The growth of reflective practice among three beginning secondary mathematics teachers

This paper reports a study of three beginning secondary mathematics teachers and how their reflective practice developed during a one-year university teacher education program and concurrent professional fieldwork experience or practicum. The participants were interviewed three times during the practicum and once more in their first year of teaching, to investigate the nature and depth of their self-reflections about the practicum and their relationship with their supervising teachers. A three-stage, hierarchical model of reflective practice (Lee, 2005) was used to interpret the interview responses. Results show some improvement in the participants' ability to reflect on their teaching during the practicum, while also highlighting the importance of the practicum school context in their professional formation and professional development. The beginning teachers developed a greater capacity for reflection in their first year of teaching, but even then their responses were generally descriptive in nature rather than demonstrating critical reflection. We suggest some reasons for this.