Abstract
Within the field of teacher education, the significance of promoting critical reflection is highlighted by scholars because it is generally believed that teachers engaging in critical reflection are more able to examine bias, challenge embedded assumptions, and take actions toward educational justice. In the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), there is a growing interest in the cultivation of educators with critical reflection ability. In this chapter, the authors introduce a set of effective tools by which worldwide pre-service TESOL educators can practice critical reflection. The sets include a 4D framework and a worksheet. By incorporating this tool into learning and future English teaching lives, pre-service TESOL educators can be involved in continuous cycles of high-level critical reflection. Through learning on their own reflections, teachers can gain new insights, improve teaching skills, and ultimately, create a more just society for students.
TopConcept
Critical reflection involves the consideration and examination of sociocultural and political issues that impact teachers’ practice (Farrell, 2018). According to Fook (2007), there are two main ways to explain critical reflection. The first one was given by Mezirow (1991) who defined critical reflection as a method to explore, challenge, and replace fundamental assumptions which originate from teachers’ lives. Another interpretation of critical reflection focuses more on the role of power (Brookfield, 1995), including reflecting on social and political factors that limit daily thinking or practice (Riley et al., 2003). The commonality of these two definitions is that critical reflection can lead to transformative actions (Fook, 2007). Critical reflection thus is not just thinking on the surface (Farrell, 2018), but thinking in a deeper and more profound way by taking multiple factors into consideration (Brookfield, 2009; Hatton & Smith, 1995). This is true when it comes to language learning, especially in the field of TESOL, where English language teachers and students are coming from diverse linguistic, sociocultural, and political backgrounds.
Besides incorporating the sociocultural and political aspects into critical reflection, the authors also place a high value on the moral and emotional dimensions of such reflection. Teachers who reflect on moral issues of teaching practice and believe their practice has a moral impact on students and schooling are more likely to care about students as human beings and create a just learning environment (Sharil & Majid, 2010; Yang, 2009). Further, Deng and Yuen (2011) have argued that reflecting on the emotional dimension of teaching practices benefits pre-service TESOL teachers, when they become vulnerable facing dilemmas and struggling with insecurities, which is common during their roles and lives transitioning as future English language teachers.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Equity: An achievement in education that students receive resources and support they need academically, physically, and mentally regardless of their sociocultural, economic, political background.
Dominant Ideology: Thoughts, values, beliefs, and attitudes that belong to the majority of a social group.
4D Framework: A four-step tool for pre-service TESOL educators to conduct critical reflection. The letter “D” stands for the four verbs: describe, dissect, doubt, do.
Social Justice: The fair distribution of goods which includes not only materials things but also non-material concepts, such as rights, power, responsibilities, and social relations.
5R Framework: The framework developed by John D. Bain, Roy Ballantyne, Colleen Mills, and Nita C. Lester aims to guide people to reflect through reporting, responding, relating, reasoning, reconstructing.
Integrated Reflective Cycle: A model of reflection developed by Bassot has four steps: the experience, reflection on action, theory, and preparation for the future.
Critical Reflection: The exploration and questioning of the existing assumptions and/or ideologies, and taking new actions considering sociocultural, political, moral, and emotional factors.
Experiential Learning Cycle: The learning cycle developed by David A. Kolb and Ronald E. Fry has four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation.