Assess2.+what+is+a+reflective+practitioner?

the template of the essay

==**Critiquing theoretical ideas of reflective practice and exploring the potential of the concept in your** **practice** ==

question: What is a reflective practitioner?
My initial view: A reflective practitioner have some knowledge about reflection, about the theories linked to reflection, about the way he reflects and he is able to use this knowledge or ability to reflect and improve himself and his practice. He is open minded and ready to question the very fabric of his mind. A reflective practitioner is also a learner, he may lack some of the jargon but he is actively using this process considered by experiential learning theorist and myself as part of learning.

Many theoreticians have attempted to understand, rationalize and explain what reflection is or how it could be used by reflective practitioners, my goal is now to move on into a critical understanding of their believes and demonstrating an understanding of how or why I should use it for myself and in my practice. As pointed out by Kolb, reflection or an essay on reflection must start with a need, a drive which pushes us to learn, allowing us to enter a learning cycle whose representation can take many forms! So, in no particular order, a few questions: A few questions which I think are necessary in order to make this written assessment more than just a test! As Gibbs said, attempting to make sense deepens our learning as opposed to just scheme the surface and we need to "play" with ideas to integrate components and tasks. ( Joe Harkin, Gill Turner, Trevor Dawn, 2000) Phil Race said “the best ways of causing reflection and deepening learning” is achieved by “writing out ideas and progressively making them more coherent.” so reflection could be done with the help of an essay (this answer one question) and recollection of events but we should be aware of the fragility of the evidence, as Eisner (1991) pointed out the process of codification itself modifies the perception of the experience. Reflections can therefore become reflections of reflections.(p29 blooms) just a subjective reflection! If writing out this essay causes deep reflection the next step will have to bring these theoretical reflections out of this plane and back in the real world. Another important point:
 * Am I a reflective practitioner and what do I understand by it?
 * What type of reflector am I?
 * What are my inner believes?
 * Do I need to change my reflecting techniques or practice?
 * What are the next steps?
 * Why so many different views by so many theoreticians?
 * Why writing an essay on the subject?
 * Can I "move beyond technical reflection to critical reflection ( Joe Harkin, Gill Turner, Trevor Dawn, 2000)

Moon (1999, p57) quote Copeland, Birmingham and Lewis (19993) asking if students were learning better from highly reflective teachers, surprisingly, their evidences seams to point out that it may have more impact on the teachers themselves by making them feel better about their jobs than make students any better at learning! Reflection or an essay on reflection could also start with clear relevant achievable expected outcomes for the writer!
 * To become a better and happier lecturer.
 * To prepare my future and the future of our section.
 * To help more of my students achieve their potential and grow as human beings.
 * to have a clearer view on the ideas and concepts which drive my practice
 * To understand how we think and reflect.
 * To be a better person
 * To be a step closer to enlightenment: "Awakening to a greater reality most of us never perceived" ([|buddhism.about.com], undated)

Over the years as my teaching style changed I have incorporated into our courses a wide range of coaching units (about coaching) where reflection is taught and used individually and in groups and where I can put into practice a consctructionist teaching style. Understanding and sharing these reflecting theories is quickly becoming a new subject for class discussions. To prepare my students for their future roles I often reflect out loud some of the problems I encounter when coaching, showing them how I think the problems through. Most of these problems are not manufactured but real situations we all have to face. This role model teaching technique on reflection is shared by Barnett (1992) who believes they should all become reflective practitioners themselves. He believes many factors like class sizes, modules, contact time all contribute to interfere with this goal. To all these points I would agree with but I also believe that where there is a will there is a way, a reflective practitioner in higher education is able to influence some key factors providing he has support and self belief.

Attempting to understand reflection has evolved over the years to quote or criticize the work of Schon,in particular in relation to his very famous reflection-in-action versus reflection-on-action theory. (Donald Schön: learning, reflection and change', //the encyclopedia of informal education, undated)// My understanding of his theory and the distinction he makes between two types of reflection is possibly not as important as understanding the impact he had on this field. If his goal was to open a door to discussion, rationalisation or theorisation on the way we act and think as reflective practitioners I believe he succeeded. Regarding his theory on reflection-in-action my view matches Moon (1999): What we do in class when we adapt to situations is less a reflection and more a reaction possibly based on previous reflections.

Schon attempted to narrow the gap between what we say we do and what we do or what we think we do and what we do but is model of learning offers too simplistic a view of learning, as Albert Einstein said Everything should be made as simple as possible not simpler. He also fails to show a major driving force for learning: emotions, feeling, wanting. Moon (1999, p98) makes an interesting point when she says that this learning theory could be better described as a teaching theory, a useful tool to help practitioner teach but not an accurate enough description of learning I found Phil Race's theory "Ripple" to be on this point much closer to my believes

He believes the terminology used in this field has become an hindrance to learning, to learners and teachers and to address this problem he has developed jargon less theories. His theoretical model of learning "ripples" offers many similarities to my teaching practice ideologies and the following points makes up some of my teaching techniques and are my adaptation and understanding of his 7 smart teaching precept
 * 1) "Make" the students **want** to learn
 * 2) They learn for **themselves**
 * 3) Let them **play** (do, make mistakes, try again.. after some reflection hopefully)
 * 4) **Fast Feedback** from me and each other (not just praise)
 * 5) Facilitate (guide) help make sense
 * 6) The 3's (1 teach, 1 coach, 1 is assessed) (students are assessing each other coaching each other)
 * 7) Use and participate in the wiki

I believe a reflective practitioner should know and be able to use and evolve many techniques to promote effective learning. As a result and because of my personal learning style which seems to always push me into trying new things, I have espoused in my career many learning and teaching theories. These techniques have contributed to the building of my existing practice to be sometimes replaced by "newer" ones. One particular example is the "praising" coaching style which I implemented many years ago. On reflection, following blindly a half understood idea was maybe not a great idea but I am a "trier" (link it to learning style) and experimenting is what I need to do! Some time after, I moved on to an evolved version of it where praising was changed from praising the person to praising the skill and this was followed again by encouragement and feedback, where positive and negative points are clearly explained. This is for me one good example as to where critical reflection leads a lecturer not initially qualified to teach. I am now an experienced lecturer who has made and is still making many mistakes but is able to share this experiences, with friends, students and on paper.

