Teacher as a Reflective Practitioner: Understanding the Reflection in Action and Reflection on Action

Teaching is a profession and teacher education is a process of professional preparation of teachers. Preparing one for a profession is an arduous task and it involves action from multiple fronts. A teacher should act as a philosopher and a guide to the students. Teacher education must become more sensitive to the emerging demands from the school system. There are major shifts in school system also. Due to these major shifts in teacher education, perfection of the world lies in the development of each and every individual to his maximum potential. Thus teacher education has a crucial role in preparing teachers. Today's education demands the class teacher to be innovative, flexible, creative, ready to learn from the learners and capable of imitating action learning. In fact, it becomes a core condition to ensure high proficiency and quality of teacher education. Thus, effective teacher education programme anticipates effective teachers. Teachers must be alert to the need for continual updating of their teaching skills and practices. In today's world, needs of students have changed. They are no more passive learners and demands more techno-savvy inputs for their learning. As stressed by various psychologist that children are active learners so teachers need to teach them through new ways which fosters their learning. It is time for teachers to act as a facilitator and reflect on new ways and strategies. Through this paper author is trying to suggest few innovative strategies for reflective teaching and for making teaching learning process more effective.