September 2005 Volume 9, Number 2
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The Impact of Teacher Knowledge Seminars: Unpacking Reflective Practice

Andy Curtis
Queen's University
Ontario, Canada

Margit Szestay
Hungary

Abstract

This paper reports on the learning outcomes described by experienced teachers attending a program designed to enable them to come together to engage in professional development through structured and systematic reflective practice. In the first part of the paper, we look briefly at some of the challenges of defining "reflective practice". We then describe the particular project we worked with, and present the collection and analysis of interviews with seven teachers and survey data from 35 teachers working within and near to schools in Vermont, USA. Six themes emerged from the teachers' responses:

• Renewed enthusiasm for teaching
• Looking at teaching with "fresh eyes"
• Shifts in understanding teaching
• Becoming more reflective and aware as teachers
• Enhancing the quality of student learning
• Building professional communities

These recurring themes are discussed in relation to teachers' knowledge, beliefs and learning and in relation to teachers' ways of knowing.

Keywords: EFL, ESL, Teacher Knowledge, Reflective Practice, Second Language Teacher Development, Inquiry groups

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