Teachers' Views of the Emphasis on Reflective Teaching Skills during Their Student Teaching

98 elementary teachers were mailed a 29-item questionnaire to determine their perception of the degree to which they were encouraged to use reflective thinking and teaching skills during their student teaching. Questions were clustered under 4 major categories of reflective teaching: retrospective and predictive thought, critical inquiry, problem-solving skills, and the acceptance and use of feedback. Responses were analyzed to determine the bias of the perceptions, which ranged on a 4-point Likert-type scale from low to high. Results show that student teachers generally felt encouraged to reflect on their teaching practices and their effects on students. However, they perceived only moderate encouragement for several items within the 4 clusters (long-term lesson effects; self-evaluation; generation of ideas; inquiry into curriculum, methods, and values; and strategies for problem solution) and a significantly low degree of encouragement for others (inquiry into ethical/political principles, application of research, and solicitation of student feedback). Incongruities between theory and previous research and teacher perceptions are also discussed.