My Reflective Practice:
It is not very often that I physically write down my
reflections so this is still fairly new to me. I am going to start by
explaining how and why I currently reflect on my practice. I firmly believe
that critical reflection is not criticising yours or anyone else’s pedagogy, it
should be about improvement and sharing of good practice. To critically reflect
means to make informed decisions that can be backed up by reliable sources and
challenge your own, and other peoples existing assumptions. Brookfield, S. (1995) said ‘becoming
critically reflective increases the probability that we will take informed
actions. Informed actions are those that can be explained and justified to
ourselves and others.
Generally I reflect when I feel something has not gone the
way I wanted it to or had planned it, or the outcome was not what I intended it
to be. As I said previously I rarely write these reflections down, I would much
rather talk to my colleagues and bounce ideas off each other and the thought of
blogging has never once entered my mind until recently. At this time of year I
have to write an effectiveness report regarding my students which does force me
to write down my reflections, and have recently finished this document. I use
the schools template which is a ‘What does the data say?’ ‘What does this
mean?’ and ‘What now?. I like this format and find it helpful as it is all
based in data and fact but I question is it critical reflection and this is
where I would appreciate your input. Yes the model I use forces me to make judgements
based on fact but then I don’t feel I have the time to read reliable sources to
make the informed decisions for the ‘What Now’ section. ‘Part of the power of critical reflection in
opening up new perspectives’ (Fook and Askeland, 2006, p.53). How can I
as a teacher with a full timetable and newfound Deaning responsibilities find
the time to reflect critically? I am going to trial spending half an hour at
lunchtime to reflect on everything since yesterdays lunchtime. Is half an hour
enough? Will this allow me time to find reliable sources to help? During the
last assignment I trailed a AR process and the background reading did give me
the courage to try it. That is what I want for all my practice.
Refrences
Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a
Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Fook, J. & Askeland, G. (2006)
‘The ‘‘critical’’ in critical reflection’, in Critical Reflection in Health and
Welfare, eds S. White, J. Fook & F. Gardner, Open University Press,
Maidenhead.
One of the good ways is also getting feedback from the students. I am doing it in my school and it is really working well. I am also working in a team of teachers in Junior school which helps us to collaborate and reflect on weekly basis.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea Rimlesh, thanks. This is something that I may look into, building in 10 minutes of student led reflection every week. Since writing my post I have tried on numerous occasions to sit and write down my critical reflections from the previous 25 hours and without fail something has happened that has stopped me from doing it. small amount of time built into lessons could be the way forward.
DeleteIn my last school, the Principal used to make us critically reflect for 10 minutes quietly in our staff meeting. But I felt put 'on the spot' too much and couldn't concentrate. Critically reflecting on paper is a hard one as we do have to do it for appraisals and keeping our teaching registration up to date, as well as for ERO. However, the best critical reflection happens like you, constantly reflecting and bouncing ideas with people. Anything I have written down has disappeared into a black hole never to be read again.
ReplyDeleteYes Belinda I agree with you that what almost feels like forced reflection is not going to help or improve my practice. It is just doing it for the sake of doing it, another box that can be checked when ERO visit.
DeleteWow Ian! Good on you for taking up the challenge of reflecting for half n hour each day in your lunch break. I am in the same boat of trying to figure out how much time I should set aside for meaningful reflection?? It is a hard one especially with busy schedules! But I understand it is so valuable. Let me know how you go with your lunchtimes.
ReplyDeleteHi Leesa, I'm going to be honest and say its not taken off. I have purposely sat down with the task of reflecting but then there's a knock at the door or a ping on an email that derails my plans. I have taken to reflecting on my drive home which takes approximately 25 minutes (Gore has no traffic lights and only 3 roundabouts) and anything that I feel is noteworthy gets either recorded on my phone voice recorder or noted down when I get home. This is how I am going to do it from now on, I don't get emails and shouldn't get a knock on the door whilst on the drive home. Let me know how yours is going as it would be good to hear other peoples views.
DeleteHow is the reflecting on the drive home going? Does having the kids in the backseat not prove too much of a distraction? I am trying to set aside time for formal reflection and am finding this really difficult. For me, at school is best - away from the distractions of my own family. Currently I'm attempting to write down thoughts on lessons, topics, assessments etc twice a week at lunchtime, shut away in my lab. The shared workspace in the Tech block would make it trickier for you though! I understand the value in meaningful reflection but I am finding it hard to focus when there are so many other teaching-related things I could be doing with that time.
DeleteIt is so interesting reading other peoples experiences! I agree that the biggest struggle with being a reflective practitioner is time! There never seems to be enough! Similar to belinda’s comment, my school also used 20 minutes for reflection. But at the end of a long day, after a ‘boring meeting’ (let’s be honest staff meetings aren’t a highlight of the day), it is very challenging to reflect when you are simply put on the spot. I completely agree that forced reflection is not going to help or improve my practice either. I too tried setting aside some time at lunch but that was an epic fail! With students coming and going with never ending questions I just could not focus. I really like your idea to record your thoughts. This is a very practical use of ‘wasted’ time. Unfortunately I only live 2 minutes down the road. So I either need to gets my thoughts out really quick or set aside some time when I get home, or maybe before I leave at the end of each day. I am interested to see if this is a more effective way to record my thoughts as I also tend to loose paper! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim, I would definitely recommend the voice recorder, I just now need to organise somewhere to store my verbalised thoughts. You could try taking a detour home to give you longer or try reflecting verbally whilst perusing the aisles of your local New World although this could lead to some funny looks from your fellow shoppers. It is a steep learning curve but it will be worth it in the end
DeleteHey Ian, I wondered how successful the lunchtimes would be when I read this post last week. I think that your solution is a master stroke. Do you know about the voice recorder on the One Note Notebook? We had a PD presenter last week who said he used it all the time in Auckland to write his reports while driving home! Might be helpful? Let me know how you go - always very keen to hear how people solve the dreaded lack of time issue. Cheers, Bridget.
ReplyDelete