Reflection and Reflective Learning

Reflection and Reflective Learning

Re-cap (and questions?)

Reflective learning

• American John Dewey's philosophy proposed that each experience builds upon previous experiences and influences the way future experiences will affect the learner. Note - not restricted to childhood learning.

• Believed that informal education was important – so learning can take place anytime, anyplace, anywhere – not just in the classroom or in a formal learning environment

READING

• Read this for a slightly biased but interesting overview of Dewey’s work

• http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/john_dewey_is_a_fraud.html

• Compare it with the wikipedia entry at• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

• Which is ‘more accurate’ do you think?

BUT……

• Being able to write reflectively, self analytically and critically is a skill that takes time to develop.

• Being able to ‘do’ reflection is a lifelong process

• It takes practice – the more you reflect the easier it can become

Some models of reflection

One of the simplest approaches to take is to consider:

• what worked well? • why? • what did not work well? • why not? • what will I do the same next time? • what will I do differently next time?• How or in what way will I do it differently?

• And a reflective learning log can be used to capture this reflection -

• There is an example on Ebridge ‘Learning log pro forma’ and how to do one guidelines

Question

• What do you think are the essential ‘parts’ of reflection?

Roth (1989) summarises Reflective Practice processes as follows:

• Questioning what, why, and how one does things and asking what, why, and how others do things

• Seeking alternatives • Keeping an open mind • Comparing and contrasting • Seeking the framework, theoretical basis, and/or underlying rationale • Viewing from various perspectives • Asking "what if...?" • Asking for others' ideas and viewpoints • Using prescriptive models only when adapted to the situation • Considering consequences • Hypothesising • Synthesising and testing • Seeking, identifying, and resolving problems

Very simple model based on the ‘experiential learning cycle’

Brookfield Critical Lenses

• Brookfield (1995) suggests that we employ four “critical lenses” through which to view and reflect upon our practice. These are:

1. our own view (autobiography); 2. that of our students/(learners); 3. that of our fellow professionals; 4. and the various theoretical perspectives

propounded in educational literature.

Brookfield Critical Lenses

• Simple version is

• Self lens• Student lens• Peers lens• Theory lens

Boud – experience based learning

• Experience-based learning - where learners analyse their experience by reflecting, evaluating and reconstructing it (either individually, or in groups collectively) in order to draw meaning and understanding from it in the light of previous experience.

• Reflection builds on previous learning that we all uniquely have – so it is different for different people and different for the same person at different stages of life

Gibb’s model

Gibbs – little bit more detail

Atkins and Murphy

Kolb reflective learning cycle (also learning styles)

Kolb (based on Lewin’s work) Experiential Learning

• Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes.• All learning is relearning. Learning is best facilitated by a process that draws

out the individual learner’s beliefs and ideas about a topic so that they can be examined, tested, and integrated with new, more refined ideas.

• Learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically * opposed modes of adaptation to the world, i.e. reflection and action - and feeling and thinking.

• Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world, not just cognition but also feeling, perceiving, and behaving.

• Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment.

• Learning is the process of creating knowledge• * method of arriving at the ‘truth’ through process of exchanging logical arguments

Schon

Two types of reflection:

1. reflection-in-action and 2. reflection-on-action.

Reflection-in-action helps us as we complete i.e. ‘do’ an task or activity

Reflection-on-action helps us afterwards – post activity reflection

Schon

• ‘Critical Incidents’ – used to aid reflection on action

• Term critical does not have to mean serious or important – but that it is in some way meaningful or relevant to you at that point in time.

Reflection in Action: Schon's The Sequence of Moments (Reeves, 1994: 105)

· Routine Response · Surprise · Reflection · Question Assumptions · On the spot experiment

Argyris and Schon's Reflective Practitioner

• The key to practitioner success is "developing one's own continuing theory of practice under real-time conditions' (Argyris and Schon, 1974: 157). This requires the practitioner to be able to reflect on his or her own microtheories of action (that is, contextually specific ideas about what works in the real world) and to relate these microtheries to institutional norms and to client expectations' (Brookfield, 1986: 245)

Do you agree with this statement?

• The process of reflection-in-action is essentially artistic, that is, the practitioner makes judgments and exercises skills for which no explicit rationale has been articulated but in which s/he nevertheless feels an intuitive sense of confidence' (Brookfield, 1986: 247).

Reflexivity

• Loosely meaning reflection on not just your own work but on the subject discipline itself.

• Mainly for higher level research – but if you are reading then you may come across the term.

One idea for reflection and personal development

• Luft and Ingham’s Johari Window• 4 quadrants – each showing a different

perspective of the same person

Johari Window – useful for self reflection (Luft & Ingham)

That’s all