Indonesian novice EFL teachers' understanding of and engagement in reflective practice: An exploratory study

Reflective practice, its benefits and role in teaching have received much scholarly attention. Although several studies investigated the reflective practice concept in many contexts from several perspectives, not many studies have explored how it is understood among practising teachers. The number of studies exploring reflective practice in the Indonesian context is even smaller. Hence, this thesis aimed to investigate how Indonesian novice EFL teachers understood and engaged in the concept. In this regard, the current study set its research context as two cities in West Java, Indonesia. This study took a qualitative exploratory study approach and applied the convenience sampling method to choose six participants. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, pre- and post-observation conferences, classroom observations and reflective journals. The NVivo 12 Software was used to store the vast amount of collected data, and thematic analysis was applied to analyse it. The findings suggested that the participants conceptualised reflective practice as a flashback activity to enhance their practice. Equally, the participants engaged in four types of reflection: reflection-before-action (RbA), reflection-in-action (RinA), reflection-on-action (RonA), and reflection-for-action (RfA). It was observed that generally the participants’ different types of reflections intersected. The participants’ reflections were also analysed through the five levels of Farrell’s (2015) framework: philosophy, principles, theory, practice and beyond practice. Hence, the participants’ reflections on their personal and professional identities, their perceived roles in education, their assumptions, beliefs and conceptions, their espoused theories and theories in use were presented. Moreover, the participants’ reflections on the curriculum and delivery methods were explored as well as their reflections on educational policies and sociocultural issues. It was noted that the findings of the current study mostly aligned with the previous research, especially in terms of attributing to the reflective practice concept a retrospective aspect. Furthermore, the results of this study suggested that a holistic reflection did not necessarily mean critical reflection. It was indicated that although describing and justifying the critical incidents were crucial, teachers needed an action plan to enhance their upcoming practices. Therefore, a full cycle of reflection, namely, RbA, RinA, RonA, and RbA is encouraged among the practitioners. Based on the findings and thorough discussions, several implications were presented for educational researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.