EFL Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices of Reflective Teaching as a Means for Professional Development

This study investigated English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions and practices of reflective teaching in the Mekong Delta context. It was a mixed methods study using a descriptive research design with two instruments: a questionnaire and interviews. Eighty-one EFL teachers from different provinces in the Mekong Delta were invited to participate in the study. The findings indicated that EFL teachers’ perceptions of the role of reflective teaching were quite high, and there was no significant difference between males and females in their perceptions. The group of senior teachers (with 21 years plus teaching experience) perceived the roles of reflective teaching at the highest level. In contrast, the contrary was seen for the group of less senior teachers. Among the five dimensions of reflective teaching, affective reflection and metacognitive reflection were the two most commonly practiced, while critical reflection was at the lowest level of reflective teaching in practice. Finally, gender and teaching experience were found not to affect the practices of reflectivity among EFL teachers. The study outlined important challenges that EFL teachers generally confronted in reality and suggested relevant strategies to improve reflective teaching practice as a means of professional development in Vietnam and similar contexts worldwide.