Notes on reflection and reflective practice for the Sydney Business School Lynne Keevers 20/9/2010 What is reflection? Reflection is traditionally defined as the image produced by the action of a mirror or other polished surface (Onions, [1944] 1965, p. 1686). The metaphor of reflection implies mirroring, and looking back, with some detachment and distance from outside. In the business, organization and management learning literature, however, reflection has complex meanings that are not limited to the language of optical metaphors. Reflection, broadly means engaging in comparison, considering alternatives, seeing things from various perspectives, and drawing inferences. As such, reflection constitutes a major element of learning from experience (Kolb, 1984; Usher, 1985). Reflection is described as an engagement with the self and a return to experience that involves careful thought in which people “recapture their experience, think about it, mull over it and evaluate it” (Boud, Keogh, & Walter, 1985, p. 19). Reflective practice Donald Schön, is the scholar who has most widely influenced thinking about reflective practice. His work focuses on the reflective practitioner, who exhibits knowing-in-action, reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action (Schön, 1983, 1987). “A reflective practitioner is characterized by (1) the ability and (2) willingness to question routinised ways of thinking and acting, either after having acted (reflection-on-action) or in the midst of acting (reflection-in-action). The latter makes it possible to alter one’s current course of action by framing the problem in a new way (problem settting) or by improvising on new ways of solving the problem at hand”(Jordan, 2010, p. 393). Therefore there are multiple forms of reflective practice and just a few are listed below: • reflection-on-action, in which the practitioner mulls over what has happened and evaluates their actions, especially when a routine practice has been disrupted by surprise or the unexpected. • reflection-in-action, in which the practitioner reshapes what they are doing, in the midst of doing it. • anticipatory practices of reflection (Beckett, 1996; Beckett & Hager, 2002) in which the practitioner makes judgements in the ‘hot action’ of practice. This in-the-moment reflective practice is future orientated and forward feeding; it is not pre-planned or prior to action but part of the action. Reflective questions Brookfield (1995)suggests choosing a critical incident in teaching or learning and then interrogating the experience with reflective questioning, to enhance and deepen learning from experience. Such reflective questions include: What did we (I) do? How did we (I) do it? How did we(I) feel? Hove we (I) felt like this on other occasions? What would we (I) do differently? How can we(I) explain what happened? What are the implications for similar situations? The following questions are particularly useful for focusing on the effects or consequences of our practices: What are the effects of differences generated by our practice? When and what differed from the expected? If we were to do… what differences might our students notice? Strategies for reflecting on practice (adapted from the work of Catherine Layton) • learning/teaching journals Many academics are already in the habit of keeping a research journal with diary entries of events, ideas forming, the raw material for reflection and insights. The mechanics of recording what has happened is seen by Progoff (1975) as creating new possibilities for insights. • metaphors Spend a while considering what you would see as a metaphor for your teaching: a roller coaster? A duck in water? Sage on the stage? Guide on the side? … Write down the metaphor ( no details just state it). Take some paper and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left hand side jot down the feelings associated with the metaphor (for the roller-coaster, exhilaration, sense of danger, fear etc) and on the right the associated cognition (safe way to get thrills- there’s tracks, a rail to hold, etc) What lines of action does the metaphor suggest? • mind-maps Take a problem you face as a teacher, and place it in a circle on the centre of the page. What central issues come to mind when you think of this problem? Place them around the central issues, with a branch linking them to the centre. For each of the issues you have identified, what else comes to mind? Keep going on each issue until you can go no further. Now look at the furthermost information. Is there something common to them all? What do these far points reveal about your cultural context and location? • videotaping Videotaping ourselves does not just reveal any gestural or verbal habits, we can see how much we dominate tutorial time, what time we allow for student reflection or analysis rather than regurgitation; how much and how effectively, we use visual cues; how effective our listening skills are; whether or not we are culturally responsive, and so on, whatever aspect of our teaching on which we need a fresh perspective. • peer observation This involves inviting a colleague to observe our teaching. You can incorporate the four cycling moments of action research: PLAN- you and your colleague discuss what is to be observed and if there are particular aspects of your teaching you would like them to focus upon (eg how you ask questions, facilitate discussion etc.. ACT/OBSERVE - you teach and your colleague observes. REFLECT: you and your colleague reflect on the teaching experience and the colleague provides detailed feedback and suggestions on your teaching practice. RE-PLAN: You plan your next teaching session with the view to incorporating the feedback, if appropriate. Brookfield (1995) suggests that we also observe the peer reviewer’s teaching so that the communication is not one-way, and because we can find ourselves questioning our own assumptions about learning and teaching simply through observing others at work. • critical incident techniques The stimulus for reflection is an incident in your learning/teaching experience. Usher suggests 4 steps in a reflective writing process: 1. Briefly describe your ‘normal’ practice. 2. Select and write about the episode in your practice which, in your judgement, is particularly significant or challenging to you . 3. In doing this, comment on some specific factors relevant to your approach to the situations such as: - Your starting assumptions - The setting in which the issue arose - The activities of others (students, colleagues etc) - Any decision/s that you took - Changes you may have made in your way of working 4. Say something about how or whether the issue was resolved and what you now think of your assumptions, ways of dealing with the situation, others’ actions, your decisions etc.. References Beckett, D. (1996). Critical judgement and professional practice. Educational Theory, 46, 135-149. Beckett, D., & Hager, P. (2002). Life, Work and Learning: Practice in postmodernity. London and New York: Routledge. Boud, D., Keogh, G., & Walter, D. (Eds.). (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. London: Kogan Page. Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jordan, S. (2010). Learning to be surprised: How to foster reflective practice in a high-reliability context. Management Learning. Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Onions, C. (Ed.). ([1944] 1965). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed. Vol. II N-Z). London: Oxford University Press. Progoff, I. (1975). At a journal workshop: the basic text and gudie for using the INtensive Journal Process. New York: Dialogue House Library. Schön, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Usher, R. (1985). Beyond the Anecdotal: Adult learning and the use of experience. Studies in the Education of Adults, 7(1), 59-74.