Abstract The study sets out to explore the benefits of Reflective practice for professional development in ESL teachers teaching undergraduate classes. There has been a shift in paradigm from teacher training to teacher education and from teacher education to teacher development. As a result, quality improvement through professional development became the responsibility of the teacher him/her self. The aim of the study was to find out whether teachers can learn, grow and improve professionally through their reflections. The study was conducted as a self-reflective inquiry within the framework of teachers’ day-to-day classroom activity. The study was open ended and exploratory in nature and its focus was on gaining access to the intricacies of professional development through reflective practice in the ESL teachers at undergraduate level, teaching both rural and urban students. It also provides the review of the literature, available on the utility of reflective practice in various fields of work. Data from the teacher participants is collected in three stages – pre-reflection data, whilst-reflection data through vignettes, audio-video recording, peer observation, and post-reflection data seeking teachers’ opinion on the utility of the reflective practice for teachers’ professional development. It presents the possibility of practicing reflection in regular classrooms, value of reflection for English teachers’ professional development, its value towards students’ learning, difficulties in implementing the practice, and facilities required for the effective implementation of this practice for teachers’ professional development. They indicate a wide range of possibilities that encompass teachers’ professional development that in turn results in effective classroom practice and indicate the way to further research in this area to help the teachers of English to meet out the global demands of the field effectively. It finally discusses the need for reflective practice as a means to develop ESL teachers professionally.
RAJU BOLLAVARAPU (Fri,) studied this question.