{"id":5618,"date":"2016-06-20T13:26:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2016-06-20T13:26:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T13:26:53","slug":"reflective-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2016\/06\/20\/reflective-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflective Practice\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ChrisBy Chris Mares<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Reflective Practice\u2019 is a familiar term to many teachers.\u00a0 It has a positive connotation and intuitively seems like a good thing to do.\u00a0But what is it really, and how do you do it in order to become a better teacher?\u00a0 These are both interesting and important questions.<\/p>\n

The first point is that reflection is more than simply thinking.\u00a0 There needs to be a critical, analytic quality to the process and the results of any meaningful reflection need to be articulated thoroughly.\u00a0 More precisely, reflection needs to be ongoing, purposeful, rigorous, and systematic. It also needs to have an outcome that informs our teaching.<\/p>\n

Like all skills, \u2018reflective practice\u2019 takes time and organization.\u00a0 I will suggest an approach that will model how reflective practice can be done.\u00a0 This approach should be seen as an example only as there are other ways that would be equally valid.<\/p>\n

The Premise<\/strong><\/p>\n

The premise underlying reflective practice is that you are prepared to take an ongoing systematic look at what you do as a teacher, you are prepared to critique yourself honestly, and that you are prepared to modify or change what you do and how you do it in order to be a more effective teacher.\u00a0 For this to be a productive experience, you have to want to do it and not be afraid to confront aspects of yourself and what you do that might at times be unsettling.<\/p>\n

For the sake of this post let\u2019s simply assume that all teachers want to be better teachers.<\/p>\n

Focus\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

One strategy is to focus your reflection on a particular aspect of your teaching, for example, how you deal with student errors, how you give instructions, how you approach grammar, or how you raise schema.\u00a0 An accompanying requirement is to develop a list of rigorous questions that will take you to the core of what you are focusing on.\u00a0 All teachers are familiar with the visceral responses, “that went well”<\/em> or “that didn\u2019t quite go according to plan.”<\/em> \u00a0These are acknowledgements of what appeared to happen rather than critical reflection.\u00a0 Rigorous questions are ones such as, \u201cDid I raise student schema before the activity?\u201d<\/em>, \u201cWere my instructions clear and effective?\u201d<\/em>, \u201cDid the students achieve the goal I had set for them?\u201d\u00a0<\/em> These questions provide you with useful and focused answers about what happened.\u00a0 Essentially, they will result in data that can inform your teaching.\u00a0 Leaving a classroom with a feeling that the students had fun or that they seemed bored does nothing to explain what happened or whether your goals were achieved.\u00a0 On the other hand, principled reflection does.<\/p>\n

Record\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asking rigorous questions that get to the root of both your teaching and your students\u2019 engagement and achievement is just the beginning of the process.\u00a0 The next stage is the recording of these reflections.\u00a0 I like to keep a journal in my bag which I use for making notes about what I have done in class.\u00a0 I also use it to make quick reflective notes that I later type up and store electronically.\u00a0 The process of writing by hand and then typing both allows for the possibility of refining and building on the initial thoughts you had when you began your reflections.<\/p>\n

Review and Implement\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having gone through the process of teaching, reflecting, and then writing up your reflections, it is necessary to review what you have written.\u00a0 Over time you will begin to notice patterns and detect preferences.\u00a0 Sometimes you will learn from what you have written specifically.\u00a0 At other times you will learn from what you have not included.\u00a0 For example, if you notice a sameness in your teaching, you will learn that you don\u2019t often experiment with new techniques or activities.<\/p>\n

Reflective practice when carried out thoroughly is an excellent way to get an accurate sense of what you actually do in your classes, not just what you think you do. \u00a0It also allows you to see patterns and possibilities, and to learn about your teaching style and activity preferences.<\/p>\n

Conclusion\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reflective practice requires meaningful disciplined reflection over time.\u00a0 In this way it becomes a practice. If approached positively and with purpose, it also becomes a means of exploring your own threshold for honesty and self-examination.<\/p>\n

And, as we all know, a life is only meaningful if it is examined.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Mares \u2018Reflective Practice\u2019 is a familiar term to many teachers.\u00a0 It has a positive connotation and intuitively seems like a good thing to do.\u00a0But what is it really, and how do you do it in order to become a better teacher?\u00a0 These are both interesting and important questions. The first point is that … Continue reading Reflective Practice\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":5572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflective-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}