opportunity to rectify their mistakes and improve. This shows that teachers who reflect on their practice are likely to produce better results.
In terms of monitoring self-reflection, the study has revealed that self-reflection is not monitored, and as a result teachers do not reflect on their practice. The study recommends that principals need to take responsibility and create opportunities to ensure that teachers reflect on their practice regularly. The study also revealed the ignorance of primary teachers in a rural context; and due to this ignorance there is a need for monitoring. Monitoring of self-reflection also helps teachers who are not sure of what they are teaching. This means that principals should make sure that they guide and direct teachers during self-reflection. Lastly, monitoring may include encouraging teachers to continue to practice self-reflection in their teaching.
Besides monitoring, there are other factors that cause teachers not to reflect on their practice. One of the common factors identified in this study is lack of time to reflect due to the over-load of work of the teachers. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be enough teachers at school; and this will help each teacher to have a manageable workload in which they have enough time for self-reflection. Teachers need time to do self-reflection; and if teachers are facing overload in their work, they tend to focus on the curriculum that they are expected to complete instead of reflecting on their practice.
It is also recommended that the government should make self-reflection compulsory in all public schools; and that time for self-reflection should also be allocated on the time- table.
5.2.1 Recommendation of a new self-reflective model
The study recommends a new reflective model for a rural primary school context. The model is titled Big four reflective model: critical thinker; resource allocator, problem solver and practice developer. The model is recommended to be used in teaching in primary schools.
In terms of critical thinker; the models states that teachers should think critically about their practice before they attempt any self-reflective practice. This means that teachers should give themselves time to think about the overall situation of their environment.
Firstly, teachers need to think about the class that they are going to teach; the kind of
learners they are going to teach; the behaviour of learners, and the amount of time available for them to present the lesson. Secondly, teachers need to think about the kind of resources available at their schools, and how they can make means to improvise concerning the types of resources that they use in their lessons. In terms of environment, teachers must consider the contextual factors that affect their teaching, and how to deal with them. A reflective practitioner as a critical thinker should always plan for option B, in the case where plans have to be changed or altered due to unforeseen circumstances. Lastly, a reflective practitioner as a critical thinker does spend time thinking about negative things in their practice; but always thinks of ways that will help them to grow professionally.
A reflective practitioner needs to understand that the use of learning and teaching resources are essential in the practice of teaching. A reflective practitioner understands that it is the responsibility of a teacher to allocate resources for the lesson. Furthermore, a reflective practitioner understands and knows how to turn natural resources into learning resources. Primary schools learners learn better by seeing and touching;
therefore the reflective practitioner should always make sure that the resources allocated are the ones suitable for a lesson. Lastly, the reflective practitioner ensures that he/she uses technology to allocate some of the resources.
In terms of problem solver, reflective practitioners ensure that they solve problems that arise during their teaching practice. Reflective practitioners always make sure that they prioritise issues/problems; this means that they understand problems that need immediate attention and those that are not urgent. Reflective practitioners should also identify learners who experience problems at home and be able to assist in this regard.
This means that teachers as reflective practitioners should be a friend to learners, that makes learners to feel free to share problems and challenges they come across inside and outside of the school context. Reflective practitioners should be in position to solve different problems. Furthermore, they should also reflect on their own practice and solve problems that make them to produce better results during teaching. The Big four reflective model emphasizes that a reflective practitioner always strives for improvement by solving problems that arise during their teaching.
The last dimension of the Big four reflective model is practice developer. In terms of practice developer, teaching is about making decisions in order to develop the teaching profession. The model emphasizes that teachers need to think about their own teaching practice in order to develop their own practice. Teacher‟s professional practice (what they do in the classroom) is therefore embedded in a whole way of thinking, feeling and seeing that enables them to give meaning to their experience. However, although their perspective allows them to see and operate in the world in certain ways, it also prevents them from seeing and operating in the world in other ways. As they gain experience about teaching practice, they also need to reflect if they are making progress in terms of developing their practice.
Further research is recommended in this area to investigate if poor reflective practice is as a result of heavy workload of primary teachers or not.