Let’s Look Back at What I Did: Promoting Reflective Practice in ELT in Thailand

This chapter focuses on an undergraduate degree in English Language Teaching, that is, the Bachelor of Education in English, at a public university in Thailand. In this degree, pre-service teachers are required to undertake a teaching practicum in schools in the final year as a requirement of their programme. On the programme, reflective practice is encouraged through a variety of methods and tools, including teaching reflection, peer coaching, group discussions, online video conferences, supervisory meetings, and journal writing. In this context, reflective practice is continually emphasized during the programme, particularly in pre-service teachers’ practica, with the aim of supporting them as teachers-to-be in integrating their learning experiences and reflections on their teaching practices as they strive to become more effective teachers of English. Significantly, reflective practice helps them to understand how to interpret theory and concepts in relation to local contextual realities. This chapter starts by providing an overview of the teacher education programme in Thailand, and then discusses how reflective practice is integrated into the programme, highlighting how reflective practice activities are utilized as an avenue for pre-service teachers to establish connections between content and practical experience. Additionally, the challenges and limitations of developing reflective practice are addressed, and strategies considered to be successful and useful are discussed. Finally, some practical guidance is provided to educators working in similar contexts on how the lessons learnt from this Thai context might be used to promote reflective practice elsewhere.