Purpose of the article:
The purpose of this article is to explore ideas and debates around reflective practice and how it is currently used in professional organisations.
Defining reflective practice:
Finlay recognises many different meanings of reflective practice and that it means different concepts to different groups. To me, I see reflective practice as a way of studying own experiences to improve the way things are done.
In her article she states that reflective practice is hard to do and equally hard to teach. It is
even harder to do and teach effectively (p.15).
Reflective 'In' and "On' practice:
This section was interesting reading and thinking about how it related to me in the teaching profession.
Reflection-on-action
(after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking while doing) became clearer as I related it to how I reflected on my own practice.
As I re-read this section it became clearer to me that Schons (1983) concept of reflective practice developing more from a "reflection-on-action" type of reflection to 'reflection-in-action' as teachers confidence and experience grow in teaching.
During discussion with provisionally registered teachers, I can see that reflection comes at the end of a lesson taught, at the end of the day or at the end of the week. With experience, I think 'reflection-in-action' comes naturally and becomes relevant as one is continually reflecting on how the lesson and going and if the lesson needs to be adjusted to meet different needs.
When planning lessons and in fact during lessons, it is always important to think about practical and critical questions to improve your practice. Some are outlined by Grushka, Hinde-McLeod and Reynolds in their 'reflection for action' section (p.4). For example; are these instructions clear? Do I (as the teacher) know what I want my students to get out of the lesson? Do I have specific learning intentions and are the success criteria co-written and understandable?
Reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity:
Personally I found this section hard to understand. The term 'reflexivity' is new to me and I had to do some searching to understand what the term meant. I think it means the relationship between cause and effect.
This is something that I am going to have to continue to learn more about.
Modelling reflective practice:
Although the most commonly cited reflective model is Gibbs (1998), I found the model by Boud, Keogh
and Walker (1985), easier to follow. I liked the revisiting aspect that follows on to an outcome easy to incorporate into my thinking. This model also aligns with our Elm Park School Inquiry model.
Critiquing reflective practice:
I found this section of the article very interesting. Many of the points raised highlighted my concerns with reflective practice.
In particular:
Ethical concerns - Quinns (2000) point about students/practitioners appearing to have little choice about having to do reflection, as it is often a significant component demanded by those in authority, in my opinion is quite true. Who are the reflections for? Are these reflections helping or hindering a student or practitioners abilities as a teacher? As Finlay points our "when required of individuals through learning and assessment exercises, reflections can end up being superficial, strategic and guarded" (p.14).
Professional concerns - If reflective practice is done badly, ineffectively or inappropriately, its value goes unrecognised or undervalued. Mentors need to be encouraging and supportive to students. But these mentors also need to be aware of positive critical reflections and be able to share their knowledge in a positive manner with their students.
Conclusion:
Overall I found this article a difficult read. It has given me a lot to think about in terms of what reflective practice means to me.
I know that reflection is an intrinsic part of teaching and learning, and that it directs the next steps in my lesson, but it is important and necessary for others to read my reflections? More to think about.
References:
Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’. Open University, Practice-based professional learning centre. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Activity 2 - Reflection on Learning and Practice.
As a teacher who is finds it a necessity to be up to date with new educational concepts, I was excited to find a course that entailed hands-on tasks as well as pedagogical theories.
An added bonus was that a colleague was willing to participate in the course as well, which meant shared transport and a likeminded brain to bounce ideas off.
During the last 24 weeks of study there have been many "aha" moments but in particular the following three points are things that I have learnt about myself as a learner...
# 1 Working with, collective, collaborative learning.
Being able to work collaboratively with either a group or another person has been enjoyable. Although this is a normal form of learning in my classroom it is not one that I have come across during my personal experience in education.
Being able to collaborate on "in class" activities and during assessment tasks has meant that I have often had to commit to work and time schedules rather than last minute opportunities.
# 2 Assessments, accountability reflective learning.
I have found the assessment tasks rather cumbersome. It has been quite some time since I last had a time frame and a deadline to hand work in. What has inspired me to complete these tasks, was the way in which we were encouraged to use a different presentation platform rather than the old traditional written essay.
Many of the presentation platforms that I have been introduced to, I have shared with students in my class and they are now using these with ease. Kahoot for example is a favourite and is spreading around the school with speed.
It has also inspired me to branch out of my comfort zone and try new presentation tools that I would not normally use.
# 3 Hands on, tactile, kinaesthetic learning.
Being able to complete tasks in class has helped my understanding of programs and feel more confident in using them in a class situation. While I would normally sit and listen to someone talking about their product/program, I was never that confident to use it in class as I was not willing to make errors in front of my students. These errors are now described as learning opportunities in our class.
