Activity 3 :
Response to Finlay’s (2008) article
Reading Finlay’s article, it becomes apparent that ‘reflection
of one’s actions’ has become a norm in nearly all works of life regardless of
how it’s interpreted. In general, reflective practice as cited by (Finlay, 2008) is a process whereby learning
takes place through and from experience by obtaining new “insights of oneself
or practice” Finlay (2008). The idea is to examine past practice experiences
critically and gain new insights so that future practice has room for
improvement. Finlay raises a point on the pages 1 and 2, that professionals,
who are busy and short of time, may not apply reflective practice in thoughtful
ways.
Finlay defines ‘reflective practice’ as having varied
meanings ranging from where professionals engage in ‘solitary introspection’ to
having a critical conversation with other people.
Although, Dewey was first to identify reflection as a
special form of thinking, his ideas provided the foundation for the idea of
reflective practice. Schon’s (1983) ‘The
reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action’, drew more
attention on reflective practice. Schon’s idea of “reflection-on-practice” and
“reflection-in-action” was a huge contribution towards this subject.
Schon’s idea of reflection-on-practice is widely used in classrooms
by the teachers. I tend to reflect on lessons that I have taught and evaluate
its effectiveness. I will sit and ponder, about bits that happened accordingly
and bits that did not work out. Things that did not work out is evaluated and
analysed. From here, I tend to modify or change the lesson to ensure it delivers
the expected outcomes next time.
“Whether expert or novice, all professionals should reflect
on practice - both general and with regard to specific situations” (Finlay
2008). As an expert professional, I need to deal with and resolve situations
that arise in my classroom from time to time. Once the situation is under
control, I tend to wonder if I resolved that situation professionally. When you reflect on your actions, you may
think that you could have resolved the situation a bit differently and more
effectively.
The other concept of reflection-in-action is while teaching,
your lesson tends to deviate from the intended intentions. As an expert teacher,
I tend to rethink and improvise my lesson during the lesson. This happens with
me quite often.
Teaching as an inquiry has Focusing inquiry, teaching
inquiry and learning inquiry.
Focusing Inquiry
: Here the teacher endeavours to determine all that has been learnt by the students
and what needs to be learnt next.
Teaching Inquiry
: Here teachers use evidence based strategies to help students learn whatever
is being taught. The teacher uses
evidence from research and from their past practice to teach the students to
ensure that they learn whatever has been planned in the focusing inquiry.
Learning Inquiry:
here the teacher investigates how effective their teaching was. The
investigation may take place as assessments, tests, student feedback etc. This
information gathering can take place while the teaching is happening and may
continue until or beyond the completion of a topic or unit of work. The
information is then analysed to see what the next steps are.
This teaching as an inquiry model does help in ascertaining
the fact, that students’ learning out-comes are adhered to. If the out-comes,
are not met, the inquiry cycle continues. The draw back with this model is
that, it does not actually give you an instant feedback on students’ learning.
The data collection takes place towards the end of the topic or unit of work.
By then it is too late.
I think Timperley’s spiral of inquiry will be a better model
to use instead of inquiry cycle.
Bibliography
Finlay, B. L.
(2008). Reflecting on “ Reflective practice .” PBPL Paper 52, (January),
1–27. http://doi.org/10.1016/0260-4779(91)90031-R
Schon,
D.A. (1983) The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books
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