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
