Task 2C Reflective Theory Task

Task 2C Reflective Theory Task

Reflection is a word that immediately gets you thinking. Reflection can be used in various ways and has a significant purpose within professional practice and learning.

 

“Turning experience into learning” Boud (1995)

 

Boud explains what reflection is, and how we need to use particular reflective tools to benefit our professional practice;

 

“To extend your own understanding beyond its present capacity,

and to learn something new”. Boud (1995)

 

However, in order to extend your knowledge and understanding you need to have a base knowledge to relate back to and help your thinking process; for example, if you needed to create a ‘Lesson Plan’ for singing teaching you need to know what each individual word means to know what you have to do. Lesson; means a period of learning or teach, and Plan; means a list of steps with timing and resources used to achieve an objective. Having experience of knowing this knowledge you can put the two words together to understand the idea of the process and what it is in order to carry it out.

 

Experience and learning go together, having experience and knowledge helps me reflect on my professional practice and discover something new. This came to light when looking back on my journal entries. (Please refer to Task 2b for more details) Having the opportunity to re-visit my journal entries I was able to evaluate what I have wrote and make sense of situations, thoughts and feelings on key events and think about the next steps forward in my professional practice. Having worked as a professional singer has helped me greatly with my singing teaching, as I have the knowledge and experience to educate others. By learning from my mistakes and achievements I feel I can improve and benefit my students from what I have learnt. Experience is essential as a teacher, I believe the more experience you have the better teacher you will be. Every professional practice is an on-going process of improvement, do you agree?

 

‘Critical Reflection’ is a very new writing process for me. At first I really struggled to grasp what it meant and how to approach it. I know what ‘Critical’ means and I know what ‘Reflection’ means, but putting the two words together creates a new aspect and method of writing and thinking. However, I tried writing with critical reflection within my journal and it opened insights into learning new things about my professional practice. I discovered how I work as an individual and how I process my thinking. It opened my eyes to writing techniques I use on a day to day basis and what works best for me as an individual.

 

Reflective Thought

 

The process of concrete experience and conceptualising of experience, Dewey explains;

 

“Quality of education was linked to the level of engagement with, and consciousness of the experience. Defined educational process as a continual reorganization, reconstruction and transformation of experience” (Dewey 1916)

 

Currently working in an educational setting Dewey’s view of reflection can be used today. As a teacher you constantly have to keep up to date with new curriculum changes and methods of teaching e.g. behaviour management updates techniques and methods consistently but it depends on the individual setting which works the most effectively. On a day to day basis within my reception class we use a traffic light system to promote positive behaviour. Green- Good, Amber- verbal warning and Red- miss out on a period of continuous play or lose their Friday treat. All names will stay on green, if they model good, positive behaviour, but if they miss behave their name moves down the traffic light chart.

 

 

This method allows children to reflect on their behaviour and gives the pupil an opportunity to gain their time/green back. It’s a visual aid with a simple purpose. Within our class it has been very effective to control naughty behaviour and keep it to a minimum and promote positive behaviour.

 

Within my professional practice as an early years teaching assistant we constantly assess and reflect on children’s development. The National Curriculum requires us to make observations on all aspects of child development these are;

·         Communication and Language

·         Physical development

·         Personal, Social and Emotional development

·         Literacy

·         Mathematics

·         Understanding the World

·         Expressive Arts and Design

·         Being imaginative

 

Learning characteristics are;

·         Playing and exploring

·         Active Learning

·         Creating and thinking critically.

Many of these learning criteria’s incorporate ‘Kolb’s Learning Cycle’

 

 

The pupil needs to use play as a ‘Concrete Experience’ to explore media and learning activities by ‘doing’ helps their feeling and having an experience. As part of my role as a teaching assistant I use ‘Reflective Observation’ to watch and review/ reflect on the experience. The pupil will also use reflective observation by deciding if they enjoy what their playing with e.g. Maths activity. My role as a teaching assistant I can use my observational findings on the pupils to evaluate and assess; ‘Abstract Conceptualisation’. The pupil will learn from the experience and develop their thinking skills. I will use ‘Active Experimentation’ as a teaching assistant to assess if the activity was successful in helping the pupil’s development skills and knowledge. This process will enable me to plan more future activities and concentrate on key skills they need to develop more e.g. by highlighting their weaknesses you can then work on them and strengthen e.g. letter sounds and blending.

