Reflective Theories - A whole new discovery

I have always been told to reflect upon my actions, whether that be by my parents or my teachers. Basically, looking at what I have done and taking responsibility for the outcome of my actions. Whether it be through my education and training or through general day to day life.

It is only recently through embarking on this course that I have come across refection in my professional work, and I am sure that I am not alone in saying that I had never even realised there were different theories and practitioners on reflection! As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, when first given the task of a reflective journal, I was a little sceptical about taking the time out of my already busy schedule to see how I can make myself better.

However, taking the time to read about different practitioners and theories about how and why reflective practice can be so useful throughout the professional industry, not just for us artistic and creative people, but for academics as well, which I had never even considered. I have found it fascinating and outstanding just how much reflective practice is used and in the types of careers as well i.e. nursing.

For us to be able to reflect, it is vital that we understand what we are reflecting upon and about. Graham Mcfee says "One must understand what is being defined in order that one judge for oneself the accuracy" (Mcfee, 1992:18)

I quite like this way of thinking as how can you possibly reflect upon what you have done and improve on it if you don't understand what you are reflecting upon in the first place.

The "Learning Cycle" is something that I have found quite interesting as a teacher. You can use it not only to help yourself personally but I can use it to asses a group of students and alter or change what I am doing to suit the group of students I have. For example, if I get a group of new students I will automatically ask them what they have done previously what "experience" they already have. Therefore allowing me to teach an appropriate lesson for that specific group of students .

Developed by David Klob, the "Learning Cycle" was designed to help us to understand as individuals what experience we have already had and having the ability to be able to reflect, see what we can do and what we know. Along with finding out what we need to gain more experience in. The cycle is a tool for reflection on how we learn.

As a teacher I have found reading more in to the different ways people focus and understand and the idea of "multiple lenses" (Howard Gardner) and this is a subject area that I am defiantly keen to look into and do some more research on.

As I write my final thoughts and "reflect" on what I have learnt from my reading. I could have rambled on for ever about different theories and the different practitioners as I have found it all extremely insightful and interesting, and that I am deffinatly going to take on different angles and aspects to reflection.

Finally (I promise!) I'd be interested on how you have taken on bored reflection and theories and which practitioners stood out for you and why?