Reflection has long been used as a professional development tool in teacher education. However, researchers have criticised that reflection is a loosely defined term and that there is little agreement on how reflection should be conducted. To achieve a more systematic application, a critical incident framework is proposed in this study and used as a reflective tool in a workshop with in-service teachers in Hong Kong. This small-scale study is based on the stories of critical incidents, journal entries and follow-up interviews provided by a sample of Hong Kong teachers. The results show that after being given the opportunity to reflect on their practices with a small community of peers, the participants showed more engaging participation in professional development and became more mindful of their ability to learn from personal experience. Moreover, after practising reflection, the teachers engaged in self-cure and used the knowledge of their previous experiences to effect changes in their classroom practices. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Using an autoethnographic approach, this paper reviews and examines how I went through my professional development journey to develop as a curriculum planner and manager by engaging in critical reflective practices to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the era of Curriculum Reform in Hong Kong. A series of carefully selected critical incidents relating to school-based curriculum development were examined to witness how I approached a brand new primary Social Studies area of study and developed it as a distinct multi-disciplinary school-based curriculum. The curriculum documents, learning and teaching materials, students' work, personal reflective writings as well as personal communications with parents and students were collected for thematic analyses. By reflecting on the critical curriculum development and implementation incidents, a school-based curriculum development model evolved. This helps shed light on how school practitioners, irrespective of their positions or teaching experiences, to engage fruitfully and continually in the professional development process to develop as an effective curriculum developer and manager in schools. The experiences also inform teacher educators as well as school practitioners the salient characteristics and needs for a teacher to grow up as a reflective practitioner.
[Copyright of Reflective Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2015.1023279]

This case study aims to discover how journal writing promotes critical reflectivity over time. Six non-native pre-service teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) in an undergraduate program in Hong Kong took part in a 12-month study from the time they took Internship, which entailed a 2-week placement, to the time they completed Practice Teaching, which entailed a 3-week placement. Before the commencement of the Internship program and after the completion of the Practice Teaching course, the teachers were assigned to write about successful English teachers, understanding and expectations of teaching English in the context of local secondary schools. During the five weeks of teaching practicum, the teachers made daily journal entries freely on any topics they wanted. All entries were coded for topics and reflective traits, and further analyzed for changes in content. Results show that while most reflective traits in the free journal entries were located in the area of evaluating teaching, those in the assigned entries concentrated on theories of teaching. Post-coding interviews were held to allow the teachers to verify the codings and interpretations. Discussion in the interviews cross-validated the findings that the six teachers wrote reflectively and that they became more reflective towards the end of the courses, indicating less simplicity in their understanding of the multitude of issues of teaching. Such findings suggest that journal writing as a coursework assignment in pre-service teacher education program fosters teachers' critical reflectivity over time and promotes understanding of the nature, theories, and praxis of teaching.
[Copyright of Reflective Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462394032000082268]