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LEARNING MODULE 8:
MODULE OVERVIEW ~
THE REFLECTIVE PROCESS ~ Reflection is often defined as “meditation, thoughtfulness, or careful consideration of some subject matter, idea or purpose.” It involves a critical examination of our experiences in order to derive new levels of understanding and determine possible courses of action. Learning through experience and reflection is a messy and irregular process. It takes time to study an experience so we can see what is under the surface. Nevertheless, the ongoing interactions between thought and action can both deepen our understandings and change our educational practices. PURPOSES OF A REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ~ In an educator’s busy life there is little time to step back and think. Using a journal regularly is one way to make time for reflection. A reflective journal can help you cultivate thoughtfulness and inquiry. It also provides raw material for your working portfolio and an ongoing record of your learning journey. We suggest that you dedicate time to recording and reflecting on your experiences, thoughts, struggles and insights as you move along your learning path. CHARACTERISTICS OF A REFLECTIVE JOURNAL ~ A reflective journal is not a diary, resource book, or log of daily activities. It is a place to record your experiences and reflect on them safely and privately. You are not required to show it to others or submit it for review. You may prefer to record in narrative or point form, and you might include drawings, poetry, charts, webs, lists or other visual representations. Regardless of the style, your journal should help you:
If you use your journal regularly to make sense of your learning journey as you go, you will have an in-depth record on which to draw when preparing your portfolio snapshots. GETTING STARTED ~ Choosing journaling tools and a place to reflect are important steps in getting started. You may prefer a computer, notebook or sketchbook. You might want art materials at hand, as well as a favourite pencil or pen. Whenever possible, reflect in a quiet place without distractions. VALUING THE REFLECTIVE PROCESS ~ Remember that thoughtful reflection is a messy, ongoing process. Your journal is not a showpiece. Like your learning, it will always be a work in progress. Approach it with curiosity and it will teach you about reflective thinking. Here are some strategies to help you. JOURNALING STRATEGIES ~ Recording experiences, feelings, thoughts When your head is full of details from the day, it may be hard to get into a reflective space. Here is a strategy for emptying your mind and choosing one focus for reflection. What’s on my mind? [PDF] Simply telling a story or experience can open pathways to thoughtful reflection. Here are some different ways to record your stories. Narrative strategies for journaling [PDF] Sometimes writing feels impossible, especially when your heart is full. If your feelings are overflowing, try writing emotional words or phrases all over the page. This may also be a time to draw — perhaps using colours. You might sketch an image that reflects your feelings, or draw a symbol representing your state of mind. Exploring questions for inquiry Inquiry does not occur on demand or when learners are forced to pursue someone else’s topic or question. They need time to find the questions that really matter in their lives. To do so requires time to immerse themselves in observing the world and in conversations with other learners so they can find those questions that are significant to them. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, pp. 54-55 Questioning is at the heart of the reflective process. Questions for inquiry activate attention and curiosity. Once you have shaped a question, its constant presence in the back of your mind will make some experiences stand out as opportunities for learning. Your journal is a place to gather wonderings as they occur to you — to sort, cluster and shape them into powerful questions that draw your learning forward. You might set aside one section of your journal just for recording and working with questions. When you begin to investigate a topic, you could start with an “I know/I wonder” activity. It will validate what you already know and connect it with questions that you might pursue. I know/I wonder [PDF] Analyzing patterns and relationships The mind has been envisioned by Gregory Bateson as a pattern finder and a pattern maker (1979). From this perspective comprehension and learning are explained as processes involving the finding of patterns that connect. When what we observe matches what we know, comprehension occurs. When what we see doesn’t match with what we know, tension results. To find a new unity we have to revise our existing theory of how the world works. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, p. 57 As you reflect on stories of experience, you may notice patterns and connections that help you explain how things work or cause you to think in new ways. For example, you might ask yourself why you act predictably in certain situations, even though you wish you were different. Similarly, you might look for patterns in the behaviour of students, colleagues and others. What do you notice? What can you learn from your observations? How do you explain what you see? What might cause the patterns to change? When analyzing patterns and relationships, “Why” questions are especially powerful because they have potential to revise our personal theories and alter our patterns of action. One strategy for examining patterns is to analyze critical incidents. Analysis of critical incidents [PDF] Appreciating learning and celebrating success Make a place in your journal to record and reflect on positive experiences, successes, moments of clarity or insight, or times of excitement about learning. Reflect on and savour these times. They can be important sources of energy to keep learning going through periods of challenge and confusion. Appreciating learning and success [PDF] Responding to new ideas A theory of difference is a theory of learning. Difference, not consensus, propels the learning process….Differences cause tension and put an edge on learning....Learners have nothing to learn by concentrating on what they already know. Attending to difference as well as focusing on the new, the anomaly, the surprise is more efficient. When the surprise makes sense, learning has occurred. