BECOMING A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER: A CASE STUDY OF CHINESE LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A COOPERATIVE LEARNING CONTEXT

Reflective practice (henceforth RP) has increasingly become embedded within discourse concerning teachers’ professional development in recent years. Yet RP enjoys little popularity in the research of Chinese language learning and teaching. This study aims to explore the current understanding of reflective practice among a purposeful group of in-service Chinese language teachers and its impact on their professional development in a cooperative context in Italian high schools. The objectives of this study are: 1) to investigate the teachers’ current understanding of RP and their level of engagement; 2) to examine the prominent themes in their reflections; 3) to explore the depth of their reflection; 4) to identify the impact of reflective tools used in this study on their capacity of reflection; 5) to ascertain the significance of reflective practice on their professional development. This study utilizes qualitative methodology and case study approach. Adopting a purposive sampling approach, five in-service Chinese language teachers were selected. Data for this research were gathered from semi-structured interviews, reflective feedback sessions, introductory workshops, classroom observations, reflective journals, e-portfolios, and field notes. The findings indicated that, first of all, all participants had limited knowledge and little engagement in RP when they joined this study. However, through the systematic research process, they developed a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of RP. Secondly, the themes of participants’ reflections can be divided into six main categories, including classroom teaching, evaluating teaching, self-awareness and professional development, educational environment, learners, and theories of teaching. The breadth of participants’ reflections was influenced by their experience, educational background, and support and feedback from others. Thirdly, experienced teachers exhibited higher levels of reflection compared to novice teachers. Fourthly, the participants preferred group discussions and one-on-one reflective feedback sessions with critical friends over e-portfolios and reflective journals, as they believed these activities provided valuable opportunities to cooperate with peer teachers and tailored feedback. Last but not least, all participants confirmed the value of RP in fostering their professional development and experienced varying degrees of positive pedagogical or cognitive transformations, which were correlated to the participant's experience and the degree of open-mindedness to reflective practice. Regarding to barriers to implementing RP, several factors were identified, including time constraints, limited opportunities for collaboration, personal characteristics, and potential technological issues. Despite these obstacles, all participants expressed a positive intention to continue using reflective practice in their future work.