective teaching more than their male counterparts (Almusharraf & Almusharraf, 2021;Alsayeud & Almuhammdi 2020;Poyraz and Usta , 2013;Rashidi and Javidanmehr, 2012). For example, in a study conducted on 226 male and 207 female Saudi EFL teachers to determine whether gender affected teachers' engagement in reflective practice, Almusharraf and Almusharraf (2021) found that female EFL teacher adopted reflective practice more than their male counterparts. On the other hand, few studies have found that male EFL teachers outperformed their female counterparts in regards to reflective teaching (Afshar & Farahani, 2015;Ring et al, 2016).…”

“…al., 2019;Noormohammadi, 2014). For example, Almusharraf & Almusharraf (2021) found that the metacognitive activities were the most frequently used activities among EFL Saudi instructors. Phelps et.…”