To reflect or not to reflect: investigating reflective practice in teacher education

The study explores pre-service teachers’ use of reflection in teacher education. Senior pre-service teachers (n = 856) in various education colleges and 18 expert faculty members in educational sciences in Türkiye participated in the study. The primary data collection tool utilized in the study was a Pre-service Teacher Reflection Scale, PTRS, developed by the researchers. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and correlation analyses were performed to analyse pre-service teachers’ reflection scores using SPSS version 23.0. The study revealed most of the future teachers exhibited above-average levels of reflective practice. This indicates a generally positive use of reflective practices. The subscales of reflection such as reflection in action, reflection on action, and reflective feedback are also significantly correlated, giving evidence that pre-service teachers engage in reflective practices throughout the teaching cycle. The ones who do not reflect were also examined and discussed. When the group scores were compared, pre-service teachers of social sciences and humanities appeared more inclined towards reflective practices than pre-service teachers of science and math.