LS lesson 4: Importance and Benefits of Life Skills Education

How are Life Skills  Education important?

We find that behaviour does not always follow the mind. This is when incidents of “I know but I can’t help it” occur. What we need is the ability to act responsibly. Life skills enable us to translate knowledge, attitudes and values into actual abilities.

Benefits of Life skills:

 Teamwork, self-esteem, learning from each other, confidence, etc.

LS Lesson 3 Life skills core definitions

Self-awareness includes recognition of ‘self’, our character, our strengths and 

weaknesses,  desires and dislikes. Developing self-awareness can help us to recognize 

when we are stressed  or feel under pressure. It is often a prerequisite to effective 

communication and interpersonal relations, as well as for developing empathy with others.

Decision making helps us to deal constructively with decisions about our lives. This 

can   have consequences for health. It can teach people how to actively make decisions

about their actions in relation to healthy assessment of different options and, what

effects these different  decisions are likely to have

Problem solving helps us to deal constructively with problems in our lives.

Significant problems that are left unresolved can cause mental stress and give rise to

accompanying physical strain.

Effective communication means that we are able to express ourselves, both 

verbally and   non-verbally, in ways that are appropriate to our cultures and situations.

This means being able to express opinions and desires, and also needs and fears. And

it may mean being able to ask for advice and help in a time of need

Interpersonal relationship skills help us to relate in positive ways with the people 

we  interact with. This may mean being able to make and keep friendly relationships, 

which can be of great importance to our mental and social well-being. It may mean 

keeping, good  relations with family members, which are an important source of social 

support. It may also mean being able to end relationships constructively

Critical thinking is an ability to analyze information and experiences in an objective 

 manner. Critical thinking can contribute to health by helping us to recognize and assess

 the factors  that  influence  attitudes  and  behaviour,  such  as  values,  peer pressure and the media.

Creativity is a novel way of seeing or doing things that is characteristic of 

four components - fluency (generating new ideas), flexibility (shifting perspective

easily), originality (conceiving of something new), and elaboration (building on other ideas).

Empathy - To have a successful relationship with our loved ones and society at large, 

we  need to understand and care about other peoples’ needs, desires and feelings. 

Empathy is the ability to imagine what life is like for another person. Without 

empathy, our communication with others will amount to one-way traffic. Worst, we will 

be acting and behaving according to  our  self-interest  and  are  bound  to  run  into 

problems. No man is an island, no woman either! We grow up in relationships with

many people - parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, classmates, friends

and neighbours.When we understand ourselves as well as others, we are better prepared to

communicate our needs and desires. We will be more equipped to say what we want people to 

know, present  our thoughts and ideas and tackle delicate issues without offending other 

people. At the same   time, we will be able to elicit support from others, and win their 

understanding.Empathy can help us to accept others, who may be very different from ourselves.

This can improve social interactions, especially, in situations of ethnic or cultural diversity

Coping with stress means recognizing the sources of stress in our lives, recognizing 

how  this affects us, and acting in ways that help us control our levels of stress, by 

changing our  environment or lifestyle and learning how to relax.

Coping with emotions means involving recognizing emotions within us and 

others, being  aware of how emotions influence behaviour and being able to respond to 

emotions appropriately. Intense emotions like anger or sadness can have negative 

effects on our health  if we do not respond appropriately.

source; http://www.cbse.nic.in/cce/life_skills_cce.pdf

 International models of life skills:

There are taxonomies of generic life skills for categorising and arranging a wide range of life 

skills. Barrie Hopson and Mike Scally of the Counselling and Career Development Unit, Leeds 

University, use an analytical approach to categorising life skills. 

 

David Brooks, professor of counselling and guidance at Syracuse University, uses an empirical approach to classify life skills.Each of these categories has a comprehensive list of descriptors for each of three stages of life: childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Normative age ranges are provided for the
descriptors, indicating the approximate age at which the skill is usually acquired. Life skills
develop in and apply to the contexts of home and family, school, work and the community.

LS Lesson 2: Definition of Life skills and its core components

What are Life Skills ?

