Applying Reflection
Reflection is a crucial part to the learning process and is necessary for effective learning and teaching. As a student one must use the reflective practice to better understand the way one learns, as well as what was good and bad about previous work, in order to improve the quality of future work. The reflective practice from an educator’s perspective requires one to examine what was working and not working with lessons and the class. In both circumstances, reflection is a form of self-awareness. Learners that use the reflective practice are better able to understand themselves and the learning process. Being able to reflect can enrich ones learning and deeper ones achievements. Rogers observes, “Reflection on experience to action forms a large part of the learning process” (1996, p.109).
The process of reflection enables a practitioner to evaluate, identify with and gain knowledge through experience, sustaining a possible improvement and transformation in not only the classroom but in the individual that participates in reflection. The process of reflection is a positive action that lets one review, analyze and evaluate in order to develop as a learner and a teacher. The capacity to reflect upon practice helps to evaluate needs and plan to meet those needs, enriching teaching and learning skills. This paper will provide an overview of experiences I had while using the reflective practice: one from the vantage point of being a student and then later as being an educator.
Student Reflection
As a high school student, I did not participate in the reflection practice at a deep and profound level. The most reflection that occurred was a what grade did I get and how did I miss that number. I do remember atte...
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...vironment of open communication and collaboration” (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2004, p. 182). An educator must be able to trust colleagues to voice their thoughts in a positive manner that will advance the teaching methods. Teaching and learning is a symbiotic relationship, where one cannot teach without learning. The reflective practices allow a teacher to become a learner.
While I always said, all great teaching is learning I never lived the philosophy. I was a good learner and a good educator I did not become a greater learner nor a great educator until I combined the two and really understood the quote. As an educator, it is important to allow learners to have a voice in the classroom that targets their needs and styles. Learners are a vital importance to the teaching process, not just in bodies to fill a room, but also as actively engaged partners in the process.
Reflection, as explained by Moon (2013), is the process of looking back on an event or experience and thinking about it and learning from it. Reflection, which is learning through experience, is not a new concept. As humans, we naturally reflect on our surroundings and experiences on a day to day basis in order to make sense of them. (Norman, Vleuten and Newble, 2002). In a professional context, reflation is vital for a practitioner to learn and improve their practice. By using their own experiences, practitioners are able to analysis, and in turn, adapt or improve specific areas of practice
Reflection is turning experience into Learning. Reflection is a conscious, dynamic process of thinking about, analysing, and learning from an experience that gives insight into self and practice.
“Reflecting” entails us to ask ourselves countless questions. How well am I interacting with the students? Are they understanding the concepts? Am I creating an adequate learning environment? How effective are my teaching techniques? Etc. This newly acquired knowledge on “Reflecting” has helped me growth as a teacher and has
...ot only use the cognitive skills of the students but also their affect. This will allow the students to process and reflect on how they made that specific decision or answer. They are not just focusing on the end result but how they end up in that result or scenario. Teachers need to incorporate more reflection pieces or activities in their lessons because it not only enhances the cognitive skills of the children but also addresses their social and emotional needs.
