Reflecting On Reflective Practice - Week 17

Reflections:

Step 1 (Descriptive stage): 

Reflection has changed over the years for me from when I was a beginning teacher where we are constantly expected to be reflective and there is a danger that this reflection could become ritualised without reference to context or outcomes. Boud and Walker (1998) decry the way that reflection can be turned into recipe-following “checklists which students work through in a mechanical fashion without regard to their own uncertainties, questions and meanings” (1998, p.193).

When I entered  the professional as a beginning teacher I was mentored which involved a great deal of reflective practice through various mediums such as oral and written. A large component was through written reflection.  I found myself after becoming fully registered that the expectation for written reflection was less expected. I was still being a reflective practitioner but preferred face to face reflection with colleagues rather than in the written form. Twenty years on I have found myself almost coming full circle as we have a bigger focus on our personal teaching practice as we inquire into that which requires written documentation through reflection and the inquiry process.

Step 2 (Comparative stage):

The survey we completed uses the word ‘criticise’ when thinking about reflection. I do not like this word as it has such negative connotations. I think a better phrase would be ‘critique’. I think this ability to ‘critique’ comes naturally to all teachers who want to improve their practice. I do this on a daily basis and feel completely comfortable sharing my thoughts with others at my school. I value their opinions. I believe reading current theory and research is important in terms of evaluating your practice and also to give you new ideas.

Having reviewed the data from the responses it appears that reflective practice is occurring mostly through face to face conversations, rather than through written forms like a diary. It is worth noting that more collaborative thinking is occurring through sharing of reflective practices. Despite the thoughts of Larrivee (2000) and Yang (2009) in my opinion most teachers that you talk to are extremely time poor with the amount of documentation required of them to fulfill their jobs. It is not to say that written reflection is not an important part of this process but one we do need to be mindful of. 

I think as educators we also need to be aware of the off the cuff reflections made through social media platforms such as twitter and facebook which can lead to implications on schools where derogatory comments may have been made and not thought out.

Step 3 (Critical reflection) 

I need to make the commitment to reflecting on my practice regularly and to move on from just my perspective, to more of a critical reflection and using theoretical work to influence this. I think about the inquiry I am doing, and how it can change my practice, however I need to start writing this down more and really looking at how this influences my practice.

I naturally tend to look at all the things I still need to do and improve on, rather than taking the time to acknowledge what I am doing well and what I have already achieved. One aspect of my reflective practice that I plan on improving is to begin to document more my reflective thinking when working on my current teaching as inquiry around Mathematics. It can also be shared with others, who can give me feedback and new aspects to consider. Larrivee (2000, p.295) says that unless teachers reflect on their practice they “stay trapped in unexamined judgements, interpretations, assumptions and expectations.” I believe that without honest self reflection and having others critique your practice and give you feedback you will not grow as a teacher. 

So where to next for me? More reading, more writing, more thinking and conversing.  More critical rather than descriptive, without losing the positive impacts I have already found.  

REFERENCES

Larrivee, B. (2000).Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.

Yang, S., H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.