Critical Reflection Through Journal Writing : A Case Study

Reflection and critical enquiry are fundamentally important in teacher development (Richards, 1998), and journal writing has been considered as a useful tool for teacher development for a long time (Farrell, 1998).However, there are only a few studies that have investigated how efficiently journal writing promotes critical reflection.Moreover, there is no research that has explored the reason why teachers do or do not reflect through journal writing.In the present paper, the author first analyzes how critically he reflected on his teaching through journal writing, then investigates what promoted his critical reflection.Unlike past research's suggestions, the findings of the current paper indicate that not only the teacher's experience or personality, but also external factors such as the ease of classroom management, classroom atmosphere, or teaching schedules can influence why teachers reflect (or do not reflect) critically.