Tools for Reflective Practice
With the benefits of reflecting upon
my professional journal I was able to
observe and review my learning and
progression of development over the semester.
2nd year student teacher Flinders
University 2005
Reflective
journals
The tools most frequently used to assist the
development of professional reflective practice in the teacher education
context include reflective learning journals, autobiographies, portfolios,
critical group audience and mentoring. However, micro-teaching or video
reflection and the use of web based journals called ‘blogs’ are more widely
regarded now as valid tools for on-line learners in particular.
According to Gil-Garcia and Cintron (2002), a
reflective
journal involves learners in
‘self-assessment, collaborative critique, self-reflection and goal setting’
(p.1). Reflective journals vary in the way that they aid the reflective
process. For instance, a journal may become a shared dialogue between a trusted
lecturer, or mentor teacher in the classroom or it may be used for an
individual journey of professional self-reflection and supported by the use of
a framework for self assessment at specific times throughout the journal
keeping project.
Reading response
journal
One type of journal commonly used in teacher
education programs for professional learning is the reader
response journal where learners read recommended content in the form of written
text or view a film and then record their responses in their journal.
These responses may then be used in different
ways but usually they are shared at some stage with their lecturer and often
orally with their peers in order to make further meaning from the text and to
‘articulate connections between new information and what they already know’(Kerka
1996 p.2).
Kerka (1996) claims that writing is a
critical aspect of knowledge processing and that the learner’s journal can
become a text in itself for later metacognitive learning and community
knowledge building.
Double entry
journal
Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy &
Nosworthy (2004) recommend the double entry journal which involves a
statement of context or quote from a reading on the left hand side of the page
and reflections and proposed actions on the right side. Their model is based on
Smyth’s (1989) four phase model of ‘describe, inform, confront and reconstruct’
(p.227).
Whitton et al (2004) also remind student
teachers that it is important not to restrict reflections to the
theory/classroom interaction but to feel free to refer to related issues in the
media as well.
They suggest that reflection can be in the form of
poetry, drama or music as long as it fulfils the requirements of critical
analysis and future action.
Interactive journal
Maloney and Campbell-Evans (2002) have written
extensively on the use of interactive journals in their work with pre-service
teacher education and believe that the interaction between journal writers and
their audience ‘provides opportunities for student teachers to make practical
theory explicit’ (p.39). The relationship that can develop between the lecturer
as a trusted ‘interested party’ in encouraging and deepening reflection and the
student teacher is a unique and valuable outcome of interactive journal work.
Dialogue journal
At Flinders University, lecturers teaching the course
Reconciliation Education use a dialogue journal to support …..
the process of deconstructing and reconstructing how they
[pre-service teachers] perceive Australia’s Indigenous history, Indigenous
peoples and the provision of education to Indigenous students and communities.
They can begin to engage with the topic and the
historical and contemporary analysis of Indigenous histories, Indigenous
education, the construction of knowledge and theoretical underpinnings.
(Rigney, Rigney & Tur 2003 p.142)
This approach to journal work creates a ‘culturally safe
space’ where undergraduate student teachers can make personal sense of the
conceptual and theoretical understandings relevant to education and Indigenous
education and share their thoughts and feelings with their lecturers in their
journals.
Narrative journal
Reflection upon the values and beliefs which ‘form the
essence of teaching practice’ (Bain, Ballantyne, Packer & Miller1997 p.3)
emphasised in the above Reconciliation Education topic is also developed
through the use of the narrative
approach. Bain, Ballantyne, Packer and Mills
(1997) state that this approach provides opportunities for students ‘draw
inferences from their own experiences thus creating personal pedagogical
principles’ (p.3).
Practicum reflections
Journal entries for pre-service teachers are often in
response to guided questions about teaching practice from their lecturers or
mentor teachers and through this structure, important professional discoveries
about teaching goals and strategies and the needs of classroom students are
facilitated.
According to Gil-Garcia and Cintron (2002), analysis and
critical observation of their teaching decisions in their journals helps
student teachers to ‘critique and modify their practice’ (p.4) and a recent
study of Australian pre-service teachers of mathematics supports this claim.
Kaminski (2003) found that keeping a reflective journal about teaching
strategies and the learning responses of students during field placement
facilitated the teaching of mathematics well ‘beyond technical rationality
levels’ (p.30).
Self-assessment
Whilst the advantages of interactive journals are well
established in the literature, it is important to mention the work of Bain,
Ballantyne, Packer and Mills (1999) who found that student teachers can still
develop reflective skills without intensive outside feedback, depending on the
opportunities for self-assessment
frameworks and the initial
reflective abilities of the learner.
There are several self assessment models mentioned in the
literature including that of Smyth (1989) cited in Whitton et al (2004 p 227),
Campbell-Evans and Maloney (1998), Dietz (1998) mentioned in Clarke (2004) and
Francis (See Resources section of this website).
