This study explores how the shared reflections of two university instructors influenced their approaches and perspectives of English language teaching. The primary source of data was derived from the two teachers’ e-mail mediated, collaborative reflective journals and two dialogical interviews served as a secondary data source. A qualitative, narrative inquiry approach was employed to gather data in a direct and in-depth way. The data were selectively coded to investigate the teacher’s reported beliefs, behaviors, and interactions as well as how they relate to the process of professional development. The findings indicate that the process of sharing and reflecting upon their pedagogical philosophy and strategies supported their ongoing efforts to develop professionally. Moreover, this study addresses the notion that more attention should be paid towards improving reflective teaching among teachers as a means of enhancing professional development.

The current study explores the potential of the collaborative reflection of the teacher, colleagues, and students in promoting teacher expertise. To this effect, the authors first created a principled set of checklists on six domains of teacher expertise by synthesizing relevant literature. Then they developed protocols for collaborative reflection. These tools were applied to a middle school English teacher’s reflective practice, involving the teacher participating in stimulated recall sessions of her own classes, writing reflection journals, and receiving feedback from her colleagues and students. The results show that collaborative reflection has high potentials for mediating the teacher’s cognitive and affective changes, leading to behavioral ones. This suggests that collaborative reflection, when relevant institutional prerequisites are met, can take an instrumental role in promoting teacher expertise.