Integration of Reflective Practice into a Writing Pedagogical Course at a Teacher-Education Program in Thailand

Abstract

Teachers are the greatest assets of any education, and teacher-education
plays a crucial role in reforming and strengthening the education system of
any country. In this practice-based professional learning setting, reflective
practice (RP) is considered as an empowering teaching mode. The findings
from several studies on this topic, conducted in different EFL teaching
contexts, have proved that RP is a meaningful way of learning about
teaching and plays a central role in teachers' professional development. In
Thailand, despite the commonly-reported problems about the English
language education program, a few studies were conducted on how to
improve the training for prospective English teachers. Besides a brief review
of RP, its significance and classifications in teacher-education, this paper

will share the integration of this practice into a Writing Pedagogical course
at a teacher-education program and its effectiveness to assist Thai preservice
English teachers to become reflective practitioners. This paper is thus
expected to shed some light on how teacher-educators can improve the
quality of Thai preservice English teachers by training them to be life-long
learners.