"Like other professionals, teachers cannot become effective by following scripts. Instead, they need to create knowledge in use as they practice ... knowledge does not exist apart from teacher & context."

Thomas Sergiovanni,

Moral Leadership

Reflective Practice:

A New Paradigm for Professional

Development.

Equity & Excellence in Higher Education.

Goals:

Define Reflective Practice;

Design A Critical Incident Protocol;

Early Outcomes from the Reflective Practice Application;

Implementation Design.

Reflective Practice:

A cognitive process & open perspective

that involves a deliberate pause to

examine beliefs, goals or practices in

order to gain new or deeper

understanding that leads to actions

improving the learning of students.

Steven Brookfield

Typical Professional Development Approach: Focus on AWARENESS

Reflective

Practice

Multi Day Training, Courses

One Day Training, In-services

New Paradigm-Creating Learning Communities: Focus on Application and Synthesis

Reflective Practice

Multi Day Training, Courses

One Day Training, Inservices

In other words...

Reflective Practice is an in-depth conversation about what we do, how it works & why we do it.

so that our students are able to learn more effectively in our classrooms.

A Foundation of Reflective Practice: Protocols: A set of guidelines;

Clear role definitions.

Common elements: Presentation; Clarifying & Probing Questions; Artifacts; Group discussion, excluding presenter; Reflection/debrief.

Practicing a Protocol: Talking about Teaching & Learning using the critical incident protocol:

What is the best (or worst)

experience you ever had in

teaching?

Steps of Brief Critical Incident Protocol:

Introduction – 5 minutes.

Clarifying questions – 5 minutes.

Discussion – 10 minutes.

Presenter reaction – 5 minutes.

De-brief the protocol – 5 minutes .

De-Briefing the Critical Incident Protocol 2:

What was the experience like for the person presenting?

For the “consulting” faculty?

Even if you didn’t present, what did you get out of it?

What was hard about doing the protocol? How is it different from an informal discussion?

Reflective Practice is:

Non-judgmental;

Collaborative;

Equitable;

Helpful;

Positively focused;

A guide for effective communication;

Structured.

Reflective Practice is not:

Judgmental;

Required;

Haphazard;

Supervision or evaluation;

Rigid;

Hierarchical.

Early Results from users:

“A switch in attitude to our students, not your students”.

“We see a greater openness to vary educational practices as a result of feedback from reflective practice groups”.

“There is a greater willingness to use

technology to adapt teaching to student’s needs”.

Research Findings: RP groups are more satisfying than other

professional development activities because:

It is continual;

It is focused on their own teaching & their own student’s learning;

It takes place in a small group of supported and trusted colleagues within their own school.

(Dunne, Nave and Ellis, Phi Delta Kappan Research Bulletin, 12/2000)

Additional Resources National School Reform Faculty:

http://www.nsrfharmony.org/ videos, on-line “virtual protocols”, articles,

links

Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher by Stephen Brookfield

Reflective Practice: Creating Capacities for School Improvement by Montie, York-Barre, Kronberg, Stevenson, Vallejo & Lunders