Reinventing Reflective Learning Methods in Teacher Education

This paper discusses the importance of teaching the capacity to be reflective at earlier stages of the professional development, so that individuals can be more receptive to change throughout their career. It presents the case of 14 teacher trainees, whose use of reflective processes in relation to their understanding of professional identity and growth was investigated by means of a systematic enquiry method. Results showed that this approach can facilitate in-depth reflection, lead to autonomous learners that can make sense of the way old beliefs interfere with new theories and who are able to make the right decisions for changing professional practice.