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?

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[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

Models and Theories of Reflective Practice Activities

Learning Activity

Models, frameworks and theories of reflective practice

Purpose:

·         To extend awareness of different models, frameworks and theories of reflective practice

·         To engage critically with those frameworks

Learning outcomes:

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

• Develop their capacity to reflect on different models, frameworks and theories of reflective practice
• Critically consider the advantages and disadvantages of these different models, frameworks and theories
• Plan how to make use of relevant models for their own practice

Resources needed:

• Reflective practice PowerPoint presentations (choice of three)
• Definitions in content of online resource
• Extracts from relevant books / journals / articles
• Ideas / views / examples of reflective practice in action

Various activities

1        Individual work / feedback / presentation

·         Gather together information individually about a particular model of reflective practice

·         Synthesise and summarise that information into a brief presentation – encourage use of some of the unusual tools to present information (e.g. images / online sources / tools)

·         Make the presentation to other peers, and consider the generic questions at the end of this activity

2        Group work / feedback / presentation

·         Gather together information as part of a group about a particular model of reflective practice

·         Synthesise and summarise that information into a brief presentation – encourage use of some of the unusual tools to present information (e.g. images / online sources / tools)

·         Make the presentation to other peers, and consider the generic questions at the end of this activity

3        Using online tools

·         Gather together information individually about a particular model of reflective practice

·         Synthesise and summarise that information into content which can be uploaded to a blog / website / discussion area

·         Upload the information and engage others by gathering comments / posts about the information

Generic Questions

·         What is this model, framework or theory about?

·         What are the key ideas being presented?

·         What do you consider to be the main advantages and disadvantages?

·         How could you make use of this in your own teaching?

·         What effect do you believe it would have?

Learning activity on Reflective practice

Learning Activity

Purpose:

• To enable participants to develop understanding of reflective practice

Learning outcomes:

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

• Discuss and critique some models of reflective practice
• Consider which models most suit their approach and teaching style.

Resources needed:

• Reflective Practice PowerPoint
• Materials relating to definitions of Reflective Practice

Activity:

Part 1:  Interactive input and discussion

• PowerPoint-based discussion on different models

Part 2:  Small group discussion

• Discuss the different models and how useful they think they are
• Encourage critique

Part 3: Plenary

• Summarise key emerging points including strengths and weaknesses of each model.

What is Reflective Practice?

Reflective Practice is a concept which has been extensively used in education for some time, and is also adopted by other professionals such as healthcare workers. As with reflection, there are several models of Reflective Practice which vary from writer to writer, and organisation to organisation. Some of the key ideas are presented here, but we do not suggest any one is better than any other. Use the content and ideas which you think will work best for you!

Definitions of Reflective Practice

reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development. (Osterman and Kottkamp 1993: 2 )

Schon puts it in a nicely simple way

A dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful. (Schön 1987)

Reflective practice’ is a term often used in education pedagogy. It is a continuous process from a personal perspective that considers critical incidents within your life’s experiences.

Reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one’s own experiences in applying theory to practice. In teacher education it refers to the process of trainees studying their known teaching methods and determining what works best for the students. All lecturers need to reflect on their experiences in the classroom and adapt their strategies accordingly. (Duckworth et al 2010: p 41)

Pollard and Tann (1993) laid out a set of six characteristics of reflective practice. They argued that the reflective practitioner:

• has an active concern with aims and consequences, as well as means and technical efficiency
• requires competence in methods of classroom enquiry (gathering data, analysis, evaluation) to support the development of teaching competence
• requires attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness
• is based on teacher judgement which is informed partly by self-reflection and partly by insights from educational disciplines
• is enhanced through collaboration and dialogue with colleagues

(Pollard and Tann 1993: pp 9-10 

Source: http://reflectivepractice-cpd.wikispaces.com/Definitions3

Why do we need to reflect?

Learning Activity

Why reflect?

Purpose:

·         To assist participants to recognise the value of reflection.