Life skills comprise particular attitudes, knowledge and skills (Nelson-Jones, 1991) which 

enable the individual to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life 

(Division of Mental Health WHO, 1993). Nelson-Jones (1992:232) recommends that specific 

life skills should be regarded as comprising three dimensions: attitude, knowledge and skill.

 Attitude:  An  appropriate  attitude  to  any  skill  is  that  one  should  assume  personal 

responsibility for acquiring, maintaining, using and developing it. One may lose some or all 

of a life skill if one fails to work at using and developing it. A personally responsible 

attitude is the motivational or ìwanting to do itî dimension of a life skill.

Knowledge: Any life skill involves knowing how to make the right choices. People who 

have been exposed to good models may have this kind of knowledge, albeit implicitly 

rather than explicitly. Though they may not be able to say why, they know which choices 

are correct, for example for being a good speaker. People with shortcomings in certain 

areas of skills may require the relevant knowledge to be clearly articulated or ìspelled outî, 

so that this can guide their actions. This is the ìknowing how to do itî dimension of a life 

skill.

Skill:  The  skill  dimension  entails  putting  attitude  and  knowledge  into  practice.  In 

appropriate circumstances, one translate one's ìwanting to do itî and ìknowing how to do 

itî into ìactually doing itî (Nelson-Jones, 1992:232).

Therefore Life skills are “the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that 

enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life” 

(WHO). ‘Adaptive’ means that a person is flexible in approach and is able to adjust in 

different circumstances. ‘Positive behaviour’ implies that a person is forward looking 

and even in difficult situations, can find a ray of hope and opportunities to find solutions.

The terms ‘Livelihood skills’ or occupational/vocational skills refer to capabilities, resources and opportunities to pursue individual and household economic goals and relate to income generation. Technical skills on the other hand are those things that a person can do like crossing a road safely, mending a dress, etc. while Health skills are those like putting on makeup, brushing teeth and taking showers, cleaning the house.Thus, Life skills are distinct from livelihood, technical and health skills.

Life skills core components and example :

source http://www.lifeskillshandbooks.com/LIFESKILLS-HANDBOOK.pdf

LS Lesson 1: What is Quality Education and its components?

Definition
The word “Education” comes from the Latin words “Educere”, Edu meaning information and  “cere  “to  train,  to  bring  up  and  to  nourish.  Some  of  the  popular  definitions  of education include:

“the  process  of  living  through  a  continuous  reconstruction  of  experience.   It  is  the development of all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his environment and fulfill his possibilities” John Dewey


“The  complete  development  of  individuality  so  that  he  /  she  can  make  an  original contribution to human life according to his best capacity” Sir Percy Nunn

“Organized  and  sustained  instruction  designed  to  communicate  a  combination  of knowledge, skills and understanding valuable for all the activities in life” UNESCO

All  these  definitions  combine  to  discuss  the  development  of  individual  capacities,  in
terms of knowledge, skills and values for the purpose of contributing to the betterment of
the individual self and the society. In terms of skills education in general and primary
education in specific includes laying of the foundation of a society that is equipped with a
high level of creativity for problem solving, honed with the critical thinking approach
for  rationality  in  decision  making,  equipped  with  information  gathering  skills  for
updated information, and motivated through the attitude of helping others with skills of
empathy, and a high level of communication skills for adjustment in the society. These
life skills form the foundation of success, the basis of which is more effectively laid at
the primary level and which amongst the textbook knowledge, academic skills and social
values will be focused upon in this subject.

Components of Quality Education;

.

ALS 9:REFLECTIVE PRACTICE Course Outline

 Republic of the Philippines

ZAMBOANGA STATE COLLEGE OF MARINE SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

Fort Pilar , Zamboanga City

College of Education and Liberal Arts

VISION
A learning institution that transforms individuals into globally competitive human capital in fisheries, maritime and information technology, pedagogy and industries for the rational management of aquatic resources.
 MISSION
Generate and manage knowledge in the institution's academic disciplines, produce ecologically-conscious professionals, provide leadership in the ssustainable development of aquatic ecosystems, and contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people.
Core Values:
Z- zealous
S- Service Oriented
C- Commitment
M-Mission Driven
S-Sincerity
T – Trustworthy