One reason for Reflection being used is to give practitioners the chance to change an aspect within their setting, which they feel can be improved in order to help the development of children within their practice. Reflective practice is about improving practice and coming up with theories to support the improvement (Holmes, 2011, p.7). Reflective practice using critical reflection will allow the practitioners to identify what they do well and what they need to improve on within their Early Years settings. It can also give practitioners the opportunity to develop their professional identity, and work at improving their working environment (Forde et al, 2006, p.65, 66). By allowing practitioners the chance to improve their working environment, it can have a huge influence on the children and their development within the Early Years. For example, a teacher looking back and being reflective over their lesson, will allow them to make amelioration for when they teach that lesson again, thus leading to further learning development of the
Despite the widespread differences in understanding there are similarities in their delivery. The importance of thoughtfulness for teachers and students cannot be understated, few would suggest that teachers should practice without questioning their ideas (Hébert, 2015). With the importance of reflection in mind, why is it that there is not an agreed upon approach to reflective practice? Finlay (2008) describes Schön’s work as almost ‘canonical’ in the field and yet she and many others have been shown to criticise Schönian theory. Despite the critiques of each theory what is essentially important is that reflection is key to growth as a practitioner. Conversely, practitioners that engage in reflection do not automatically develop to become good teachers (McLaughlin, 1999). The importance of criticality in reflection is key, no matter how uncomfortable the lessons learned are. Finally, Schön (1983: 61) expresses the view that ‘Through reflection, practitioners can surface and criticize the tacit understandings that have grown up around the repetitive experiences of a specialized practice, and can make new sense of the situations of uncertainty or uniqueness which he may allow himself to
As it mentioned above this reflective essay is based on the main theory on Reflection, which is the Honey and Mumford’s learning styles that was developed from Kolb’s work. This is based on four stages of specific styles of learning:
Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice.
Reflection is the process of reviewing an experience in order to describe analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice (Reid 1993). There are many reflective models that I could have used, including Johns (2004), Driscoll (2000), Atkins and Murphy (1994), Kolb’s (1984), and Gibbs (1988).
Reflection is defined as a process of reviewing an experience which involves description, analysis and evaluation to enhance learning in practice (Rolfe et al 2001). This is supported by Fleming (2006), who described it as a process of reasoned thought. It enables the practitioner to critically assess self and their approach to practice.
Reflection is a process that begins with looking back on a situation thinking about it, learning from it and then using the new knowledge to help you in similar situations in the future. We need to evaluate through reflection to examine whether change is needed. We can then decide what action is needed and what we would do the next time we are faced with a similar situation. It might not necessarily be something you have done wrong, it may well be you were happy with the outcome of a situation you had some input into and would do again. It may have been something you did differently that had a positive result and
Without agreement on what reflective practice is, it is difficult to decide on teaching‑learning strategies. Reflective practice may be a developmental learning process (Williamson 1997), may have different levels of attainment (Wellington 1996), and may be affected by a learner’s cognitive ability (James and Clarke 1994), willingness to engage in the process (Bright 1996; Haddock 1997), and orientation to change (Wellington 1996). However, there does seem to be some agreement that critical reflection consists of a process that can be taught to adults. Brookfield (1988) identified four processes central to learning how to be critically reflective: assumption analysis, contextual awareness, imaginative speculation, and reflective skepticism.
Reflection within early year’s settings and schools allows for the practitioner to think about the work that is being completed either whilst doing it or after it has occurred, the reflection allows for seeing how the work has gone or whether it needs to be changed for future practice. Schön is a key writer about reflection and illustrates the differences between reflection in action, reflection on action and reflection whilst completing the task. The above critical skills help all practitioners to develop understanding as they hugely impact on others lives, if this skill is not engaged in then practice could be effected (Leeson, 2004).
Teachers face with a lot of daily choice problems, such as, how classrooms and curriculums should be organized, how students' behaviors should be interpreted, how learning time can be protected, and others. Sometimes these problems seem to be so ordinary that, teacher need to solve the problem automatically. But in the teaching process there are also complicated choices about difficult problems that, if left unaddressed, often increasing. These difficult choices call for teachers to engage in sophisticated reflection (including self-reflection).
The intention of reflective practice is to help the teacher/learning coach evolve and develop the quality of their teaching by the continuation of personal development. Although most teachers have done this for years, reflective modelling or methods have formulized a structure which can be followed and adapted to best suit their methods. It is an ongoing process which takes feelings and emotions into consideration and so it will not always have a definitive answer/ending. Since most models of reflection require subjective and objective thinking then there is a willingness to be honest to engage constant self appraisal. It asks that the teacher become flexible analytical and socially aware when addressing their chosen model of reflection.