Constraints on Development and Change to Science Teachers' Practice in Egyptian Classrooms

This paper addresses the general question of why teachers teach in the way they do. Data collected from Egyptian science teachers both in the UK during an in-service course and on their return to Egypt are reported. The teachers' evaluation of which in-service experiences they thought of most use is contrasted with the changes they were able to bring about in their own teaching on return to Egypt. Follow-up interviews and classroom observations in Egypt showed the teachers to be frustrated in introducing even limited changes to their practice. This paper proposes that Schön's notion of the reflective practitioner may not be suitable for modelling a mechanism of change in classroom practice for all teachers. Teachers in developing countries, with educational systems that Beeby characterises as mechanical or untrained, are more constrained than the notion of the reflective practitioner allows.