Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Important lessons that only come about through practice and reflection also come clear. 2nd year student teacher Flinders University 2005
Historical background
Reflective practice is seen by many teacher educators to be at the very heart of effective teacher preparation programs and the development of professional competence. Loughran (2002) writes, It is through the development of knowledge and understanding of the practice setting and the ability to recognize and respond to such knowledge that the reflective practitioner becomes truly responsive to the needs, issues, and concerns that are so important in shaping practice(p.9). According to philosopher and educator John Dewey (1933), we begin to reflect on a complex situation when we face that situation and ask ourselves what needs to be done. Deweys ideas and the idea of professional reflective practice were developed in the 1980s with the emergence of Schons (1983) concept of reflection-in-action. According to Schon (1983), reflection-in-action is a rigorous professional process involving acknowledgement of and reflection on uncertainty and complexity in ones practice leading to a legitimate form of professional knowing (p.69). Since the 1980s, the development of reflective skills has been widely adopted in a range of higher education and best practice professional settings including education, health sciences and leadership. Whilst most educators in higher education would agree that it is important for learners to develop these skills, there has not always been agreement on the definition of reflection or exactly what constitutes reflective practices in a higher education context.
References
Dewey, J. (1933) How we think. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, Graham, A., & Phelps, R. (2003, January). Being a teacher: Developing teacher identity and enhancing practice through metacognitive and reflective learning processes, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 27(2), 11-24. Loughran, J. J. (2002 January February). Effective reflective practice: in search of meaning in learning about teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (1), viewed 16 January, 2006, (online Gale Group/Expanded Academic ASAP Plus) Moran, A. & Dallart, J. (1995). Promoting reflective practice in initial teacher training. International Journal of Educational Management. 9 (5), 20-26. Rigney, D., Rigney, L-I., & Tur, S, U. (2003). Training teachers for reconciliation: A work in progress. Conference Paper No.089, Australian Curriculum Studies Association Conference, Adelaide, South Australia. Retrieved November 29, 2005 from http://www.acsainc.com.au/content/ulalka_tur__training_teachers_for_reconciliation.pdf Schon, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action, New York: Basic Books. Walkington, J. (2005, March). Becoming a teacher: encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. 33 (1), 53-64. Whitton, D., Sinclair, C., Barker, K., Nanlohy, P., & Nosworthy, M. (2004). Learning for teaching: Teaching for learning. Southbank, Victoria: Thomson Learning.