My relationship with
reflective practice
‘Turning experience into learning’ (Boud) is something that
I am always doing within my professional practice in order to grow and improve.
Learning from experience is a phrase I hear a lot and below is a quote to
support this:
‘Experience
is not what happens to you, it’s what you do with what happened to you’ (Aldous
Huxley)
This
quote really stood out to me and got me thinking about experience and its
relationship with reflection, the quote supports Dewey’s beliefs that what you
do with what happens to you is directly dependent on the meaning that you make
of it and this in turn effects reflection.
The
question, ‘How will you have complete knowledge of something if you haven’t
experienced it yourself?’ Is interesting to me, as a dance teacher and dancer I
believe that to be a successful dance teacher you need to have experience of
performing professionally and have had experience in the area of profession in
which you are teaching, as when we are experiencing something we are learning
without thinking about it.
This brings me on to talk about Tacit Knowledge; in ‘the
creative habit’ Twyla Tharp explains the idea of muscle memory when
demonstrating a dance, a tacit knowledge:
‘...Muscle memory. Automatic. Precise. A little scary. The
second time through, however, or trying to explain the steps and patterns to
the dancers, she will hesitate, second-guess herself, question her muscles, and
forget. That’s because she’s thinking about it, using language to interpret
something she knows nonverbally. Her memory of movement doesn’t need to be
accessed through conscious effort’ (Tharp and Reiter, 2006).
As a dancer I find I use
Tacit Knowledge a lot and this is not easy to describe to people who have not
experienced it, as it is not a knowledge in which you can see.
Everyone experiences
things differently and therefore this will affect the way we reflect on the
situation, everyone will reflect differently. This brings me on to reflective
practices. Reflecting helps us to come across more ideas so we can learn
something new.
Have
I used Reflective practices in my profession?
I
have used reflective practice a lot already during my professional practice and
I still am. Studying for my National Diploma in Musical Theatre, part of the
course was contextual studies, this involved writing every night about each
class you were in, we had to record what we did and what corrections where
given. This way we could remind ourselves of what we had done in the day and
could reflect back on what we had achieved and learned and what we needed to
correct and improve on. Each time we wrote we could reflect back at the
previous day and see if we had improved on our corrections or if we were still
struggling with the same things. This helped us to see how we were developing
and how we could improve our learning.
However
this task on reflective practice has made me think more about memory and how it
plays a key part in recording what we experienced, so I ask myself would it
have been more beneficial to have written our contextual straight after the
lesson when the corrections and lesson was fresh in our minds? Yes I do think
so but we didn’t have the time to do this as soon as one class finished we off
to the next. Reflecting back on this I do feel I wasn’t always exact in writing
all my corrections down as after doing 6 classes a day its hard to remember all
the corrections given in each class.
This
relates to my journal keeping as at first I was trying to wait until the
evening to record my thoughts, however I soon learnt that having my journal
with me throughout the day was better so I could jot things down as they
happened and when they were fresh in my mind.
Moon believes that a learning journal is a ‘vehicle for
reflection’. We all reflect, some more than others and during this BA Hons in
Professional Practice we have been asked to keep a journal, I did ask myself
the following question: ‘Keeping a diary, I try to observe my own experience
and discover the more I look the more I see, but I do not know how to learn
from what I see.’ (Joanna Field p.5: Moon, J 1999)
Understanding Moons idea of reflective learning through
Journals I now know that when I look back at my journal I will learn from what
I see.
Donald Schön (1988) discussed storytelling as a mode of
reflection:
“…for
storytelling is the mode of description best suited to transformation in new
situations of action.... Stories are products of reflection, but we do not
usually hold onto them long enough to make them objects of reflection in there
own right.... When we get into the habit of recording our stories, we can look
at them again, attending to the meanings we have build into them and attending,
as well, to our strategies of narrative description.” Schön, D. (1988)
Moon
however is saying that the way we write our journals will affect the way we
reflect on them, is it private? Who are you writing for? What are you writing
about? Journals can range from simply personal journals to academic journals
and it is important that the structure relates to the purpose and the style of
the learner. Journals can be videotapes etc. not just pen to paper, whatever
works for you.
Howard
Gardner shares similar views to Moon as he says that people are intelligent in
a number of ways: (Gardner, 1983).