Learning outcomes:

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

• Discuss ways in which reflection can contribute to learning and professional practice
• Reflect on how this fits into their own learning preferences

• Consider ways of encouraging reflection with their own learners

Resources needed:

• ‘Why reflect’ statements
• Media files / videos / examples of others reflections to stimulate thinking on the theme of reflection (e.g. May’s video)

Activity:

NOTE: You can use sections of this activity, over a number of sessions, or run it as an integrated activity over one session.

Examples / videos / case studies can be introduced before parts 1 or 2

Part 1 – Individual work

• Participants consider the ‘why reflect’ statements and consider how or if they currently address the aspects of their professional practice which the statements cover. Are there gaps / additions?

Part 2 – Group work

• Share thoughts from individual work and summarise – in writing; verbally; visually (i.e. create a visual image of ways in which the statements could be addressed by actions and / or reflection) to rest of group

Part 3 – Plenary

Share the results of Parts 1 and 2, and consider:

·         Whether reflection could potentially help participants as teachers in the ways suggested.

·         Ways in which participants could enable their own learners to use reflection

Reflection can help us to feel more aware of and confident in ourselves generally, and in our teaching role. It can help us to:

• Make the best use of the knowledge available.
• Be conscious of our potential for bias & discrimination.
• Challenge & develop the existing professional knowledge base
• Maximise our own opportunities for learning.
• Recognise what we do well so that we can apply these skills in other situations
• Improve professional judgment
• Learn from successes and mistakes to enhance development
• Plan for future situations and therefore respond more positively to change

What is Reflective Practice in Education?

In education, reflective practice refers to the process of the educator studying his or her own teaching methods and determining what works best for the students. It involves the consideration of the ethical consequences of classroom procedures on students.
The appeal of the use of reflective practice for teachers is that as teaching and learning are complex, and there is not one right approach, reflecting on different versions of teaching, and reshaping past and current experiences will lead to improvement in teaching practices. Schön’s reflection-in-action assists teachers in making the professional knowledge that they will gain from their experience in the classroom an explicit part of their decision-making.
According to Paterson and Chapman (2013), reflection and learning from experience is key to staying accountable, and maintaining and developing aptitude throughout your practice. Without reflection you as a practitioner are not able to look objectively at your actions or take into account the emotions, experience, or responses from your actions to improve your practice. Through the process of reflection teachers are then held accountable to their teaching practice to students, parents, administration, and all interested state holders; to the standards of practice for teaching (in Ontario)- commitment to students and student learning, professional knowledge, professional practice, leadership in learning communities, and ongoing professional learning. Reflection is a vital process of learning from experience that allow you to evolve as a practitioner; through leaning from past experiences, it allows you to develop a more through schema for practice (2013, Chapman and Paterson). Through reflective practice, you as a teacher are committing yourself to students and student learning; you are looking back on your practice and reflecting on how you have supported students through treating them “…equitably and with respect and are sensitive to factors that influence individual student learning” (2013, Ontario College of Teachers). By this, you are asking yourself, have I to the best of my abilities supported student learning, and provided all of my students with an entry point into learning. Through reflective practice you are reflecting on your professional knowledge and professional practice; you are looking at how you teach and the information and forms of learning you are bring to your students, and taking a critical look at whether or not you are current and if your ways of teaching are having an impact on student learning that they will be able to translate into future endeavors. If this is not the case you are then addressing the standard of ongoing professional learning. Here you are looking at and trying to recognize where you need to enhance your own learning so that it had a bigger benefit to student learning. In addition, teachers are the leaders in their learning communities; it is from their cues and attitudes that their learners develop from. Through reflection, and sharing this with your learner, you are showing strong leadership because it shows that you are willing to learn from your mistakes and improve your practice for all of those affected by it (2013, Ontario College of Teachers).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice

Understanding Ourselves

Understanding ourselves – personal attributes

(with thanks to the Skills for Life Improvement Programme and Businessballs.com)

You need to know what strengths you have to give you confidence in working with your students and to help them to be comfortable with your approach.

