Foreign language

Suggestions for Further Research

On the basis of the findings and limitations of the present research, some suggestions for further studies can be made. To start with, relatively few studies have explored experienced EFL teachers‟ reflective practices in online platforms. Thus a further study on this issue can be implemented starting from teachers‟ perspectives towards online reflective practices. Second, the present study was a qualitative study. However, a quantitative study surveying the participants in terms of their reflections on their teaching practices and past experiences could provide a broader picture of the implementation of reflective practices in online asynchronous discussion forums.

Thirdly, the participants of the study did not teach for a year during their master‟s program, thus, the effects of reflections, especially the participants
intentions on changes of future teaching practices, have not been examined. Thus, a further study can be conducted to see if the participants will put into practice their intentions in the future when the participants start teaching in their institutions.
Moreover, future studies can also be carried out with in-service teachers who continue teaching at the time of the study to gauge actual changes in their future practice.
The factors that increase EFL teachers‟ reflectivity can also be another area for further research. The course instructor neither intervened in participants‟ reflective practices in the discussions nor guided them throughout their reflective processes. Thus, the utilization of scaffolded reflections, in which lecturers or professors control and guide teachers‟ reflective processes, can be examined in future

studies as a factor that may affect the implementation of reflective practices in online platforms.

Lastly, the majority of the studies conducted on reflective practices of pre- service teachers in online platforms in the past yielded various results, as some studies found them contributive whereas others found online platforms ineffective to foster candidate teachers‟ reflective practices. Relatively few study exist in the field of teacher education on experienced teachers‟ reflective practices in online discussion platforms.The findings of this study indicated that online platforms could be utilized as a tool for experienced EFL teachers to promote reflective practices.
Thus, future studies on the investigation of experienced teachers reflections in online discussions are needed to analyze the factors that shape the positive and negative results of the utilization of online platforms for teacher education.