EDU406 Handouts Set 2

Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices (EDU 406)

Topic 1

What is Reflective Practice?

•  Teaching should value reflection and evaluation of their own practice and their continuing professional teachers.
•  There is one quality above all that makes a good teacher-the ability to reflect on what, why and how we do things and to adopt and develop our practice.
•  Most teachers spend time thinking about what they did in class but they don‘t always take it a step on their actions and make plans to do things differently.
•  What is the implication of this for reflective practice?
•  In a professional setting, reflection is:
•  Deliberate
•  Purposeful
•  Structured
•  A process which links theory to practice
•  Deep learning.
•  John Moon says:
•  ―Reflection is a form of mental processing that we use to fulfill a purpose or achieve some anticipated outcome‖.
•  applied to gain a better understanding of relatively complicated or unstructured ideas and is largely based on the reprocessing of knowledge, understanding and possibly, emotions that we already possess.‖ (Moon, 2005:1)

Topic 2

Why the interest in Reflective Practice?

In encourages us to understand our learners and their needs and abilities Stephen Brookfield (1995:92) believes that of all the pedagogic tasks teachers face, getting inside students‘ heads is one of the trickiest. It is also the most crucial. Reflective teachers are more likely to develop reflective learners

Why the interests in Reflective practice?

•  Finally and most importantly, reflective practice is the key to improvement.

Why Reflect?

•  Reflective practice leads to:
•  Higher quality practice and better outcome for learners
•  Awareness of value and beliefs
•  More likely to challenge and change practices
•  Leads to inclusive environment

Why Reflect?

Reflective practice leads to:

•  Leads to seeking research, resources and advice
•  Promotes collaboration between professionals
•  Why is Reflective practice so important?
•  Research shows that reflective practice is a crucial way of learning and extending professional understanding.

Why reflect?

Reflection and critical reflection are highly personal processes that require the professional to take daily experiences, internalize them, turn them over in their mind and filter these new thoughts through previous lived experiences and personal values and biases before deciding how best to proceed.

Why is Reflective Practice so important?

Research also shows that teacher who regularly reflect on what they do, why they do it and how this new knowledge can b used to improve their practice achieve the best outcomes for students.

The Place or Reflective practice in Teaching

Consider this task to help you understand the place or reflective practice in teaching: a) Make a list of teaching strategies that you have used over the last 2-3 weeks(e/.g small group work, lecture, demonstration). Consider this task to help you understand the place of reflective practice in teaching: b) Analyze each teaching strategy: what is your role, what is the role of the learners, what tasks are used? Consider this task to help you understand the place of reflective practice in teaching: c) Examine one teaching occasion which went ‗badly‘, list the unexpected factors and try to explain them. Discuss with a colleaguehow could you changed your practice? A culture of Reflective practice is essential. Further research demonstrates that in order to provide high quality teaching there must be a commitment to on-going learning, professional development and reflective practice (Comer, 2008: Howard, 2003). This is not necessarily tied to specific training or in-service courses but instead can begin with looking at daily practice and being able to say, ―that hasn‘t gone well, why might that be? Reflective practice is a process by which you stop and think about your practice, consciously analyze your decision making and draw on theory and relate it to what you do in practices. Critical analysis and evaluation refocuses your thinking on your existing knowledge and helps general new knowledge and ideas.