Much has been said about the value of reflection. But how can it be effectively put into practice? Meet Mr and Mrs Gerald Wong, a couple who are committed to the practice of reflective teaching. They share with us how they have made reflection a part of their lives.

Gerald and Elaine Wong are both busy teachers. Gerald teaches Physics in a junior college; he is in his second year of service. Elaine has been teaching in a primary school for 5 years, and is currently enrolled in NIE’s Management and Leadership in Schools (MLS) course.

Gerald and Elaine have discovered that learning does not come so much from our experiences as from the reflection about these experiences (Low, Taylor, Joseph, & Atienza, 2009). They have found a number of useful ways to put this concept of reflection into actual practice.

A Personal Practice

Elaine practises reflection as part of a personal and professional discipline.

Every Friday afternoon, she schedules time to reflect on her classroom teaching even as she plans her lessons for the next week. While this is required by the school, she relishes the opportunity to take time out to think about her teaching.

She also keeps a journal of her own personal reflections, which she pens 2-3 times a week. “I feel that it’s good to sometimes ask yourself why you are teaching. Also because teaching is sometimes quite hectic, and as you deal with certain events or students, you need to think deeper about lessons learnt from each day’s encounters.”

In the MLS course, Elaine is learning how to engage in a deeper level of reflective teaching. “I used to journal my feelings. But for the course, I have to synthesize what I’m learning in my reflections. It’s looking at issues and applying theories that I’ve learnt, to come up with views and to see how I can be a better leader or teacher in that area.”

Growing through Interacting

Reflection can also take place in interaction with others.

Gerald has found it useful to interact with someone more senior about his teaching experience. He submits his reflections on a weekly basis to his subject head, who then comments on what he has written.

For his reflections, Gerald uses a format prescribed by his college. The teachers are encouraged to reflect on focus areas that are aligned with the core competencies of the EPMS, such as teaching and learning, pastoral care and well-being, and professional development.

Gerald admits that he was initially resistant to the idea of reflections being formalized and made mandatory. But this year, he decided to be more diligent and deliberate about it. He sets aside at least half an hour on Friday afternoons, and makes sure he reflects meaningfully on at least two focus areas, instead of simply listing activities.

Gerald has found the process helpful to his growth as a teacher. He especially appreciates the responses by his subject head. These are usually honest comments penned in the margins of his reflections.

“Actually it takes some experience to reflect. It takes quite a bit of practice, otherwise you end up getting stuck – you see something happening but you cannot draw the next conclusion. I think that’s where the interaction helps.”

Gerald has gone one step further, by ensuring that his reflections don’t stop there. He tries to come up with concrete action plans to redress the issues he’s thinking about. Three questions guide his reflections: “What?”, “So what?” and “Now what?”

As a couple, Gerald and Elaine also take time each day to interact with each other about their day and the challenges they face on the job. These “verbal reflections” have become part of their daily interactions.

They make a conscious effort draw conclusions and not just complain about their day. Though Elaine may have been teaching for longer, she says Gerald helps her to see issues from a different perspective.

A Critical Practice

In planned and structured reflection, what we do is try to mentally restructure an experience or a problem (Korthagen, 2001). Actively reflecting on our own practice can help us see where to improve.

“The reflection helps to anchor me down, to know which direction I should be moving towards,” says Elaine. “Because you hear many voices from different stakeholders, different teachers, different parents – you need to sit down and reflect on what you’re doing, on your principles.”

For Gerald, as a relatively new teacher, he feels it is necessary to interact with someone as part of the process of reflection. “It gets you to organize your thoughts,” he says. “Because as a new teacher, every experience is new, so you tend to be bombarded by a lot of new things.”

Reflection may require quite a bit of time, but Gerald and Elaine believe it is time well spent – and they say it gets easier with more practice.

References
Korthagen, F. (2001). Learning from practice. In F. Korthagen (Ed.), Linking practice and theory: The pedagogy of realistic teacher education (pp. 32-50). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Low, E. L., Taylor, P. G., Joseph, J., & Atienza, J. C. (Eds.). (2009). A teacher education model for the 21st century. Singapore: National Institute of Education.