Week 17 Junaid's Reflective Practice

Reflecting on my Reflective Practice Week 17

When I first began thinking about the way I reflected, I thought I did almost all of that reflection in my head, introspectively, by myself, thinking about my day, and deciding how things went and what future changes I would need to make. Upon further reflection I believe I do this equally with others, whether it is with colleagues, students, at Leadership or Syndicate meetings or with the Community. I still believe that ultimately, these thoughts have to resolve themselves in my head, but that majority of this learning happens as a result of collaborating with and supporting others, and in fact being supported. I am able to do this quite frequently due to my role, where I get to appraise staff, and be a voice in strategic and evaluative meetings, as well as an advocate for students and their community. All of these decisions impact a multitude of stakeholders, and I am using a combination of ‘reflection-in-practice and reflection-on-practice’, as explained by Shon (1983) as cited in Finlay (2008), to support decisions.

 I believe I spend a lot of my  ‘reflecting in action’, a term cited by Finlay (2008) in Schon (1983) where I always slowing myself down, before engaging in situations ensuring that I am able to stay focused, and (notice) the responses, and non-verbal feedback of the person/people I am engaging with. I must admit that I am much more capable when this involves students, moving ‘rapid reflection’ and review’, which are 2 of the 5 levels identified by Zeichner & Liston (1996). I need to evaluate further the engagements with students to analyse further what makes those interactions so much smoother. Maybe I need another pair of eyes/ears or critical feedback into this inquiry.

I also love hearing people’s stories, especially during Appraisal feedback sessions or Practice Analysis Conversations, as I believe I feel free from writing, and am just able to listen, and quite frequently am able to revoice a colleagues voice, or find a different perspective that proves helpful to them in their quests. While I find this satisfying, I do struggle sometimes, in that there is no ‘set’ formula to this, and can be hit with the fear or ‘what if I blank?’, but am slowly beginning to believe my own mantra, about not having to have all the answers, and that sometimes that pair of ear, with undivided attention, may be enough.

I find that my reflections with students and in groups are a lot more fluid, and responsive, calling on previous knowledge to support choice, especially when there are more than one other person in the room. I am not always able to do that, when there is just one other adult or if I have to write it down. Maybe I am not able to get past my own bias, or inability to move past trying to ‘impress the other person, possibly linking to my upbringing and own education experience, where a student was always ‘on show’, and maybe the writing it down, for me, is still a bridge too far. I will have to use this opportunity to do this more (Written) and hopefully through the use of this Blog, and the work that we are doing on Critical Reflection, with evidence, and investigation cultural bias, that this aspect of my reflection will grow.

REFERENCE LIST:

    Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open. ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

     Schon, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner.

    

   Zeichner, K., & Liston, D. (1996). Reflective Teaching: An Introduction (Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling Series).

  

Eureka!!

Yes!!!! Finally finished that assignment. Man it is hard to collaborate. I know the value of it, but making the time to get everybody in the room is NOT easy :) Still coming to grips with online collaboration, and discussing ideas, when we are not face to face. This is good that the technology is available, so we don't have to be in the same room, but the wairua is different. Still in the mindset, that i have to see the person and their reaction. So much of my goals recently have been to keep noticing what is happening, i.e mood, intonation, facials, and just when i was coming to terms with that, now thy are not there :)

Any ideas people?? Please share with me.

"Back to reality, oh here comes gravity..."

Why are we learning this way?

We seem to be at a bit of a crossroads. On one hand we seem to agree that things need to change in our Education system, and then on the other hand we have those, especially those have succeeded in this system, who prefer the status quo. It seems like this dilemma is further complicated because most teachers succeeded in this current system, and now they are promoting this system because it worked for them. There is an increasing number of teachers who are beginning to question the validity of this through Inquiring into their practice, and indeed whether we are setting our learners up for success in a world that may not resemble this present one at all, by using the knowledge tools of a previous time for  previously available vocations. How do we continue to promote the 21st Century Skills along with our Key Competency Curriculum, which promote the type of learner dispositions that future innovators will require? I would love to hear from other leaders in Education, whether in front of a classroom, or working besides our learners, or leading leaders.