Teacher reflection in learner-centred education

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Reform Forum: Journal for Educational Reform in Namibia, Volume 8(September 1998)

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Teacher reflection in learner-centred education

Paul F. Cook, BES Project

Teacher reflection has a larger role to play in learner-centred education in Namibia.Teachers can be better when they cultivate a thoughtful, problem-solving dispositiontoward their teaching. There is no lack of proposed educational curriculum reforms inNamibia. However, there is strong logic in the belief that until teachers arethemselves reformed, educational practice in the classroom is unlikely to improve agreat deal. Reflection is believed by many modern-day experts in education to be agenuine way of fostering change in teachers. As John Dewey (1933) said,"Experience plus reflection equals growth". Reflection is a foundation aspect of howa teacher becomes effective. In the literature there are many labels for teacherreflection including: "reflective thought," "instructional decision-making," "wisdom,"

"critical thought," "educational beliefs," "views of self as teacher," and "perceptions ofteaching" (Cook, 1993). These names suggest different ways that teachers mayimprove themselves, but they essentially mean reflection.

The basic idea of reflection has historical roots in antiquity. It is not a new idea.However, reflection was reintroduced into education in this century by John Dewey.He criticized education as "fad-driven" because teachers were learning only "how todo things" but were not learning "why they did things", or how to learn to improvefrom their own experience. Most especially in How We Think: A Restatement of theRelation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process (1933), Dewey encouraged"reflective" or "thoughtful" action instead of "habitual" action. He believed that

teachers should use a great deal more reason and apply the scientific method agreat deal more than they do. Deweys criticism of educational practice reads asvalidly today as it did when he wrote it, and it applies to teachers world wide.

Reflecting ProductivelyTeacher reflection looks back on teaching, calling some aspect of it into question,analyzing it, evaluating it and making plans for improvement. All teachers engage issome form of this activity, but too often it is participated in insufficiently. To citeDewey:

"quality educators and education cannot be derived from the imitation oftechniques that have worked in the past, but rather teachers should be trained inanalyzing and defining principles behind the techniques. In short, it is theorized thatthe more teacher reflectivity occurs, the better the quality of teaching."

"Unreflective teachers tend to accept everyday reality, working only to find themeans to carry out most effectively the ends demanded by their culture, which leadsto further enslavement for it leaves the person at the mercy of appetite, sense andcircumstance (Dewey, 1933, p. 89)".

He argues that reflective teachers look at other possible realities and might not wantto do all of the things that the everyday reality of their school might seem to call for.


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Dewey specifies three attitudes that are prerequisite for reflective action: open-mindedness, responsibility, and whole-heartedness. Open-mindedness refers towanting to listen to more than just one side. It refers to wanting to actively seek outor create and consider alternate possibilities, and to be open to the possibility thatanything we believe may be false, no matter how dear it is to us. Responsibility

requires careful attention to and consideration of the consequences to which anaction leads. It requires extended concern and not just immediate reaction. It meansgoing beyond dependence on a formal description of the situation to investigation ofits actuality. Whole-heartedness means that the previous two attitudes must be partof the person's lifeconsistently activelyand not just put on when convenient or forspecial occasions. This is especially important, as Grant and Zeichner (1984) pointout, because of the powerful socializing effect generated by a preservice programand by a school culture.

Thinking and a disposition to reflect are not all there is to reflection. There is a prior,often unrecognized feature to thinking. When relating to another person in a highly

interpersonal role such as "teacher", there is an "ethical demand" felt toward thelearner. There is a demand to do no harm to me and to help me learn. A teachermay act in response to this demand or ignore it. Teaching will be learner-centred ifthe teacher responds to the obligation that they feel toward the child.

Doing ReflectionReflection is a cyclical process through stages: (1) observing oneself as a teacher,(2) thinking about the observed experience to gain understanding and meaning ofwhat is happening, and (3) applying the insights gained to future teachingexperiences. Like learning to read the printed word, reflection is learning to readteaching. The goal is to comprehend teaching, to see patterns, make predictions andthe like. Beyond gaining meaning we use reflection to plan changes in the way weare to "be" with our learners or to "do" things differently if we are unsatisfied. It is away of turning from wrong action toward right action.

There are different ways of doing reflection (Cook, 1993). Doing reflection is likedoing writing. The reflecting person should have a clear audience, a clear sense ofpurpose, and a clear message. The audience for a reflection is usually the self but itmight be helping another as well. Helping the learner to learn is the purpose. Clarityis obtained by keeping a focus on some aspect of teaching until something new is

learned about ones self.

