Reflection in teaching: Goals, techniques, contradictions

The article presents an analysis of the current state of reflexive teaching process (RTP), which today receives serious attention in domestic and foreign theory and practice of teaching due to the fact that improving the quality of education requires special attention to the personality of the teacher as the central link of the entire educational process, its system-forming component. An original interpretation of this concept is proposed through the understanding of RTP as a crosscutting pedagogical practice that accompanies the teacher throughout his/her professional activity, which allows overcoming the existing diversity of approaches to its interpretation in the context of actual goals and objectives. Special attention is paid to reflexive teaching (RT). The subject of RT is a teacher who evaluates his/ her own teaching practice, studies the effectiveness of his/her choice of curricula, materials, methods and techniques, taking into account feedback from students and colleagues and making changes to the teaching process to increase its productivity. Whereas the subject of reflexive learning is a student reflecting on his/her learning experience, studying his/her own learning strategies and making adjustments to improve his/her own results. The techniques of RT and the problems faced by teachers in the process of its implementation in practice are investigated. Based on the analysis, contradictions in the theory and practice of RT underlying these problems are revealed.