The use of reflective journals in professional development

Abstract

Much of the education literature places improving teacher professionalism at the context of any educational improvement. Researchers in education have built their arguments on the assumptions that increasing student performance requires fostering professional growth for teachers. A key aspect of a teacher's applying learning in an authentic professional development context is reflection. Analysis of reflective journals also shows how student teachers grew and interacted with others in the learning community. So it's no wonder that professional developers have implemented many Professional Development programs in their effort to bring out positive change in education and improvement. Undoubtedly, the success of any professional development effort largely depends on the readiness and willingness of the teachers. In this article, I argue that based on such a premise and approach professional development will hardly yield any positive results. Drawing on existing literature, the concept of teachers as reflective practitioners will be incorporated into the theme to encourage them to incorporate reflection into daily teaching practices. By doing so, teachers will adopt an autonomous approach to professional development that makes it easier for them to participate in the lifelong learning process.