Integration of Reflective Inquiry in Teacher Practicum Course: Developing Professional Teacher Competencies through Practice-based Learning

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to develop a learning management approach for a teacher professional practicum course that is grounded in inquiry and reflection and to investigate its effects on teaching performance competencies and professional ethics. A research and development design combined with mixed-methods research was used in two phases: (1) developing an integrated inquiry–reflective learning management framework and (2) examining the effects of the developed learning management. The participants consisted of 300 first-year pre-service teachers from nine academic programs. Research instruments contained an assessment form for teaching performance competencies and professional ethics, reflective journals, and in-depth interviews. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the developed framework comprised four stages: problem identification, exploration, analysis, and reflection. These can be properly applied to learning activities across all nine domains of teacher professional practice. The pre-service teachers showed a moderate level of overall teaching performance competencies and professional ethics. The mean score for the sub-competency of ethical conduct towards service recipients was highest, and the mean score for ethical conduct towards oneself was lowest, indicating that integrated inquiry-based reflective learning is an appropriate approach for establishing foundational teacher competencies in the early stage, while continuous development is necessary to strengthen the teacher spirituality in the long term.