Reflective Practice for Teachers

Maura Sellars

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781526415271
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Évaluation dans le domaine de l'éducation

Reflective Practice for Teachers explores a range of key issues that you will need to engage with during your teacher preparation and early career in the classroom in order to deepen your understanding of teaching practice. Case studies and 'What does this mean for you?' boxes in every chapter take ideas from research and show how they can apply to the real world of teaching.

This second edition has been updated with:

• a new chapter on assessment
• extended discussion of metacognition in the classroom
• critical perspective on what we really know about brain-based learning
• further coverage models of reflective practice

1 Reflective Practice

In preparation for reading this chapter it is important to consider what you already know and what attitudes and belief systems you bring to the activity. In order to do this, the following questions are provided to focus your reflections.

Q1 What is reflection?

Q2 Who needs to reflect?

Q3 Is it important for me?

Q4 How does it help me?

Q5 Do I think reflection is important for teachers?

Q6 What reasons do I have for my opinion about the importance of teacher reflection?

Introduction

Teaching is very demanding work. It requires a lot of energy, stamina and fortitude. Among all the physical activity, however, it is important to remain focused on what may be identified as the more ‘intellectual’ aspects of the teaching profession. This is significant for several reasons. Arguably the most important of these is your obligation as a beginning teacher or an aspiring teacher to make increasingly well-informed decisions in the context of your everyday practice. This is because teaching is a profession in which demanding, complex human interactions arise on a daily basis. Frequently there are no right or wrong answers, no procedures to follow, no time or opportunity to consult with supervising staff or colleagues, and you will often be expected to reflect critically on any number of interactions. However, this does assume that you are well informed or have some experience of the reflective process. It assumes that you have a framework within which to consider your options and determine any possible action. Robins et al. (2003) describe reflective practice as a tool which allows teachers, student teachers and teaching assistants to understand themselves, their personal philospohies and the dynamics of their classroom more deeply. They acknowledge the critics who argue that there is little evidence that reflection actually changes behaviour, and they propose that the process of engaging in reflection not only provides a personal resource which can be accessed in other similar contexts, but is also a tool that empowers individuals who use it. This is because engagement with the process of focused thinking supports self-knowledge and understanding (White, 2004; Wieringa, 2011).

Engaging with your professional work in this manner is not always easy. One reason is that classrooms are busy, fast moving work environments within which pupils of diverse characteristics are engaging in an extremely important undertaking: learning new knowledge, skills and strategies. Another is that any framework or other tool to support your professional development is only as beneficial as the user is proficient. In order to develop the skills and competencies of an expert teacher, you need to engage in reflection. Reflective practice, over time, allows you to become skilful in making informed judgements and professional decisions, and thus empowers you (Robins et al., 2003). It is because of its potential to impact positively on individual practice that reflection is arguably the most important of the many professional attributes that characterize successful teachers at every stage of their careers (White, 2004).

What Is Reflection?

Reflection is very broadly definable as the deliberate, purposeful, metacognitive thinking and/or action in which educators engage in order to improve their professional practice. Different theories, models and/or levels of reflection have most commonly focused on differentiating the major elements of this construct:

• the conditions, situations or circumstances that prompt engagement in the reflective process
• the process itself – different types of reflection, different concepts or opinions on how this is undertaken
• the content of the reflection – what exactly needs to be analysed, examined, discussed and challenged in the reflective process, and with what perspectives or ideologies
• the product of the reflection – improved understanding of professional practice, action taken as a result of the reflective thinking.

The brief overview of understandings of reflection in educational practice that follows illustrates some of these differences as proposed by various writers in this field.

What Does the Literature Say About Reflection?

It is not possible to discuss all the writings about reflection, but a number of models are presented here to provide some background for your own reading and research, and to establish some common understanding of different ways of approaching the reflective process and the ways in which critical reflection may be developed. No introduction to reflection in education, however brief, would be possible without discussing the early work of Dewey (1933). How We Think (1933) is considered to be seminal in this area and was based on the ideas of a number of earlier philosophers and educators. Dewey’s own definition of reflection as a cognitive process indicates some of the basic characteristics that underpin almost all models and theories of reflection:

the active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Dewey, 1933: 9)

However, he stresses the active, conscious, deliberate thinking in this particular type of problem solving. He also emphasizes the rational, logical analysis of the problem, in which ideas are ordered and then linked together in a meaningful way. It was then intended that this ‘chain’ of thoughts be rigorously examined for any assumptions, underlying beliefs or knowledge that had been utilized in formulating a solution and any evidence that supported these ideas (Calderhead, 1989).

This process relies heavily on the use of scientific theory to guide teaching practice and so the current and emerging scientific theories of that time are the predominant criteria in the evaluative processes of reflection. As a deliberate, reasoned, almost scientific activity, Dewey (1933) distinguished reflective thinking from everyday, routine thinking and especially from impulsive thinking. He proposed instead that action taken as a result of reflective thinking was ‘intelligent action’ (Calderhead, 1989: 44) because the aspects of the issue had been considered rationally and the practitioner had undergone periods of doubt and uncertainty while working towards finding a solution. This sense of discomfort also provides the starting point for Boyd and Fales’ (1983) six-step process model of reflection which they describe as making meaning from past and present experiences.

Despite its importance and the heavy reliance of other theorists on his work, Dewey’s (1933) notion on reflection has been challenged in several ways over the decades by other writers in this area. One of the most important critiques revolves around the notion that Dewey (1933) conceptualized reflection as the process of thinking about action and had not significantly linked it to action taken as the result of reflective thinking despite introducing the term reflective action, which would complete what was identified as the ‘reflective cycle’ (Gore and Zeichner, 1991; Noffke and Brennan, 1988), and which most theorists understand to be the purpose of engaging in reflection. Indeed, some writers (e.g. Calderhead, 1989) are openly dismissive of reflection that does not result in action. The very popular theory on reflection developed by Schön (1983, 1987, 1991) introduces some new ideas on the reflective process itself, most especially on the implication in Dewey’s (1933) theory that reflection is necessarily a long, ponderous undertaking embarked on after the event, and also on the content of reflection itself.

Schön (1983) offers an interesting departure from the perception that problems for reflection are necessarily reflected upon after the event. He suggests that reflection-in-action is a concept that celebrates the art of teaching in that it allows for continual interpretation, investigation and reflective conversation with oneself about the problem while employing the information gained from past experiences to inform and guide new actions. This process of experimentation, reflection and action combined is cyclically conducted as the problem is continuously framed and reframed and as solutions to complex or ambiguous problems are systematically sought. This approach allows for contextually orientated experimentation in problem solving; it is a way of using past experiences, reflection and action to experimentally problem solve ‘on the spot’ where the circumstances are confused or unclear. This ‘organic’ perspective of the development of skills in ...