Background/Purpose
Although it is widely accepted that teacher education should aim to support teachers become reflective practitioners (Schon, 1983, 1987), how to attain that goal still remains unsolved. In the Psychology field, several researchers have utilized a method named the "critical incident technique (CIT)" to facilitate problem solving (Cope & Watts, 2000; Gremler, 2004). Given that reflective teachers are those who can monitor, analyze, and provide solutions to complex and situational problems in teaching (Valli, 1997), CIT might be an effective tool for improving teacher reflection. In this regard, this study employed a critical incident interview (CII) modified from CIT to elicit the participants” reflective thinking and further understand how this specific method serves as a means to facilitate their reflection. In particular, this study examined: a) what incidents the teachers perceive “critical”, b) how those critical incidents impact their teaching career, and c) how CII influences their reflection as both perceived by the teachers and observed by the researcher.
Method
This study is a multiple case study grounded in the social constructivist framework. Four participants of this study were purposefully selected with the criteria such more than 10 years' teaching experience, teaching award recipients, and keeping a reflective journal. Major data sources were in-depth interviews utilizing CII, the teachers' journals, and researcher's field note. The data were analyzed through the constant comparative methods (Charmaz, 2000; Strauss & Corbin, 1990) using Atlas-ti as an aid. Trustworthiness of this study was established by using triangulation in multiple data sources, member check, and peer debriefing (Patton, 2002).
Analysis/Results
Data analysis showed that incidents that were critical to the teachers included: a) burn-out, b) marginalization/isolation, c) student injury, d) success of low-skilled students, and e) devaluation of physical education. Those critical incidents influenced their career either positively (e.g., strengthen professional identity, facilitate learning to teach, reframe belief systems) or negatively (e.g., loss of enthusiasm, leave the profession). Throughout the course of this study, statements made by the teachers and researcher's observations often indicated that CII itself facilitated the teachers' macro/micro reflection on the incidents as well as serving as a data collection method for this study.
Conclusions
This study suggests that understanding critical incidents provide a useful avenue to better understand how teachers respond and solve ill-defined and uncertain problems of practice. In addition, CII is an effective technique to not only draw out teachers' thoughts that otherwise would not surface but also facilitate their reflection.