Secondary School English Teachers’ Applications of Reflective Teaching Strategies to Improving Students’ Writing Skills
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Abstract
Reflective teaching is regarded as one of the key pedagogical approaches to improve teachers’ professional practices. This approach is not only an opportunity for teachers to learn from experience but also essentially an approach that helps students to develop their language skills including the writing skill. Accordingly, this study explores English language teachers’ implementation of reflective teaching strategies that aim to improve students’ writing skills. To achieve this, the study employed the exploratory sequential mixed design and it involved 39 Grade 11 English language teachers from ten schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In collecting the data, the study used classroom observations and questionnaires as the major data collection tools. Analysis of the qualitative data generated through classroom observations was made using observational qualitative data analysis method whereas the quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that while the English teachers acknowledge the importance of reflective teaching in improving students’ writing, a significant number of them were found reluctant in applying the reflective approach in their writing classes. These, in turn, make it difficult for the teachers themselves to infuse effective writing skills in students at the secondary school level. The main reasons were teachers’ gaps in understanding the theories related to reflection, lack of practical skills to implement the reflective teaching approach effectively, teachers’ gaps in empowering students to undertake self and peer-reflections, poor practice of keeping records of teaching practices and limitations in conducting action research.
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