Publication Date

5-2014

Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)

3-17-2014

Type of Culminating Activity

Thesis

Degree Title

Master of Arts in Education, Curriculum and Instruction

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies

Major Advisor

Jennifer L. Snow, Ph.D.

Advisor

Philip P. Kelly, Ph.D.

Advisor

Holly Anderson, Ph.D.

Abstract

This study explored the reflective practice among Saudi female in-service teachers. The purpose of this research was to examine the reflective practice skills and attitudes that are used by Saudi teachers. It observed the voice of Saudi teachers during their reflection on their daily practice. Then, this study used the teachers’ narratives to understand how they actually use reflective teaching skills in their classrooms. This study followed convergent parallel mixed methods research design where quantitative and qualitative data were collected separately but concurrently. The study participants were chosen by following the process of stratified random sampling to provide proportional representation of three levels of schools around the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia school district. The research instruments included a survey and individual interviews. The total number of survey respondents was 356 teachers. From this sample, ten teachers volunteered to join the qualitative part of the study, which was comprised of one-to-one structured interviews, following a single class observation. The quantitative data was analyzed by computing descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA inferential tests by using SPSS software. The quantitative data analysis revealed that Saudi female in-service teachers believe that they held the skills and attitudes of reflective teachers.

The qualitative data was analyzed first by locating the practice indicators according to Larrivee’s (2008) Tool to Assess Reflective Teaching. Six indicators are located in the teachers’ narratives: 1) no support for beliefs with evidence from experience, theory or research, 2) ownership of problems to others, 3) seeing oneself as a victim of circumstances, 4) describing problems simplistically or unidimensionally, 5) being preoccupied with management, control, and student compliance, and 6) no connection between teaching actions and student learning or behavior. Then, two major themes were developed to touch on the collective views of the teachers, which were: 1) fixed assumptions about students, and 2) external resources for learning.

Next, both data strands were merged to be discussed together and four themes were generated from the views of the teachers that were related to some reflective teaching skills and attitudes covered in the survey scale. Those themes are: 1) teachers’ use of their teaching experiences, 2) students’ individual difference and fixed assumption about students, 3) getting to know students’ feedback, and 4) evaluating one’s teaching.

This study provides several suggestions for those who work in Saudi teacher education and teacher training programs. Those suggestions include providing a space for Saudi female teachers to modify the provided curriculum and to develop their own teaching style. In addition, the professional development staff should provide in-service teachers with professional training about reflective practice and work with the school leaders to produce a culture of inquiry in their schools. A guidance of future research is presented along with defining the study limitations.

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