Reflection on Practice...Do I...Can I improve?

Before MindLab...

I would have said that I was a reflective practitioner although not in any formal sense. I would consider what went well and what did not from a given lesson, mulling it over in my head and thinking about how I could have changed things or how I would change things given a similar situation in the future.

Working through the various sessions of MindLab has caused me to reflect on where I was at, why I was there and how things could be different.

Developing... 

Now, while I recognise that I have been reflective in the past in regards to my practice, I have begun to see that what I was doing was somewhat low level. Reflection is a necessary part of learning, and if we are to inspire our students to be lifelong learners then we need to be that ourselves.

This requires examination of how I go about reflecting on what I do. It needs to be deeper but at the same time meaningful, contemplative and forward looking.

I have always considered myself to be a lifelong learner. For me, to not be learning or striving to learn new things is a state of sadness. This seems to be consistent, at least in part it seems, with John's Model of Structured Reflection (1994) at least in the terms of his more recent view point which has evolved to being about self-mindfulness.

In the school in which I work currently systems have been put in place that are structured reflective activities/practices. This is, in someways, a good thing in that it encourages teachers to be reflective in their practice.  Counter to this however, as noted by Quinn (1988/2000) "The disadvantage is that imposing an external framework leaves little scope for practitioners to draw on their own intuitions, values and priorities." This is a concern for me as I see how the idea of reflective practice is beneficial to teachers in developing themselves as pedagogues (scientists/artists) in the practice of teaching. However, by putting too much structure in place the principle of reflective practice can instead become a chore making it less about improving the teacher as a practitioner but instead about simply ticking a box to justify the requires of a performance management appraisal system (PMAS) or some other such thing.

Looking Forward...

I know that in moving forward I need to be better at constructively evaluating my practice with reference to theory and discussion with colleagues or other professionals. This realisation comes my personal observations of fellow teachers and in thinking about my own teaching.

I want to be forward looking, flexible and the best teacher that I can be for my students.

Being able to constructively reflect on what I do makes sense to me as a way to continually evaluate grow and be the lifelong learner that I want to be and thus be, among other things, a role model to the students in my classes.

References

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL paper, 52, 1-27.

work leaves little scope for

practitioners to draw on their own intuitions, valu

es and priorities.