Reflection as an Inset Tool for Teachers’ Professional Development in the 21st Century: A Quantitative Study

The major importance of reflection to teachers’ professional development in the 21st century via the exploration and re-examination of perceptions, attitudes and practices related to their didactic and pedagogical work has been widely recognized in the scholarly literature. The purpose of this paper is to discuss an empirical study which investigates the extent to which reflection is used as an INSET tool for teachers’ professional development in the 21st century. The research questions examine whether in-service training (a) fosters teachers’ individual and collective reflection, (b) activates teachers’ reflection on their educational practices and (c) uses reflective methods/techniques which contribute to teachers’ professional development. To this end, the quantitative research method was selected to gather data via an online questionnaire answered by 290 in-service state-school primary teachers. According to the research findings, in-service training slightly or not at all implements reflective training practices to foster teachers’ individual and collective reflection on their educational work, which results in teachers’ low satisfaction with INSET methods and techniques. Furthermore, empirical data reveal that in-service training does not foster teachers’ reflection to encourage them to explore, re-examine and change their deep-rooted educational perceptions and practices, while the inadequate use of reflective training practices which could enable trainee teachers to perceive, understand and cope with the challenges emerging from their complicated role and mission in the 21st-century socio-educational context also results in INSET failure to contribute to teachers’ professional development in the 21st century. Findings raise implications for INSET review and reform regarding the implementation of more reflective training practices towards developing teachers’ reflective skills as a prerequisite to the 21st-century socio-educational transformation. Article visualizations: