Reflective Teaching Practiced at the Higher Education Level - Research Proposal Example

PROPOSAL DESIGN “REFLECTIVE TEACHING” AFFILIATION: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Research questions 8 Methods & procedures 9 Participants 10 Sampling 11 Instrumentation 11 Philosophical position 12 Research Methods 13 References 16 Proposal design Reflective teaching Introduction Research symbolizes progress, advancement, a discovery or just a hypothesis that might later pave ways for advancement. A research article is not just limited to advancements in scientific technology it covers all the wider variety of topics as one can imagine e.g., you can write a research paper about the survey you carried out to know what flavor of ice cream or what brand of chocolate is most commonly sold in your city and why. Any type of research can be conducted, and each research brings in with itself new ideas and experiences of how to make things work better and effective for others. This could be related to any processes or concepts that are developing in any field. Now it is important to look for the reasons for the differences in the sales which might include many factors the taste, cost, availability, brand loyalty etc. and then reaching a conclusion which identifies one factor as the major reason behind the results and builds a hypothesis. To build up a strong hypothesis is important in conducting researches. All the proceedings that take place are according to the hypothesis that has been built and the independent and dependent variables suggested. Most research articles are based on the work done and research carried to enhance the existing technologies and put them to more use, others might just give a hypothesis on the basis of the surveys carried out, while some put forward a totally new theory. Taking a closer look at the various ways of report writing, the one thing that each article shares is that along with the research they all come up with a reasoning which is actually the beauty of the human mind, since it cannot rely just on the facts without going into depths to know the factors which make a certain thing happen. The topic selected for this proposal observes reflective teaching that is usually practiced at the higher education level. Reflective teaching can be defined as the process of improving the teaching methods by carrying out an investigation of one’s own teaching. Literature Review In college and university levels, the method of reflective teaching is highly observed. This paper tends to review the empirical research articles of what has been said about reflective teaching by other researchers and then analyze the gaps that exist in the articles of reflective teaching. The integrated review of the articles that have been selected for this paper is being presented below. The concept of reflective teaching is gaining more popularity with time and it is becoming an important issue to discuss in the field of educational teaching. Teaching is a very important and noble profession. It is highly linked to producing successful citizens in the country. Many researchers have conducted numerous studies in studying about the reflective teaching approaches that have been applied in college and university level teaching (Cruickshank & Metcalf;1990 & Feiman-Nemser, 1990). Teaching is considered to be an art, not everyone has the ability to teach and transfer the knowledge to the students in a comprehensible way. Reflective teaching has the element of experience in itself. When the teachers are applying the reflective teaching processes, they tend to focus on those elements which they know is powerful in influencing the students and making their learning processes easier. For reflective teaching, the teachers need to go through a critical analysis of their teaching methods so that they can be better teachers and improve their teaching ways. Critically analysis may be faced by lots of negative criticisms which needs to b worked upon for producing better reflection of teaching. Some articles have strongly focused on the phenomenon that reflective teaching should focus strongly on both quantitative and qualitative approaches for the improvement in processes of better teaching. Teachers with time tend to improve their teaching skills, and talented teachers may have the ability to bring about a change on their ways, and they are able to build on a repertoire in their strategies for teaching. The articles give a solid view, that to become a reflective teacher one needs to have the ability to answer the questions of how, what and why, that give them strong instructions on their managerial ability to be implemented for the purpose of attaining and implementing broader education at the university level teaching. Answering these critical questions will help to give a better analysis of how the practices of reflective teaching should be conducted. These types of approaches being implemented by the teachers tend to make the teachers more thoughtful and perceptive towards the learning and teaching processes of education. Long term benefits are attained at the teaching institutions if credible reflective teaching is applied with proper demonstrations. The articles and its findings have shed light on the effectiveness of reflective teaching that has been conducted by empirical researches. According to Chandler et al (1991), the reflection of the teaching aspect was not coherent with the performance of teaching. The teachers from a reflective group of teaching may tend to have different performance than from those who are not from a reflective group of teachers. A comparison of teacher’s research was conducted and depicted that those colleges who were implying the reflective teaching programs had found no difference between the teaching practices and innovation level among the teachers to improve the teaching practices that were conducted in the conventional way (Wubbels & Korthagen, 1990). The reflective teaching group was observed to have better relationships with their students, the understanding level between the teacher and student was observed to be stronger in the reflective teaching group. The exposure and experience to reflective teaching adds on towards the successful and effective results of reflective teaching. In other research studies conducted the results were the enforcement of reflective thinking among teachers did not improve the situation of learning among the teaching institutions. For the reflection teaching strategy to be successful, a strong will from the teachers to observe themselves and others should be present. Team teaching needs to be carefully observed and enhanced according to requirements so that reflective teaching can be highly explored in terms of successful implementation. Reflective teaching has a strong focus on observing ones peers and colleagues. What methods others are applying and more importantly is the method beneficial enough for successful transfer of knowledge to the students. In the field of education, the elements of rationalism and reflection portrayed in teaching are considered as two different paradigms. The rationalism element depicts that all questions