Activity 3 - Responses to Finlay's (2008) article

Reflection. This is a practice that I was first introduced to at University. I initially thought it a over indulged term for hindsight until I began to use it for what it really is intended, as " the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice". As Finlay states: "This often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice. It also tends to involve the individual practitioner in being self-aware and critically evaluating their own responses to practice situations" (Finlay, 2008). The term 'Critical Reflection' is best described as attending to discourse, seeking to enable transformative social action and change as opposed to just reflecting without making change.

What is/are the points in the article that you can relate to your reflective practice?
We are asked to reflect on our planning on a daily/weekly basis. Although it sometimes feels to be another time consuming task, I have found that reflection is a way of acknowledging what worked, what didn't, what I could improve and would I try that again? This is as Schon 1983, as cited in Findlay, outlines as 'reflection on action'  where "professionals are understood consciously to review, describe, analyse and evaluate their past practice with a view to gaining insight to improve future practice" Schon however also defined 'reflection in action' whereby the practitioner is able to reflect during practice, this is something I have got better at as my confidence and experience grew. Mentally reflecting and adapting as we teach is a tool that all teachers should use in order to react and respond to the teaching and learning in their practice. I agree with Schon,  that as a novice I tended to 'stick to rules and regulations, they new teachers should be encouraged to step back and reflect on their practice when possible'.

One problem can be the impact when we reflect,  reflection can involve constant striving for self-improvement. And if an individual uses the term ‘critical’ as meaning ‘negative’, they can end up in an negative frame of mind. This can lead to feelings of low self-worth. Quinn, 1988/2000, cited in Findlay. Defining the term critical as meaning an 'essential tool' not as a list of what we are doing wrong, is very important as we are lifelong learners and we learn from our mistakes and misjudgments.

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Are you using any model of reflection? If yes, evaluate the model you are using, is it effective? is there any room for improvement?

At university we were taught to use the Smyth model of reflection which is as follows:

Describe -What did I do?
Inform (Analysis)  - What does this mean?
Confront (Self awareness) - How did I come to be like this?
Reconstruct (Evaluation and Synthesis)  - What do my practices say about my assumptions, values and beliefs? Where did these ideas come from? What social practices are expressed in these ideas? What is it that causes me to maintain my theories? What views of power do they embody? Whose interests seem to be served by my practices? What is it that acts to constrain my views of what is possible in my practice?

When still at University, this was essential on practicums to inform our planning and make changes where necessary as novices.  As a student teacher I had to constantly revise my assumptions and views. The social practices and theories are a big part of teaching in my opinion. I work at a very multicultural school and have experienced many situations where I have had to adapt or change a lesson to accommodate religious and cultural beliefs and practices. This at times has tested my theories and I have learnt to be open, understanding and accepting of all of the cultures and religions in my classroom, regardless of how it may affect my proposed planning. For this reason I prefer  the Gibbs framework as it is a simple but thorough analysis and proposed action model of reflection.

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Stage 1: Description of the event
Stage 2: Feelings and Thoughts (Self awareness)
Stage 3: Evaluation Try to evaluate or make a judgement about what has happened.
Stage 4: Analysis Break the event down into its component parts so they can be explored separately. You may need to ask more detailed questions about the answers to the last stage.
Stage 5: Conclusion (Synthesis) This differs from the evaluation stage in that now you  explore the issue from different angles and have a lot of information to base your judgement. During this stage you should ask yourself what you could have done differently.
Stage 6: Action Plan During this stage you should think yourself forward into encountering the event again and to plan what you would do – would you act differently or would you be likely to do the same?

This is a very handy model for confrontation situations that teachers come across in the playground or with an unhappy parent.  Although some argue in Findlay's article that is is useful but very basic, I find it simple to use, and easy to implement.
 We ask the students to use a similar model when they are on Step 2 of the Behaviour Management system we use at Waikowhai Primary. Another form of reflection-on-action that is use is  mutual collaboration, a participatory, dialogical approach to reflective practice is sought - what Ghaye 2000, as cited in Findlay 2008, calls a ‘reflective conversation’. This is where students and mentors or members of a team collaboratively reflect. As a team the middle school teachers reflect on unit plans and team planning each week. This is essential for ongoing planning.

I believe that reflection is a healthy way to understand ourselves. We use it in Inquiry as part of the Inquiry cycle through Self Evaluation. The students are asked to reflect and self evaluate on how they think they did, what they did well, what they would change if they were to do it again.

WAIKOWHAI STAR INQUIRY MODEL

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Again this is not so the students can undermine or devalue their work, but to reflect on their successes and what they learnt from their inquiry. It does give them an opportunity to define what changes they would make to their Inquiry process were they to do it again.  I agree with Boud and Walker (1998) that it is important that students (an teachers!) reflection doesn't  turn into a recipe-following “checklists which students work through in a mechanical fashion without regard to their own uncertainties, questions and meanings”  I believe that different models of reflection are needed for different levels and situations so that it doesn't become an end of task checklist for the students or teachers.

  

Reference

Finlay, L. (2008) Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf