Activity Three: Response to Finlay's article

Reflecting on my practice is something that I do concurrently with teaching. So while I'm teaching a lesson I'm constantly thinking about how the lesson is going, who needs help, how the lesson needs to be tweaked etc. The difficult part is to write it all down after the lesson takes place. After reading Finlay's Reflecting on 'Reflective Practice', I have extracted quotes that have stood out to me in which I will reflect on in relation to my reflective practice. 

“Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity” (Larrivee, 2000, p.293).

-Reflection is important for my teaching practice because it helps me to better what I do! To reflect I find it important to line up my own beliefs, values and experiences with relevant research to strengthen my teaching practice. Thinking critically is important to better your practice because of the diversity of the classroom. You are always faced with challenges whether it be children, management or the community. Reflecting gives you the ability to help solve issues. I will continue to reflect on my practice and make sure my beliefs and values line up with research.

In the case of reflection-on-action, professionals are understood consciously to review, describe, analyse and evaluate their past practice with a view to gaining insight to improve future practice. With reflection-in-action, professionals are seen as examining their experiences and responses as they occur. 

-Reflection-on-action is important because it makes you think about how you delivered different content and how you can improve on what you did. As a third year teacher I am still rule governed when teaching e.g using Numeracy Booklets when planning for maths. As I gain more confidence and experience I will be able to think more creatively and instinctively to the teaching moment. 

-Reflection-in-action is a reflection of how my day to day lessons go. Here are a list of things that will run through my head as I teach:
-How is the lesson going?
-Does everyone understand?
-If someone isn't understanding, why?
-How can I adjust the lesson (in the moment) to cater to those who don't understand?
-How can I extend those children who pick up concepts quicker than expected?
-What are the next steps for each child?
This helps me to formulate the next learning steps for children and plan the following lesson.

Schon believed that as professionals become more expert in their practice, they developed the skill of being able to monitor and adapt their practice simultaneously, perhaps even intuitively. In contrast, novice practitioners, lacking knowing-in-action (tacit knowledge), tended to cling to rules and procedures, which they are inclined to apply mechanically. 
-As mentioned above, my practice is still somewhat rule governed. In my first two years of teaching I definitely bound by rules as I was learning my craft. This year I am developing the ability to simultaneously monitor and adapt lessons in the moment. As my experience grows my ability to be intuitive and creative in the teaching moment grows. 

...in which practitioners tend to focus on their own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and evaluations. This passes as legitimate ‘reflective practice’ which professionals then can use to advance their cause to fit formal requirements for continuing professional development. While such reflective practice may take place in dialogical contexts such as supervision sessions, the onus stays on the individual practitioner to reflect upon and evaluate their own practice. 

-When reflecting on my practice I focus on student engagement (behaviours), how I felt I did (feelings) and if the children understood what was being taught (evaluation). This information is used to form my next lesson.
-To give voice to my practice gives me the ability to think better as I converse with my team leader. With her experience, she is able to better form into words how I'm feeling and next steps. This is apart of my learning and growing as a teacher.

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

While models such as Gibbs’ may offer useful basic questions to help structure reflection, some argue that a broader, more critically reflexive approach is needed. Zeichner and Liston (1996) argue that reflective teachers should move beyond questions about whether or not their practice is working to critically examining values and how practice can lead to change, commitment to quality and respect for difference. 

-The Gibbs Reflective Cycle offers a continuous approach to reflecting. I prefer this model because it's simple and easy to follow. When planning a new lesson for a learning group I always think about what happened in the previous lesson. This process helps me to identify how the previous lesson went and how I would improve on it for next time. 

Moreover, busy, over-stretched professionals are likely to find reflective practice taxing and difficult. 
-As someone who is time poor, sitting down to write my reflections for lessons is not practical. In my experience meetings, marking, reflecting, planning, emails, setting up lessons etc is quite time consuming. Reflection is done in my head simultaneously with teaching a lesson which is used to plan the following lessons. 

One possible way forward would be for students to hear about the experiences of other learners and practitioners in practice and how reflection helped them. In addition, I would recommend they be given student-centred opportunities to discuss various situations/incidents such that any reflection is nurtured naturally, following the students’ own values and spirit of inquiry. Opportunities for discussion also allow students to question and be questioned. Importantly, students need to see (early on) that practice often involves uncertainty and that answers are never clear-cut. 
-Personally, I find discussion a great format to reflect on my practice. As mentioned above, there are benefits in having dialogue with my team leader. As a person who likes to see examples of what's expected I think viewing what others have written when reflecting would be beneficial.