TECHNO PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE ANALYSIS- SOCIAL SCIENCE

 

CHAPTER II –TEACHER AS A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER

 

 

Reflective practice

Reflective practice is "the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning". According to one definition it involves "paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight".

              Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where individuals learning from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, may be the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. Further, it is also an important way to be able to bring together theory and practice; through reflection you are able to see and label schools of thought and theory within the context of your work. What is important about reflection throughout your practice is that you are not just looking back on past actions and events, but rather you are taking a conscious look at the emotions, experiences, actions, and responses, and using that to add to your existing knowledge base to draw out new knowledge, meaning and have a higher level of understanding. As such the notion has achieved wide take-up, particularly in professional development for practitioners in the areas of education and healthcare. The question of how best to learn from experience has wider relevance however, to any organizational learning environment. In particular, people in leadership positions have a tremendous development opportunity if they engage in reflective practice.

                                                           Professor Emeritus Donald Schön

            Reflective Practice was introduced by Donald Schön in his book The Reflective Practitioner in 1983, however, the concepts underlying reflective practice are much older. John Dewey was among the first to write about Reflective Practice with his exploration of experience, interaction and reflection. Other researchers such as Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James and Carl Jung were developing theories of human learning and development. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations has also been described as an example of reflective practice.

            Dewey’s works inspired writers such as Donald Schön and David Boud to explore the boundaries of reflective practice. Central to the development of reflective theory was interest in the integration of theory and practice, the cyclic pattern of experience and the conscious application of that learning experience. For the last 30 years, there has been a growing literature and focus around experiential learning and the development and application of Reflective Practice. Reflective practice also contributes to learning and expressing our own and others' stories (Ivan, 2012).^]

            Donald Schön’s 1983 book introduces concepts such as ‘reflection on action’ and ‘reflection in-action’ where professionals meet the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation learned in practice. Reflective Practice has now been widely accepted and used as developmental practices for organisations, networks, and individuals. As Boud et al state: "Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning."  Reflective Practice can be seen and has been recognised in many teaching and learning scenarios, and the emergence in more recent years of blogging has been seen as another form of reflection on experience in a technological age.

Models of reflective practice

            The concept of Reflective Practice centers around the idea of lifelong learning in which a practitioner analyses experiences in order to learn from them. However it is important to note that events experience and events retold hold their own importance. When experiencing something (reflection-in-action), we are learning, however it can be difficult to put emotions, events, and thoughts into a coherent sequence of events. When retelling/rethinking about events we are better able to categorize events, emotions, idea, etc. and be able to link our intended purpose with the actions that we carried out. Only from here can we remove ourselves and your direct emotional attachment from an action, and look at it from a critical standpoint; when retelling it is as if we are taking ourselves out of the action and are telling a story of a sequence of events. Reflective Practice is used to promote independent professionals who are continuously engaged in the reflection of situations they encounter in their professional worlds. Several models of reflection exist and are used to draw lessons out of experiences.

Argyris and Schön 1978

Adaptation of the single and double loop learning model by Argyris and Schön

                                                     Adaptation of the reflective model by Schön

Argyris and Schön pioneered the idea of single loop and double loop learning in 1978. The theory was built around the recognition and amendment of a perceived fault or error.^[10] Single loop learning is when a practitioner or organisation, even after an error has occurred and a correction is made, continues to rely on current strategies, techniques or policies when a situation again comes to light. Double loop learning involves the modification of personal objectives, strategies or policies so that when a similar situation arises a new framing system is employed.

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Kolb 1975

                                                  Adaptation of the Kolb's reflective model

Kolb was highly influenced by the research conducted by Dewey and Piaget in the 1970s. Kolb’s reflective model highlights the concept of experiential learning and is centered around the transformation of information into knowledge. This takes place after the situation has occurred and entails a practitioner reflecting on the experience, gaining a general understanding of the concepts encountered during the experience and then testing these general understandings on a new situation. In this way the knowledge that is gained from a situation is continuously applied and reapplied building on a practitioners prior experiences and knowledge.

