Reflective Practice: Studying changes in a Mathematics Teacher's Classroom Practice

This study investigated a mathematics school teacher changing his classroom practice through reflective practice. The study, which was in the form of action research, was conducted in Livingstone District of the Southern Province of Zambia, targeting teachers of mathematics in upper basic schools. The action research method was used to conduct this study and data were solicited from one teacher of mathematics at upper basic school level who was purposively selected. The instruments used to collect data were recording sheets and audiotape recordings for semi-structured interviews, lesson observations and reflection sessions, as well as lesson plans. Data were manually coded, emerging data were arranged in phases and data were analysed descriptively.

The main objective of the study was to examine the changes, if any, which took place in the teacher's classroom practice through reflective practice. The findings of this research were such that: (i) the teacher initially spoke well about issues to do with classroom practice and reflection -which was not the case during the first phase lesson observations; and (ii) collaboration with the teacher brought about some deeper reflections on classroom practices which, in the final analysis, brought about some changes in his teaching practice and also made me realise areas where 1 needed to put more effort as a teacher educator.The report concludes with recommendations for reflective practice for teachers of mathematics and mathematics teacher educators who are directly involved in issues of quality delivery of the subject. While this study was a single case study, it would still be of great help especially for teachers of mathematics and teacher educators if they would take note of the results of this study and the changes that took place through reflective practice, and strive to see how such would work in their own setups. There are also some suggestions for further research in related areas of reflective practice and teachers' classroom practice.The implication of the findings is that it is possible for mathematics teachers to become reflective practitioners and be made to think about what they are doing. This suggests that the reflective practice of many mathematics teachers could be enhanced if the inspectorate and advisory services departments in the education ministries take their role of encouraging teachers to be reflective practitioners seriously.