The relation between reflection and the quality of a preschool teacher’s education performance

Abstract

Many developed countries have been concentrating lately on the quality of preschool education. Generally, what is considered one of the most important aspects of quality preschool education is quality teaching performance, which has been focused on in many research studies. Research also investigates the level of reflection in preschool teachers, especially in relation to their professional development. However, none of the research studies have, so far, focused on observing the relationship between the two phenomena. We carried out a multiple case study to investigate the relationship between the quality of reflection and the quality of teachers´ performance. Eight pre-primary teachers were video-recorded in their work, and subsequently, in-depth interviews were conducted. During the interviews, we used stimulated recall over selected video sequences, focusing specifically on selected aims of education. The findings indicate that teachers with a higher quality of reflection reached higher quality in the selected areas of teachers’ performance. The results also showed that the teachers with a university degree reached higher quality performance. The findings can contribute to the discussion on the professional development support of preschool teachers and can initiate a discussion on the need to examine the university preparation programmes for these teachers.