Gibbs 1988

Adaptation of the Gibbs Reflective Model

Graham Gibbs discussed the use of structured debriefing to facilitate the reflection involved in Kolb's "experiential learning cycle". He presents the stages of a full structured debriefing as follows:

Rolfe 2001

Adaptation of the Rolfe Reflective Model

Rolfe’s reflective model is based around Borton’s 1970 developmental model. A simplistic cycle composed of 3 questions which asks the practitioner, What, So What and Now What. Through this analysis a description of the situation is given which then leads into the scrutiny of the situation and the construction of knowledge that has been learnt through the experience. Subsequent to this, ways in which to personally improve and the consequence of ones response to the experience are reflected on.

Application

Reflective Practice has been described as an unstructured approach directing understanding and learning, a self regulated process, commonly used in health and teaching professions, though applicable to all professions. Reflective practice is a learning process taught to professionals from a variety of disciplines by practitioners, with the aim of enhancing abilities to communicate and making informed/balanced decisions. The practice has historically been applied most in the educational and medical field. When reflection in action and reflection on action described by Donald Schon are utilized in practice and when practitioners are able to identify these actions they become better at reflective practice. Professional Colleges such as the College of Nurses and College of Dental Hygienists are recognizing the importance of reflective practice and require practitioners to prepare reflective portfolios as a requirement to be licensed, and for yearly quality assurance purposes.

Education

In education, reflective practice refers to the process of the educator studying his or her own teaching methods and determining what works best for the students. It involves the consideration of the ethical consequences of classroom procedures on students. The appeal of the use of reflective practice for teachers is that as teaching and learning are complex, and there is not one right approach, reflecting on different versions of teaching, and reshaping past and current experiences will lead to improvement in teaching practices. Schön’s reflection-in-action assists teachers in making the professional knowledge that they will gain from their experience in the classroom an explicit part of their decision-making.

               According to Paterson and Chapman (2013), reflection and learning from experience is key to staying accountable, and maintaining and developing aptitude throughout your practice. Without reflection you as a practitioner are not able to look objectively at your actions or take into account the emotions, experience, or responses from your actions to improve your practice. Through the process of reflection teachers are then held accountable to their teaching practice to students, parents, administration, and all interested state holders; to the standards of practice for teaching (in Ontario)- commitment to students and student learning, professional knowledge, professional practice, leadership in learning communities, and ongoing professional learning. Reflection is a vital process of learning from experience that allow you to evolve as a practitioner; through learning from past experiences, it allows you to develop a more through schema for practice. Through reflective practice, you as a teacher are committing yourself to students and student learning; you are looking back on your practice and reflecting on how you have supported students through treating them “…equitably and with respect and are sensitive to factors that influence individual student learning” (2013, Ontario College of Teachers). By this, you are asking yourself, have I to the best of my abilities supported student learning, and provided all of my students with an entry point into learning. Through reflective practice you are reflecting on your professional knowledge and professional practice; you are looking at how you teach and the information and forms of learning you are bring to your students, and taking a critical look at whether or not you are current and if your ways of teaching are having an impact on student learning that they will be able to translate into future endeavors. If this is not the case you are then addressing the standard of ongoing professional learning. Here you are looking at and trying to recognize where you need to enhance your own learning so that it had a bigger benefit to student learning. In addition, teachers are the leaders in their learning communities; it is from their cues and attitudes that their learners develop from. Through reflection, and sharing this with your learner, you are showing strong leadership because it shows that you are willing to learn from your mistakes and improve your practice for all of those affected by it (2013, Ontario College of Teachers).

