Teachers' professional development in a private school in Lebanon : a case study on the role of in-house training in developing teachers' reflective practice

النوع : Mémoire

Reflective practice has become a major element in teachers' professional development (PD) as it helps in building the capacities of teachers to constantly learn and enhance student learning. However, little research has been done to investigate the role of in-house PD programs in enhancing teachers' reflective practice. This study was conducted in a private school in Lebanon that characterizes itself as a learning community and has an in-house PD program that aims to develop teachers into reflective practitioners. The purpose of the study was threefold, first to examine and describe the in-house professional development program in the school and the approaches it adopts to train teachers on reflective practice, second to investigate the teachers’ perceptions of the role of the professional development program in enhancing their understanding of reflective practice and their ability to reflect, and third to identify the contextual factors in the school that had an impact on the development of reflective practice from the teachers’ perspective. Data were collected from the analysis of school documents, individual semi-structured and focus group interviews with teachers, a joint interview with the School Head and PD Director and observation of PD sessions. A constant comparative method to data analysis was used. The results showed that the school established a PD program which includes several activities that require teachers to engage in reflective practice collectively and individually. The majority of the teachers classified their reflection level on the higher end between practical and critical or on all three levels. However, the evidence showed that not all teachers have reached the critical level yet. Most of the teachers believed their ability to reflect has improved over time after joining the school due to the PD program practices, collaboration opportunities and the resources made available to them at the school. Nevertheless, some hindering aspects were identified such as a lack of common understanding of reflection at the school, high reliance on structured guidance within the PD approach, and lack in teachers’ abilities to foster higher levels of reflection among each other.It was recommended that the PD program adopts a developmental approach for teachers to become self-directed reflective practitioners. Also, the school can build on the fact that the teachers appreciated the collaboration opportunities by developing teachers’ coaching skills in order to be able to promote their colleagues’ level of reflective practice to higher levels.