related to education have the aspect of technical element present in them and they should also be dealt in a technical manner. The process of reflective teaching is a mind emancipation that has evolved from various ideologies and habits, traditions and other factors. The findings of the article portray that attaining enlightenment by the means of emancipation tends to improve the rationality element in the process of reflective teaching. Some researchers came across significant findings for implementing the practices of reflective teaching in classrooms; the results were that the management skills of the teachers were observed to be improved. The adequate features of teachers that practice the reflective teaching methodology tends to give opportunities to its students to experience a new way of learning for its audience. The applications are constantly changing in the world of every field. In one of the articles, the performance has been observed for demonstrating the actual reflective teaching practices. Superiority of teaching has been found in the reflective teaching group, a study conducted by a researcher, Stoiber. Behaviors of teachers have been found to be affected by the instructions they are provided for carrying out the teaching practices in the class. The conclusion of many of the articles depicted that reflective teaching cannot be generalized in a specific way; it’s an ongoing process which requires constant enhancement and improvement. The findings of the articles showed that the performance of teachers have been clarified with the direct instructions they receive from the school management, be it in giving a general education or any specific type of education. The success of the teaching ability has been linked to the achievement of the students. The integrated reviews of the articles have been given above. The gaps that were observed in the articles were that the concept of reflective teaching was mainly focused on the perception of the teachers, what they feel about this method of teaching. The student views were not promoted or shed light upon deeply. Also, the benefit or the impacts of reflective teaching on the different modes of learning were not discussed in a detailed manner. These aspects of the study on reflective teaching are highly important for the spontaneous and successful improvement of the phenomenon itself. The methods and procedures of this aspect have been discussed further following the research questions that have been designed after analyzing the gaps from the study of articles. Research questions The research questions designed for this proposal after reviewing the articles are as mentioned below: How does reflective teaching enhance the different modes of learning? How do the students compare the conventional way of teaching and the reflective way of teaching? Methods & procedures The process of research is a systematic way gathering the data from various sources for conducting an analysis and reaching to a specific (Thornhill et al, 2007). The main focus of this research is to carry out an investigation of how reflective teaching enhances and impacts the different modes of learning and what is the better teaching practice according to the students who are being taught the conventional way and through the reflective way of teaching. The term ‘research’ is heard in our everyday life; however, every time authenticity of research is required, it must be supported by data (Thornhill et al 2007, p.4). Therefore, to carry out this research the required data is necessary to gather, which is the opinions of the students. This will be carried out through surveys. Also through observation, the different modes of teaching can be analyzed. Basic research is more focused towards expanding knowledge of processes of businesses and management, while finding its significance and value to society in general (Thornhill et al 2007, p.8). On the other hand, applied research is focused towards improving the understanding of particular business or management problem, while providing a solution (Thornhill et al 2007, p.8). This research is more inclined towards basic research; however, since the research requires recommendations to be provided to the company, the element of applied research also exists. Therefore, a blend of both applied and basic research is adopted. Participants The participants that should be selected for this study are the college and university level students who are enrolled in the graduate and under graduate programs. These students will shed more light on what they feel about the teaching practices and what is more feasible as a strong mode of teaching, the conventional way or the reflective way of teaching. At this level of studies, the students have had a lot of experience with the various teaching background they have gone through and the students are in a stable position to give their opinions on the reflective teaching situations and how it affects their mode of learning. The different schools of thought have variously interpreted the qualities and challenges faced by reflective teachings. The context of teaching has been demonstrated by taking into consideration the social and cultural conditions that are related to the different theories of education. The research conducted will be a qualitative based research. The project requires visiting the universities for conducting the surveys with the students. The independent variables are the teachers’ perceptions and the student’s opinions. The dependent variables are the environment of learning, the materials provided for teaching, the modes of tools used for teaching the students in different educational institutions. Sampling The data collection process should focus on all students that are in the range of between 18-26 years of age from the selected colleges and universities for the purpose of conducting this research. The sampling should be conducted on a random basis. Random sampling method should be used in selecting both the teachers and the students from the different universities. This way a wide variety of responses can e achieved from students studying at different levels in the universities. Instrumentation The tools that are to be used for carrying out the research study are to conduct surveys and interviews of the students and the teachers. A combination of two different types of qualitative data collection techniques will be used; interviews, as primary data and other books, journal, newspaper and websites as secondary data, thus making the collection technique to be multi-method qualitative study (Thornhill et al 2007, p.145). The primary data collection technique utilized during this exploratory study is interviews, which allows the research to infer an in-depth relationship between variables (Thornhill et al 2007, p.315). Interviews may take one of the three forms; structured, semi-structured or unstructured. For the purpose of this research semi-structured interviews are used, which provides framework whilst allowing flexibility to exploring issues in more detail (Thornhill et al 2007, p.312). Such an approach towards interviews provides opportunity to the researcher to probe deeply, open