Week 26 notes

In Week 25 (Applied Practice in Context), you were asked to write your first reflective entry on “Take Action”. This is a follow on from our introduction of critical reflection in week 6 LEADERSHIP (related media ‘Critical Incident Reflection’).

Now, in week 26, we ask you to “Take Action” to learn more theories and research on Reflective Practice to build up your understanding of how important it is for you. You’ll get to explore different reflective models and start to use them to critically reflect on your own Teacher Inquiry in Activity 2 of PRACTICE 1.

What Is Reflective Practice?

Reflecting on practice is an active learning process whereby practice is analysed in its context. The point as Finlay (2008, p.1) puts it, is to “recapture practice experiences and mull them over critically in order to gain new understandings and so improve future practice.”

Why Is Reflective Practice Important?

Without critical reflection, superficial thinking might simply reinforce existing assumptions. Finlay (2008) called attention to the “bland, mechanical, unthinking ways” (p.1) of time-constrained professionals. Reflective practice can be a “powerful tool to examine and transform practice” (Finlay, 2008, p.10). Therefore, it is important that reflective practice be cultivated and fostered to become effective.

Developing Critical Reflection in Your Practice

You should start by examining how you currently reflect on your practice. Fill in this evaluate your reflective practice survey You can see how others have responded by clicking on “see previous responses” after completing the survey.

The first question in the survey is intended to test your understanding of what critical reflection is. If you consider critical reflection as simply criticising your own or your colleagues' practice, then it is time to reconsider.

According to Fook and Askeland (cited in Finlay, 2008), critical reflection looks at individual concerns within a wider perspective, “connecting individual identity and social context”. It should be done in a systematic manner, be challenged by differing angles and be informed with reliable sources.

The second question of the survey is adapted from Zeichner and Liston’s (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4) five levels of reflection:

1. Rapid reflection - immediate, ongoing and automatic action by the teacher.
2. Repair – in which a thoughtful teacher makes decisions to alter their behaviour in response to students’ cues.
3. Review – when a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes about some element of their teaching.
4. Research – when a teacher engages in more systematic and sustained thinking over time, perhaps by collecting data or reading research.
5. Retheorizing and reformulating – the process by which a teacher critically examines their own practice and theories in the light of academic theories.”

It may be, for example, that your current reflective practice sits at the lower levels of the spectrum due to time constraints or the priority you place on reflection. If so, what could you do to improve things?

Modelling Your Reflective Practice

Adopting a suitable model of reflection could enhance the quality of your reflective practice as it encourages a structured process of reflection.

In pages 7-10 of this week's reading Reflecting on reflective practice (required), Finlay introduces and critiques some reflective models, and summarized Quinn’s (1988, 2000) suggestion of three fundamental processes shared across these:

• Retrospection - thinking back about a situation or experience;
• Self-evaluation - critically analysing and evaluating the actions and feelings associated with the experience, using theoretical perspectives;
• Reorientation - using the results of self-evaluation to influence future approaches to similar situations or experiences.” (Quinn, 2000, p.82).

Is there any model(s) that you find suitable for your own reflective practice? Let’s explore a few below.

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

One of the most popular models is Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle which suggests that learning happens iteratively when we make experiences, understand what we feel and think, evaluate and analyze the experience, draw conclusions, make an action plan, and make new experiences based on our new insights (Finlay 2008: p.8). This supplementary video from the University of Northampton briefly outlines Gibb's Cycle of Reflection.

Gibb’s six basic stages of the cycle of reflection also have some similarities with the Teaching-as-Inquiry model from the Ministry of Education (2009), it provides a suitable frame in a reflection when you focus specifically on your own experience.

Figure 1: Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Finlay, 2008)

Jay and Johnson’s Model of Reflection

Alternatively, Jay and Johnson’s model of reflection provides a more elaborate typology of reflection, it takes account of multiple perspectives, it could guide you to scrutinise your practice through a more critical lens (Finlay, 2008, p.9).

This model went along with demands not to oversimplify the process of reflection, especially when teaching the concept to future educators. To capture the complexity of the concept, this three-dimensional model is composed of a descriptive, comparative, and critical reflection. This and other contemporary models emphasise the importance of engaging in reflexivity, critical self-reflection, a combination of personal reflection and social critique (Finlay 2008: p.9).

Figure 2: Adapted from Jay and Johnson’s 2002 reflective model (Finlay, 2008)

Rolfe’s Model of Reflection

Finally, we introduce Rolfe’s Model of Reflection, which is based upon three simple questions: What? - describing the situation; So what? - analyse and explain what has happened in relation to supporting literature; and Now what? - how it can contribute to your future practice (Otago Polytechnic, n.d.). A short document (required) from Otago Polytechnic introduces reflective writing and Rolfe’s reflective model.

For those of us who are new to reflective writing, it may be a good choice to follow this simple but effective model which can be used to guide the writing process.

Figure 3: Rolfe’s Model of Reflection (Otago Polytechnic, n.d.)

Using a Reflective Journal for Your Reflection

Question three of our survey in this week’s class notes explores the ways you reflect on your practice. You may prefer having solitary reflection or informal conversations with colleagues rather than written reflection. However, Larrivee (2000) recommends that keeping a reflective journal is a way to ensure time is set aside for deep and regular reflection. A reflective journal enables you to integrate knowledge and learning and analyse the significance and implications for your professional practice. Electronic journals are able to be shared with others, so there are opportunities for you to share and create networks, whānau of interest, and professional communities of practice. A reflective journal is an important evaluative learning tool for you as a learner and as a professional. Sharing aspects of your journal and working collaboratively in a shared e-reflective journal space is part of the reflective process. The feedback you give and receive can be critical for further investigation, reflection, and change.

Reflect on Your Inquiry

As part of your reflective practice, reflecting on your Teacher Inquiry is an opportunity for you to review and evaluate your learning journey over the duration of these two online courses, test new understandings, challenge assumptions and critically consider your practice during each phase of your Teacher Inquiry in line with theory and research.

Using a different reflective model may give you some insights into how different models approach the process of reflection. This week, we will practise how to employ a suitable reflective model using Rolfe’s Model of Reflection to this week’s activity, but one size may not necessarily fit all, this means you can choose a model for this weeks task that you feel most comfortable with.

Note: Although this week we require you to select and/or use a specific reflective model, for the rest of the course, you are free to decide whether or not to use a reflective model, and which model to use for any of your reflective entries.

THIS WEEK’S ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY - Reflect on Your Inquiry

Activity 2: Create a reflective entry in which you apply a reflective model to discuss something that has happened during your Inquiry so far, and how it impacts on taking action

Step 1 (What): Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far

For example, what is the most notable or difficult event so far and why? In which phase(s) of the Inquiry did the event happen? Who was involved?

Step 2 (So What): Evaluate the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event

For example, What are the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event? How can it be explained? What was the impact of taking action? What alternative perspectives from community and research could inform your explanation?

Step 3 (Now What): Analyse the implications from this event to the rest of your Inquiry

For example, what did you learn from it? Is there anything you can change to improve your Teacher Inquiry and/or Action Plan even further? How would you improve your Action Plan next time based on the impact that your taking action had? What will you do differently in the future?

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

Larrivee, B. (2000).Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.

Ministry of Education.(2009). Teaching as Inquiry. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry

Otago Polytechnic. (n.d.). Reflective Writing. Retrieved from https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/Reflective-writing.pdf

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).