Open AccessReflective Thinking Practices Among Pre-Service Teachers: Comparison Between Malaysia and Australia
Author(s) -
S. Chee Choy,
Judith Dinham,
Joanne Sau-Ching Yim,
Paul J. Williams
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the australian journal of teacher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1835-517X
pISSN - 0313-5373
DOI - 10.14221/ajte.2021v46n2.1
Subject(s) - reflective practice , bachelor , project commissioning , lifelong learning , reflective thinking , teacher education , pedagogy , psychology , critical thinking , professional development , faculty development , perspective (graphical) , mathematics education , publishing , political science , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
Reflective practices are considered an important part of a pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) professional learning experiences. However, there has been much criticisms on its efficacy as a learning tool for teacher professional development. This paper will relate a study that was designed to compare reflective teaching practices in two culturally different countries, namely Malaysia and Australia. These two countries were chosen as they offered an opportunity to study differences in reflective thinking practices from an Asian and a Western cultural perspective among PSTs. The study used a framework using five constructs: lifelong learning skills, self-assessment, self-belief, teaching awareness, and reflective thinking. The sample consisted of 387 Malaysian PSTs and 378 Australian PSTs who are enrolled in Bachelor level programmes. The results clearly indicate that while reflective thinking is emphasised in the teacher education programmes, the conceptualisation of the process of reflective thinking between the two cohorts of PSTs are very different. Limitations and implications for practice are discussed.