My New Habit Challenge
Having entered teaching just four years ago after over twenty years self employed in the private sector, self reflection that is seen by anyone but myself was a frightening concept as I berated myself for mistakes believing there was best practice to aim for and eventually reach. How wrong I was as I entered teaching and was introduced to the spiral of enquiry model early in my first year. Did anyone in this sector ever do a satisfactory job?
My current reflective practice is very much intuitive, relying on my own self awareness (Finlay 2009) and sits superficially in the stages within Jay and Johnson’s reflective model (2002). As a result of events in the classroom I will reflect on what happened and my feelings around what happened for the students but rarely do I make time for recording my thinking more deeply than notes on my planning for future reference. Hence why I describe my reflection as relatively superficial and introspective, which as Finlay (2009) points out is the dominant mode of reflective practice.
I am early in my teaching career and see my colleagues as valuable holders of immense experience and knowledge that I am yet to gain. They have, therefore, become a patient resource for reflective professional conversations and ideas for change. A future step for me is to seek further reliable sources and writing.
To move more deeply into the stages of Jay Johnson’s model challenges me to step into the unknown responses of a more rigorous form of student feedback on what happened and how it was for them (Jay and Johnson 2002). Not only does this challenge my thinking and expectations around my planning but am I really strong enough to take their comments critically and not want to crawl into that dark corner under my desk? As Findlay (2009) states : practitioners may also find it testing to stand back from painful experiences and seek to be analytical about them. While my experiences are not necessarily painful, as a person who seeks to do things to the best of my ability, honest critique from students can be a frightening prospect. And yet I do seek feedback daily but in an informal way interacting with students in the classroom.
The future for me sits in the realm of seeking reliable sources and forming a habit of journalling the hours of thought which my mind processes weekly. As is so often the case there are never enough hours in the day and an ever growing “to do” list but I have identified my next step as forming a new habit of recording reflection, not superficially but with more depth and therefore value.
References
Jay, J, K., and Johnson, K, L. 2002. Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education.Teaching and Teacher Education 18 : 73–85. College of Education, University of Washington
Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice-based Professional Learning Centre, Open University.
Claire, I really admire the honesty and courage that comes through in this post. I agree that, while the theory of eliciting and receiving student feedback is necessary, accepting that feedback will really challenge us. I imagine too that depending on the students concerned, it might be difficult to step back and not take it all personally because of the effort that will have gone into creating what we've thought will be good experiences for the students!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bridget - this is a very honest reflection. I love your possibly tongue in cheek comment "Did anyone in this sector ever do a satisfactory job?" This is a very telling comment and one that resonated with me because, as educators, we are always trying to improve and this is often for the sake of our students rather than ourselves. With that in mind, having a structure such as one of those used in the reading, should help to keep us focussed in our reflection. Often I think we are in danger of 'beating ourselves up' about needing to keep on improving. Instead I think it is important to look for the visible/deliberate improvements that thorough and intentional reflection should be able to give us, and then be pleased with those incremental improvements
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate. I agree that we need some type of structure around reflection so that it remains constructive and purposeful. My comment was honestly what I felt being new to the profession and meeting many colleagues who perhaps were seeing reflective practice as self deflating.
ReplyDelete