Portfolios
The creation of portfolios and e-portfolios as a form of assessment and
professional preparation is becoming more prevalent in teacher education
programs. Whitton, Sinclair, Barker, Nanlohy and Nosworthy (2004) refer to the
Ontario College of Teachers (1999) professional standards in their support for
this reflective activity tool.
Portfolios, as described by Wolf and Dietz (as cited in
Whitton et al 2004), are a collection of structured professional ‘artefacts’
that demonstrate accumulated knowledge, skills and practice about teaching that
is underpinned by critical reflection. They can be paper based or electronic
and are considered to be an important new way for student teachers to portray
their higher level cognitive thinking and self-reflective growth upon graduation.
Examples of artefacts often chosen by beginning teachers
include a reflective statement of their teaching and learning philosophy, unit
and lesson plans, student work and feedback, videotapes of their teaching,
photographs of classroom displays, reflective comments from parents, mentor
teachers and peers, formal appraisals from university supervisors and
self-evaluations throughout their course.
Evidence of a professional journal is an essential
component in any portfolio and can be included intact as a way of demonstrating
continuous professional reflective ability, or used selectively as desired.
Group dialogue and yarning
Group reflection as a scholarly reflective tool is identified by Priest
and Sturgess (2005). They claim that reflection in a group setting provides a
richer experience by enabling ‘the individual to subject their personal beliefs
to critical analysis in a safe environment’ (p.2). Collective reflection,
whether formal or informal provides a scholarly experience for practitioners
that also builds community.
The advantages of shared group discussion as a useful
form of professional reflection are also described by Clarke (2004) who offered
final year ‘internship’ student teachers opportunities to debrief and share
their teaching experiences through group discussion as well as journal writing.
Clarke (2004) analysed the type and depth of reflection from both groups
according to the Professional Learning Cycle model by Dietz (1998), and found
that the structured collegial sharing environment generated safe reflection on
common teaching practice issues which resulted in greater confidence of action
amongst student teachers.
The significance of yarning as a means of deep learning in a cross cultural context
is described by Power (2004). As a non-Indigenous researcher in an Aboriginal
community she found that that yarning, or deep but informal dialogue, provided
the opportunity for ‘profound, complex and subtle understanding’ (p.37).
Mentoring
Mentoring partnerships have a long tradition across
cultures and life contexts. Whilst they often emerge informally within
families, amongst friends or ‘on the job’ (Carr 1995 p.5), in recent years they
have become more formally recognised by the workplace as playing a crucial role
in the personal and professional lives of successful employees and their
leaders.
Malcolm Anderson (2003), Indigenous Australian community
elder and leader in human services provision, defines a mentor as ‘a friend, a
person we can walk alongside, a guide, an achiever and someone who we can look
up to as an example’(Introduction).
Mentor teachers have a significant role in the
development of reflective practitioners for the future. According to Moran and
Dallart (1995), mentors in the teaching practice classroom facilitates the
development of reflective skills by both modelling reflection on their own
practice and by direct challenging and affirming the critical thinking process
in the student.
Hine (2000) suggests that one of the prime benefits of a
mentoring relationship is the development of ‘more self-reflective,
meta-cognitively aware and self-directed learners’ (p.1). She claims that by
talking, sharing discussion and problem solving and ‘jointly constructing
knowledge and meaning’ (p.3), both the mentors and ‘mentees’ are learning to
reflect in ways that will ultimately transform their teaching practice.
As Malcolm Anderson reminds us, ‘people are the most
important resource to guide our development and to provide inspiration for our
growth and learning’ (2003 Introduction).
Electronic dialogue journals
and blogs
One relatively recent tool that encourages interactive
reflection is the online journal format called a ‘blog’. Oravec (as cited in Williams and
Jacobs 2004) describes the weblog or blog as an educational vehicle for student
voices which empowers students and encourages them to become more critically
analytical in their thinking. Writing a blog can serve many of the purposes of
a dialogue journal but needless to say they have a much larger, unknown
audience.
According to Williams and Jacobs (2004), blogs challenge
students to confront their beliefs and critically analyse how their views might
be interpreted and reflected upon by their audience. The blog is already
gaining favour in teacher education programs in areas where reflective practice
is already established as a professional learning tool.
Kerka (1996) has also written about the uses of
electronic journals in distance education and places importance on the support
aspect of the journal relationship for geographically isolated students once
the extra difficulties of access, equity and technical skill are addressed.
Like each of the above forms of reflective practice, the
electronic version of communal discourse serves as an important tool for
professional growth in the contemporary teacher education setting.
Educators now have a range of tools
through which to foster reflective skills and by varying their approach from
course to course, they can offer their students’ additional deep learning
experiences which will benefit not only their university studies but their
future professional practice.
References
Anderson, M. (2003). Walking
Together Mentoring Program: Introduction South Australia: Department of Health.
Carr, R. (1995). Ingredients of successful
mentor programs. The Journal of Volunteer Resources Management, 4 (1), 5-7.
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