Some on the boys in my class are loving using scratch and I can see this becoming a favourite tool to use in class and in personal time as well.
Changes to my practice.
# 1 Providing more opportunity for collaborative learning.
During this course, I have been given the opportunity to work collaboratively with my peers and this has made a far greater impact on my learning than if I was left to my own devices. Collaborative learning has been a small part in my class. Usually students collaborate in class and their thinking is that they are "cheating" or "copying" so is done quietly rather than out in the open. So I though, if collaboration has a positive impact on my learning, what would my students think of collaborating in open? So I changed the way I delivered my lessons. Many lessons became collaborative, where students were able to use Goggle Apps for Education in their lessons. It was ok to talk about what they were doing, it was ok for them to be working on one document in class and then adding to it during their own time. AND it was ok to submit one piece of work as long as a self and peer evaluation was completed.
# 2 Being adventurous and taking more risks.
This led to me taking more risks and being more adventurous with the way I ran my classroom programme. As stated above the new mantra in our class became - Mistakes are learning opportunities. Before, many errors where not seen as a learning opportunity. Now I had to think about revisiting the learning intention and and changing the way I delivered the lesson to my students. Was there a better way? Not only did I need to convince myself of this, I also had to convince my colleague as well.
I have always put my hand up to be involved in new initiatives at school but only ever in a role of team member. Now, I am working towards a Self Directed Learning programme for next year. This means that I am now not following a leader in a new initiative in school but am leading from the top.
# 3 Awareness of communication skills and leadership skills.
Being put in a position of leadership is intimidating when there has been no professional development on "how to lead". The only leadership professional development that I have been involved in is a course that was led by David Anderson. The reason I was asked to participated in the course was I had just taken on the new role of P.E coordinator for our school. I don't think there are many opportunities for PD in leadership and many people go through their teaching careers not knowing how to be an effective leader. The leadership module of this course has opened my thoughts and has made me delve into my own leadership qualities and to reflect on the leader I want to be.
References
Bergmann, J. & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day.
Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1564844684
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: Random House.
Hargreaves, E. (2007). The validity of collaborative assessment for learning.Assessment in Education, 14(2), 185-199.
Powell, S.D. (2005). Excerpt from Introduction to Middle School.
Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/learning-modalities/
An added bonus was that a colleague was willing to participate in the course as well, which meant shared transport and a likeminded brain to bounce ideas off.
During the last 24 weeks of study there have been many "aha" moments but in particular the following three points are things that I have learnt about myself as a learner...
# 1 Working with, collective, collaborative learning.
Being able to work collaboratively with either a group or another person has been enjoyable. Although this is a normal form of learning in my classroom it is not one that I have come across during my personal experience in education.
Being able to collaborate on "in class" activities and during assessment tasks has meant that I have often had to commit to work and time schedules rather than last minute opportunities.
# 2 Assessments, accountability reflective learning.
I have found the assessment tasks rather cumbersome. It has been quite some time since I last had a time frame and a deadline to hand work in. What has inspired me to complete these tasks, was the way in which we were encouraged to use a different presentation platform rather than the old traditional written essay.
Many of the presentation platforms that I have been introduced to, I have shared with students in my class and they are now using these with ease. Kahoot for example is a favourite and is spreading around the school with speed.
It has also inspired me to branch out of my comfort zone and try new presentation tools that I would not normally use.
# 3 Hands on, tactile, kinaesthetic learning.
Being able to complete tasks in class has helped my understanding of programs and feel more confident in using them in a class situation. While I would normally sit and listen to someone talking about their product/program, I was never that confident to use it in class as I was not willing to make errors in front of my students. These errors are now described as learning opportunities in our class.
Some on the boys in my class are loving using scratch and I can see this becoming a favourite tool to use in class and in personal time as well.
Changes to my practice.
# 1 Providing more opportunity for collaborative learning.
During this course, I have been given the opportunity to work collaboratively with my peers and this has made a far greater impact on my learning than if I was left to my own devices. Collaborative learning has been a small part in my class. Usually students collaborate in class and their thinking is that they are "cheating" or "copying" so is done quietly rather than out in the open. So I though, if collaboration has a positive impact on my learning, what would my students think of collaborating in open? So I changed the way I delivered my lessons. Many lessons became collaborative, where students were able to use Goggle Apps for Education in their lessons. It was ok to talk about what they were doing, it was ok for them to be working on one document in class and then adding to it during their own time. AND it was ok to submit one piece of work as long as a self and peer evaluation was completed.
