Reflection is essential in teacher education.

Professionalization has become a very important issue in the field of early childhood education. Reflection on one's own work is a key component of being a professional (Schon, 1983) and is essential to teacher education. Teachers must examine their beliefs, assumptions and biases regarding teaching and learning, and determine how those beliefs influence classroom practice. Preservice teachers should examine any cultural baggage they may carry in order to evaluate its appropriateness in teaching. Furthermore, since teaching is often an uncertain, dynamic and complex practice, teachers must make constant judgments about appropriate goals, teaching methods and students' learning.

Problems in education have no fixed answers. No teacher education program can prepare teachers for all the situations they will encounter. Teachers themselves will make the final decisions from among many alternatives. Such judgments may be good or poor. Therefore, it is important for teachers to constantly reevaluate their decisions. Reflection improves a teacher's ability to make appropriate and sound judgments and, therefore, become an empowered decision-maker.

Finally, recent research on teacher education raises concerns about teacher education programs' tendency to encourage acquiescence and conformity to the status quo of both schooling and society (O'Loughlin, 1992). These studies also note that teacher education programs too often espouse utilitarian perspectives in which teaching is separated from its underlying educational, social or ethical domains and the technical aspects become an end in themselves rather than a means toward some broader educational purpose. Constant reevaluation of teaching practices in light of new evidence allows a teacher to question assumptions about teaching and learning, and prevents teaching from becoming a passive role in schooling.

Educators and researchers have struggled to define the term "reflection." While Dewey (1933) believed that reflection is an aim of education, others view it as a means to help preservice teachers become effective (Cruickshank, 1987). Defining the parameters of reflection varies from study to study (Tom, 1985). Much of the writing on reflection in teacher education is derived from Dewey (1933). He believed that reflectivity involves active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or practice in light of its supporting grounds and its eventual consequences. Dewey implies that two distinct components are involved in reflective thinking: the process and the content. In order to have a better understanding about teachers' reflective thoughts, both the process and the content of reflective thinking must be considered simultaneously.

Researchers agree that reflection can be summarized as a natural process that facilitates the development of future action from the contemplation of past and/or current behavior. Reflection refers to the ongoing process of critically examining and refining practice, taking into careful consideration the personal, pedagogical, societal (including social, political, historical and economical) and ethical contexts associated with schools, classrooms and the multiple roles of teachers (Knowles, Cole & Presswood, 1994).

While the process element of reflection emphasizes how teachers make decisions, content stresses the substance that drives the thinking. What type of knowledge do teachers or prospective teachers draw upon when they reflect? Content includes understanding children, including their developmental levels and perspectives. Teachers must also consider appropriate teaching methods, teacher's image, professional collaboration and support, and the impact of society on schools; they must have knowledge of a wide range of educational environments, evaluation and interpersonal relationships; and they must have an ethical commitment to children, parents and the field (Surbeck, Han & Moyer, 1993).

Using a reflective or inquiry-oriented approach to teacher education relies greatly on identifying the quality of inquiry that is being sought and the desirability of the ends intended. Van Manen's (1977) analysis Of "level of reflectivity" can help clarify the quality of inquiry. Van Manen identified three levels of reflectivity: technical, professional and critical. The third and final level, the critical level, considers moral and ethical criteria, such as justice and equity, as part of the discourse about education practices. Tom (1984) contends that preservice teacher education should aim for this level, even though it is difficult to reach.

Some teacher educators doubt whether preservice teachers are capable of reflecting on their prospective profession and whether they have enough content upon which to reflect. Teacher development literature reflects these concerns about the lack of reflective thinking, particularly during the student teaching experience. Since student teachers are preoccupied with survival and self-oriented concerns (Fuller & Brown, 1975), they must delay reflecting upon more fundamental education questions. In accordance with this view, some teacher educators consider any attempts to develop reflective teaching highly irrelevant at this stage. Instead, they feel they should provide student teachers with experiences and instruction that will help them survive. A review of the literature on expert and novice teachers uncovers a concern that the fast pace and multiplicity of classroom life prevent preservice or beginning teachers from reflection. Others argue that preservice teachers are not capable of reflecting on teaching because they have limited experience in classroom settings. This argument ignores the value of time spent as a student, which can be a rich source for examination regarding teaching and learning.

