Activity 1: My Reflective Practice

Week 17: Reflective Practice

Descriptive:

Using Jay and Johnson’s reflective model has brought to the surface a more visible perspective towards my teaching practice. 

I have always been an internal reflector, not so much as using student(s) input. As of recently since joining Pakuranga , I am more interested in gaining student voice and formulating lessons to fit their direction toward my subject.

Looking over the Gibbs model for reflection, was my normal procedure. I just never really realized that someone had written out a formal diagram. l I tend to leave out or not even think about how I am feeling though. I mainly focused on how I was delivering content to the lessons, then evaluate, analyse, and how to go about with throwing an audible if necessary (grid-iron reference).

Since coming to Pakuranga I have never been involved in a Professional Learning Group. This experience made me uneasy since it made me really look at myself and my teaching practice. It required me to document my thoughts and collect student voice (that was the scariest part). 

This allowed me to really take notice with my teaching and narrow down a strategy to focus on to benefit the student through a thought out process.

Comparative:

Atkins and Murphy three stages of the reflective process dealt with a lot around feelings, but looking how Schon brought to my attention my thinking process. That is the reflection-on-action vs reflection-in-action. I myself do a lot of “thinking while doing” (Finlay, pg 3).

Zeichner and Liston’s five levels of reflection made me rethink an approach to my reflection process. I have always been a “think on your feet” kind of person. I mentally file events and review or share my thoughts to colleagues during break. This lets me relive the experience, as well as, take on advice to reformulte my practice. I never shy away from a good debate, but I am normally hesitant with taking advice from others. 

Being open minded and sharing ideas with mutual collaboration and reflective conversations has allowed me to see the the benefits of taking risks. For example getting an idea that to have students write up their own reflective website journal that they share with me and their parent. 

Also being a coach for our school’s Community of Learning team has allowed me insight into other departments. Conversing with my team has revealed similar issues with student engagement and thier difficulty with understanding contextual questions. 

Critical Reflection:

Becoming involved with the Community of Learning model and being a coach has pushed my previous views towards reflection into a wider community. I have normally just used my own thoughts and when reading about the Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle it has made me realize that I was focusing on “is my practice working” not the how can I adapt into changing. 

This new position has shown me the importance of conversing with fellow colleagues and growing the “mutual collaboration” within departments and utilizing perspectives from different departments. 

Earlier in mindlab course there was a focus on breaking down silos. Reading Finlay’s article has shed new light on my own reflective practice especially with utilizing other individuals research to adapt and change with the ongoing cycle of education. I have been quite stagnant with trying to evolve as a teacher when it came to gaining insight from others. I was raised to solve your own problems and not bother other people with “silly” questions or to even seek advice. In the past, when I was being educated, focus was on the individual student not collaboration. That was the 80’s and 90’s, but with the 21st century evolving as project based work and collaborative work environments, I myself should learn from others instead of just relying on me, myself, and I for all the answers when reflecting on my teaching.

References:

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Ghaye, T. (2000) Into the reflective mode: bridging the stagnant moat. Reflective Practice, 1(1) 5-9.

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher Education. Teaching and Teacher Education,18, 73-85.

Quinn, F.M. (1988/2000) Reflection and reflective practice. In C.Davies, L.Finlay and A. Bullman (eds.) Changing practice in health and social care. London: Sage. (Original work published in 1988 and reproduced in 2000).

Schon, D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.