Abstract:

Within the scope of professionalism in TESOL, teachers are expected to develop their teaching knowledge and activities to compete with the latest trends and challenges of the education system. A wide range of strategies can help teachers to enhance their teaching quality. Among them is reflective practice that is considered as a key component in professional development in language teaching. Professional development is the path that leads to enhancing the quality of teaching and learning at the educational, political, and socio-cultural levels. This study aims at investigating the concept of reflective practice from theoretical and practical perspectives. Theoretically, it addresses some particular issues relating to reflective practice with the focus on how reflection has been dealt with by a variety of models and approaches. Practically, this is a qualitative study grounded on interpretive perspectives of teachers regarding the phenomenon of reflective practice. This study aims at (a) understanding how teachers at the college level conceptualize reflective practice inside and outside EFL classroom, and (b) exploring the methods and strategies that they implement to practice reflection and motivation.
This study is based on two questions:

1. How do EFL teachers perceive and view reflection in relation to their teaching and professional development?
2. How can reflective practice be developed into practical strategies and actions in EFL teachers’ professional context?

The study is organized into two parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part reviews the literature on the concept of reflective practice and motivation in relation to professional development through providing certain definitions, theoretical models, and strategies. The practical part draws on the theoretical one, however; it is the core of the study since it deals with two issues. It involves the research design, methodology, and methods of data collection, sampling, and data analysis. It ends up with an overall discussion of findings and the researcher's reflections on the investigated topic.

Keywords:

Professional development, Reflective practice, Motivation.