A reflection may be entirely an internal mental event, or it may be written to oneselfor another, or spoken to a listener in conversation. We probably think more clearlywhen we write things down. I have heard many people say they do not know whatthey think until they have written it down. Many enjoy writing about something whenthey have energy about it. Personal journals use this style. Others prefer to use amore structured technique we might call a heuristic. A heuristic is a step-by-step setof guidelines that help solve a problem (Cook, Young, & Cutler 1990) A heuristic hasthe advantage of helping the reflecting person to keep a focus.

I and my students have developed a heuristic to do structured reflection that hasbeen useful. I only briefly mention it in this paper. It involves these steps. First writing


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down descriptive details about a teaching episode without evaluation. Second, thereflecting person focuses on identifying a theme that may keep coming up, such as aconcern with how to group learners. Then the reflecting person interprets what isgoing on and evaluates whether something needs to be changed. For example, ateacher might decide that not all of the learners are working in the groups she has

formed because she has not established clear roles for the learners. She decidesshe needs to do something about it. Finally, she makes detailed plans to bring aboutchange, for example, she will do more group building by teaching learners variousroles to play in the groups. When applied over a period of times, say several weeks,the heuristic yields important benefits in identifying needed changes and doingsomething about them. It can be applied to more than the technical aspects ofteaching. It is helpful in the moral and ethical domains as well.

Reflection and Structured CurriculumSome educators approach learner-centred education only in terms of curriculum

(instructional activities, methods and materials). Learner-centredness must be abouthelping teachers "be" better with their learners as well. The style of curriculum is notimportant to reflection. Less-structured materials are not necessarily any better thanstructured ones when it comes to helping the teacher reflect. Structured materialsare very useful for beginning teachers and even for experienced teachers learning anew approach. For example, in the Basic Education Support Project, we aredeveloping structured lessons. Our audience is teachers in the Northern rural areaswho have not had strong teacher training. Our Structured Instructional Materials(SIMs) have been viewed by some as inimical to learner-centredness. This really is aspurious position. All of us, when we are challenged with learning something new,something that is complex, with much at stake, require more structure. I realised thiswhen I learned to scuba dive in Hawaii; I was not interested in constructing my ownmethod of surviving under 10 metres of water. I was happy to follow the step-by-stepinstruction of my young Marine Corps sergeant. I would have thought himirresponsible to try a non-structured approach to teaching me in this situation. Weoften need to be directed in learning something new. We need to see at least onegood way to do something to learn how to do it. This does not mean we arecompelled to do that way. When we become more familiar with the territory andconfident in what we are doing, then we feel quite free to find our own way.Sometimes unstructured materials are really not developmentally appropriate. Theydo not provide adequate scaffolding for the naive learner or for a learner trying to do

something in a different way.

Responding to the moral demand from the learnerThere is another important point to make about curriculum methods and reflection. Itis not the purpose of this paper to explore this issue in detail, only to mention it. Inour Western world view we are caught up with "Enlightenment" thinking (See figure1). We place great reliance on knowledge. If we can just get the right "method" thenour learners progress. To those persons familiar with post-enlightenment thinking,many forms of knowledge and representational systems are being brought intoquestion. To these thinkers much knowledge we have previously believed to be

sacrosanct is now seen as being socially constructed, including much of science.The project of science, at least until recently, has been the project of increasing and


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perfecting "knowledge". In enlightenment thinking, we assume that we must first"know" the right, and then we can act correctly. This view of knowledge and ethicshas come under attack by post-modern thinkers during the last 60 years. This papercannot go into their arguments, but their critique has radical implications fortraditional, positivist theorists and researchers because it has undercut these

assumptions (see for example, Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Honer & Hunt, 1987, p. 45;Heidegger, 1962; Heidegger, 1966; Heidegger, 1977; Faulconer and Williams, 1990;Gadamer, 1982).

