Reflective practice Session 2 – Developing enquiry skills

Introduction Welcome to the second session on reflective practice. In this session we are going to use the work you did in Session 1 to build skills to use in reflective practice. The previous session asked how we might think about rigour being introduced into reflective practice. Learning Wales suggests one answer that will be of particular interest to us: ‘when [teachers] can “test” their learning in a learning setting (action research)’. So what is being suggested is that reflective practice is part of being a teacher researcher or enquirer.

Action research Activity 1 In this short video (11 minutes) Andrew Pollard talks about the links between reflective practice and research. As you watch the video, please take particular note of what Andrew says about developing a cyclical enquiry process and developing enquiry skills. Using the learning journal, please make notes of the ways in which Andrew links reflective practice and research. www.youtube.com/watch?v=glWiyUGFgac

Teacher research Among other links, you’ll have heard Andrew Pollard talking on the video about the need for reflective teaching to be evidence informed – that is, to have reliable and valid data available so that any decisions to change practice are grounded in research-based information. So how do you begin the reflective practice and evidence collection process?

Finding the issue The first stage is to identify the issue you want to understand. During any school day there are numerous events that catch our attention – an unusually antagonistic student, a high achiever who needs extension work, a change to assessment demands that needs some thinking about – the list is (almost) endless. Simply choose one which you are interested in knowing more about – there is no one right choice – it is what is important to you. You might want to consider using school data to help you identify an area.

Changing the event into an enquiry – ‘Why?’ and ‘What?’ Once you have selected your area for investigation, you will need to ‘problematise’ it – that is, change it into a question that is both ‘bounded’, that is clearly defined, and focused enough to allow you to capture some data. Be practical in shaping this area. Use ‘Why?’ and ‘What?’ questions to help sharpen up your thinking. – Why have I chosen this area? – What do I want to know? – What do I want to change? This is called problematising the issue. An example follows for you to try.

Scenarios Activity 2 Choose one scenario from the following. How can you problematise the issue – that is identify the key questions you need to ask? Remember to ask the following: Why have I chosen this area?; What do I want to know?; What do I want to change? A student consistently refuses to do homework. This is not usually a difficult student but all the usual tactics have failed. You want to support a very enthusiastic learning assistant who has just joined and will be working with you. A student you teach is particularly gifted and is increasingly showing signs of impatience in class with peers who are less able. An underachieving student is causing problems with academic attainment. The student is receiving free school meals.

Problematising the area In answering the ‘Why?’ and ‘What?’ questions you will now have one or two key enquiry questions. Click on the ‘Scenario example’ on the next slide for an example of this.

Problematising the area Scenario example 1. A student consistently refuses to do homework. This is not usually a difficult student but all the usual tactics have failed. i. Why have I chosen this area? This is a student where something has changed without any obvious cause. She usually is pleasant and helpful in class but homework has been an ongoing issue over the year. However, it is now two weeks since she even attempted to complete homework and threats of detention or letters home have not been successful. I tried to talk to her after school but she simply repeated she ‘didn’t see the point of it’. ii. What do I want to know? What underlying issues might be causing her to behave in this way? Does she have a space to do her work at home? Is she looking after siblings and has no time? Are there issues of bullying in school? Is she struggling with the work? Has she been given new responsibilities at home? Is she working elsewhere to earn money and is too tired to do her homework? Are there are other changes in her behaviour that suggest problems with drugs/alcohol abuse? iii. What do I want to change? I want to put into place some supporting strategies that can help her to get back into doing homework. I could consider arranging for her to use the library with a laptop. If she is unable to stay after school, it may be that home needs to be contacted in an attempt to help the student, not as a disciplinary measure. Ultimately I want to help the student to address these issues herself.

Problematising the area You might have written for scenario 1: This behaviour is inconsistent with the student’s usual attitude. What reasons might explain this? Level of work demanded? Home access to ICT? Other responsibilities after school? How do I help the student to address these issues? –

Changing the event into an enquiry – ‘Who?’ and ‘What?’ Activity 3 Try using ‘Who?’ and ‘What?’ questions to explore an event (or two) which has caught your attention in the past few days. Using the learning journal, describe the event. What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? Why did it prove important enough for you to remember it? Now add how the event made you feel – anxious, concerned, intrigued, happy…

Collecting the evidence Once you have identified the issue and the enquiry questions, the next stage is to ask ‘How do I collect the evidence?’. With any enquiry, we have to bear in mind ethical procedures. That is, we act in a way that no person is made vulnerable or can be hurt. BERA has some helpful guidelines that can viewed at www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf

Finding out You might want to firstly do some investigation to see whether any evidence is already available where the type of issue you are seeing is discussed. There are a number of sources, including professional associations, the TES and social media such as Twitter. There are also government sources such as the Learning Wales website at www.learning.wales.gov.uk or the Department for Education in England’s website at www.gov.uk/government/collections/research-priorities-for-education-and-childrens-services. Colleagues are also potential sources of rich information, especially if they are active researchers in an area.

Choosing ways to collect evidence There are numerous approaches that you might want to explore and resources, such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teachers’ Toolkit available at http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit are worth exploring. There are also quite straightforward ways such as questionnaires and interviews. The following links might prove useful for discussion. www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/RESINED/QUESTS/index.htm www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/interviews/inthome.htm

Bringing it together Activity 4 Look back at your ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’ questions. Have you been able to answer them in ways which are fuller and richer after taking time to consider the issue in depth? If so, you can now move to the ‘How?’ and ‘When?’ questions …

Changing the event into an enquiry – ‘How?’ and ‘When?’ Activity 5 The ultimate aim of reflective practice is to bring about positive change. Looking back at the learning journal, think about what have you discovered about the issue you identified and how might you now act to bring about the change you require? Add the next entries. How can you introduce resources/strategies/support that will enable change? In pragmatic terms, when can you best do this? Think of particular lessons or times. Be specific and practical in your responses.

The reflective practice cycle and learning journals If you look back at Session 1 you can see that what you have been doing in this session is creating a reflective practice cycle. The learning journal that you have completed is a powerful activity for enhancing the reflective practice cycle. By noting down and re-reading, you are automatically thinking back and re-engaging with ideas, and developing knowledge and resource – in short, using reflective practice. More ideas on using a learning journal are available at www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/teaching_diary.pdf.

Seeing reflective practice in action In this session: you have made links between reflective practice and teacher research you have developed the idea of enquiry and explored the stages of the reflective practice cycle you have completed an essential tool of reflective practice activity – a learning journal you now have a model of reflective practice. The next session uses case studies to illustrate and explore some of the ideas we have worked with so far.