Gauging the level of reflective teaching practices among science teachers

Abstract

The study aimed at detecting the level of reflective teaching practices used by science teachers in classrooms. It sought to examine the potential alteration of these practices in terms of some variables, namely gender, qualification, experience, and load. The population consisted of all science teachers of physics, chemistry, and biology in the Bani Kenana educational directorate, Jordan. A representative sample of 256 teachers participated in this research work. The study adopted a twenty-seven-item questionnaire for data collection, used the SPSS program for data analysis, and provided statistical measures. The results indicated that the degree of employment of reflective teaching practices by science teachers was somewhat low but also varied depending on the kind of questions raised. They also demonstrated that there were statistically significant differences at the level of (α = 0.05) in the degree of employment of reflective teaching practices due to teachers' gender. However, the results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences for the variables of qualification, experience and load. Henceforth, the study recommended the urgent need of providing teachers with professional development programs for instructing them and raising their awareness of the utility of reflective teaching practices. The study also recommended the supplementation of all disciplinary teacher guides with efficient mechanisms for furthering reflective teaching practices.