•
Spatial
•
Verbal-linguistic
•
Logical-mathematical
•
Bodily-Kinesthetic
•
Musical
•
Interpersonal – understanding people and
relationships.
•
Intrapersonal – relates to one’s emotional life
as a means to understand
oneself and others.
•
(Naturalistic – relates to nature and natural
world to find meaning)
Gardner
understands that knowing the way you learn is a key factor in reflection and how
you reflect. This links into my professional practice as I know a lot of people
who are very musical and kinesthetic learners, this is a key trait for the
Musical Theatre industry and more often that not their sense of learning is
completely different to someone who is logical-mathematical. However I feel
that I have more than one way of learning I feel that I myself am, Kinesthetic,
Musical and Intrapersonal.
Moon believes
that there are factors that can ‘…shape your reflection into reflective writing
might include:
-
The reason why you are writing reflectively
(personal reasons – e.g. in a diary or for academic purposes etc.)
-
Whether others are going to see what you have
written and who they are (e.g. no-one else; a tutor who will mark it; a tutor
who will not mark it, friends etc.);
-
Your emotional state at the time of writing, and
emotional reaction to what you are writing (e.g. - a disturbing event that you
do not want to think about or something you did well and want to enjoy in the
rethinking process);
-
Related to the above, how safe you feel about
the material and anyone seeing it’
(Moon,
J 2004)
Reflective
writing allows you to become clearer on something and Moon highlights that
reflection is not a straight forward journey and reflection may come in time,
like my journal, in time I will reflect back and find the greater meaning in
experiences I have encountered and I will find out things that I had not
considered.
Moon
points out the conditions for reflection:
‘‘ Time and space, a good facilitator, a
supportive curricular or institutional environment, and an emotionally
supportive environment. Moon further points out the qualities of tasks that
encourage reflection:
•
Ill-structured, ‘messy’ or real-life situations
•
Asking the ‘right’ kinds of questions – there
are no clear-cut answers
•
Setting challenges can promote reflection
•
Tasks that challenge learners to integrate new
learning into previous learning
•
Tasks that demand the ordering of thoughts
•
Tasks
that require evaluation’’
Moon,
J. (1999). (p.123).
Dewey
expressed an early view that, ‘while we cannot learn or be taught to think, we
do have to learn how to think well, especially acquire the general habit of
reflecting.’ (Dewey 1933)
Dewey saw reflection as a specialized form of thinking. He described it as: ‘a kind of thinking that
consists in turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious
thought’. His definition of reflection
is that it is: ‘continual
reorganization, reconstruction and transformation of experience’ (Dewey 1916)
I agree with this and believe it applies to dance as we are
continually analyzing and improving our experiences. Dewey’s thoughts about
reflective thought are very similar to mine and the reflective practice that I
was carrying out at dance college, he describes reflective thought as an, ‘Active,
persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of
knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further
conclusions to which it tends’ (Dewey, 1933).
I
feel that this quote sums up my reflective practice for example when writing
about my ballet lesson, my knowledge is that my pirouettes where not very good,
my conclusion I need to strengthen my ankles in order to improve.
I agree with Dewey that through experience we learn about the
world and by using the experience we can maintain and better ourselves.
This brings my thoughts onto learning and how learning has a
big part in how we experience something as people learn at different times and
in different ways, some people start to learn when they are involved in a
concrete experience, (doing something), some people can do something but start
to learn about it when they are watching the people around them doing it
(Reflective observation), some people need to “work it out in their head first”
(Abstract conceptualization) and some people start to learn when they start
trying out ideas (active experimentation)
Kolb uses a learning cycle and it is one of
the most well-known and well-used models of management education. The cycle is
drawn in many different ways using different words that sometimes seem to
affect it’s meaning. The point you start to learn and find meaning is your
entry point into a learning cycle. I feel that my learning cycle is mainly reflexive
observation and active experimentation and concrete experience. I feel that
being a dancer I have learnt that different situations need a different
learning approach. We have to reflect on our dance moves, we have to try them
in a trail and error way and we have to be doing it to learn.
Where you enter the cycle is sometimes called your learning
style. Kolb’s learning cycle is a tool for Reflection on how you learn and a
tool for approaching experience.
