Critical Reflective Practice

Agenda

• Reflection Dilemma
• Background & Current Reflection Practices
• Negative Impact Caused By Lack Of Reflection
• Discussion Question

Reflection Dilemma

Background & Current Reflection Practices

Reflective practitioners challenge assumptions and question existing practices, thereby continuously accessing new lens to view their practice and alter their perspectives (Larrivee, 2000).

The dissonance created in understanding that a problem exists engages the reflective thinker to become an active inquirer, involved both in the critique of current conclusions and the generation of new hypotheses (Larrivee, 2000).

When the practitioner tries to solve the problem he has set, he seeks both to understand the situation and to change it. (Schon, 1983).

In real-world practice, problems do not present themselves to the practitioner as givens. They must be constructed from the materials of problem situations, which are puzzling, troubling, and uncertain (Schon, 1983).

Problem setting is a process in which, interactively, we name the things to which we will attend and frame the context in which we will attend to them. (Schon, 1983)

Negative Impact

Unless teachers engage in critical reflection and ongoing discovery they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations (Larrivee, 2000).

Discussion Questions

What are some of the reasons you think that teachers may not want to participate in critical reflection practices or share their reflections with peers and why? How could we encourage these teachers to take part in reflection practices?

References

Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher, Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 1:3, 293-307, DOI: 10.1080/713693162

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action (Vol. 5126). Basic books.