Moon (1999, p58) discussed varied views on reflection in professions, in particular she question Atkins and Murphy's view about self-awareness being the first skill required saying that it was for her "somehow strange". Regarding this point I disagree with her, I believe that without self-awareness no progression can be easily attained as self-awareness allows us to see and understand who we are, making us reach to further reflection.

=== A reflective practitioner does not only reflect and research but put in practice what he is learning. Reflection being one step in a process which keep on repeating itself. Quote.... Our understanding of learning and how the brain works is by itself an intricate journey. === Reflecting on this particular question and the range of scientists view on the subject is puzzling. quote on how the brain works and the latest evidence of it. the major problem being the difficulties we had to actually see the brain at work!

A reflective practitioner will be able to draw on a wealth of experience and also be aware of others experiences, ready to expand his knowledge through continuous experiences and reflections done by other thinkers, theoreticians and by himself. As Dewey pointed out "we do not learn from experience"."We learn from reflecting on experience". to this I must add that we can learn from reflection today and have forgotten all about it tomorrow, to learn from reflection also means knowing about learning, retention and the difficulties our organic brains have to change patterns. We are creatures of habits, how often did we reflect and believe in a new idea for reverting back to the same old idea? To make this new pattern part of our practice I believe another step is necessary, a reinforcing step, a step which works by understanding the human brain and body, a step which reward the right behaviour and could even "punish" the wrong one. This essay for example was done using "cloud internet technology" who took the form of a wiki...

A reflective practitioner would have evolved this range of techniques and understanding but would still keep on open mind to further this progression, being aware of the potential pitfals which lurks behind the self content of the know it all mind.

A reflective practitioner should have a methodology which allow him to recall and catalogue experiences to reflect on them at his leisure, A critical reflector should allow himself the right to question what seems to be the very fabric of his practice, for example Moon's investigation into this theoretical field seems to show that both Schon and Kolb's theories where at first only speculations! Speculations which were accepted and used as facts by more theoreticians.

trying to consciously reflect on my continuous practice could lead to overload, the unconscious mind's task to record and sort information should not be understated or underevaluated. The following link bring some interesting facts and questions. could be usefull to bring some oder in this assessment []

(story telling and learning (james zull) (stories engage all parts of the brain and learning is deepest when it engages all parts of the brain)

Day 2. October 2010 __**Experiential learning**__ it s about learning in the context of your own learning

Moving away from “the vessel to be filed” ideas Integrating what we do adding to what we do, I do

the Kolb's cycle...agree ? Disagree? Agree in part? Should maybe be mentioned in the assess?

Lewinian Model of action research and laboratory training...look into it Lewin and kolb have a similar cycle.....who copied who?

Dewey 's model (use the note) interesting theory. ….growing

we all have different model

"As for the Inventory, Kolb, himself, points out its greatest limitation. The results are based solely on the way learners rate themselves. It does not rate learning style preferences through standards or behavior, as some other personal style inventories do, and it only gives relative strengths within the individual learner, not in relation to others. In my own case, I found the results dubious. The wording in the questions seemed vague and the results did not jive with my own view of my preferred learning style"

Piaget: we go through different through stages and the move on, it is systematic process when some of the others believe this process is not as rigid!! for him it is a cognitive growth? Learning is everywhere,learning is transformation

Jarvis :what does he say? David mentioned

__**Reflecting on experienced**__

Moon (1999, p102) suggest that reflection has a central role in deepening learning

__**Understand your own learning style**__ kolb's book.. could use previously done little test done for tqfe to explain personal learning style... feelers watchers thinkers doers We need to be able to use the 4 types to be an effective learner me in my team and I fit in it, related to our styles....

VAK visual auditory kinaesthetic

multiple intelligences preferences are maybe what we are not good at... the management role which I am pushed into is part of the context

not only me or I but third person also

sunday 1st weekend

Being a critical reflector also means that we should be aware that the direction our reflections takes us as practitioners are or could be purely subjectives, the choices we make to help us construct ourselves are the one which we "choose to notice and further process" (Boud & Walker, 1993).

When my students (coaches to be) are asked to reflect on a teaching experience they often focus on points where emotion was predominant so to help reflect objectively we organize group feedback under my supervision. This allow them to see the view of the group and make the all experience much more valuable. It can then help them to learn from a more holistic perception of the experience.

Dewey (1933) believed that a reflective lecturer should be acting persistently and carefully considering "any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the ground that support it and the further conclusion to which it tends" to this extent I believe this essay is contributing by helping me review a path which guided me to this precise point in my career and my conclusion is that conclusions matters less than the journey itself.

Lets finish with a homeric simile. A reflective practitioner, a person on a journey, he (could easily be a she!) can remember where he come from and he has a destination in mind. He has a natural ability which drives him forward, he assumes "Reflective practice... a state of mind". This was an extract of his journal