Mind Lab Post Grad: Week 17 - My Reflective Practice

Using Jay and Johnson's Reflective Model

Step 1 - Descriptive

In my current reflective practice, I believe that critically reflecting is not criticising your own or others practice.  Critical reflection challenges the status quo and actively making changes to your approach improve practice and knowledge.  Critical reflection gains insight from existing assumptions and reliable sources.  This should include reading relevant sources to find evidence to support the challenges.  However, I feel this is an element in my own practice that needs to improve so that the outcome of my critical reflection is evidence based.

I always reflect on my own and with colleagues during informal conversations and this helps me make decisions on the run.  However, I rarely write my reflections and share with others and ask for their opinions. 

I always reflect on my practice on the immediate, ongoing, automatic action and making decisions to change behaviours in response to students cues levels.  I rarely write about an element of my teaching, engage in sustained thinking by collecting data or reading research or examine my practice with academic theories. 

This survey has highlighted for me that my current critical reflection practise is surface level. I have come to realise that when I do write down my critical reflections (for example during Mind Lab assignments), more ideas seem to come to mind which gives a deeper analysis.  

 Step 2 - Comparative

After completing the survey and looking at my peer’s responses, I have similar answers to most of the group except for in writing about an aspect of teaching, collecting data and reading research to inform my practice.  I rarely do this, where the rest of the group acknowledged doing this sometimes.

My reflections are currently thoughts and wonderings that become conversations with colleagues.  I have come to realise that this is surface level and that to have deeper reflections with a more effective outcome that they need to become written (Larrivee, 200).  While reflecting and writing essays for the Mind Lab Post Graduate course, I have noticed that once I start writing, more comes to mind and the deeper the critique is, and more effective solutions arise.

In my current practice, I put a lot of value into informal conversations with immediate colleagues as this is a quick way to resolve an area I want to improve, but does that mean it is the most effective practise?  If I took some time to research and read on what I am critiquing in my own practise I would get a wide range of information that perhaps has not been considered before in my school community, region or country (Finlay, 2008).  

Step 3 – Critical reflection

This reflective process has made it clear what is needed at each step with clear key questions.  I need to implement the aspects highlighted into my daily routine.  I could discuss with other teachers and Mind Lab colleagues about how they use written reflection in their everyday practice to get some examples of how I would adapt it to enhance what I am already doing.

References

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on 'Reflective practice'. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre - The open University.

Jay, J., & Johnson, K. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practise for teacher education. Teaching And Teacher Education, 18(1), 73085. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(01)0051-8

Larrivee, B. (2000). Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 2930307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713693162