What are reflective practices? Write a note on, what is supposed to gain from reflective practices.

Solution

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates 450 BC “approx.”

“Reflection practice is as much a state of mind as it is a set of activities” Joseph Vaughan, 1990

Definition 1: Reflective Practice is paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively, this leads to development insight. It is very beneficial for strength of professionals who want to move on learning throughout their lives. Reflective practice generally means that teachers take the responsibility of looking at their professional practice such as what they do (inside or outside the classroom), why they do it, and how they do. The act of reflection is a great way to increase confidence and become a more proactive and qualified. So this practice can become personally meaningful to them.

Definition 2: Reflective practice is a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. It is a tool for improving your learning both as a student and in relation to your work and life experiences. Though it will take time to adopt the technique of reflective practice, but it will ultimately save your time and energy. Reflective practice can help to develop creative thinking skill and encourages active engagement in work processes. Engaging in reflective practice require both knowledge of practice and awareness of professional and personal philosophy. Reflection without an understanding of the rules or techniques that constitute good practice may lead to a repetition of mistakes, whereas reflection without philosophical awareness can lead to a preoccupation with technique (Lasley 1989).

· Reflective practices are “the active persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in this light of the grounds that support it”. (Dewey 19, p6)

· Schon (1983) presents a slightly different view. He regards reflection as have two aspects: reflection IN action and reflection ON action.

Reflection in action is the quick thinking and reaction that arises as what you are doing, why it is happening and react by change your action to gain the better and desire result of your practice. While Reflection on action is what happens outside is what occurs outside the classroom when you consider the situation again.

Q 1: What is supposed to gain from reflective practices?

Part b: Solution

· Reflective practice (RP) is critical and deliberate inquire into professional practice in order to gain a deeper understanding of oneself, others, and the meaning that is shared among individuals. This can be happening during practice and after the fact, and can either be done alone or with others (Forrester, 2010; peters, 1991; Schon, 1983).

· Reflective practice is the process of internally examining and exploring an issue of concern, triggered by an experience, which creates and clarifies meaning in terms of self, and which results in changed conceptual perspective, as suggested by Boyd and Fales (1983). Reflective learning is a key to learning from experience (Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 23)

· Reflective practice is ‘learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and practice’ (Finaly, 2008).

Reflective practice is an essential part of developing new skills, but at a deeper level it grows the capacity of the individual to respond to challenges, make timely decisions, mange emotions, conduct productive relationship and cope with stress. Reflection helps learns to understand what they already know (individual), identify what they need to know in order to advance understanding of the subject (contextual), make sense of new information and feed back in the context of their own experience (relational) and guide choices for further learning (developmental). Reflective Practices develop the ability of problems solving and decision making power in reflective Practitioner. RP enable practitioner to think more deeply and holistically about an issue, (happened event), why it happened and lead toward the greater insights and learning. If Reflecting practice conduct carefully, honestly considering and analyzing the problems or situation, this will enhance the ability of practitioner for problem solving skills and become a critical thinker. The frequently usage of RP on work performance in depth, you regularly come across the need to make decision, the results of this Reflective Practice help practitioner to make these decisions in more informed, thoughtful and objective manner. Because the RP challenges individuals to be honest about the relationship between what they say and what they do. Reflective practices help to construct the talent of own organizational skill and managing personal changes in Reflective practitioner. In RP practitioner think carefully about, what he/ she is doing, identify possible actions and choices, tying out solutions, and adjusting that what he/she do to take account the results, this practice involve a good deal of organization. By breaking down issues and problems into steps or stages, practitioner should get better at organizing his/her time and activity to concentrate on the important, ‘solution-focused’ actions. The working in critical and crucial sector especially in education field which incorporate managing systematic, quick, pressured and other confusing change, which can be one of the most challenging aspects being a teacher. By using approaches of Reflective practice, which integrate calm, thoughtful, honest, critical and organized thinking and action, this will lead you toward a calming and less emotional repose to any type of change and managing personal change.

