The reflective practice is an important and integral part of teaching. To be able to step back from a teaching practice experience and begin to analyse and examine it and then introduce new ideas. Pretty (1998) states that,
‘Mistakes are not only inevitable, they are a necessary part of your learning process. If you don’t have the occasional failure, you are not experimenting enough’.
My teaching experience at CertHE is a rewarding one. I have been able to discuss any diverse issues with other lectures and from that, draw on different points of view and different experiences. We tend to think the area of Design, Media and Screen as highly specialised but I found colleagues from other areas would perceive a different view of certain problems.
I looked at several models of reflections and their strengths and weaknesses of them. The models include the reflective cycle from Gibbs (1988) Fig 1,
Description
Fig 1: The reflective cycle from Gibbs (1988)
Kolb’s (1984 cited by Dickinson, 2000), Four-stage model of reflection comprised of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. The concrete experience stage gives an opportunity to discuss the problem and to look at actions that could be taken. The reflective observation stage then encouraged these actions to be followed up and the final two stages involved implementing and suggested strategies before beginning the cycle again. I felt that the cycle appeared to provide a clear and distinct process and it would have provided an experiential reflection of the problem. However, it did not contain the ‘what’ factor, which Driscoll’s provided. The problem will need an outcome and perhaps it would not be solved immediately. But the best solution needed to be found and form those new strategies could then be taken into place to implement in the lesson.
The model of reflection ‘The what?’ (Driscoll, 1994)(P27) contains three elements of reflection, he stated
- What? – A description of the event.
- So what? – An analysis of the even.
- Now what? – Proposed actions following the event.
The structured reflection and its relationship to an experimental leaning cycle, and each stage of the three elements interact within the experiential learning cycle. (Fig. 2) It allowed a clear pattern of reflection of the problem where an outcome would emerge at the end.
Figure 2 The WHAT model of structured reflection (Driscoll 1994), (p27)
I intend to use this reflective model in one of my studio unit as part of formative assessment. I felt the questions will provoke thought and provide a clear sequence of questions to analyse the problem and drawing a satisfactory conclusion.
References
Gibbs, G. 1988. Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford: FE Unit Oxford Polytechnic
Driscoll, M. P. (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction. Allyn & Bacon.