 

Looking at my own professional practice as a teaching assistant and singing teacher I enter Kolb’s cycle at various stages, depending on what I’m learning at the moment I personally prefer to learn through ‘Concrete experience’. If I’m physically doing something I process the information better e.g. Teaching singing technique; each child is different and by trying different exercises out I can reflect which one works best for the individual pupil, this process includes; ‘Reflective observation, ‘Abstract conceptualisation’ and ‘Active experimentation’. Within professional practice you use all aspects of ‘Kolb’s learning cycle’, it’s never ending you’re always learning something new about your practice.

 

My professional practice in teaching is very similar to Peter Honey and Alan Mumford ‘Four stages’ model of reflection;

 

·         Having an experience

·         Reviewing the experience

·         Concluding from the experience

·         Planning the next steps.

(Honey and Mumford 1992)

 

Reflecting back on Reader 1 and 2 tasks to help me through the processes of what to do? Or how to approach it? I carried out lots of reflective observation. It really helped me to look at other student’s blogs and thoughts on similar tasks to give me ideas and re-assurance that I’m on the right track.

 

Do multiple intelligences and artistic visions influence our professional practice?

Honey and Mumford look at reflection from a multiple intelligent/artistic vision. However, Gardner’s multiple intelligences of understanding and learning are based on people’s intelligent styles;

·         Spatial

·         Verbal-linguistic

·         Logical- mathematical

·         Bodily- Kinaesthetic

·         Musical

·         Interpersonal

·         Intrapersonal

·         Naturalistic

(Gardener, 1983)

 

In my opinion I disagree with Gardener when it comes to children’s intelligence as his model of ideas are difficult to adapt for children, they are more relevant to adult’s concept of intelligence. As an example Gardner believes we use verbal-linguistic intelligence for reflection, however, having many children in my reception class speak polish as a first language they find it difficult to learn verbally they respond better to learning by physically doing/actions and visualisation. Another point children will find difficult in my personal opinion is Intrapersonal skills. Children within my class are 4/5 years and still developing social behaviour and social interaction, they do this through continuous play. This helps them form relationships with other pupils and discover their likes and dislikes. On the other hand some of Gardner’s stages are very apt to child’s learning e.g. Bodily- Kinaesthetic; within early years we have continuous play where children explore different activities and media making own decisions. Through this process they learn boundaries and physical capabilities and limitations.

 

“Theories are like lenses to look at learning and being a learner…

Understanding how you and others learn…

Give value to the different ways we can engage with real world experience”

Gardner (2005)

 

This quote gets me thinking about my professional practice, by doing and observing others you learn and notice things you wouldn’t necessarily notice, but by reflecting on others professional practice you can improve your own and better yourself and make changes for the future. I followed these steps when working through tasks 1 and 2.

 

Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action

Schön believes;

 

“Reflection can happen while you are in the middle of it (reflection-in-action)

or reflection can happen looking back on it (reflection-on-action)”

(Schön 1987)

 

When teaching singing I reflect-in-action on a regular basis, I go with the mood of the children and chose particular warm-up exercises to get the pupils enthusiastic about what they are doing. Sometimes songs I’ve prepared don’t work as well as I hoped so I think quickly and change my approach to get the pupils responding better and regain their interest again, this may include more actions or set a scenario for the pupils to use their imagination and creative skills.

 

I use reflection-on-action for my Read, write, Ink group in school. I follow a lesson plan, but some aspects of the lesson plan my pupils find difficult being a low ability group. During the lesson I take notes and use them afterwards to make improvements for the next lesson, this may include trying new methods and ideas out that may work better for the pupils.

 

I’ve realised working within an educational setting I use reflection-in-action on a day-to-day basis. You have to adapt set activities to the individual child so they can achieve what is expected of them academically.

 

Ethical Practice

Ethical considerations when reflecting within my professional practice is ‘Value based Knowledge’. My knowledge is based on my personal experience, others knowledge will be varied as their personal experiences are different to mine. Individuals take what they want to learn from experiences occurred and pick out important points relevant to their professional practice. Critical reflection is a point of view, so we need to consider others opinions on topics raised.

 

Conclusion

Looking at reflective theories has helped me understand my professional practice more clearly and actually realise I use it on a day to day basis without realising. Critical reflection has made me open my thoughts and analyse how I approach tasks and learning. I still feel I need to practice on writing more critically so I shall put this into practice by writing on people’s blogs. This experience will exercise my critical thinking and raise questions to benefit my professional practice.