ABSTRACT
Much early research and commentary on reflective practice tended to assume that teacher reflection leads to change, or "the improving of classroom practice", and reflective perspective continues to flavour the current literature. The research-on-teachers orientation of the studies also raises the issue of whether teachers themselves publicising reflective practice is still at present a rather substantial gap in the field of English language teaching. Reflection is therefore first dynamically interspersed with present situated action, rather than more tenuously linked to possible future action, and the processes of action research are modelled spirally and iteratively, rather than hierarchically. The notion of reflective practice has become pervasive and is now highly influential in debates about teacher professional development, and rightly so. It has made a foundational contribution to current educational theory by illuminating the importance of internal factors and shifting the field beyond the notion of observable teaching behaviours as the main site for research.
