TASK 2C

Task 2C: Critical Reflection on Reflective Practice

There are many formal methods by which we as professionals are able to reflect on our own performance within the working environment. Each year I undergo a ‘Performance Management’ cycle that enables my progress throughout the year to be monitored and reassessed for the coming cycle via the use of target setting. However reflection takes place on a day to day basis within professional practice and can often be a process we are unaware that we are going through, or at least how explicitly we are going through it. I will be looking at some of the key theories that emerge in regards to critical reflection and to what extent do they exist within my own practice or perhaps may even improve my approach to my work.

Dewey: Experience

John Dewey focused heavily around the idea that in order to truly reflect we must be aware of our own experiences. He felt this was of great importance within education, viewing the process as ‘continual reorganisation, reconstruction and the transformation of experience.’ I feel that this applies to a lot of my work, in particular in running an after school drama club for primary school students. Often my sessions begin with a rough plan of how the session will develop over the course of the hour. However, my planning for future sessions is altered if I find that students are disengaged or struggle with a particular activity. The use of experience is also a valuable tool for understanding how each student prefers to engage. With such knowledge I am able to try and stretch the learning of students responding well or find an alternative approach for a struggling student when appropriate.

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

In truth, throughout this process I have had a lot of trouble working out at which point do I enter into Kolb’s learning cycle as I feel in some way or another I use all four stages at various points of my practice:

Concrete Experience: Doing/having an experience is something that we must be aware of in order to reflect to begin with. Earlier examples illustrate that in my teaching I need to be aware of activities that may or may not stimulate a group of students in order to plan for such groups accordingly.

Reflective Observation: I am fortunate enough to be able to observe teachers around me to pick up on classroom strategies such as behaviour management or even activities that I have not thought of using within my own teaching. By observing I can reflect on things that I may not do so well to allow my teaching to grow.

Abstract Conceptualisation: Following each of my teaching sessions I will note what I feel went well and perhaps not so well within the session. By ‘working this out’ it enables me to learn why my approach may or may not have worked

Active Experimentation: This aspect of reflection is most evident within my planning prior to each session. I am able to plan out how new activities that I have observed can be implemented into my current projects as well how strategies can be implemented to ensure each student gets as much from the session as possible.

Howard Gardner & Multiple Intelligence

I have found Howard’s idea of multiple intelligences an interesting one. It is often forgotten far too easily that as learners we all have our own unique way of learning and this can often be frustrating from a teaching perspective when trying to get a student to reach particular ‘outcomes’. However, the idea behind multiple intelligences really highlights what it is that has drawn me to a career in education. The fact that so much can be learnt as a collective if we are all looking from a different standpoint as we can turn all types of experience to learning whether it be through the use of our bodies or adopting a more logical approach.

Also I have been able to reflect upon a question I had in Task 1C when I spoke about career choices. I feel my strengths within my practice centre around Interpersonal intelligence. This may signify that I should explore further the possibility of working in a pastoral aspect of education such as a learning mentor as opposed to the classroom teacher route.

Schon: Reflection-in-Action & Reflection–on-Action

This again lends itself to education within the arts as often as practitioners we need the flexibility in our teaching in order to ‘think on the spot’. This process is reflecting in action as we can see that a particular task or idea is not working. For example, I had produced a short script for my year 5 students leading into a performance. However, during the rehearsal process it became apparent that one particular student was struggling with written text. As a result, it proved a more beneficial move to allow the student to ad-lib and rework his particular scene.

On the other hand I don’t believe that being able to reflect in action excludes you from being able to reflect upon action. Reflection on action is often a necessity in order to help make more calculated decisions for the future. In this sense in education this lends itself to forward planning where as the former approach is very much an instinctive yet necessary component of our teaching.

Throughout my learning on BAPP (Arts) I have begun to connect with the ways in which I already reflect within my practice. It is often not immediately acknowledged that I have reflected within a situation. I have often leant towards the forward planning process as my most relied on tool of reflection as the environment that I am in is very centred around this process, I observe teachers using data of students to plan how they structure activities or even seat them within a classroom as they have learnt through their experience that these methods work. However, within my own practice I have often dismissed or at the very least understated the role that spontaneity plays within my practice. In my earliest days of working with my primary students I used to get a twinge of disappointment if a session had not gone how I had structured it on paper. However, I am beginning to feel more comfortable in the fact that they do not as I feel my teaching can only improve through being able to react and respond to each and every one of my students. This process shouldn’t be a disappointment or deemed as inadequate planning as I have learnt to trust my ability to reflect and hold great confidence when allowing a session to deviate. Through reflective processes such as ‘reflection-in-action’ you are able to look at how to plan for ‘now’ when you have a clear view of how students are progressing or not progressing. This has given me more belief and knowledge of what I already do.