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Reflective Practice Essay

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Reflective practice – A tool for learning

Introduction/Rationale

When something goes wrong or something unexpected happens during a lesson or activity, we ask ourselves questions such as, could I have done something to avoid it? These experiences usually make us grow and we learn from experience, and we will be better prepared to face the situation if it happened again. This introspection is generally called “reflection”, and all professionals have adopted it in order to improve their practice, but for educators reflection involves “critical thinking” about past experiences or current experiences that occur or are occurring in classroom settings and looking at them in a positive light on how to make improvements for their teaching
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The literature review will include models of reflective practice and theorists who have had a major input for developing theory for reflective practice.

When we speak of 'reflective practitioners' we usually refer to adult learners who are engaged in some kind of activity (often professional) which they can use to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses and areas for development. However, reflective thinking is not an innovation in teaching. It has its roots in the work of a number of educational theorists. The concept has been around for over 50 years. Some theorists define reflective teaching/thinking as; "A set of abilities and skills, to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation to problem solving or state of mind" This encapsulates the wide range of activities associated with thinking about your learning. (Moon, 1999)
‘Reflective teaching is seen as a process through which the capacity to make professional judgments can be developed and maintained’ (Pollard, 2002)
Schon (1983) speaks of reflective practitioners who are not just skilful or competent but "thoughtful, wise and contemplative", whose work involves "intuition, insight and artistry".

Today, reflective practice is best understood as an approach which promotes autonomous learning that aims to develop practitioners understanding and critical thinking skills. It refers to an activity or process, in which an experience is recalled,
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