Reflection in Teacher Education Programmes for Novice EFL Teachers

The present paper focuses on the concept of reflection as an integral component of professional English Foreign Language teacher education. Many scholars have acknowledged its paramount importance in teachers’ training and development and the relevant literature reveals that reflection may herald the beginning of a true learning process towards professional growth, productive change and professional autonomy. Thus, it appears as an imperative need to evaluate whether teacher preparation programmes develop reflective abilities in their trainees. It is primarily for this reason that the study seeks to investigate whether the compulsory, induction training programme offered by the Greek State for the newly appointed English Foreign Language teachers (P.E.K. induction training programme) grants them sufficient space, time and support to engage in reflective thought and action consciously and creatively. The research that is conducted employs the questionnaire as its methodological tool with a view to collecting sufficient data, whose analysis will lead to valuable conclusions. The results show that the training programme under investigation bears a great weakness since it marginalises the role of reflection leaving its rich potential unexploited. The findings provide a strong case for assigning greater value to reflective practices and for enhancing the quality of reflection in the specific induction training programme through the adoption of various promising techniques.