Reflection

Date: 9th Nov 2014
Course: CIE PDQ DTWDT
(Diploma in Teaching with Digital Technologies)

My five week online course about Diploma in Teaching with Digital Technologies ends today.  It’s been a complete learning experience. The last resource shared was about reflection, how do we reflect, what key elements to consider while reflecting, models of reflection, theories of reflection etc. It opened doors of reflection to me. Reflection is important to me as a teacher, a trainer, an observer and as a program leader in many different aspects. I am in a position where I can provide support, scaffold ideas, build and extend prior knowledge and understanding, guide and assist my candidates on the course, teachers etc. 

What I did not know was that reflection is not only about what has gone well and what didn’t, it has to go beyond. The four models shared about reflection helped build on my idea and understanding about reflection. Donald Schon’s model describes two kinds of reflection, reflection in action and reflection on action. Reflection in action means making changes, amendments to plans during the activity in case of unexpected events, while reflection on action is reviewing and making changes after the activity has ended. He further says that professional development begins when we start viewing our experiences critically, we doubt our own decisions thinking we could have done something better and different, reflecting on these doubts helps develop new ways of thinking, encourages and motivates us to explore other possible solutions. 

Terry Borton developed a simple model of reflection. It is based on three questions what? So what and now what? What helps describes what has happened, what did I do, what was my role etc, so what is the analysis stage, so what have I learnt from this? Now what is the synthesis stage, we build on our previous questions, focusing on questions like what do I need to do, looking for consequences of my actions, how I need to improve etc.

Stephen Brookfield developed a model of four critical lenses through which we can view our teaching and practices. These four lenses are my own lenses (involves self-reflection though journal writing etc), learners’ lenses (use our learners feedback through interviews, assessments to inform our teaching), colleagues’ lenses (look to our colleagues for feedback and guidance from peers) and the lenses of theory (engaging with relevant research and reading). 

David Kolbs developed a learning cycle to help reflect on our experiences, these comprise of four stages concrete experience (first experience of using a resource), reflective observation (reflect on the first experience, how did it go), abstract conceptualization (draw conclusion and learn from experience) and active experimentation (how to implement what we have learnt). 

Graham Gibs described a six stage cycle for reflection which begins from the description stage (what happened), feeling stage (how we felt about the event), evaluation(what was good and bad), analysis stage (explore experience in detail), conclusion(what else could have I done), action plan (how will I do it differently).

The one model I like the most of these five is the one shared by Stephen Brookfield, the four lenses. I could use this model while reflecting on my teaching and learning practices. It could begin with reflecting on the impact of using technology in our early year classrooms upon learners, impact on teachers how they use and see technology integration, discussion with my colleagues, make changes in the light of the feedback received. 

We could introduce these models of reflection in our schools, discuss with teachers and let them reflect on their practices using any of these models. We are actually following the model to some extent in our schools but could be streamlined further.

One last thing that I liked about the interactive resource shared was thee levels of reflective writing which are descriptive, dialogic and critical reflective writing. We need to incorporate all three while writing a reflection. Beginning with describing what has happened and why it happened, thinking about reasons for making decisions, considering future actions, exploring thoughts, feelings,  to critically arguing about it (thinking of moral, social and ethical factors) , followed by demonstrating how has this impacted our own practices. 

A dive into reflection which I thoroughly enjoyed, what I know now is that without reflection high quality professional development is not possible. 

Sheeba Ajmal