Page 112 - Pedagoška vizija / A Pedagogical Vision

Anja Pirih and Silva Bratož

ported facing technical issues due to inadequate hardware or software. One
of the students explained how frustrated she felt after she realized she could
not learn from the tutorials or use her schoolmates’ advice as her software
was too old to support the newest version of PowerPoint and other pro-
grammes.

Conclusion
The main aim of the study presented in this paper was to analyse the poten-
tial of the proposed instrument for developing various aspects of reflective
practice in teacher education. A conclusion that could be drawn from the
data analysed is that the instrument does enable different types of reflection,
specifically technical reflection, reflection on-action, deliberative reflection
and personalistic reflection (Valli 1997). By developing the MTL and partici-
pating in reflective discussions, the prospective teachers were generally able
to link the theoretical and practical knowledge gained in the TEYL course
with its application in practice. They were challenged to evaluate their own
teaching and ICT competences but also look for alternative solutions and at
the same time reflect upon their role as teachers to young learners. The pro-
posed reflective instrument enabled them to view their teaching from mul-
tiple perspectives, matching their performance to teaching principles and
guidelines and looking for suitable alternatives for a particular teaching con-
text, as well as delineating their role as teachers.
One of the implications which may be drawn from this study is that formal-
ized reflective practice can be used as further support in generalist teacher
education, which does not provide enough opportunities for developing
teaching competences in specific fields. In the Slovenian education context,
this is especially relevant in the area of foreign language teaching at primary
level, as most FL instructors are generalist primary school teachers. In addi-
tion, although the proposed instrument was developed as a reflective instru-
ment during emergency remote teaching, the study shows that it can be ef-
fectively used to support and complement traditional ways of implement-
ing teaching practice. Another important implication is related to the use of
digital skills in teaching. It was clear from the participants’ responses that
while they felt digitally competent, they recognized the value of ICT skills
in teaching only through the reflection process. This points to the need for
a more systematic and effective inclusion of ICT skills in teacher education
programmes.
While it is clear that reflective practice is an essential element of every
teacher education programme, there are still a number of issues that would

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