R Vince - Journal of Management Education, 1998)
Kolb's cycle starts with a concrete experience. In Kolb's model
one cannot learn by observing or reading about the task, to learn effectively
the individual, team or organization must actually do the experience to have
complete knowledge. I feel that this is the same in my profession you cannot
successful learn the dance if you are not learning it yourself.
The second stage in the cycle is observations and reflections. This
is taking time to stop and think about what you have done and review, ask
questions and reflect on the experience.
The third stage is understanding what has happened, reflecting on
what you have done and what you already know.
The final stage of the learning cycle is considering how you are
going to put what the have learnt into practice.
Kolb
(1984) maintains that 'learning is the process whereby knowledge is created
though the transformation of experience" (p.26) I think this sums up his
cycle. I find the cycle very useful as I feel that it outlines the key points
which we go through when we are reflecting and I feel that I follow this cycle
in my profession without realizing, for example when teaching dance, the
experience is me teaching a jazz class and the observation/reflection is the
child having bent legs on a kick, understanding what happened is that they
kicked their leg to high causing bent legs due to not being flexible enough to
get there legs that high.
The
final point of the cycle, what am I going to do? Tell the student to lower
their leg in the kick in order to maintain straight legs and correct technique.
"In the process of learning one moves in varying
degrees from actor to observer and from specific involvement to general analytic
detachment" (p.31) Kolb 1984
This fits in to my own reflective practice as I am
constantly reflecting on my own performances as a dancer/performer and by doing
this I have to take a step back and think how it looks form an audience
perspective.
Russ Vince is very critical about Kolb’s learning cycle, he
quotes, ‘Part of the broad attraction of the cycle is that it accommodates both
deductive (moving from abstract concepts to testing their implications) and
inductive (concrete experience leading to reflective practice) approaches to
theory in management education, thereby providing a bridge over the divide
between objectivity and subjectivity, positivism and phenomenology”
(1998 Russ Vince P.5)
Vince then goes on to
say that there are five areas in which he believes the learning cycle could be
improved his first two areas he is saying that there is a lack of political perspective
in the learning cycle. He feels there is a need to review the model to include
social and organizational power relations. The third and fourth points reflect
on the need for further consideration of the psychological and particularly
unconscious process in the cycle. The fifth is the experience of thinking, the
nature of tacit thought and our experience of this action. Vince has tried to
improve this model and has created his own learning cycle to show how the fifth
point can effect the cycle. See below: (Behind and beyond Kolb's
learning cycle R Vince - Journal of Management Education, 1998)
Here he is showing that emotions, in this case Anxiety can
actually lead our thoughts away from reflection. He believes that Kolb has not
concerned this when creating his cycle and he believes that emotions play a big
part in our every day lives and contribute a lot to reflection or the lack of.
Although I agree with Kolb’s Cycle I completely agree with
Vince, as I have noticed times where my anxiety has prevented me from learning
in my professional practice or approaching a situation in the correct way and
this has discouraged learning. An
example I can use here is when I have been in an audition and I have become
Anxious as they choreography is hard and there is a lot of people in the
audition who I feel are better than me, this made me doubt my abilities and
start to question myself. It then caused me to not want to learn to
choreography and it discouraged my learning.
Also inspired by Kolb’s ideas Peter Honey and Alan Mumford created
a model (Honey and Mumford, 1992). They created four ‘stages’ that are
adaptations of the four points in Kolb’s cycle. Honey and Mumford’s stages are:
•
Having an experience
•
Reviewing the experience
•
Concluding from the experience
•
Planning the next steps.
To me their Stages seem more ‘straight forward’ or natural
approach to reflection, yet they are clearly based on Kolb’s ideas over the
years there has been many adaptations on the cycle and although it has critics
I do feel it stands its grounds in a form of reflection.
As
a Dancer and Dance Teacher I totally agree with Donald Schön (1987) who talks
about the idea of reflection-in-action, and reflection-on- action. As a dancer
I typically use reflection-in-action, for example if I correct myself as I am
dancing, however I would use reflection-on-action if I forgot a bit of my dance
I would reflect back and look at where I forgot the dance, why and how I can
make sure I don’t forgot it next time. As a dance teacher I find myself
reflecting- in- action and I am aware of this, as it is my job to help students
improve throughout the lesson by correcting as I go by reflecting on each
exercise to find areas of improvement and encouragement. Also I find myself
always reflecting at the end of the lesson and thinking was it a good lesson
and think of ideas on what I can do next time to make it better.