Levinas (1987) a post-modern, French philosopher, struggling with the limitations ofEnlightenment thinking, proposed that what is before knowledge are human relationsand the temporal situation in which the knower is found (See figure 2). Knowledge isvital, but it does not exist before human relationships and activity. It is not too strongto say that our knowledge and belief systems can do violence to others if they areinflicted without recognition of the individual needs and desires of the other. Asapplied to teaching, teachers who are driven by doctrinaire attitudes toward school

curriculum will not be responsive in a learner-centred way. We can fall victim to beingdoctrinaire even about inflicting so-called learner-centred methods on our learners.Marie Montessori put it this way:

We all have a tendency to sleep through things, yet, with the coming of a child, thereis a new being who awakens us and keeps us awake with means which are not ours,a being who operates in a way different from our way and who appears everymorning as if to say, "Look, there is another life; you can live better than you do."(Montessori, M., quoted in van Manen, 1977, p. 13).

What to DoWhat are some immediate things that can be done? Ways may be sought to fosterreflective thinking among teachers. First, teachers may be given a set of questions tothink about on their own that may help focus on the ethical demand they feel for theirlearners. Such questions as these may be useful:

What is the responsibility I feel in the presence of the child?

What does the child need from me?

How can I give the child what he or she needs?

Can I differentiate what the child needs from what he or she wants?

How can I act responsibility to serve this child?

What teaching methods do I have at my disposal that may be of help?

How can I make certain the method does not get in the way of trulyresponding to the child?

Am I willing to make the sacrifice to respond to the child?

Am I willing to change my habitual way of doing things to respond tothe child?


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Am I willing to give up a cherished idea about how to teach and moveto a new one to serve the child?

Another way to encourage reflection is through reflective conferencing. Advisoryteachers and principals may encourage reflection as they interact with teachers. Tohelp teachers reflect, a non authoritarian atmosphere is needed where a relationshipis established that is level and collegial rather than vertical and authoritarian. After avisit to a classroom the advisory teacher or principal, acting as a helping person,may conduct a post-observation, reflective conference. It is important to know how tohelp in these relationships. An important factor to keep in mind in being helpful is thedevelopmental level of the teacher. In a literature review on teacher reflection, Ifound limited discussion of developmental stages and the disposition or ability ofteachers to reflect (Cook, 1993). Most of the literature on reflection deals with adultsin inservice settings. It may be assumed that developmental stages are not criticalwith adult learners. This is not correct. Developmental level should be considered notonly in understanding children, or even beginning teachers, but whenever a teacher

learns something new. Identifying the developmental stage of the teacher is a key tocarrying out an effective supervision style using reflective conferencing.

Using ideas from Piaget, Ivey (1988) suggests four levels of development inmastering life skills. It is essential to understand that every person is actually in amixture of many stages depending on what is the skill or trait we are talking about.For example, one person may possess highly developed skills in knowing how tomanage children effectively, but be a beginner when it comes to using "wholelanguage" methods to teach children to read. Ivey proposes that the term"development" implies movement and change according to a specific situation or setof circumstances. A helping person, however, is most effective in promoting growth

when the level of development is accurately met with the right approach for that levelin the helping relationship. I cite his work to show how such a view is useful. Thefollowing is a very brief summary of the four developmental levels identified by Ivy:

Level D-1: Preoperational.The individual has few alternatives, or at best, a limited range. Skills are lacking andoften this individual needs to be told what to do. The person may participate inirrational or magical thinking, and is usually not able to operate on their environmentsin effective ways. Examples of persons at this stage may include: a new employeewith very limited experience or a student learning a new subject field.

Level D-2: Concrete operations.Individuals show some degree of design; There may be understanding of someincongruities but total unawareness of others. The person may have skills but lackthe ability to use them. An example of such an individual is an employee with a newjob, only part of which he understands or has experienced before. Another exampleis a person who functions well in general but has difficulty in a particular area oraspect of their work.

Level D-3: Self-directed formal operations.At this level the person can design ways to operate which Ivey calls intentionality, butthe ability is not developed fully. A person at this level can separate himself from thesituation and think about actions and thoughts. This is in contrast to the person at theconcrete or preoperational level who is so embedded with their problems that all they


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want is help to solve them. At the self-directed formal operations level, the personrequires only limited help in solving problems. An example of a person at this level isa self-starting person who usually does satisfactory work but who is struggling with aparticular issue or problem. An other example is an individual seeking to improve analready good performance. Ivey says an individual must at least be at the self-

directed formal operations level for the helping person to conduct a helping sessionusing only listening or other non-directive techniques.

Level D-4: Mutual or dialectic.At this level there is complete intentionality; the client can describe a wide range ofchoices available and widely choose from them. The person wants to engage thehelper in a conversation in which both work together as co-equals to search forproblem solutions. The helping person often learns as much as the person beinghelped. The person being helped can analyze themselves, their thinking processesand the environmental factors involved. Persons that may fall in this categoryinclude: those who may have resolved many problems but seek to further explore

and examine, persons seeking self development, and those who operate well ontheir own but want to learn with you and from you.

