An action research on how to become a reflective teacher: Critical incidents from a Turkish primary school

Reflection is a must for professional development and although every single one of us reflects upon any action we take, it is a challenging task to turn reflection into a systematic habit. Reflective teaching is a hot issue in educational environments. Among many methodologies used for pedagogical reflection, this study focused on critical incident analysis because the researcher believes that some incidents have a more important effect on the atmosphere of the classroom than the others. And they deserve to be thought in detail. The aim of the study was to find out what was going on in the EFL classes from the perspective of students and whether these perspectives matched with the teacher?s. Depending on the findings, necessary adjustments were made to create a more productive and appealing classroom atmosphere to students. Critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) and teacher journal were used as tools to gather the needed data appropriate to the purpose of the study. CIQ is a questionnaire comprised of five open-ended questions directed to learners? about their feelings and attitudes towards what is happening in the lessons. Thirty, eighth grade students aged from 12 to 15 participated in the study.Key words: Reflective teaching, Critical incidents, Critical incident analysis, Students? perspective, Action research