Do you know yourself?

It is important that a teacher recognises their own attributes in order to work to their strengths for the benefit of their learners. The following activity helps you identify and explore your attributes. Here are some questions to reflect upon:

·         What do others know about you that they don’t tell you?

·         How can you find out?

·         What do you know about yourself that you don’t tell others?

·         What things about yourself do you keep hidden in your current work role?

Are you familiar with the Johari window? It is a disclosure and feedback model within which you consider how well you know yourself. On the figure of the iceberg write down three things you feel everyone knows about you in Area A. In Area B write down one or two things about yourself that people are not aware of.

 

  

More information on the Johari Window

The Johari Window model is a simple and useful tool for illustrating and improving self-awareness, and mutual understanding between individuals within a group. The Johari Window model can also be used to assess and improve a group's relationship with other groups. The Johari Window model was devised by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955, while researching group dynamics at the University of California Los Angeles. The model was first published in the Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development by UCLA Extension Office in 1955, and was later expanded by Joseph Luft. Today the Johari Window model is especially relevant due to modern emphasis on, and influence of, 'soft' skills, behaviour, empathy, cooperation, inter-group development and interpersonal development.

Over the years, alternative Johari Window terminology has been developed and adapted by other people - particularly leading to different descriptions of the four regions, hence the use of different terms in this explanation. Don't let it all confuse you - the Johari Window model is really very simple indeed.

Luft and Ingham called their Johari Window model 'Johari' after combining their first names, Joe and Harry. In early publications the word appears as 'JoHari'. The Johari Window soon became a widely used model for understanding and training self-awareness, personal development, improving communications, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, team development and inter-group relationships.
The Johari Window model is also referred to as a 'disclosure / feedback model of self awareness', and by some people an 'information processing tool'.
The Johari Window actually represents information - feelings, experience, views, attitudes, skills, intentions, motivation, etc - within or about a person - in relation to their group, from four perspectives, which are described below. The Johari Window model can also be used to represent the same information for a group in relation to other groups. Johari Window terminology refers to 'self' and 'others': 'self' means oneself, i.e., the person subject to the Johari Window analysis. 'Others' means other people in the person's group or team.
N.B. When the Johari Window model is used to assess and develop groups in relation to other groups, the 'self' would be the group, and 'others' would be other groups. However, for ease of explanation and understanding of the Johari Window and examples in this article, think of the model applying to an individual within a group, rather than a group relating to other groups.
The four Johari Window perspectives are called 'regions' or 'areas' or 'quadrants'. Each of these regions contains and represents the information - feelings, motivation, etc - known about the person, in terms of whether the information is known or unknown by the person, and whether the information is known or unknown by others in the group.
The Johari Window's four regions, (areas, quadrants, or perspectives) are as follows, showing the quadrant numbers and commonly used names:

johari window four regions

1. what is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others - open area, open self, free area, free self, or 'the arena'
2. what is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know - blind area, blind self, or 'blindspot'
3. what the person knows about him/herself that others do not know - hidden area, hidden self, avoided area, avoided self or 'facade'
4. what is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others - unknown area or unknown self

Like some other behavioural models (eg, Tuckman, Hersey/Blanchard), the Johari Window is based on a four-square grid - the Johari Window is like a window with four 'panes'. Here's how the Johari Window is normally shown, with its four regions.

This is the standard representation of the Johari Window model, showing each quadrant the same size. The Johari Window 'panes' can be changed in size to reflect the relevant proportions of each type of 'knowledge' of/about a particular person in a given group or team situation. In new groups or teams the open free space for any team member is small because shared awareness is relatively small. As the team member becomes better established and known, so the size of the team member's open free area quadrant increases.

From Businessballs.com [online] Johari Window [accessed 23^rd Feb 2010]

http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm