Abstract:

Reflective teaching and learning in higher education is a frequent object of research in seeking to identify the most efficient teaching practices of teacher educators and sense-making of prospective teachers’ learning experience. Despite a number of didactic approaches responding to the challenges of the modern society to higher education and supporting the student’s active learning, there is a lack of research on how the dimension of presence of the curriculum unfolds and is developed, how the student’s critical presence guaranteeing personality maturation – the ability to act consciously and responsibly in the constantly changing environment – is supported. Mutual dialogue is directly related to reflective persons’ motivation for modelling the conscious activity and indirectly determines self-empowerment for continuous improvement.
The presentation aims to reveal the trends of manifestation of reflective teaching and learning at the higher education institution, identifying the challenges and opportunities of this process. The following objectives are formulated to achieve the goal: 1) to reveal teacher educators’ reflective teaching experiences, identifying the strengths of this process and the areas for improvement; 2) to find out the trends of students’ reflective learning, distinguishing the determinants of its effectiveness in student teachers’ activity. Research methodology is based on the combination of the qualitative and quantitative research, conceptualizing and presenting the results of conducted studies.
The results of the quantitative research conducted using a written survey (closed-ended questionnaire), which involved students of the higher education institution, reveal that theoretical studies still contain forms of non-reflective learning, which encompass students’ individual spontaneous and intuitive reflection, assimilation of knowledge without making a deliberate effort. Ignoring students’ personal ideas and experiences during learning promotes formal type intellectual activity, without using existing experience and previously acquired knowledge. There is more focus on accumulation of factual material and its quantity than on learning strategies oriented to reflection on knowledge and experience and their integration.
The results of the qualitative content analysis performed using the method of reflective writing, which involved teacher educators of the higher education institution, reveal that reflection is more oriented to the activity results rather than the process itself, the importance of theoretical knowledge or the analysis of personal actions in order to combine students’ theoretical knowledge and experience. Ways of collaboration and teaching / learning from the experience of others are not common in teacher educators’ practice. Most often, reflection is performed intuitively, allocating insufficient time in the study process.
Summarizing the results, the possibilities of improving the teacher education process are discussed, it is attempted to answer the question of how to empower the student to learn reflectively and how to encourage teacher educators to apply innovative strategies promoting reflection on lived experience.

Keywords:

Reflective teaching, reflective learning, teacher education, challenges, possibilities.