Activity 3 - Responding to Finlay's article

In my early teaching days I was not a great reflector.  I have only really began formally reflecting on my work in the last few years (primarily because I had to, and then I began to see the benefits). Reflection is part of teaching and education.  No two ways about it, and it seems to be becoming more and more so.  We need to reflect on everything - our lessons, our planning, our assessment, our environments - are we catering for everyone all of the time, am I doing the best?!?  The list could go on and on.  It all seems a little overwhelming at times!

This quote sums up the importance of reflection for me and why it is important.  I wish I knew about this early on in my career:

“Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity” (Larrivee, 2000, p.293). 

The article had a load of great points though, and there were some that really resonated with me.
What are the main points that captivated my attention:

*Schons belief that as professionals become more expert at their practice they develop the skill of monitoring and adapting simultaneously, and when are you are a beginner at your practice you need to have these separate.
I liked this point.  It made a lot of sense.   It's important for beginning teachers to reflect on their practice consistently and continuously, but to try and make me (after 10+ years) reflect each week as my management team is trying to get me to do, seems a bit of a waste of time and effort.  I reflect and change as I go.

* There are so many ways of defining what reflection is and how we can do it!  What I took from all of the different definitions, theories and models was that I need to do what works for me and my school.  One persons way is not going to be a one size fit all kind of ideal.

*Reflection must be for a purpose, otherwise it just wastes everybody's time.  It needs to be contextual and relevant.  I don't want to reflect on every part of my day just to tick a box somewhere.




What reflective model(s) do you find most suitable to use...?

I like Gibbs' model.  It's clear.  It's continuous.  It leads me on a cycle where I have to complete the process - and for me that is very helpful.  Zeichner and Liston (1996) argue that to be a really reflective teacher  I need to move beyond Gibbs' questions about whether my practice is working to critically examining values and how my practice can lead to change.  I feel that as a professional I can do that within the boundaries of the questions Gibbs model poses if needed.

References:

Finlay L (2008) Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’. A discussion paper prepared for Practicebased Professional Learning Centre (PBPL CETL). The Open University’s Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, 52. UK. 

Gibbs, G (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further  Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. 

Zeichner, K. M. and Liston, D. P. (1996) Reflective Teaching: An Introduction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.