Theoretical Perspectives and Their Influence on Reflective-Reflexive Practice
One critical area in the development of the
professional practitioner is his or her ability
to reflect on practice as the basis for learning, with the effectiveness of
this practice having been confirmed through research to be linked to inquiry,
reflection and continuous professional growth (Killeavy & Moloney, 2010).
Simply, Rogers (2001) noted that reflection is generally regarded as being of
great value for professional practice and lifelong learning. As an educator it
is imperative that I engage in reflective-reflexive practice. The ability to
monitor my practice affords me the opportunity to assess how effective my
practice is and to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of it. In today’s
this blog post, I will be examining theoretical perspectives and their
influence on Reflective-Reflexive Practice.
I became intrigued by two theoretical perspectives
on reflection as sought to harness my professional skills. Kolb experiential learning
cycle and Gibbs’ reflective cycle continue to shape my practice. Gibbs
reflective cycle suggests that “learning happens iteratively when we make
experiences, understand what we feel and think, evaluate the experience, draw
conclusions, make an action plan, and make new experiences based on our new
insights” (Finlay 2008: p.8). Another
theorist is Kolb’s experiential learning cycle 1984.
The experiential learning cycle has four main stages,
as suggested by Kolb (1984). These include: concrete experience - describing my
experience; reflective observation - becoming aware and evaluating any feelings
or thoughts associated with the experience; abstract conceptualization - generating
insights and draw conclusions; and, active experimentation - planning how to
apply what was learnt for future reference. Though this reflection can begin at any stage
of the cycle and each is equally supportive, in order for it to be effective
the entire cycle must be completed. I find Kolb’s theory to be an influential
one as it mainly tries actions and then repeats them for the best possible
practice. The main assumption underlying the process of experiential learning
is that ideas are not “cast in concrete” but that they are changeable. In other
words, ideas are constantly adjusted based on experience. This also implies that
learning is a never-ending individual process as opposed to an accumulation of
fixed ideas.
Reflective-Reflexive
Practice in the Digital Era
There is a school of thought that advocates that digital
tools has the ability to make it less stressful to capture ideas and thoughts across
a range of media with the ultimate aim of accruing benefits for my professional
development. This is view is supported by Kirk and Pitches (2012) when they
state that the use of technology is a mechanism to that can be used to good
effect to enhance reflection. It really is a personal choice about the
selection of devices and tools to employ to reflect in the moment and to
reflect after. These can be, but are not limited to: documents such as
Microsoft and Google Docs; online diaries; digital notebooks; audio and video journal;
and, reflective blogging. These tools provide me with the opportunities to
reflect on my practice when I am battling with time constraints.
References
Killeavy, M., & Moloney, A. (2010). Reflection in a social space: Can blogging
support reflective?
Kirk, C. & Pitches, J. (2013). Digital
reflection: Using digital technologies to enhance and embed creative processes. Technology, 22.
Rogers, R. R. (2001). Reflection in higher education: A concept analysis. Innovative Higher Education, 26(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010986404527
Wendy,
ReplyDeleteEducation is changing worldwide, and based on your blog post I gathered from the literature you reviewed to suggest that teachers need reflective development to effectively teach to the new standards of integrating technology in education, as this is where society is moving today and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. But I think among the normal challenges : Lack of resources, the lack of technology used and inadequate capacity building of teachers, hence students.I think that we should start looking at the solution to these problems by starting with reflective practice because of the fact that the professional thresholds for trainers, teachers and tutors worldwide teaching career should begin valuing reflection and assessment of their practice and their continuous professional development as teachers.
Teachers certainly need to engage in reflection in order to hone their skills and improve their practice.
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