I've been thinking about reflective teaching this year, trying to determine if reflection is what will make us better teachers. Content matters. But no content matters unless learning takes place.
So how do we become better learners? Reflecting upon how we learn best, reflecting upon what we want to know, and reflecting upon whether or not we know it.
John Dewey said,
“…thinking enables us to direct our activities with foresight and to plan
according to ends-in-view, or purpose of which we are aware. It enables us to act in deliberate and
intentional fashion…”
Sound simple, doesn't it?
Susan Black examines reflection as the basis of good teaching:
dispositions for reflection — being open-minded, responsible, and wholehearted,
for example — study and question their own beliefs and practices and
those of others through the light of different prisms, says Dewey. Reflection
begins with a problem, he says, such as motivating reluctant students.
Some teachers tackle classroom problems by turning to outside authorities
for step-by-step solutions, but that's not what Dewey calls reflective
practice: Reflection is "a way of being a teacher"–a holistic
approach that involves solving problems with one's heart as well as
one's mind.
automatically lead to improved practice, Zeichner and Liston argue.
The notion that teachers improve simply by examining their actions and
considering their effects on students oversimplifies a "complex
reality," they say. And it's risky: Some teachers might reflect
on classroom episodes and still come up shortsighted. Teachers who blame
classroom problems on students or administrators or others, Zeichner
and Liston write, and those who refuse to accept responsibility when
students aren't learning, can actually solidify bad practices through
reflection.
As our Powerful Learning Practice team continues to develop our end of year project today, I hope we will consider Michigan State University's statement and work toward this.
self-awareness, reflection, and continual growth. Teachers must
be self-reflective, as persons and professionals, understanding
that their development occurs over the course of their careers.
But let's make sure when we look in the mirror, we're not seeing smoke.
Uploaded on November 8, 2006
by Grant MacDonald
I had not read this before our PLP meeting, and reading it now nmakes me feel like you predicted the future. I think this is exactly where we ended up — we defined our first step as creating a way for us as teachers to reflect on our teaching with the idea that no new teaching idea will be used by a teacher who does not think about his/her teaching in the first place. Do you think this time it will work, Susan? How many years has it been that we have been talking about wishing our faculty talked more about how we teach? I feel like we are closer than ever …!