Author: Dr. Susan Elliot
Source: LDAO
A great number of teachers love to read in the summer–stories of all kinds, some for pleasure, some for school. This summer I read a Grade 2 novel called Flat Stanley for a course (yes, it has its own website). In thinking about the book, all sorts of curriculum ideas quickly emerged. I could use it for science this way and integrate it into math that way. More than that, a list of students who could benefit from working with that text sprang immediately to mind. I started talking aloud about ideas for art and writing and waxed on about adapting it for gifted children. I got quite enthused about these possibilities and applications. My Grade 6 daughter put her head in her hands and said, ” All those projects! It’s scary the way a teacher’s brain works!”
I suppose she is right. What is the function of a teacher’s mind that generates ideas from a single text? What is the intuitive act that allows us to correctly connect a story with a certain young reader with specific learning needs and interests? How do we know what we know and by what process did we come to know it? What’s more, why do so many ideas come to us at the end of the day or at the end of the dock on a breezy summer afternoon?
What is Reflective Thinking?
Researchers would argue that the cognitive process of reflection is behind our “Eureka” moments and that these thoughts are in no way the musings of an idle mind. Early in the writings on reflection, John Dewey (1933) distinguished between stream of consciousness-type reflective thought and disciplined reflection that is purposeful and directed to understanding and creating meaning from a realization or interaction. Such critical reflection has tremendous power to enhance our teaching if only we could build into our day the structure to do it. It is especially important when introducing something new to our professional practice such as you are doing in this demonstration project.
Reflection has begun something of a fuzzy buzzword in education lately, perhaps because although we are not entirely clear about what it means, we are expected to do it. Donald Schon, (1987) described two levels of reflection: reflective in action and reflection on action. Reflection on action requires deeper thinking about the goals or purposes behind a lesson or task. Questioning the strategies and activities in our programmes requires reflection on the goals, principles, ethics and values that drive our daily work.
To reflect in action means to use a wide variety of information from teaching while it is occurring to develop insights into learning and to make critical improvements. Key elements for this formative assessment information may come from:
- Better use of feedback, including questioning to understand a child’s understanding and thinking- not just whether they completed the work or not.
- Better use of information on learning that can be gathered through observation of children at work, discussing the products of their work, as well as making anecdotal notes on significant changes or developments.
- Brief discussions with educational assistants or team teachers on the effectiveness of a lesson or task as it unfolds.
- Collecting data for your own small research question on some aspect of student learning or your own practice. This is termed “action research”, a word you might recall from university courses or your own professional reading.
A Warm-up for the Year Ahead
There is much more to consider in the area of developing reflective practices including ideas from teaching and research. Some of these will be explored in the October training sessions in Toronto. For now, consider trying one of the following forays into action research to help you ease into your year as a teacher at a Kindergarten demonstration site.
- At the end of the second day of school, try to write down the names of all your students. Then, reflect and perhaps write down why you forgot some, remembered some well or remembered them all. What did you do in your teaching day that helped your learn their names and their personalities? What did the students do that helped you recall their names?
- In the first week of school, copy a class list. Have a helper or teacher check off the name of every student you spoke with during that morning or afternoon. Think about why you talked to certain children many times and with some almost not at all. How can you use this information to teach or use time more effectively? Are you talking more to one group of children than another? What might be the reasons for this? What might you do or change in your next interactions because of this knowledge?
- In a notebook, have an EA or make a quick list yourself, of the questions you asked during one short lesson. Review the types of questions, How many were factual recall? How many required longer, more detailed answers? How many were designed to show what the children were thinking or how they understood by the lesson?
Bibliography
Brubacher J., Case, C., & Reagan, T (1994). Becoming a Reflective Educator: How to Build a culture of inquiry in the schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process (rev. ed) Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
Eby, J.W. (1992). Reflective Planning, Teaching and Evaluation for the Elementary School. New York: Macmillan.
Gardner, H. (1983) Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Osterman. K. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators: Improving Schooling through Professional Development. Newbury Park, CA. Corwin Press.
Peters, J. (1991). Strategies for reflective practice. Professional and Continuing Education, 51, 83-102, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Schon, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.