Cognitive Operations in Teachers' Development of Refl ective Skills: WANDA Group Refl ection in a Czech Primary School
Abstract
In the current rapidly changing world, demands on teacher quality and teacher change are ever- increasing. One important and powerful way to transform schools is through teacher professional development focusing on teachers' refl ective skills.
But the development of refl ective skills is challenging not only from a practical standpoint but also in terms of the demands it places on teachers' cognitive operations. In our study we examined how a specifi c highly-structured method called WANDA facilitates the development of teachers' refl ective skills.
WANDA is a form of professional development through group refl ection embedded in a fi ve-stage refl ective cycle. We connected the stages with cognitive operations employed in the development of refl ective skills, and assessed how teachers respond to each stage.
Our case study draws on a qualitative research inquiry including semi-structured interviews with nine WANDA participants who teach in a Czech primary school. Our results show that a crucial phase of WANDA that comes early in the process imposes very high demands on teachers' cognitive operations.
Teachers might be better prepared to engage in this phase if it comes later in the process and is swapped with another stage that the teachers found highly engaging and fun thanks to its playful form. Overall, WANDA appears to be a meaningful tool in developing teachers' refl ective skills, leading them to metacognition, the ultimate peak of self-refl ection