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, p. 57 Throughout this program you will encounter new information and unfamiliar ideas and theories, especially through readings and professional resources. Some may be unclear and confusing. Others may challenge what you believe to be true. Still others may cause you to say “aha!” Take time to make sense of new information and ideas by working them through in your journal. You are probably familiar with webs, concept maps, Venn diagrams, flow diagrams and other organizers. Try some of these in your journal to help you interact with unfamiliar content. Here is one journaling framework for making connections between what you read and what you think and believe. Journaling formats: Double-entry [PDF] It is also helpful to share responses and interpretations with colleagues who are studying the same information. By journaling collaboratively, you can construct new understandings together. This framework is designed for a journal exchange. Journaling formats: Triple-entry [PDF] Examining assumptions, beliefs and values When we act on our own beliefs, we can make decisions by reflecting with our students about what we know and what is happening in the classroom. The knowledge of outside experts becomes part of what we reflectively consider in framing our beliefs and planning curriculum with our students, not what we automatically implement in our classrooms. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, p. 26 Your journal can be a place to examine your beliefs about teaching, learning, and education, and to reconsider their implications for your educational practice. The following activity asks you to analyze relationships between what you think you believe and how you act as an educator. Analysis of beliefs and practices [PDF] Considering alternative perspectives Learners gain new perspectives on their experiences by taking the risk to state what they believe. This process makes thinking public so others can help by providing critical challenges through dialogue. Unlike conversation, dialogue is intense and purposeful. Participants join in for the purpose of understanding, critiquing, exploring, and constructing meaning. Ideas, not people, are at risk. Others are used to gain new perspectives and to help one outgrow one’s very self. Short, Harste and Burke, 1996, p. 56 The learning community that forms during a Diploma program is a place to discuss your assumptions, beliefs and values with others. It can become a haven where you can safely consider alternative perspectives. You may want to try a dialogue journal with your mentor or colleagues to explore a controversial topic in a relatively safe environment. Journaling formats: Dialogue [PDF] Developing personal theories Because the only thing that inquiry can do is help a learner or a community of learners interrogate their values, reflexivity means that learners are forced to re-examine, if not interrogate, the very constructs they are using to make sense of the world . . . Theory is a self-correcting device. Not only does it provide guidance, but it forces us to grow when, using children as our curricular informants, we encounter data that do not correspond with what we currently know. Short, Harste and Burke, 1996, p. 59 Personal theories are mental models people construct to explain how the world works. They are often derived from past experience. If nothing changes, the theories persist. When changes happen, even through one’s own initiative, personal theories may no longer apply. It is unsettling and sometimes painful to deconstruct old theories and build new ones, because the process involves a period of uncertainty and diminished confidence. You should anticipate and appreciate periods of uncertainty and confusion during your Diploma studies. Feelings of stress, conflict or dissonance may indicate that your personal theories are being challenged. They signal that you are engaged in significant learning. These are important times to record and reflect on how your thinking is evolving. I used to think . . . [PDF] Taking thoughtful new action As a result of inquiry, learners literally reposition themselves both mentally and physically in the world for purposes of taking thoughtful new action. What we have learned has to cause us to interact differently in the world….We are simply not the same people. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, p. 59 Planning, implementing and reflecting on changes in educational practice are fundamental to learning in this program. As your thinking, behaviour and intentional actions change, so will your relationships with students and colleagues. These in turn will affect your self-image as a learner, teacher and thoughtful person. Your intentions and actions will be based on a different set of assumptions, and your decisions will be guided by new personal theories. What really matters to you may no longer be the same. Take time to review changes in your educational practices at least once each semester, and to assess their impact on your evolution as a thoughtful educator and person. What’s the same, what’s different [PDF] SUMMARIZING LEARNING AND GROWTH ~ Careful reflection begins by reconstructing the process of inquiry for purposes of bringing what worked and what didn’t work in clearer focus. By retracing the mental trip that was taken as well as by assessing each component of the process, learners become consciously aware of what worked, thus increasing the likelihood that what was learned about both the content and process of inquiry will be of use in the future. Short, Harste & Burke, 1996, pp. 58-59 Your journal can be an invaluable resource when you are preparing your working portfolio each semester. Rereading your journal will remind you of how learning occurred and what experiences were most significant. This will help you reflect on ways you have changed and evaluate the impact of your learning on yourself and others. Here are some ways to create representations of learning based on a review of your journal. Strategies for representing your learning journey [PDF] REFERENCES ~ Short, K., Harste, J., & Burke, C. (1996). Creating classrooms for authors and inquirers. 2nd. ed. Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann. USE THE BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE HOME PAGE |
