Reflection and reflective practice have become common practice for today's teachers. Major initial theories of learning had an impact on early and subsequent reflective practice.
Origins of the Concepts "Reflection" and "Reflective Practice"
The concepts of "reflection" and "reflective practice" initially appeared in academic literature in the 1930s, 1940s. Dewey's contribution to the field is evident in many literary accounts and he appears as one of the fundamental precursor researcher in the field of reflective thinking. Further significant contribution to the field were also made in the 1970s, 1980s by Schon, who is known to have popularised the image of the "reflective practitioner" by extending Dewey's foundational ideas on reflection through observing how practitioners think in action.
Today, the literature on reflection and reflective practice abounds. The widespread use of the term "reflective teaching" has led to much controversies and reflective practice appears to carry various meanings while it has also become "fashionable". There are many traditions in the field of reflection and its potentially logical subsequent impact on practice planned and applied accordingly.
Theories of Learning and Cognitive Approaches
Traditions in the field of reflection and reflective practice are numerous and depend on one's definition of learning. The latter moreover depends on the philosophy held. The abundance of thinking on learning and learning approaches and their link to teaching and furthermore to reflection and reflective practice can be confusing. However, two major learning approaches and in turn, reflective stances, can be extracted from the vast array of material under study.
They are the cognitive approach which refer to personal intellectual thinking carried out by a person, who then adopts, an individual reflective stance, and the social constructivist approach, which refer to the impact the social world of a person has on his/her learning and his/her subsequent chosen, whether consciously or not, reflective stance, which then may be of a more collective nature.
Although demarcating these two essential approaches for theoretical purposes, their practical use by a practitioner in real life contexts, overlap and in some cases are are used simultaneously as they are inherently complementary and not antagonistic. Effectively, personal thinking, for example, is highly likely to be the product of wider socially constructed meanings and experiences since no one lives in isolation or in a world void of external influences.
Impact of Reflection on Teaching Practice
How does reflection impact on teaching? Some have referred to cognitive processes at the centre of development, others have talked about "transformative experiential learning". Most agree that as John Loughran puts it, "Reflection has developed a variety of meanings as the bandwagon has travelled through the world of practice" , in his 2002 journal article "Effective Reflective Practice: In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching."
There is nevertheless a general agreement that reflection and reflective practice is "good practice." It is a continuous mental process, which, if adequately carried out, should lead to positive changes to a teacher's professional development. It allows a teacher to review, update as necessary and generally improve his process of teaching. In many ways, it resembles "action research". Tim Mc Mahon explains well the link between the two, in his 1999 journal article "Is Reflective Practice Synonymous with Action Research?" and sustains that although not identical, reflection can be "a useful precursor to action research".
Sources
Loughran, John. J. "Effective Reflective Practice: In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching", Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (2002): 33.
Mc Mahon, Tim. "Is Reflective Practice Synonymous with Action Research?", Educational Action Research, 7 (1999): 163.
Luds Kadimba - A mother of four who has developed over the years many interests in the areas of education, childhood studies, teaching and more recently ...
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