 Course No. and Title:: ALS 9 :Reflective Practice

Course Description: The course is an introduction to the approach of Reflective Practice that enables education students to understand how they use their knowledge in teaching and in practical situations and how they can combine practice and learning in a more effective way. Through greater awareness of how they deploy their knowledge in teaching and practical situations, education students can increase their capacities of learning in a more timely way. Understanding how they perceive and manage/implement certain situations and ideas helps learners to achieve greater flexibility and increase their capacity of learning and skills in teaching.
Course Objectives: The objective of the course is to introduce students to the approach and methods of reflective practice by raising their awareness about their own cognitive resources and how they use them in their learning and teaching practice. The course will introduce theories of learning, knowledge generation, theories of action, and reflection-in-practice, and provide students with opportunities to experiment with these theories in real life through practical exercises using tools in which they reflect on real situations that they have faced in their past learning/teaching experience. Through these practical exercises, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their thinking capacities in the context of education.
I. Terminologies and Definitions
a. What is reflection?
b. What is reflection in learning ?
c. What is reflective Practice?
d. What is reflective practice in education?
e. What are the challenges associated with reflective practice?
f. How do we understand ourselves?
g. Why reflect? And what are  the benefits of reflective practice?
II. Theories and models of reflective practice
a. Argyris and Schön 1978
b. Kolb 1975
c. Gibbs 1988
d. Johns 1995
e. Brookefield 1998
f. Rolfe 2001
g. Introduction of Roffey & Barentsen’s model of professional reflective practice
h. Donald Schon
III. Touch base on how to reflect
a. “ I am Like” activity
b. Picturing your reflections activities
c. Critical analysis about your teaching/learning  incident activity
IV. Levels of reflections
a. Descriptive reflections
b. Dialogic reflection
c. Critical reflection
V. Tools used for reflection  (traditional and on-line) in teaching
a. Generic Visualization Tools
b. Visual tools for reflection with DATA
c. Twitter for reflection
d. Mind Mapping

LIfe skills of Teaching and Learning Course Outline

 Republic of the Philippines

ZAMBOANGA STATE COLLEGE OF MARINE SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

Fort Pilar , Zamboanga City

College of Education and Liberal Arts

VISION
A learning institution that transforms individuals into globally competitive human capital in fisheries, maritime and information technology, pedagogy and industries for the rational management of aquatic resources.
 MISSION
Generate and manage knowledge in the institution's academic disciplines, produce ecologically-conscious professionals, provide leadership in the ssustainable development of aquatic ecosystems, and contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people.
Core Values:
Z- zealous
S- Service Oriented
C- Commitment
M-Mission Driven
S-Sincerity
T – Trustworthy

 Course No. and Title:: ALS 6 : Life Skills of  Teaching and Learning

Course  Description:  This course covers the skills and competencies that an individual needs for sustaining and enriching life and also the kind of behaviour-based learning that the individual needs for coping with predictable developmental tasks in which the  BSED ALS students will learn and utilize to teach and develop the Life Skills of  ALS learners in the future.
Course Objectives: Equip the BSEd ALS students  to develop personally their life skills as well as to develop lesson plans focusing on development of life skills  for  their ALS learners.
 Course Aims:
To enable BSEd ALS students (future teachers or IMs)  to understand that education means more than just giving learners  the knowledge of textbooks
To enable future ALS IM’s to understand definition, importance of life skills and techniques used to enhance them
To enable the future ALS  IMs  to focus on instilling social norms in ALS leaners
To enable future ALS IMs to use Blooms Taxonomy of educational objectives to prepare assessments.

CONTENTS
1. Overview of Course Outline, Grading systems, Rules & Guidelines, etc.
2. Quality Education - Definition and components
3. Definition of Life Skills and its core components

•  Life Skills- Self Awareness
• Life Skills- Decision Making and Goal Setting
• Life Skills- Problem Solving 
• Life Skills- Communication skills
• Life Skills- Interpersonal Relationships
• Life Skills- Critical Thinking
• Life Skills- Creativity
• Life Skills- Empathy
• Life skills- Coping with stress and emotions

