Traverses through the landscape of reflective thinking: Teachers’ actions in the context of lesson study

Nirmala Naresh

Abstract


The notion of reflective practice has its antecedent in the works of Dewey (1933) and Schön (1983) and is key to a teacher’s professional growth. In-service professional development models (e.g., lesson study, action research) attend to and embed this vital construct in their program design. In this paper, I feature a lesson study–based professional development program that aimed to foster teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge as well as their reflective thinking. I document the learning experiences of a group of elementary mathematics teachers and describe their journey toward becoming reflective practitioners. The insights that the teachers gained not only helped them traverse the landscape of reflective thinking but also enabled them to become more aware of the significance of using student thinking as a vehicle to inform and enhance their classroom practice.


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