**1. Introduction**

Several studies and research studies put emphasis on the significance of reflection and reflective practice but few of them supply some important guidelines about the method and process of reflective practices to teacher trainers and a restricted number of research studies have analyzed the extent to which teacher trainers carry out the reflection process [1–4]. Although a few of them look suitable for encouraging reflective practice, this paper examined how a reflective coaching framework for in-service teachers facilitates their reflection during their teaching practice. It is expected to give critical perceptions to the teacher trainers and advocate the utilization of reflective coaching to ease reflective teaching and review among in-service teachers because the teacher trainers who want to refresh their program even though they have experience

through the years may have some difficulties finding an effective program for the in-service teachers from time to time. When it is thought about the workloads of the teacher trainers, it is not an easy job searching for something on the internet for hours and finding nothing or even finding something, it takes too much time to revise and adapt it according to the in-service teachers. In this sense, they need to find a guide including the answer to their question and summarizing the key points related to the needs of the in-service teachers to become a bridge to apply the theory and practice together in their classroom while teaching. From this perspective, it is important to have something with them like a guide that is used before by a lot of different preservice and in-service teachers from different perspectives through the years.

In this sense, this paper aimed to be a guide with useful information for the teacher trainers to make them understand how to use reflective coaching in the in-service TEFL context and to show them its impact during the in-service teachers' teaching career.

## **2. Literature review**

This section is based on the reflection, components of reflection, reflection on teaching, reflection on teacher education, and reflective coaching in the TEFL context and it will be briefly outlined the literature review and focus on the main topics of discussion.

#### **2.1 Reflection**

Dewey ([5], p.9) expressed that "active, persisting, and careful thought of any belief or assumed form of knowledge in the light of the reasons that support and the other consequences to which it tends, constitute reflective thinking". On the other hand, Schön's [6, 7] principles on reflective practice have been recognized as the most widely accepted foundations of reflection in education since Dewey [8]. According to Schön ([7], p.30) practitioners "exhibit a kind of knowing-in-practice, most of which are tacit" and attend in reflection-in-action while reflecting on the process of practice and altering things during that practice. Practicians specifically engage in reflectionin-action, standing middle of the action making changes and if necessary adapting their approaches to improve their practice [6].

To have a better understanding of the context of reflective coaching, one should comprehend what is meant by reflection. Schön [7], in an endeavor, to show the difference between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, clearly states that the first one is when the experienced practitioner learns to think on his/her own and deal with the new information and on the other hand the second one is related to the practitioner engaging in detailed analysis for a better understanding of teacher's role in a learning context. Combining experience with theory by creating new opportunities to see weaknesses and to change, reflection is thought to improvise people's feelings, thoughts, and actions.

#### **2.2 Components of reflection**

In any interference of learning from experience, reflection can be useful. From this point of view, Schön [6, 7] drew attention to the valuation of reflection in supporting the professionals to understand and improve their practice. That is the reason

#### *Perspective Chapter: Reflective Coaching Framework – A Lead for Teacher Trainers in TEFL... DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111753*

why, reflection has been a catchy subject for professionals in educational environments following Dewey's work, but educators were more concerned with being encouraged by Schön [6, 7]. There are two reasons for this: the first one is that Schön [7] claims that reflection is deeply related to action. The second one is that he deals with the entire professional's "doing" cycle combined with the reflective practice that leads to changes in actions. These two important topics have always been of interest to educators and are embedded in professional development programs. Because it is believed that professionals should learn how to deal with the complicated and uncertain problems often faced, try out different analysis ways, and then reconstruct their performance instead of trying to follow specific theoretical frameworks for specific situations. Some types of "technical reflection" [9, 10] seem to rely on reflection on competencies or skills to evaluate their effectiveness by changing behavior immediately after an action. It is also what Schön [7] asserts. He addresses "reflectionin-action" and "reflection-on-action", the first implying conscious thinking and modification while in practice. Besides, these two types of reflection require rational processes to make reasoned judgments about alternative forms of action because Schön's "reflection-in-action" [6, 7] implies incidental reflection and doing whereas other types of reflection [11, 12] require looking back on action after a specific time it has happened. In another saying, deliberation should be encouraged sometime after the action has happened so that other options can be explored later. In this sense, reflection can be regarded to find a solution to real problems [13, 14]. Actually, it is an essential thing that educators or professionals need. But this may mean getting information to develop insights and understand the relationships between processing while a particular action is taking place, or what actually happened after a particular experience, what goals were set, and what challenges arose between different professional or cultural perspectives [15].

The reflective framework designed by Dewey [5] for our assessment of critical reflection covers all three important elements. In this context, the first element requires a systematic aspect of thought besides an end product. The second one concretes a specific reflective tendency using three basic attitudes: openmindedness as getting rid of prejudice, whole-heartedness as taking on a task with a whole heart, and responsibility as considering the consequences of targeted action. According to Dewey, these tendencies are not seen as passive attitudes, but a strong desire should be demonstrated by all people actively involved in the reflective process.

In another saying, all teachers will utilize these tendencies in a significant in case they believe that the reflective process requires acting efficiently both inside and outside the classroom. The final element suggests that any reflective thinking uses appropriate use of language. Considering these points, it is seen that Schön's framework includes all types and levels of critical reflection. His drafts including reflectionin-action and reflection-on-action include an epistemology of Professional practice based on knowledge-in-action and knowing-in-action [16, 17]. Because reflection-inaction as an element of knowing-in-action happens while individuals are attempting any action. For this reason, it can be considered the only tool that separates professional practice from non-professional practice. Thus, it is also considered part of the artistry or intuitive understanding gained through professional experience [18] including a reflective conversation with oneself that allows reframing the action by following holistic appraisal approaches [16].

It should be underlined that none of such reflections is increasingly seen as a desirable hierarchy because if reflection is considered as a learned process, it should be realized through encouragement, support, supervision, and practice. To that end, a lot of methods including reflective writing, storytelling, diaries, lesson reports, portfolios, observation, action research, and emails have been used to assist teachers to improve their reflective teaching.