4. Importance and Benefits of Life skills
5. How to impart Life skills  to ALS leatners
6. Teaching Techniques and methods to be utilized in teaching Life Skills to ALS learners
7. Student Assessment- Blooms Taxonomy
8. Principles/Steps for Lesson Planning
9. Preparing Lesson Plans in teaching Life skills to ALS learners
10, Life Skills Activities

using Fotobabble in Reflective practice

An online tool with a good deal of potential for a number of things, which describes itself as follows: 'Fotobabble lets you create talking photos in two clicks. Simply upload a photo and then record your voice directly through your computer to create a talking photo. You can easily share it by e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or embed it into a blog or website. It’s free and all completely web-based. No software to download, just register and get started in seconds.' Having just one photo is a bit of a limitation, but the fotobable below was completed in about 5 minutes including signing up for the service. You can upload photos as a stimulus for reflection, then ask for reflections in a number of ways .. the activity does not have to take place in a classroom. Fotobable is avaiable at http://www.fotobabble.com/

Using Twitter for reflection

Reflecting on … Using Twitter for reflection

Preparation – ensure both teachers and students have the technology available to set up and use a twitter account.

Purpose:

• To reflect on practice using Twitter.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Develop their capacity to reflect on their own teaching or the teaching of others
• Record those reflections and share them with others
• Identify strengths in their teaching and areas for development
• Act on the learning gained from this reflection

Resources needed:

• Twitter account / s

Activity:

Part 1 – Individual work

This activity may need to take place over a series of sessions

Ensure all protocols relating to online behaviour / language are clear to all participants

• Ensure enough Twitter accounts are created for a group of people to use, and that all are following each other.
• Tweet about an incident from your teaching, or a teaching topic
• Respond to replies / tweets from others
• Use the Reflective Practice generic questions to guide your reflection

Part 2 – Plenary

• Discuss the results (use an archiving tool with support from your tutor) which were produced
• Discuss what difference the online element made to the reflection, and in particular the small amount of words available.

Using visual tools for reflection with DATA

Learning Activity

Reflecting on … Using visual tools for reflection with DATA

Purpose:

• To reflect visually on practice using a particular model.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Develop their capacity to reflect on their own teaching or the teaching of others
• Record those reflections and share them with others
• Identify strengths in their teaching and areas for development
• Act on the learning gained from this reflection

Resources needed:

• Reflecting on … DATA resource

Activity:

Part 1 – Individual work

• Ask participants to reflect on a selected piece of teaching (e.g. video clip / case study / recent teaching of their own / observation:

Using the DATA questions for that example, participants use a visual tool to represent the results, such as:

• A mind map
• A word cloud
• A slide show
• A video clip
• An audio clip
• A display of objects

Part 2 – Plenary

Discuss the results with others and their planned actions as a result
Build a summary group teaching action plan to be revisited on another occasion
Discuss what difference the visual element made to the reflection.

Generic Visualization Tools

Generic Visualization Tools:

You can use:
Flip charts and pens
Old fashioned Over Head Transaparancies (OHTs) - use up the ones you still have laying around!
Magazine pictures, glue and scissors
PowerPoint
Microsoft moviemaker
Microsoft photostory

Learning Activity

Using visualisation to reflect on any activity / event / incident related to your practice

Purpose:
• To develop the capacity to reflect on events / actions / activities or teaching situations.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:
• Use simple techniques to develop reflective practice
• Begin to undertake deeper reflection on their practice
• Share those reflections with others
• Consider further actions which will improve their teaching

Activity:
• Participants decide either individually or in groups on one or more event, action, activity or teaching situation they have encountered
• They represent that activity visually using either no words at all, or very few words, using any tool which will help.
e.g. Flip chart and pens; paint and paper; magazines, glue and pictures; digital cameras; video cameras; PowerPoint; online tools; pre-prepared sets of images

You can be completely flexible about what items / tools to use, depending on your circumstances, equipment and the nature of the group you are working with.

Be aware that some people will naturally be more able to represent items visually than others.

Discussion / Plenary (there may not always be time for all of these)
• The images / representations produced are discussed, and key points collated on flip chart / Interactive Whiteboard etc (or by using images)
• Discuss what it was like to reflect in this way, and how it worked (or not) for them.
• Consider the learning which emerged.
• Discuss how they may be able to use this technique in their own teaching and with their own learners.