Davies (2012^]) identifies that there are both benefits as well as limitations to reflective practice:

Benefits to Reflective Practice

·                    Increased learning from an experience for situation

·                    Promotion of deep learning

·                    Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement

·                    Identification of educational needs

·                    Acquisition of new knowledge and skills

·                    Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values

·                    Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning

·                    Could act as a source of feedback

·                    Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence

Limitations of Reflective Practice

·                    Not all practitioners may understand the reflective process

·                    May feel uncomfortable challenging and evaluating own practice

·                    Could be time consuming

·                    May have confusion as to which situations/experiences to reflect upon

·                    May not be adequate to resolve clinical problems ^[33]

                                    What is reflection?

Most of us would probably think of ‘what we see when we look in a mirror’ as the answer to this question.

The Oxford Dictionary does indeed have a definition very similar to that, but also includes

‘serious thought or consideration’ (OUP 2009)

This suggests something which is more than what we see or think about on the surface, and we believe that deeper, more thoughtful reflection is the key to Reflective Practice. We are not suggesting that there is one type of reflection which is the only one which works.

This set of resources intends to help you come to your own conclusions which approaches may suit you best.

Use the approaches and ideas which help you, your teaching and your students the most.

Here are some ideas about reflection from a variety of writers:

Moon (2004 p82), has coined the term ‘common sense reflection’ to describe one basic level of thinking:

Roffey-Barentsen and Malthouse (2009: p4) explain what they believe common sense reflection as below:

It is the thoughts that occur to us during our day-to-day living, perhaps following a different lesson or a particularly challenging student. It is the thoughts we cannot put down after a difficult encounter with an aggressive student or the muses we choose to have when we feel we could do better and try to work out exactly how. After these events you may think about the situation in terms of what went well and what did not. You could consider the behaviour of the students or how well a particular exercise went.

.. If you were to reflect on something in this way you may describe what happened, what you did, what others did in response and what you did after that, and then describe how you felt about it.

Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985: p43) suggest reflection can yield more when it is more purposeful:

Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over & evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.

Andrew Pollard continues to emphasise a more focussed form of reflection when he refers to one of the best known 20th century education thinkers, John Dewey.

Dewey (1933) contrasted ‘routine action’ with ‘reflective action’. According to Dewey routine action is guided by factors such as tradition, habit and authority and institutional definitions and expectations.

By implication it is relatively static and is thus unresponsive to changing priorities and circumstances.

Reflective action, on the other hand, involves a willingness to engage in constant self appraisal and development. Among other things it implies flexibility, rigorous analysis and social awareness.
(Pollard 2005: p13)

Crawley (2005) uses Hillier (2002) to develop this idea of reflection with more purpose and structure, using the term ‘critical reflection’.

Without critical reflection, teaching will remain at best uninformed, and at worst ineffective, prejudiced and constraining’ (Hillier 2002: p xi) …

.. there are two main reasons for using critical reflection:
- We can question our routine, convenient, everyday practices and ask questions about what really does and doesn’t work.
- We can challenge some of our deeper social and cultural thoughts, feelings and reactions, or what Hillier (2002: 7) calls our ‘taken for granted assumptions’
(Crawley 2005: p 166)

Donald Schon emphasises that there is an instinctive, and in many ways creative aspect to this type of reflection

Reflection in action concerns thinking about something whilst engaged in doing it, having a feeling about something & practicing according to that feeling.

This model celebrates the intuitive & artistic approaches that can be brought to uncertain situations.
(Schon 1983 page number unknown)

Although there are various ways in which different people have defined and explained reflection in teaching and learning overall, the most positive views appear to agree that it is both intuitive in nature, and considered in depth. At its best it is genuinely capable of helping us to develop, improve and change our teaching, or as Crawley suggests

Critical reflection is about challenging and testing out what you do as a teacher and being prepared to act on the results.(Crawley 2005: p 167)

 

                      Strategies for reflective practice

Figure 1: Strategies for nine dimensions of reflective practice. Based on work by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers (2012).

