Reflective Practice in the Classroom
Reflective practice – A tool for learning
Introduction/Rationale
When something goes wrong or something unexpected happens during a lesson or activity, we ask ourselves questions such as, could I have done something to avoid it? These experiences usually make us grow and we learn from experience, and we will be better prepared to face the situation if it happened again. This introspection is generally called “reflection”, and all professionals have adopted it in order to improve their practice, but for educators reflection involves “critical thinking” about past experiences or current experiences that occur or are occurring in classroom settings and looking at them in a positive light on how to make improvements for their teaching techniques and smooth the progress of children’s learning. But reflection is not an innovation in teaching, it has its roots in the work of a number of educational theorists for over 60 years such as Dewey and Schon who devised theories on reflection which include, Dewey’s theory of “thinking on your feet” and Schon’s theory of “reflection in action” and “reflection on action”. As many theorists are out to prove their theory, many will criticize others, Moon is for one who criticises Dewey’s theory and describes it as “an unconscious act”.
After studying the ‘Reflective Practitioner’ module, I decided to undertake a project involving reflective teaching. This module made me aware of how important reflective teaching is if we are to help children learn effectively. As every child is different, different methods and strategies need to be used to facilitate learning for every child. At the same time it gives an opportunity for practitioners to enhance their existing skills and broaden their perspective on how to deliver more effective teaching, by reflecting on which strategies work better than others. Whilst researching on how to enhance children’s learning I wanted to research factors that could enhance children’s learning in the
Introduction/Rationale
When something goes wrong or something unexpected happens during a lesson or activity, we ask ourselves questions such as, could I have done something to avoid it? These experiences usually make us grow and we learn from experience, and we will be better prepared to face the situation if it happened again. This introspection is generally called “reflection”, and all professionals have adopted it in order to improve their practice, but for educators reflection involves “critical thinking” about past experiences or current experiences that occur or are occurring in classroom settings and looking at them in a positive light on how to make improvements for their teaching techniques and smooth the progress of children’s learning. But reflection is not an innovation in teaching, it has its roots in the work of a number of educational theorists for over 60 years such as Dewey and Schon who devised theories on reflection which include, Dewey’s theory of “thinking on your feet” and Schon’s theory of “reflection in action” and “reflection on action”. As many theorists are out to prove their theory, many will criticize others, Moon is for one who criticises Dewey’s theory and describes it as “an unconscious act”.
After studying the ‘Reflective Practitioner’ module, I decided to undertake a project involving reflective teaching. This module made me aware of how important reflective teaching is if we are to help children learn effectively. As every child is different, different methods and strategies need to be used to facilitate learning for every child. At the same time it gives an opportunity for practitioners to enhance their existing skills and broaden their perspective on how to deliver more effective teaching, by reflecting on which strategies work better than others. Whilst researching on how to enhance children’s learning I wanted to research factors that could enhance children’s learning in the