Creative Thinking and Reflective Practice Training to Improve Teacher Competence

Abstract

Creative thinking and reflective practice both appear on the list of competencies a primary school teacher is expected to possess. However, training programs usually deliver them as separate topics, and teachers already in service receive less of that training than students still preparing for the profession. Very little of it is arranged across national borders. The community service activity reported here trained 33 primary school teachers in Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, using a single design that combined the two skills. It was conducted as a program evaluation using a mixed-methods approach informed by participatory action principles. The stages included preliminary discussions with the partner schools, delivery of the concepts, collaborative workshops on lesson design, reflective teaching exercises, and evaluation. Data were gathered through an understanding test, a lesson design rubric, a participant response questionnaire, reflection sheets, and observation. Quantitative data were summarized descriptively, and qualitative data were thematically summarized. The mean understanding and lesson design scores were both in the Very Good category. In their reflection sheets, the teachers began to distinguish between a quick check after a lesson and a planned reflective cycle. The model treats lesson creation and reflective evaluation as a single habit rather than two skills, and it was delivered through a collaboration between an Indonesian and a Malaysian university in support of Sustainable Development Goal 4.