up new dimensions of a problem and to secure vivid, accurate inclusive accounts that are based on personal experiences (Lowe 2000, p. 73). Secondary data is employed in order to support primary data, as not all required information would be easily available through primary research methods (Sekaran 2000). During research, such resources were mostly useful because of accessibility, reliability and relevance to the topic (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 248). Philosophical position The process of conducting the research strongly impacts the way the view and conclusion that the researcher derives (Thornhill et al 2007). Reflective teaching impact on students can only be analyzed once the opinion of the students have been categorized. In order to simplify the process, the first and foremost step towards a research process is to understand the philosophical stance that has been taken. According to Thornhill (2007), there are three major ways that a researcher might approach research philosophy; epistemology, ontology and axiology (p. 102). Social impact on the performance of human resource is of concern and cannot be ignored in this research. The main aim of this research will involve investigating the reflective teaching practices and their impact on the modes of learning and what the opinions of the students are regarding reflective teaching. Thus a subjectivism position, depending on researchers ideology, will be adopted in this research, as objectivism is believed to be too simplistic (Thornhill et al 2007). Such a philosophical position comes under the study of Ontology, which is concerned with the nature of reality (Thornhill et al 2007, p.108). Establishment of this research paradigm, may result in four outcomes; functionalist and radical structuralist, which are in line with objectivist. However, radical humanist and interpretive comes under subjectivist (Thornhill et al 2007, p.112). Taking the philosophical approach of subjectivism and the main aim of this research being reflective teaching practices in educational institutions , which is created and re-created through a complex array of phenomena which include social interaction and physical factors such as office layout, rituals and myths, the paradigm can be established (Thornhill et al 2007, p.109). Social actors within the organization need to be understood in order for culture to be understood, thus the paradigm created would be interpretive paradigm as it attempts to make sense of the world around us (Thornhill et al 2007, p.113). On the other hand, radical humanistic paradigm relates to a judgment about the way organizational affairs should be conducted and suggests way in which these affairs many be conducted in order for improvement of procedures. The fundamental changes to the normal order of things (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 113). The relationship between data and theory is an issue that has been debated by philosophers for many centuries (Lowe 2000, p. 21). Whether the approach is inductive or deductive depends on how clear the researcher is about the theory before designing the project (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 113). Research Methods There are two different types of data collection techniques; qualitative and quantitative (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 145). This research investigates the impacts on the modes of learning due to reflective teaching and the opinions of the students, such collection of data would be categorized as qualitative technique since no numbers are involved. Qualitative research has a long and distinguished history in human disciplines (Denzin et al 2003, p. 1). According to Van Maanen (1983), qualitative method is defined as ‘ an array of interpretive techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the social world’ (p. 9). Even so, a combination of two different types of qualitative data collection techniques will be used; interviews, as primary data and other books, journal, newspaper and websites as secondary data, thus making the collection technique to be multi-method qualitative study (Thornhill et al 2007, p.. 145). The primary data collection technique utilized during this exploratory study is interviews, which allows the research to infer an in-depth relationship between variables (Thornhill et al 2007, p.. 315). Interviews may take one of the three forms; structured, semi-structured or unstructured. For the purpose of this research semi-structured interviews are used, which provides framework whilst allowing flexibility to exploring issues in more detail (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 312). The issue will be discussed more deeply about the reflective teaching issues that are taking place in the educational institutions. Such an approach towards interviews provides opportunity to the researcher to probe deeply, open up new dimensions of a problem and to secure vivid, accurate inclusive accounts that are based on personal experiences (Lowe 2000, p. 73). Through the differently structured interview, the various respondents may give their opinions on what they perceive from the reflective teaching practices and how it should be implemented in the teaching institutions. Secondary data is employed in order to support primary data, as not all required information would be easily available through primary research methods (Sekaran 2000). There is a lot of literature available on the practices of reflective teaching and how it impacts the educational institutions. Constant studies are under practice to improve the teaching practices that are being applied in the educational institutions. During research, these resources will prove to be mostly useful because of accessibility, reliability and relevance to the topic (Thornhill et al 2007, p. 248). References Cruickshank, D. & Metcalf, K. (1990) Training within Teacher Preparation, in W. Houston (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. New York:Macmillan. Denzin, N. & Lincoln, Y. (2003). Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials. Second Edition, Sage Publications, California, USA. Feiman-Nemser, S. (1990) Teacher Preparation: structural and conceptualalternatives, in W. Houston (Ed.) Handbook of Research on Teacher Education.New York: Macmillan. Lowe, A., Thorpe, R. & Easterby-Smith, M. (2000). Management Research. An Introduction. Sage Publications, London. Sekaran, U. (2000). Research Methods for Business, A Skill – Building Approach’. Third Edition, John Wiley & Sons, USA. Stoiber, K. (1991) The Effect of Technical and Reflective Instruction on Pedagogical Reasoning and Problem Solving, Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), pp. 131-139. Thornhill, A,. Lewis, P. & Saunders M. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students. Fourth Edition, Person Education Limited, England. Chapter 4, p. 100. Van Maanen, J. (1983). Qualitative Methodology. Sage publications, London. Wubbels, Th. & Korthagen, F. (1990) The Effects of a Preservice TeacherEducation Program for the Preparation of Reflective Teachers, Journal of Education for Teaching, 16, pp. 29-43. Read More