While these arguments and concerns have their place, they do not necessarily mean that we should give up our attempts to promote reflective thinking as a means to enhance teachers' developmental process. As Zeichner (1981/82) correctly points out, an exclusive focus on meeting the survival-oriented needs of student teachers or beginning teachers ignores our moral and ethical responsibilities as teacher educators.

Therefore, teacher educators need to determine how they can foster a climate of critical inquiry into practice. Reflective learners, in order to move forward, must move into the center of the learning situation and into the center of their own doubts (Schon, 1987). Students may find that the reflective process leaves them frustrated, embarrassed or confused, and, finally, feeling at-risk. Some students are unprepared to surrender the security of following a prescribed process to learning. Thus, a central condition for promoting reflective practice with preservice teachers is the creation of a safe, nurturing community in which students are comfortable sharing their thoughts.

Preparing minds is an initial step toward reflection, once a learning community is created. Dewey (1933) claimed that reflective thinkers need to be not only skilled in the process of inquiry, but also open-minded, responsible and wholehearted.

Several useful strategies that can promote reflective thinking are: journal writing, autobiographical writing, ethnographic research, curriculum analysis and development and seminars. Journal writing is uniquely able to enhance professional development because it engages students in making beliefs and knowledge explicit and provides an internal dialogue between feelings and thoughts. It also provides a tool for observing, analyzing and evaluating patterns and practices of classroom and school environments. The primary value of autobiographical writing is finding one's roots as a teacher.

In writing their autobiography, prospective teachers acknowledge the primacy of experience in developing perceptions, beliefs and conceptions about practice and what it means to be a teacher. Ethnographic research, through participant observations, interviews with students and teachers and document collection, provides contexts associated with teaching and learning and shows that teaching does not occur in a vacuum. Curriculum development can help preservice teachers become the creators of the curriculum used in their classrooms, rather than merely managers or technicians of instructional programs. A seminar, along with student teaching or field experiences, allows students to analyze classroom actions in light of diverse conceptual frameworks. It also encourages students to become critical consumers of education research.

The ability to reflect in, and on, practice is not an ability that most students can master within a handful of courses and practica, or within a semester of teaching. It is, rather, a lifelong practice that can only begin during preservice education.

References

Cruikshank, D. R. (1987). Reflective teaching. Reston, VA: Association of Teacher Educators.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A statement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co.

Fuller, F., & Brown, O. (1975). Becoming a teacher. In K. Ryan (Ed.), Teacher education (The Seventy-Fourth NSSE Yearbook). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Knowles, J. G., Cole, A. L., & Presswood, C. S. (1994). Through preservice teachers' eyes: Exploring field experience through narrative and inquiry. New York: Macmillan College Publishing Company.

O'Loughlin, M. (1992). Engaging teachers in emancipatory knowledge construction. Journal of Teacher Education, 43(5), 336-346.

Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Surbeck, E., Han, E. P., & Moyer, J. (1993). Becoming a child-sensitive teacher: Can journal writing help? The Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 14(2), 4-10.

Tom, A. R. (1984). Teaching as a moral craft. New York: Longman.

Tom, A. R. (1985). Inquiring into inquiry-oriented teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 36(5), 35-44.

Van Manen, M. (1977). Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical. Curriculum Inquiry, 6(3), 205-228.

Zeichner, K. M. (1981/82). Reflective teaching and field-based experience in teacher education. Interchange, 12(4), 1-21.

Eunhye Park Han is Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education, State University of New York at Geneseo.