Reflective teaching in an EFL writing instruction course for Thai pre-service teachers

Abstract

Reflective practice has been proved to be a meaningful way of learning about teaching and various aspects of teachers’ work by several studies in different EFL teaching contexts. In Thailand, despite the commonly-reported problems about the English language education program for prospective English teachers, a few studies were conducted on how to improve the situation. By employing the reflective teaching approach, this study reports on how an educator assisted 48 Thai pre-service English teachers to learn how to teach English writing in the Writing Instruction course. The findings from the survey, the teacher-educator’s notes during the course and the focus-group interview showed the considerable success of this teaching approach. Furthermore, the information from the evaluations on micro-teaching performances by the teaching groups, their peers and teacher-educator, and the students’ reflections on their teaching strengths and weaknesses and their plans for reconstructing their teaching revealed some considerations for improvement. This study is thus expected to not only reflect on how teacher-educators are trying to improve the quality of English preservice-teachers in Thailand and to develop their experiences to be life-long learners, but also provide some insights to enhance reflective prospective teachers in other educational settings with similar teaching and learning cultures.