Constructivist Approach to Teacher Education: an Integrative Model for Reflective Teaching

The theory of constructivism states that learning is non-linear, recursive, continuous, complex and relational – Despite the difficulty of deducing constructivist pedagogy from constructivist theories, there are models and common elements to consider in planning new program. Reflective activities are a common feature of all the programs of constructivist Teacher Education .It is used at both Pre-service and In-service level of Teacher Education. Several studies have proved that, critical reflection upon experience continues to be an effective technique for professional development. The paper discussing the nature of constructivist approach to teacher education emphasizes the role of reflective activities in teacher training. Based on the results of the research reviews in the field of constructivist teacher education and reflective teaching, the findings of the study strongly suggests the integration of reflective teaching practice in the preservice teacher education curriculum and suggests a proposed integrative model for reflective teaching. The study investigated the effects of different methods of teaching science on the achievement, basic science process and skills and scientific attitude of standard six pupils with different achievement levels. The study revealed that methods have differential effects on different contexts, that is, different pre-achievement levels. These differences were due to differences in the process variables. The study suggests that to implement any method, the context needs to be considered for its effectiveness and hence student-teachers need to be trained in analyzing their teaching in terms of context variables to establish relationship between presage-context-process-product so that the student teacher can improve his/her teaching as a student and develop transformation learning as a professional. In this study effectiveness of these three methods on achievement, scientific attitude and basic science process skills were found out by establishing fidelity of each method. This could be done effectively through reflective teaching training. Hence the findings imply that student teachers need to be trained in reflective teaching so that they will be familiar with the different approaches of reflective teaching and tools and techniques used for observing and analyzing classroom interaction and improve upon their teaching skills.