Preservice Teachers Reflective Thinking: Facilitating the Development of This Skill and Related Disp

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Preservice Teachers Reflective Thinking
Facilitating the Development of This Skill and
Related Dispositions

• Kathleen Conway
• Department of Elementary, Early and Special
  Education
• Southeast Missouri State University
• Deborah Moberly
• Department of Instruction and Curriculum
  Leadership
• University of Memphis

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Nationally

• Rigorous reflection in the certification of
  teachers
• (National Board for Professional Teaching
  Standards)

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• Candidates use National Board Standards as a
  framework for reviewing practice through
• Analysis
• Evaluation
• Reflection

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National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

• Standard VI or X Reflection
• Accomplished teachers regularly analyze,
  evaluate, and strengthen the effectiveness and
  quality of their practice.
• National Board for Professional Teaching
  Standards. (1998). Early Childhood/Generalist.
• National Board for Professional Teaching
  Standards. (1998). Middle Childhood/Generalist
  Standards.

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MoSTEP Performance StandardsQuality Indicators

• The Discipline
• Learning and Development
• Individualization
• Curriculum Development
• Instructional Strategies

• Motivation and Management
• Communication Skills
• Assessment
• Professional Development
• Partnerships

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Time for reflection is needed for learning.
Hippocrates (460-375 BC)
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Reflective Thinking..

• The kind of thinking that consists in turning a
  subject over in the mind and giving it serious
  and consecutive consideration
• John Dewey (1933). How we think A restatement
  of the relation of reflective thinking to the
  educative process. Boston DC Heath.

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Dispositions

• A disposition is a tendency to exhibit
  frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a
  pattern of behavior that is directed to a broad
  goal.
• Katz, Lilian G. (1993). Dispositions as
  Educational Goals. ERIC Digest EDO-PS-93-10.

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Common Strategy for Beginning Reflective Thought

• Class Discussion
• Journal Writing

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Strategy for Developing Sophisticated Reflection

• Guided Weekly Journaling
• Observe
• Connect Theory to Practice
• Generalize Ideas About Teaching and Students
• Personalize Connections

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Weekly Journal Samples

• Instructional Strategies Observed This week, I
  observed several instructional strategies, which
  included discussion, cooperative learning, small
  groups, team teaching, learning centers, peer
  tutoring, independent work, extensions using
  prior knowledge, and individual assessment one
  student was having problems counting his bears,
  so his neighbor helped to put them in a line, so
  that it was easier for him to count them
• What Observed/Learned about Students Howard
  Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences
  states that all children have different learning
  styles which they respond best to. If their
  learning style is being addressed, along with
  appropriate instruction, they will gain more
  knowledge. I noticed that each of the students
  excelled in different areas. For example, one
  child who has problems counting aloud with the
  class did very well when he was able to
  manipulate the counting bears. Another example is
  of a musical learner

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Strategy for Connecting Reflection and Practice
Teacher Work Sample Methodology

• Reflection and Self Assessment - Prompts
• Reflection on your instruction and student
  learning.
• Reflection on improving your practice.
• Reflection on your teaching performance.
• Reflection on possibilities for professional
  development.
• Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher
  Quality (2001). Teacher Work Sample.
  http//cstl.semo.edu/rtwsm/phase3.htm

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TWS sample

• The first barrier to teaching this unit was the
  barrier of the kindergarten students' inability
  to read and write. I struggled with finding ways
  to assess the students. I used charts to assess
  the students and found that while writing on the
  chart, the students became inattentive. I decided
  that using pictures and words on the chart in the
  future would help to retain the attention of the
  students during the assessment.
• The second barrier to teaching this unit was the
  barrier of time. I taught at a school that
  incorporated many programs within the classroom
  on a daily schedule. The schedule makes it
  difficult to perform an entire lesson without
  interruptions. I decided to write the lessons to
  allow for breaks. Each lesson within the unit has
  a time of whole group and a time for independent
  work. If an interruption occurred, the break
  could come between the whole group activity and
  the independent work activity without the lesson
  losing its impact.