I
have been reflecting for a long time but without taking a step back and
thinking about how I reflect and why.
I
mainly use reflection-in-action compared to academics who would usually rely on
Reflection-on-action to figure out what was going on.
Kottcamp feels that reflection-in-action is harder to
achieve however I argue this point from the view of a dancer, this is because
it is in our nature and training to do so, rather than wait an
reflect-on-action. Kottcamp quotes,
‘Reflection-on-action is accomplished “off-line” at a time
when full attention can be given to analysis and planning for the future
without the imperative for immediate action... (Kottcamp, 1990)’
I feel that for dancers the time of full attention is when
we are in the moment as our reflection relies on our movement and how our
bodies and muscles feel in-action.
I share the same view as Schön in the fact that
professionals are more expert in their practice, allowing them to monitor and
adapt their practice simultaneously and sometimes without even realizing it. I
know I have been in this situation many times during my dance practice. Schön compares
this to those not as advanced in their practice and claims them to be, lacking
in tacit knowledge, this meaning that they have to reflect-on-action in order
to get the best reflection on the situation.
Schön has the view that both professional and amateur should
reflect-on-action. Once again I agree, as I always find myself reflecting-in
and on action.
Although
Schön expresses some very good points, he does haves some critiques:
Eraut (2004) feels that Schön’s work is not
precise and that it lacks clarity.
Usher
et al (1997) believes he is unreflective in his findings.
Smyth
(1989) believes he is lacking a theoretical basis and is apolitical.
Greenwood
(1993) thinks that there should be more importance on reflection-before-action.
Moon
(1999) regards Schön’s reflection-in-action as unachievable.
Ekebergh
(2007) feels that for true self-reflection, you need to be out of the situation
and reflect back on it, not in the situation.
Although
Schön faces these critiques his theory is used widely and I feel it is a useful
tool in reflection. I do however agree with Greenwood (1993) that
reflection-before-action should also be considered.
To improve my future reflective thinking I have come across
some different levels that reflection can take place during teaching. I find
this very useful as a dance teacher and as someone who wishes to further my
teaching qualifications. Zeichner and
Liston (1996) have come up with five different levels at which
reflection can take place during teaching:
1. Rapid reflection. This is immediate, ongoing and automatic
action by the teacher.
2. Repair. In which a
thoughtful teacher makes decisions to alter their behavior in response to
students’ cues.
3. Review. When a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes
about some element of their teaching.
4. Research. When a teacher engages in more systematic and
sustained thinking over time, perhaps by collecting data or reading research.
5. Retheorizing and reformulating. The process by which a teacher critically
examines their own practice in the light of academic theories.
I am going to think about these five different ways of
reflecting and see how I can apply them to my future teaching practice. I feel
I already apply some of the points, but feel like it is a good guideline to
come back to when I am thinking about my own reflection.
Boud shares similar views to Moon who was discussed earlier.
Boud bases his model very much on the ideas of Schön, however he breaks down
some of his points into greater depth and focuses more on the relationship
between reflection and learning. Boud believes that journal writing falls under
Schön’s category of reflection-on-action he believes there are three occasions
of reflection: in anticipation of events, during them, and afterward. Journal
writing has a significant role to play at each of these times.
1. Reflection in Anticipation of
Events. Focusing on the learner and all aspects of the context and focusing
on learning skills and strategies. A journal can help clarify questions and
explore what we want from our involvement and allow us to ask what if? And we
can then plan what we want to do.
2. Reflection in the Midst of Action. Our engagement with an
event constitutes a learning experience. Boud describes three features.
1.
Noticing. Being aware on what is happening.
2.
Intervening. Actions we take to change the
situation.
3.
Reflection-in-Action. This is allowing us to
interpret what has happened and the effects of the action.
Boud understands that you may not be able to write your
journals in the action, however says it is useful if you can write down
observations almost immediately after the event.
3. Reflection After
Events. Important reflection can occur once the immediate pressure of
acting in real time has passed. Boud believes that returning to the experience
and recapturing it allows for further reflection and believes that, ‘Often, too
little emphasis is placed on what has happened and how it was experienced at
the time. Judgments made in this way are often premature; consequently,
possibilities for further learning can be shut out forever.’ Boud Page 14. Boud, D. (2001).
