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?

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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?