Prompt Questions to assist reflection (a full list is on page 2, but for a short starter activity just use the adapted selection below)
What happened?
Why did it happen?
What can you learn from it?
What could be used in your teaching?

Generic Reflective Practice questions

The questions below are split into sections which are based on the different models and stages of reflection to help you with reflective practice. They can be asked in conjunction with many activities.

Tailor them to suit your situation.

What happened?
What took place?
What do your peers / colleagues think took place?
What do your learners think took place?
What worked really well?
What needed improvement or change?
Why did it happen?
What were the factors contributing to the success / problem?
What assumptions, beliefs, motives and emotions were involved from you, your learners and your peers / colleagues?
What theory can you recognise in what took place?
What external factors had any effect?
What can be done?
What are the possible ways to improve?
How could you use some of the success factors in your teaching?
How do your peers / colleagues think you could use some of the success factors in your teaching?
How do your learners think you could use some of the success factors in your teaching?
What ways forward are there?
Which parts of the changes are the most straigtforward / least straightforward?
How will this affect your professional situation?
What will be done?
What action will you take?
When will you take action?
What impact do you believe it will have on you, your learners and your colleagues?
What were the results?
What impact did the action/s have?
How do you know?
How can you evidence the impact?
What will you do next?
What may you do differently next time and why?
What will you do next?

Levels of Reflection

Levels of reflection
Are there different levels of reflection?
Roffey-Barentson and Malthouse (2009) introduce four ‘levels of reflective writing’ (pp 84-5). We have adapted them into a simplfied idea of three levels of reflection below:

Descriptive reflection
A starting point with some reasons or justifications for an event which has happened but which remains a description of or report on that event.

Dialogic Reflection
Stepping back from the description of the event itself to include possible reasons for why things happened and how they contributed to the event.

Critical reflection
Taking a more evaluative position where the event is considered from a range of perspectives or viewpoints and these are all used to help understand what happened and why it happened

Don Clark, in his excellent website, Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge, includes this piece on levels of reflection.

Surbeck, Han, and Moyer (1991) identified three levels of reflection:
Reacting - commenting on feelings towards the learning experience, such as reacting with a personal concern about an event.
Elaborating - comparing reactions with other experiences, such as referring to a general principle, a theory, or a moral or philosophical position.
Contemplating - focusing on constructive personal insights or on problems or difficulties, such as focusing on education issues, training methods, future goals, attitudes, ethical matters, or moral concerns. The nature of the stimulus or directions initially provided to the learners, as well as the feedback they receive after the initial reflection, will determine the extent to which they reach the contemplation level of reflection.
Source:
Surbek, E., Eunhye, P., & Moyer, J. (1991). Assessing reflective responses in journals. Education Leadership, March, 25-27.

Challenges of Reflective Practice

Learning Activity

Challenges of Reflective Practice

Purpose:

·         To develop and understanding of the challenges of reflective practice

·         To reflect on events / actions / activities or teaching situations to identify where those challenges have occurred and how to meet them.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Develop their capacity for Reflective Practice
• Record examples of where challenges have been identified from reflective practice.
• Consider how those challenges can be overcome.
• Share those reflections with others.

Resources needed:

• Challenges of Reflective Practice Resource

Activity:

Part 1 – Pair / small group work

• Ask participants to identify a series of at least two incidents / activities / situations relating to their recent teaching.
• With at least one other peer, ask some of the Generic Reflective Practice questions to identify what learning can be drawn from reflecting on the practice
• Map the answers from the pair or small group across to the table of potential challenges to see which were present, and note that on the table.

Part 2 – Plenary

• Share results across the group
• Discuss where challenges occurred, and if a pattern emerged across the group
• Consider potential strategies to overcome the challenges in the future.

Resource:

Learning Resource

Challenges of Reflective Practice

Challenge	Event / Activity / Application
1. Time Where are you wasting time? Where can you use your time more effectively?
2. Keeping emotions in check Where do you have real confidence in yourself? Where are you least confident about yourself? What small steps can move you towards the more positive view?
3. Ways of reflecting Find creative, easy ways of reflecting which work for you. Find out what works for others. Share yours with others
4. Building support Who gives you support on a regular basis? What new support networks / mechanisms could you use?

What are the challenges associated with reflective practice?

Like any other area of work, there can be challenges we face when we use reflective practice. Kennett (2010: pp73-75) summarises some of these:

Time

When your time is pressured, which as a front line teacher it often is, can you afford to take special time to reflect on your practice in the ways suggested here? We would argue that you will work both more effectively and efficiently if you use reflective practice, because you will be able to make more clear and informed decisions, be more aware of what is likely to work and what is not likely to, and more up to date with what works elsewhere. This will all save time which would be wasted elsewhere.

In order to meet this challenge however you have to find strategies for making time.

Emotions

Reflecting carefully on what you do can be challenging and scary. You may well come to some conclusions which have major consequences for you as a professional. If you have doubts about yourself as a person and as a professional, these can appear at times to be reinforced by reflection.

As you become more proficient both in the techniques of reflective practice, and in your teaching overall, your fears should be replaced by confidence.

This challenge can be met by developing ways both to understand and make use of your emotions, and to hold your nerve and stay with your informed decisions.

Not being naturally reflective

You may well be someone who doesn’t tend to find reflection something you naturally get involved in .. you may well be a ‘doer’ rather than a ‘thinker’. This may well be the case with your students as well. This set of resources provides a wide variety of ways to introduce, encourage, try out reflection in a variety of ways, and draws together a wide range of tools and activities to help with that. These should all help you to get the maximum benefits you can from reflective practice.

It is possible to reflect in highly active, engaged and creative ways. You don't always have to sit down with your head resting on your hand to be reflective!

Benefits of Reflective Practice

Learning Activity

Benefits of Reflective Practice

Purpose:

·         To develop and understanding of the benefits of reflective practice

·         To reflect on events / actions / activities or teaching situations to identify where those benefits have occurred.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Develop their capacity for Reflective Practice
• Record examples of where benefits have been gained from reflective practice.
• Share those reflections with others

Resources needed:

• Benefits of Reflective Practice Resource

Activity:

Part 1 – Pair / small group work

• Ask participants to identify a series of at least two incidents / activities / situations relating to their recent teaching.
• With at least one other peer, ask some of the Generic Reflective Practice questions to identify what learning can be drawn from reflecting on the practice
• Map the answers from the pair or small group cross to the table of potential benefits to see which have occurred.

Part 2 – Plenary

• Share results across the group
• Discuss where benefits occurred, where this was less the case and if any overall patterns emerged
• Agree ways to maximise the benefits from reflection and minimise the problems arising in future

Resource:

Learning Resource

Benefits of Reflective Practice

Roffey-Barentson and Malthouse (2009) introduce 10 useful ‘benefits of reflective practice’ (p 16).[1]

Benefit

Event / Activity / Application

1. Improved teaching practice

Purposeful reflection is bound to help you to improve your teaching.

2. New Learning

Reflective Practice will help you gain new learning and use it in your teaching.

3. Enhanced problem solving skills

Careful and honest considering of problems will improve your capacity to find solutions.

4. Becoming a critical thinker

Will help you to ‘take charge’ of your own thinking and adjust take account of changes in circumstances.

5. Making Decisions

You will make decisions in a more informed, thoughtful and objective manner.

6. Improved organisational skills

By breaking down issues and problems into steps or stages, you will get better at organising your time and your activity to concentrate on the important, ‘solution-focussed’ actions.

7. Managing personal change

As reflective practice is itself focussed on seeking positive improvements and solutions, managing change more effectively should take place.

8. Acknowledging personal values

Acknowledging and recognising that personal values exist and have positive and negative effects, helps in choosing approaches and actions which can help you to resolve those clashes in a balanced professional manner.

9. Taking your own advice

You will become an informed, positive agent in your own development and improvement.

10. Recognising emancipatory benefits

It should help to free you from some of the burdens which can weigh teachers down, and refresh your confidence and your teaching.

Generic Questions for Reflective Practice

What happened?

What took place?
What do your colleagues think took place?
What do your students think took place?
What area of practice needed improvement or change?
What worked really well?

Why did it happen?

What were the factors contributing to the problem / success?
What assumptions and underlying beliefs and motives were involved from you, your learners and your colleagues?
Can you recognise any theory in what took place?
What external factors had any effect?

What can be done?

What are the possible ways to improve?
How could you use some of the success factors in your teaching?
How do your colleagues think you could use some of the success factors in your teaching?
How do your students think you could use some of the success factors in your teaching?
What ways forward are there?
Which parts of the changes are the most straightforward / least straightforward?
How will this affect your professional situation?

What will be done?

What action will you take?
What impact do you believe it will have on you, your learners and your colleagues?
When will you take action?

---

[1] Roffey-Barentsen, J. and Malthouse, R. (2009) Reflective Practice in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Exeter: Learning Matters

Roffey-Barentson and Malthouse (2009) introduce 10 useful ‘benefits of reflective practice’  which are summarised below:

1. Improving your teaching practice

If you take the time to reflect on your teaching, and reflect on how different parts of what you do work well, where aspects of your teaching can be improved, and how problems which arise could be solved, that is bound to help you to improve your teaching.

2. Learning from reflective practice

There is a good range of evidence that purposeful reflection helps ‘deep’ learning take place, and for you as a teacher, it will help you to make connections between different aspects of your teaching and what goes on around your teaching. Reflective practice will help you gain new learning and use it in your teaching.

3. Enhancing problem solving skills

When starting off with reflecting on your teaching you may tend to concentrate on problems which arise. By carefully and honestly considering and analysing those problems, you will improve your own capacity to find solutions.

4. Becoming a critical thinker

Critical thinking is about ‘thinking well’, and ‘taking charge’ of your own thinking (Elder and Paul, 1994), and reflective practice will help you recognise and adjust what you think to take account of changes in circumstances, and by doing that help you to be better equipped to find solutions which work.

5. Making Decisions

As you reflect on your practice, you will find you need to make decisions about what to do (or not to do) next. You may well have a number of choices which you have to weigh up, and deciding which one to take can be difficult. If you regularly reflect on your teaching in depth, you are regularly going to come across the need to make decisions, but the results of your reflective practice will help you to make those decisions in a more informed, thoughtful and objective manner. 

6. Improving your own organisational skills

You will notice as this section progresses that the benefits of reflective practice can reaching into every aspect of your professional work as a teacher. If you are thinking carefully about what you are doing, identifying possible actions and choices, trying out solutions, and adjusting what you do to take account of the results, this involves a good deal of organisation. By breaking down issues and problems into steps or stages, you will get better at organising your time and your activity to concentrate on the important, ‘solution-focussed’ actions.

7. Managing personal change

Working in education involves managing regular, rapid, pressured and often confusing change, which can be one of the most difficult aspects of being a teacher. If you are using the techniques of reflective practice, which involves, calm, thoughtful, honest, critical and organised thinking and action, this should introduce a calming and less emotional response to that change. As reflective practice is itself focussed on seeking positive improvements and solutions, managing change more effectively should take place.

8. Acknowledging personal values

There will be things which take place within your professional situation as a teacher which you will wholeheartedly agree with, and others which will worry or alarm you. This is because they may agree or disagree with your own personal values such as what you believe in, and what you think is wrong or right. How these are affected by teaching will vary, but you will almost certainly come across major clashes of values as part of your work. Reflective practice is an excellent way of acknowledging and recognising that those values exist and have an effect, but which concentrates on helping you to choose approaches and actions which can help you to resolve those clashes without it adversely affecting the professional balance of your work as a teacher.

9. Taking your own advice

Teachers are often more critical of their own teaching than anyone else, and it could be possible for this to develop into an attitude about teaching which is negative and destructive. The techniques and approaches of reflective practice will place you in a position where you are an informed, positive agent in your own development and improvement and one where you can ‘take your own advice’ with a confidence tht it is reflective, focussed and informed advice.

10. Recognising emancipatory benefits

If you reflect on the nine benefits of reflective practice which have so far been described, you will clearly see that this is a model of practice which represents the teacher as someone with influence over their own teaching and their own destiny as a teacher. This is what is at the heart of reflective practice, and as such it should help considerably to free you from some of the burdens which can weigh teachers down, and refresh your confidence and your teaching.

Source: http://reflectivepractice-cpd.wikispaces.com/Definitions4