The strategies covered in this section are based on nine dimensions of reflective practice described by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers (2012) in The teacher's reflective practice handbook. Also, available at the Robertson library via this web link. More explanation of the strategies that you can use for reflective practice in each dimension is outlined next, and can be used to guide you with the portfolio activity for this topic.

                                                      Dimensions and Strategies

Portfolio Activity

·                    Choose at least two dimensions of reflective practice, including one that is unfamiliar to you, and explore the material on this page. ·                    For one dimension - describe how you are already using the strategy in your reflective practice and what this involves. Reflect on whether this strategy has helped you to improve your practice, and why. ·        For the second dimension - discuss how you might use the strategy in the future. Why do you believe that this strategy could strengthen your practice and develop your capability? ·         Share your portfolio work on the Moodle discussion forum.

[▼]Dimension 1: Study your teaching for personal improvement - Reflect regularly.

[▼]Dimension 2: Evaluate your teaching using Research - Action research and Inquiry.

[▼]Dimension 3: Link theory with practice - Use the literature.

[▼]Dimension 4: Question your personal theories and beliefs - Critical analysis.

[▼]Dimension 5: Consider alternative perspectives and possibilities - Learning conversations.

[▼]Dimension 6: Try out new strategies and ideas - Innovation.

[▼]Dimension 7: Maximise the learning potential of students - Inclusive and flexible practices.

[▼]Dimension 8: Enhance the quality of your teaching - Effective practice.

[▼]Dimension 9: Continue to improve your teaching - Professional learning.

                               A Model of Reflective Teaching

Reflection is identified as one of the core practices for strengthening the theory-practice nexus – the gap between what is learnt in teacher education programmes and its effective practice in the classroom (see Recommendation 3 of the TE²¹ report, Low et al., 2009).

While the importance of reflection is not new to education, the techniques of reflective practice are relatively recent. Here’s a useful model for structuring your reflections:

·                  Observe What happened?

·                  Reflect Why?

·                  Plan So what?

·                  Act Now what?

This cyclical process facilitates reflection in action and on action. Practised over time, as a planned and structured exercise, it helps to build personal-professional knowledge.

Figure 1. Reflective Teaching Model (Low et al., 2009, p. 72).

As a couple, Gerald and Elaine also take time each day to interact with each other about their day and the challenges they face on the job. These “verbal reflections” have become part of their daily interactions.

They make a conscious effort draw conclusions and not just complain about their day. Though Elaine may have been teaching for longer, she says Gerald helps her to see issues from a different perspective.

Gerald’s Reflection

Term 1 Week 5
Focus Area: Pastoral Care & Well-being of Students

I started a session with my Civics Group Tomeetto Catchup. It is really for me “to meet to catch up” with each and every one of my students. I call them my “tutees” (disciples in Chinese) because I am their tutor (“shifu”). The purpose of each session to meet to catch up about their lives both in school as well as outside school and I set the tone by asking them how I may help (serve) them. Then I will leave it to each one’s comfort level to share with me.

The second objective which is also stated clearly to my tutees is that this session is to discuss about their plans after JC, e.g., which university and course, what kind of job or even career, their interest and passions. Together with the information about Indicative Grade Profiles from different local universities, I try to advise them. Of course, I mainly facilitate making sure that they make their own decisions about their future. This is important because it allows us to set realistic and achievable targets for their A levels and at the same time, inspire them to dream about their future and goals in life.

So far, I have set a schedule such that each student would meet me on the day of their index number. The response has been good. They have been proactive in arranging to meet me. Even students whom I can only meet the following month because of their day falling on a weekend have made arrangements to join their friends to meet me. Another indicator is the openness of their sharing. Some shared with me their goals while others honestly confessed that they do not know what to do with their lives. Knowing them a bit better will definitely help me be a better Civics and Physics tutor to them, gently guiding them towards their goals. I am starting to catch a glimpse of why and how teachers lead, care for and inspire their students.