# 2 Being adventurous and taking more risks.
This led to me taking more risks and being more adventurous with the way I ran my classroom programme. As stated above the new mantra in our class became - Mistakes are learning opportunities. Before, many errors where not seen as a learning opportunity. Now I had to think about revisiting the learning intention and and changing the way I delivered the lesson to my students. Was there a better way? Not only did I need to convince myself of this, I also had to convince my colleague as well.
I have always put my hand up to be involved in new initiatives at school but only ever in a role of team member. Now, I am working towards a Self Directed Learning programme for next year. This means that I am now not following a leader in a new initiative in school but am leading from the top.
# 3 Awareness of communication skills and leadership skills.
Being put in a position of leadership is intimidating when there has been no professional development on "how to lead". The only leadership professional development that I have been involved in is a course that was led by David Anderson. The reason I was asked to participated in the course was I had just taken on the new role of P.E coordinator for our school. I don't think there are many opportunities for PD in leadership and many people go through their teaching careers not knowing how to be an effective leader. The leadership module of this course has opened my thoughts and has made me delve into my own leadership qualities and to reflect on the leader I want to be.
References
Bergmann, J. & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day.
Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1564844684
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York, NY: Random House.
Hargreaves, E. (2007). The validity of collaborative assessment for learning.Assessment in Education, 14(2), 185-199.
Powell, S.D. (2005). Excerpt from Introduction to Middle School.
Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/learning-modalities/
Friday, October 2, 2015
Activity 1 - Welcome to my Reflective Journal
This year I celebrated my 20th year in the teaching profession. I joined a group of friends from those days teaching in Mangere and we celebrated with food, and conversation.
I remember those days teaching in Mangere with fondness and horror.
Horror at how could a child (and parents) threaten me and physically hit me? Gosh how times have changed! A court case would have ensued if it had happened in this time but back in those days it was restorative care. And fondness when I get friend requests on Facebook from a past student.
During my 20 year career, I have been in many different roles. From a position of management, to changing the platform from P.C to Apple in one school, ICT lead teacher, P.E specialist, Maori mentor, sports coordinator, classroom teacher, and now a reliever.
I have had the opportunity to present at various ULearn's, South Cluster and Eastnet Cluster networking seminars. I have throughly enjoyed my teaching career.
After 20 years though, I found that I needed something else....
I have been teaching at Elm Park School for quite some time I started off as a reliever, and then was asked to open a new entrant class in Term 3. Thus began my journey here. I taught Y1 and 2, then moved to Y4, then on to Y5 and this year a job shared position in a Y6 class.
I have often thought about how I go about teaching my students. If I sit down and really think about this, I can honestly say that over the years my approach to teaching students has changed. I am sure my approach will continue to change as well.
With a colleague we were given an amazing opportunity to begin a MLE (with 25 students) using two different areas as our learning environment. We were also lucky enough to be able to teach one week in class and one week as a P.E specialist and my colleague as a music specialist.
This gave me some flexibility with my personal time. Because of this extra time I decideded to enrol in the Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning) at The Mindlab by Unitech (2015).
Now is the time to reflect and consolidate on my learning.
I remember those days teaching in Mangere with fondness and horror.
Horror at how could a child (and parents) threaten me and physically hit me? Gosh how times have changed! A court case would have ensued if it had happened in this time but back in those days it was restorative care. And fondness when I get friend requests on Facebook from a past student.
During my 20 year career, I have been in many different roles. From a position of management, to changing the platform from P.C to Apple in one school, ICT lead teacher, P.E specialist, Maori mentor, sports coordinator, classroom teacher, and now a reliever.
I have had the opportunity to present at various ULearn's, South Cluster and Eastnet Cluster networking seminars. I have throughly enjoyed my teaching career.
After 20 years though, I found that I needed something else....
I have been teaching at Elm Park School for quite some time I started off as a reliever, and then was asked to open a new entrant class in Term 3. Thus began my journey here. I taught Y1 and 2, then moved to Y4, then on to Y5 and this year a job shared position in a Y6 class.
I have often thought about how I go about teaching my students. If I sit down and really think about this, I can honestly say that over the years my approach to teaching students has changed. I am sure my approach will continue to change as well.
With a colleague we were given an amazing opportunity to begin a MLE (with 25 students) using two different areas as our learning environment. We were also lucky enough to be able to teach one week in class and one week as a P.E specialist and my colleague as a music specialist.
This gave me some flexibility with my personal time. Because of this extra time I decideded to enrol in the Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning) at The Mindlab by Unitech (2015).
Now is the time to reflect and consolidate on my learning.
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