Reflective Practice in ELT

The concept of reflective practice has proliferated over the last few decades in many professions such as medicine, law, business and education. Within the field of education reflective practice has become a very popular concept within teacher education and development programs and perhaps its main appeal according to Loughran (2000: 33) is that it 'rings true for most people as something useful' to practice. Indeed as McLaughlin (1999:9) has remarked, 'Who would want to champion the unreflective practitioner?' The general consensus is that teachers who are encouraged to engage in reflective practice can gain new insight of their practice. There have been similar developments in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) where the allure of reflective practice seems to have also been embraced as an important educational paradigm that should be supported in teacher education and development programs. This book is the first in a new series consisting of several practical oriented books that introduce cutting-edge research and practical applications of that research related to reflective practice in language education. Written by the series editor, it acts an introduction to the series and outlines and discusses the concept of reflective practice in general, the various models and approaches to reflective practice and gives guidance on cultivating reflective practice.