Comparing reflective teaching skills of experienced and inexperienced physics teachers at different reflection levels

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to compare reflective teaching’ skills such as observation, communication, judgment, decision making, and team working between experienced and inexperienced physics teachers at different levels of reflection (technical, contextual, and didactical level). The sample of this study consists of 60 physics teachers from 31 secondary schools in Malaysia. The quantitative and qualitative methods used to investigate the experienced and inexperienced physics teachers’ reflective teaching skills are questionnaire survey, open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Results revealed that the experienced teachers were able to reflect mostly at the contextual level and inexperienced teachers reflect mostly at the technical level. Findings indicated that experienced teachers to reflect on their teaching applied reflecting teaching skills in 3 levels of reflection more than inexperienced teachers. Understanding the characteristics and differences of reflective teaching skills at different levels between experienced and inexperienced physics teachers can lead to find ways to improve these skills among physics teachers.