Boud believes we should think if our emotions inhibited or
enhanced our reflection and learning. Reevaluation involves revisiting journal
entries, looking again at what has been recorded, and adding new ideas.
Boud
feels that keeping journals private, away
from the eyes of others, can be a useful principle to adopt in courses. I agree
with what Boud is saying as in the course our Journals are private and a personal
thing, which for me is more beneficial as I can write my true thoughts and
feelings without thinking how it may be perceived by others, This will enable a
more accurate reflection. Boud says when
we are going to show our work to others and if we know other people are going
to be reading it we portray ourselves in the best light possible and for reflection
to be truthful it needs to focus on uncertainty and not knowing.
Boud
understands that it is important that when writing a journal you know whom it
is for; if it is for academic purposes and others will see it it can hinder our
true thoughts and therefore impact our reflection.
This brings me onto the Ethical Considerations when
discussing reflection, as it needs to be remembered that reflection can have a
profound emotional impact on the person reflecting and therefore has the
potential to be harmful.
“Questioning the assumptions on which we act and exploring
alternative ideas are not only difficult but also psychologically
explosive...[it] is like laying down charges of psychological dynamite. When
these assumptions explode...the whole structure of our assumptive world
crumbles. Hence, educators who foster transformative learning are rather like
psychological and cultural demolition experts.” (Brookfield 1990, p.178).
Boud and Walker (1998) question the fact that reflection is
now a compulsory inclusion and possibly assessed course component. A similar
point is made by Quinn (2000), who raises the point that reflection is often a
significant component demanded by those in authority.
A further problem is that reflection could lead to constant
striving for self-improvement and lead to feelings of self- disapproval and
self-rejection (Quinn, 1988/2000).
I feel that if an individual understands the word ‘critical’
to mean ‘negative’, they can end up in negative frame of mind. This links back
to Vince’s learning cycle involving anxiety mentioned earlier.
Boud and Walker (1998)
believe that teachers need to “be aware of what they can and cannot handle”.
All too easily things can spin out of control:
“Disturbed by what they have unwittingly elicited, or
feeling that they cannot leave the student in the emotional state which they
have inadvertently provoked, they may endeavor to work further with the issues
raised to the detriment of the student (1998 p.195).
This has highlighted for me that when considering reflective
practice both student and teachers need to be aware of the ethical
considerations and how emotional can play a big part in reflective practice as
well as the individuals learning style.
To conclude my Critical Reflection on reflective practice I
have come to realize that reflection, “Demonstrates an awareness that actions
and events are not only located within and explicable by multiple perspective,
but are located in and influenced by multiple historical and socio-political
contexts” (Hatton and Smith, 1995)
For example, with reference to teacher education, Larrivee
argues that:
“Unless teachers develop the practice of critical
reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations,
assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective
practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional
identity” (Larrivee, 2000, p.293).
In the Performing Arts industry I am always being critical, it
is the way we have been trained to critique good and bad, not just in my own
performances but others and this help me to learn, grow and improve.
I have been reflecting all this time and I didn’t even
realize, I am always reflecting, even when I am watching TV or out and about
just observing people.
To conclude I have come to understand through all the ideas,
models and points of view mentioned above that reflection whether it is before,
in or on action is key, ‘to enhance professional practice or thee professional
self in practice.’(Moon 1999, p.188-194.)
Appendix
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Walker D (1985) Reflection, Turning Experience into Learning, Routledge.
Aldous Huxley Cited
in Kegan, 1983, p.11
Joanna Field
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professional development. London: Kogan Page)
.Schön, D. (1988)
“Coaching Reflective Teaching” in P. Grimmett & G. Erickson (1988). Reflection
in Teacher Education (pp. 19-29). New York: Teachers College Press.
Gardner, Howard (1983) Frames of Mind the Theory of
Multiple Intelligences, New York: Basic Books.
(‘What you know about
reflective writing and how able you are to engage in it’ Moon, J (2004) A Handbook
of Reflective and Experiential Learning, Routledge Falmer, London.)
Moon, J. (1999)
Reflection in Learning and Professional Development. London: Kogan Page.
(p.123).
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