Abstract

This study traces evidence of reflection in teacher education and teaching practice by measuring reflection of preservice teachers and experienced teachers and clarifying reflection-oriented reactions to possible confusions or problematic situations considering whether or not they are reflective practitioners. The data were collected from 514 volunteer preservice teachers and 466 experienced teachers teaching science, math, English, Turkish, and primary classes. Teacher Reflection Scale (TRS) (Kayapinar and Erkus, 2009) was used to collect data. In order to analyze the data and obtain descriptive statistics for the item results, SPSS 16.0 was employed. Statistical analyses gave evidence that preservice primary teachers had a high mean of reflection. Under the light of the results gathered from data, experienced teachers did not attain higher reflection scores when compared to preservice teachers. There is evidence that math teachers’ experiences in school settings might lead them to reflect on their practices in time. Experienced teachers of English, science, Turkish, and primary education did not attain higher TRS scores when compared to preservice teachers of the same subject areas. There was no statistically significant and meaningful difference between the rank averages of the mentioned groups’ reflection scores. Besides, preservice and experienced primary teachers’ reflection scores seem higher than the ones obtained from other subject areas, and there is no significant difference between these two groups. Preservice and experienced math teachers’ results demonstrate that the scores of experienced math teachers revealed a statistically significant difference at a meaningful level (p=.000).

Key words: Reflection, preservice, teacher, teaching, teacher development.