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Strategy for Formalizing Reflective Thought and
Writing

• Portfolios
• Document knowledge, skills, and dispositions for
  teaching
• Vehicle for demonstrating reflective thought

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Prompts for Guiding Portfolio Reflections

• Why did I select this artifact?
• What does it show about my knowledge and skills
  in reference to specific quality indicators?
• What did I learn from the experience that
  resulted in this artifact?
• What do I still have to learn?
• Adapted from Campbell, D. M., Cignetti, P. B.,
  Melenyzer, B. J., Nettles, D. H. Wyman, R. M.
  (1997). How to develop a professional portfolio.
  Needham Heights, MA Allyn and Bacon.

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Cyclical Nature of the Reflective Thought and
Writing

• Writing reflections
• Receiving feedback
• Writing Plan for Improvement
• Rewriting reflections

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Example of Quality Indicator 9Professional
Development
The pre-service teacher is a reflective
practitioner who continually assesses the effects
of choices and actions on others. This
reflective practitioner actively seeks out
opportunities to grow professionally and utilizes
the assessment and professional growth to
generate more learning for more students.
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Sample Reflection

• An example is in your handout.

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Portfolio Process

• The portfolio process opens to scrutiny and
  interrogation debate about what constitutes good
  practice and sustains the conversation over a
  long period of time. An emerging characteristic
  of a teacher as a professional is this ability to
  articulate, evaluate, engage in, and respond to
  criticism about teaching, their own practice, and
  student learning (Lyons, 1998, p. 251)
• Lyons, N. (1998). With Portfolio in Hand. NY
  Teachers College Press.

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Teacher Candidates Views on Portfolio Reflections

• I believe that writing the reflections was very
  helpful (although I did not realize it at the
  time.) It really did have an impact on how I
  think about teaching in that I now see how what I
  do, as a teacher, affects each student
  individually... I now think deeper about lessons
  and their meaningsI feel as though I am now
  prepared for intelligent interactions with other
  teachers and that I will be able to speak about
  my feelings towards teaching very easily. The
  reflections in the portfolio helped me to think
  about what I had learned these four years and
  think about how I had applied what I learned. I
  also learned through my reflections that I really
  had gained more knowledge than I every thought I
  would.

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Stage One

• Focused on self
• Describes experience
• May include misinterpretation

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Stage Two

• Less focus on self
• Describes experience
• Sees instructional strategies to model/avoid
• Some perception of teachers views

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Stage Three

• Begins to see through cooperating teachers eyes
• Sees cooperating teacher as a resource
• Begins to see ways to grow
• Initial analysis

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Stage Four

• Questions own behavior
• Identify problems
• Poses probing questions
• Solicits comments/resources from others
• Uses information from others
• Sees ways to improve

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Stage Five

• Examine all complexity of the situation
• Connect ideas
• Intellectualizing the situation (Reasoning,
  considering ramifications)
• Seeking new and better ways
• Changing what I do

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Stage Six

• Reflecting on change
• Thinking about clearly defined criteria
• Application of criteria to practice and change
• Revising practice (embedded in reflective
  thought) based on these judgments

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Stage One Examples

• Did not observe any teaching today. (A-1-11)
• I did not really get to see a whole lot of
  learning strategies. (B-1-38)
• This week I learned that with kindergarten
  students it is okay to mess up or just wing it
  because they have no ideas what is supposed to
  happen and they have fun with anything that I do
  with them. The students need basic information
  about the concept and need to work on one thing
  at a time during the day. (C-2)

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Stage Two Examples

• when you teach for nearly thirty minutes,
  through questions and discussion only, a class of
  first graders will become bored. (D-1-20)
• From the time the class arrived at 800 until
  845, they colored a paper and cut it out. Then
  she took lunch count and field trip paper. From
  900 until 930, (D-1-25)
• The students used discovery learning during the
  math lesson. (A-1-38)

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Stage Three Examples

• Flexibility and changing lesson plans to adjust
  to unexpected events is definitely part of a
  teachers job. (E-2)
• She is so prepared and ready to teach me all the
  tricks of the trade. (F-1-44)

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Reflective Thinking Becomes a Disposition

• What begins to come into focus in considering
  these teachers is that what they are about is
  nothing less than authoring their own learning
  and professional development. Armed with the
  insights of reflection, seeing the ways their own
  beliefs can influence their students, they shape
  and reshape their practices. p. 250
• Lyons, N. (198). With Portfolios in Hand. New
  York Teachers College Press.