Identifier: TDX:699
Authors: Chacón Corzo, Maria Auxiliadora
Abstract:
Teacher development is a controversial area, and nowadays, the need to develop committed teachers with a life long learning attitude is being discussed. This need demands an effort to develop teachers' potential from the beginning of the career. From this perspective, this investigation conducted with the Practicum student teachers at the University of Los Andes Tachira 'Dr. Pedro Rincon Gutierrez' in Venezuela, took place in two stages. In the first one, the major goal was to explore the students' conceptions about the Practicum and the reflective learning experiences they had acquired as well as to examine the critical reflective competences they had, and how they applied them in the Practicum. Based on the findings, during the second stage the objectives aimed at designing and implementing an intervention through a Reflective Teaching Program. In the first stage, the study used an interpretative qualitative paradigm to understand and interpret the phenomenon. In the second stage, action research was introduced as an approach to tackle improvement and change in the initial development program of the school teachers. Qualitative instruments such as interviews, observation, and student diaries as well as a questionnaire were used to explore the students' perceptions. As a result of the analysis, interpretation, and comparison of data, findings show that intervention helped improve student teachers' competencies to reflect because it fostered reflection-in-practice and on-practice. Likewise, the participants in the study made progress in their levels of reflection aimed at in the investigation. Therefore, it can be concluded that reflective teaching is an alternative to develop intellectual teachers who research their own practice, and therefore, construct their own knowledge about teaching.KEY WORDS: developing teachers, elementary school, reflection, critical, reflective teaching.
Repositori URV