The+template+of+the+essay

**Question: What is a reflective practitioner? **
 * Critiquing theoretical ideas of reflective practice and exploring the potential of the concept in your ** **practice **


 * 1) === The experts view ===

__3 issues:__

 * Changes within the section** with Jim leaving

As a direct result we are planning for reduction of teaching hours for all classes, the impact will be great and in particular will by limiting the time we spend researching, discovering and constructing our understandings together. Traditional lecturers have one clear advantage over more elaborate techniques: time
 * Economic downturn** with 16% less funding available and a further 9% next year to bring it to a 25 % reduction within 3 years


 * The students lack of motivation and self believe**s.


 * 1) My initial views
 * 2) My own theory
 * 3) Constructivist?
 * 4) Schon
 * 5) Kolb: for or against? potential benefits for my practice
 * 6) Confucius

i could also start with my original view on reflection and then quote Confucius:“Study without thought is labor lost; thought without study is perilous." SO LET'S STUDY!

A reflective practitioner is a professional trying to open his mind, able to look within himself, to the world around him and to his practice with a goal to "emancipate himself from presuppositions" (Mezirow 1990). A reflective practitioner is a man on a journey, a man who can work on his own but also with a team, a man who can look forward and back, a man who cares about people and enjoys learning and teaching. Through this continuous questioning plans are made, implemented and reviewed and the cycle starts again. The following is my conceptualisation of this understanding: **What I do, what I think I do, what I want to do and what I need to do are 4 different things! ** Let’s elaborate; “What I need to do” is about the practical modular system which I have to follow in my institution and the necessary limitations it creates in my professional life, it’s also about the human interactions and the protocol we have to follow and understand in order to have an effective working environment. "What I want to do" is not only about the future but about to the broad ideas and theories which directs my professional life, ideas I believe in, for example constructivism, constructionism or care. "What I think I do" is about the reflection on the action or the problem solving practitioners faces everyday using what they already know, no deep questioning the ideas used in practice, "What I do" is about being able to see what happens during my practice or sessions but at a different level, this view can be unforgiving because it is about looking straight into the eyes of the tiger, it is a step closer to a reality often left lying and it includes deep feelings. This factual interpretation is made possible with a broader and deeper understanding of our condition as human beings and the way we think and reflect, it's about questioning our most basics assumptions. This understanding and self-criticism is paramount to be a critical reflective practitioner but as Confucius said it must also lead to an improvement of ourselves for a "meaningful existence" Argyris and Schön’s (1974) argues that we have mental maps on how to respond to situations, that we are not always aware of them and that they are different from the theories we believe in: what we think we do and what we do are not the same

A concrete example: Constructivism I do not have to use the latest learning or teaching models in my practice but I need to retain the maximum number of students until the funding cut off date and I need to have a high ratio of students passing the course. What I want to do is use effective up to date techniques to help my students have an interesting and productive time when doing their course. What I think I do is consciously trying to use my poor understanding of fairly complex theories, often catching myself reverting to a dictatorial know it all teaching style What I do is creating or affecting an environment which fulfil my needs (friendship, respect, challenges, fun, play, meaningful existence)

Attempting to understand reflection in 2010 very often means understanding, quoting or criticizing the work of Schon who had a major impact of this theoretical field, in particular in relation to his reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action theory. (Donald Schön: learning, reflection and change', //the encyclopedia of informal education, undated) need more details on the theory or the theories. // <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">These theories seemed to have become over the years a tool which had to be exploited by professionals, who seem to have used his work without the critical approach it deserved, Usher et. al (1997) for example refers to this approach as becoming “canonical” (need more here) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">My understanding of his theory, how I apply it and the distinction he makes between two types of reflection is therefore maybe 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 is now succeeding. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18.3333px; line-height: normal;"> Regarding his theory on reflection-in-action my view matches Moon (1999): What we do in class when we adapt to situations is for me less a reflection and more a reaction possibly based on previous reflections. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18.3333px; line-height: normal;">lets critically reflect on this opinion now: I believed about this "reaction" from the moment I started learning about this theory and I was initially happy just confirming this idea using a few quotes, this is not the frame of mind of a reflective practitioner! <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 18.3333px; line-height: normal;">This change was the result of some reflection on action: Extract of my "reflection on action" (09/11/10) D lack of motivation in class (theory on resistance training) poor result in test and not listenning, later discussion about his physio telling him not to train his upper body!!!.......then me questionning why......REFLECTION IN ACTION...............not just arguing with facts I knew to impose my ideas but going away to find out.......internet article proving to be remarquably interesting for him....(good reader, visual type?) VARK..............then questionning from him, clarifying himself for himself.......ready now to train and learn. Reflection in action is therefore possible for me if I take the role of a facilitator and give myself time to reflect, I could now endeavour to extend this time and technique to the students by giving them enough time during classes to reflect as I believe link it to the next article on feeling ....

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">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 failed to show a major driving force for learning: emotions, feeling, wanting. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">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. Using this teaching or learning theory as it stands and leaving out this emotional driving force could expose us to greater problem in further education where the lack of motivation our students demonstrate is already problematic. (Should I mention leo's theory? habit of being left and letting the high flyers take over classes doing the academy) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal;">Reflection and motivation are interlinked, one without the other can only lead us to a surface paper (more on surface V Deep ?) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Motivational drives are needed by all of us, teachers and students! <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Link it to my questions and to my emotions, feeling, needs and introduce race <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Comfort zone <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">What do I want to do, what do I think I do and what do I do about it?

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">How and why should I become a reflective practitioner, am I not already able to reflect? Why writing an essay on this subject? What part of my practice should I reflect on? <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Questions which feel are a necessary initial step in order to make this assessment more than just another test paper by conceptualising my quest and linking it to an emotional drive. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">Mezirow has describe this feeling as " <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;">“disorienting dilemma” it is for him the first stage in his theory of reflectivity <span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;">that uses an "experience of imbalance in one’s life as an opportunity for considering new perspectives".

<span style="font-family: Times,serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: normal;">"From this new vantage point one may continue to examine unfamiliar views, critically reflect and evaluate them, test and explore new perspectives as one’s own, make choices as to whether to adopt those positions and finally perhaps reintegrate these new perspectives (King, 2005)"

Bloom (????) created a taxonomy on reflection which is being used by Peter Pappas (website address, date)
 * [[image:http://peterpappas.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341d880253ef0120a7a4db80970b-800wi caption="Reflection" link="http://peterpappas.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341d880253ef0120a7a4db80970b-pi"]] ||
 * Reflection ||

=a reflective practitioner wants to know his practice and himself.= <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">﻿"Assessments drives the learning that precedes it (Ramsden, 1992)