Using Jay and Johnson (2002) reflective model, I will throw a light on my current reflective practice.
Reflection is not a new concept for me. Having worked in teaching for so many years, I am aware of the importance of doing reflections and have been practising it to inform the effectiveness of my teaching practice.
During my teaching journey so far, I have had different opportunities for reflecting that has helped me to improve my reflective practice. Apart from using the daily classroom experiences, observations, assessment data and anecdotal notes, lately I have also been videoing my reading and writing lessons and analysing it using the guiding question. As a reflective practitioner, I also discuss the lessons with my colleagues to seek their support to draw up an action plan. Also providing my students with opportunities where they reflect on their learning at the end of each day by answering questions ‘what they learnt’ and ‘what they need to do to improve’ helps me to assess their learning and understanding of the concept.
But as I had never used any framework to evaluate my reflections, I am unsure about how effective is my reflective practice?
As Larrivee (2000) argues “Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgements, interpretations, assumptions and expectations.”
When looking at Zeichner and Liston’s Five Levels of Reflection (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4):
· Rapid
· Repair
· Review
· Research
· Retheorizing and reformulating
I find that I usually employ first three levels while reflecting. I believe that reflection should be ongoing and continuous. I reflect while teaching on something that is not working which leads me to change my approach on the spot. I am sometimes taking notes of what was not successful and then reviewing it by either thinking or taking support from others to help me to make changes to meet the needs of my learner. However, in order to be a high reflective practitioner, I need to be focussing on level 4 and 5 as well.
In order to enhance my critical reflective practice, I need to move away from merely relying on assumptions and past experience to actually reading literature. As Brookfield (1995) suggests that teachers improve their reflective skills when they see their practice through four critical, interconnected lenses: their own, the views of their students and colleagues and what can be learned from the wider educational literature. These lenses may reflect back different pictures of who you are as a practitioner and the impact of your work. Also aligning my teaching practice with the academic theories will result in better outcomes.
According to Fook, White and Gardner (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.6), critical reflection should be done in a systematic manner, be challenged by differing angles, and be informed by reliable sources.
Also I need to document my reflections in the form of blogging and share with others to create networks and professional communities of practice and receive helpful feedback from others.
References:
Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher, Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.
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.
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
