Reflection is at the Heart of Practice

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Reflection is at the Heart of Practice

• By Simon Hole and Grace Hall McEntee

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Reflection can benefit our teaching practice.
There are two recommended protocols to utilize
this technique.

• Guided Reflection Protocol

• Critical Incidents Protocol

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Steps for Guided Reflection Protocol

• First, collect possible episodes to
  ponderideally, they should be ordinary events.

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Step One What Happened?

• Describe the incident as objectively as possible.
• Use a narrative format.

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Step Two Why Did it Happen?

• Search the context of the situation to figure out
  motivations behind the characters involved in the
  incident.
• Ask does this event represent a larger category
  of events?
• Note most reflection stops here. It is
  important to look for greater meaning after
  identifying the why.

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Step Three What Might it Mean?

• Find the meaning within the mundane.
• Dewey a teachers job is to be aware of the
  possibilities inherent in ordinary experience.
• All events can carry significance, despite their
  size or impact.

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Step Four What are the Implications for my
Practice?

• Use newfound meaning to rethink and actively
  change classroom practices.
• Ordinary events, with greater reflection, can
  lead teachers to more successful classroom
  practices.

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Steps for Critical Incidents Protocol

• Meant for use with colleagues
• Goal is sameget to the heart of practice
• Colleagues write up incidents to discuss at
  specified meetings

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Step One What happened?

• A presenter reads the written account out loud
  and sets it within the context of professional
  goals.
• Other colleagues ask clarifying questions.

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Repeat Process

• Step 2 Why did it happen?
• Step 3 What might it mean?
• Step 4 What are the implications for our
  practice?
• With colleagues.
• To close, debrief the process and decide how
  effective it was in addressing the problems
  raised.