Persons at the lowest development level (D-1) generally require more influencingand environmental structuring. At the concrete operations level (D-2) persons benefitmost by a combination of attending, for example, reflective listening, and influencingskills. Level D-3 behavior responds best to attending skills designed to help clarifytheir thoughts, feelings, and meanings, using only a small number of influencingskills. Mutual or dialectic clients can solve their own problems. They may seekassistance on clearly defined specific issues, often not only seeking solutions but fornew problems to be addressed. Persons at every level can profit from relationship-oriented attending skills, confrontation and directives. Ivey (1988) has reportedresearch supporting matching interviewing style with client problems, style andreasoning.

Obviously, much more could be said about how to help a teacher become reflective.They could be encouraged to keep reflective journals of what is troubling, puzzling orinteresting to them. They could be shown how to do structured reflections using aheuristic. Teachers could be encouraged to reflect on a common problem or topic ingroup sessions helped by a trainer or helping person. Teachers could be encouragedto share their reflection with another teacher to get additional support, understanding

of what is happening in their teaching, and to generate ideas about how to makeimprovements. Trainers could give teachers the opportunity to improve their ability to"read teaching situations" by observing live teaching episodes or video-taped ones.All of us are familiar with sports broadcasters who give play-by-play descriptions ofthe game and interpret the game for us. Much more could be done to help teachersfocus on what is "best practice" and what should be eliminated or changed by usingsimilar methods in education. The focus of reflection should be more on the impactof teaching on the learner than on using "the" correct method. Too much inservicetraining is directed exclusively to getting the teacher to adopt the new correct methodwithout observing what it does to the learner.


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Conclusion

In this paper I have argued for the need to improve teacher reflection as part of alearner-centred approach to teaching. Refection is an important way to help teachersimprove their teaching. There are important traits and dispositions that need to be

fostered, and many specific methods for encouraging reflection. Reflection is lookingback on teaching to detect patterns that are responsive or unresponsive to thelearner, and that may be effective or not effective in helping the learner to learn.There is a strong moral component to reflection. When teachers pay attention to themoral demand they feel from the learner they are motivated to improve. The teacherfeels they should help their learners and do no harm. Too strong a focus on specificmethods, even if they are called "learner-centred", can cause harm if they are notresponsive to the child in the immediate situation. The essence of learner-centredness is in the relationship between the teacher and the child more than it is aspecific method.


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References

Cook, P. F. (1993). Defining reflective teaching: How has it been done forresearch? Paper presented at the annual Association of Teacher EducatorsConference in Los Angeles, California, February 16, 1993.

Cook, P. F., Young, J. R., & Cutler, B. R. (1990) Teaching Students to Reflect:Does Using a Structured Thinking Approach Help or Hinder? Northern RockyMountain Educational Research Association Researcher, 7(1) 30-36.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflectivethinking to the educative process. Boston: D. C. Health & Co.

Grant, C. A. & Zeichner, K. (1984). On becoming a reflective teacher. InGrant, C. S. (Ed) Preparing for reflective teaching, 1-18. Boston: Allyn andBacon, Inc.

Faulconer, J. E., & Williams, R. N (1990). Reconsidering psychology. In J. E.Faulconer & R. N. Williams (Eds.), Reconsidering psychology: Perspectivefrom continental philosophy, pp 9-60. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne UniversityPress.

Gadamer, H. G (1982). Truth and method(2nd ed.). New York: Crossroad.

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquirre & E. Robinson, Trans.).New York: Harper and Row.

Heidegger, M. (1966). Memorial address. In J. M. Anderson & E. H. Freud(Trans.), Discourse on thinking. New York: Harper & Row.

Heidegger, M. (1977). Basic writings (D. F. Krell, Ed.). New York: Harper &Row.

Honer, S. M., & Hunt, T. C. (1987). Invitation to philosophy: Issues andoptions (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Ivey, A. E. (1988). Intentional interviewing and counseling (2nd ed.). PacificGrove, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

Levinas, E. (1987). Totality and infinity. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UniversityPress.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills: Sage.

van Manen, M (1977). Linking the ways of knowing with the ways of beingpractical. Curriculum Inquiry, 6: 205-228.

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Teacher reflection in learner-centred education