Reflective practice helps to construct trait of self-confidence, personal values acknowledgement, taking their own advice and innovations encouragement in reflective practitioner to archive high performance in their profession. For instance reflective practice develops the teacher ability to understand how students learn and what the best ways to teach them, identify any barriers if students have in their learning. Then they can create or plan lessons that reteach any contact which their students have not been able to access to allow them to overcome any obstacles and develop. Being reflective will also make sure that they have a wider range of skill as they find new ways to teach. This will develop teachers’ confidence as they find the best ways to deliver their knowledge of a subject with students. By reflecting, you create an environment which centers on the learner. This environment will support students and teachers all around you to become innovative, confident, engaged and responsible. Once you start the reflective process, your quality of teaching and learning will improve. So in work situations, keeping a learning journal, and regularly using reflective practice, will support more meaningful discussions about career development, and our personal development, confidence, including at personal appraisal time.

Q2: What are two types of reflections? Explain each type by highlighting its importance.

Solution:

· Reflective practice is “a set of abilities and skills, to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation to problem solving or state of mind” (Moon, 1999: 63).

· Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences: it is an assessment of where we have been and where we want to go next. (Kenneth Wolf)

In the Reflective practitioner Schön (1983) highlight how reflection-in-action is a frequently overlook means of developing knowledge important for professional practice. Further, Schon (1983, 1987) high –lighted the significance of reflection-on-action for practitioner knowledge. Two additional types of reflection are also proposed as important for reflective practitioner: anticipatory reflection (Kinsella, 2000; van Manen, 1991) and critical reflection (Brookfield, 1998, 2000). Though there are numerous approaches in which different people have defined and explained reflection in teaching and learning generally, but 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 teachers to develop, improve and change their teaching.

Superficial (descriptive reflection): it refers to describe the event but show some deeper consideration in relatively descriptive language.

Importance: In this type the practitioner write a description of the situation surrounding his/her thought and feelings, like what issues seem significant? Reflection at this level is very basic- some would say it is not reflection at all, as it is largely descriptive. However the description should not just be of what happened but should include the description of why those things happened. Reflection at superficial level makes reference to an existing knowledge base, including differing but does not make any comment or critique of them.

Medium (Dialogic reflection): Dialogic reflection refers to a less intensive approach that involves discourse with the self to explore a given event or incident.

Importance: There is a ‘stepping back’ from the events which leads to different level of discourse. Here is an exploration of the role of self in events, consideration of judgment and possible alternative for explaining. The teacher makes sense of what has been learnt from the experience and what future action might need to take place. In Dialogic reflection Teacher- managed interaction in which the dialogue is all-important where children voice their own evaluative judgments, with an open structure: a participatory mode. An example of dialogic reflection is the basic model proposed by Brokband and McGill(2000)

Deep (Critical reflection): in practice involves encouraging allied health practitioners to examine assumptions, including beliefs, values, social, and systemic structures (Brookfield, 1998; Mezirow 1990; white, fook, & Gardiner, 2006).

Importance: This form of reflection, shows evidence that the learner is aware that events may be ‘located within and explicable by multiple perspectives, but are located in and influenced by multiple and socio-political context. It allows practitioners to stand outside of their practice and to see their decision and actions a broader perspective. Therefore critical reflective practitioner may be more likely to identify externally imposed limitations to their practice and subsequently impart change. This refers to efforts accounting for the broader historic, culture and political values in framing practical problems to arrive at a solution (Hatton an Smith, 1995). This is often identified as critical reflection. Critical reflection, like reflection itself, appears to be used loosely, some taking it to mean no more than constructive self-criticism of one’s actions with a view to improvement.

References:

Edu406, lecture, handouts, slides.

Edu 601 handouts, lecture

Edu 301 lectur , Google search, Wikipedia, yahoo,

Osterman, K. F. "Reflective Practice: A New Agenda for Education." EDUCATION AND URBAN SOCIETY 22, no. 2 (February 1990): 133-152.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning & development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Moon. J. (1999a) Learning Journals: A handbook for Academics, Students and Professional Development. Kogan Page, London.

Moon, J. (1999b) Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory & Practice. Kogan Page, London

http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/aacte_p21_whitepaper2010.pdf

https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/lt/resources/handouts/ExperientialLearningReport.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/education/school/48727127.pdf

https://www.srhe.ac.uk/conference2014/abstracts/0175.pdf