Reflective Practice as a Tool for Quality Assurance in Professional Development of Primary School Teachers
- December 8, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Education, IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Likando Mundia (PhD)
Mongu Catholic College of Education, Mongu, Western-Zambia
The purpose of this article is to advocate for the institutionalisation and implementation of reflective practice in the Zambian education system so that quality assurance among primary school teachers is achieved. Reflective practice is a common phenomenon in successive and effective educational systems and teachers in the world. It has been regarded as one of the characteristics successive and quality educational systems and teachers in the world (Rarieya, 2005). This means that the quality of any educational system and teachers can be measured by their engagement in reflective practice.
From the above it can be said that reflective practice is closely related to quality assurance in that the quality of any educational system and teachers is to a larger extent affected by the presence or absence of reflective practice. Researchers (Stanton, 1990; Braun & Crampler, 2005) have indicated that primary school teachers who do not engage in reflective practice their teaching become haphazardly, accidentally and superficially done. Such primary school teachers are more likely to teach in the same way they were taught and this would result into the repetition of the same ineffective strategies and this automatically affect the quality assurance of the educational system.
Quality assurance according to Harvey and Green (1993:19-20) is about “ensuring that there are mechanisms, procedures and processes in place to insure that the desired quality however defined and measured delivered. The assumption implicit in the development of quality assurance is that if mechanisms exists, quality can be assured.”
From the above definition, it is important to note that before society can demand quality from the education system and from our primary school teachers there is need to ensure that mechanisms, procedures and processes are put in place. Reflective practice is among the procedures, mechanisms and processes that can enhance quality assurance.
