KV230: Reflective Practice Theories and Theorists

Reflective practice: Critical incident analysis Critical incident: useful to identify in order to begin to work with Reflective Practice theory (Tripp: 1993) Would need to ask : 1. What was the situation? 2. What were the characteristics of the situation? 3. What did I learn from the situation?

Brookfield: Critical lenses View the situation from 4 perspectives: Your viewpoint Your colleagues viewpoint Your learners viewpoint From theoretical literature (background reading)

Willis Suggests a reflective cycle Focus on a significant event Describe this event - the ‘informing’ phase Discuss with colleagues – the ‘confronting’ phase Evolve new ways of working – the ‘reconstructing’ phase Doing this can result in 3 modes of reflection: 1. Contextual reflection – sets the scene 2. Dispositional reflection – consider feeling and attitudes 3. Experiential reflection – the actual experience of doing something – what was it like? Willis argues that in completing this cycle one is able to link theory with practice and as such can change assumptions, beliefs etc.

Dewey Reflective thinking central to good practice 5 features of reflective thinking: 1. Perplexity and confusion –> i.e. what's going on? 2. Conjectural anticipation –> attempt to interpret event 3. Examine the issue/ event ->how do others see the event; facts; etc 4. Construct an initial hypothesis –> ways of solving the situation 5. Construct a plan of action -> test the hypothesis (similar to Popper) Encourages practitioners to continually question own practice thereby learning from experience

Schon Stressed importance of gaining knowledge from practice (practical knowledge) Three notions: 1. ‘Theories in use’ or ‘knowing in action’-> everyday; usual (intuition; instinct) 2. ‘reflection in action’ –> whiLst something is happening e.g. small group work which doesn't work. 3. Reflection on action -> consider what has occurred 4. Returns to knowing in practice -> and so on

Reflective Practice Key issue – is it possible to be objectively reflective? Critical reflection moves us beyond the level of competent practitioners (Dreyfus: 1986; Eraut:1994) - practice leads to state of ‘unconscious competence’ Purpose of reflective practice is to move outside of this ‘unconscious competence’ -> a challenge for all practitioners. One trait of competent practitioner -> those who constantly seek new ways of working (discuss; seek advice; etc) Processional practice as a journey – implicit and embedded in this journey is critical reflection.

Reflective practice: your own practice 1. Revisit your issue/ decide an initial issue 2. Identify a PR theory/ theorist 3. Begin to apply an understanding of the theory to this issue (critical incident?) 4. Once you have chosen a theoretical perspective/ theorist to use to explore your critical incident/ issue -> use the time between course sessions to further research/ explore– come to the next session prepared to discuss findings/ progress 5. Agree format for discussion of 4

KV230 Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Hillier:2002:73) Reflection on experience abstractionexperimentation Concrete experience