Personally I feel that Refection is a very personal thing, and before researching and studying the course reader I didn’t realise how much reflecting on actions really affects our lives and learning process. All the different theories explained in this reader has really inspired me to look into how I learn reflect and take from everyday experiences.
Many thinkers in this reader such as Kurt Lewis and David Kolb have researched into the way we turn experiences into learning and written about all the various tools we already have in place in our everyday lives to do this and help us reflect. In My professional practice I have to reflect a lot but I am never quite conscious that I am doing it .During teaching I have to reflect on what works what doesn’t and how people respond to a certain events such as a new teaching method or even a new exercise, and learn from how they responded. Personally I reflect on events by thinking interpersonally over what happened in my own thoughts usually I don’t notice that I have reflected on them until the next time I come to the same event and I act on it differently. All of a sudden I realise that I must have not only reflected on what took place but learnt from that experience. I frequently say to myself I learnt from that experience. Up until researching reflective practice have I thought about what that really meant, and the thought process I must have been though to get to that point. One incident that really stood out for me was a teaching experience. During a class I used a different type of teaching technique that really worked on the students taking part. At the end of each exercise I asked half the class to watch the other half and give out corrections and praise to their fellow students. This really succeeded as not only did the pupils getting the corrections learn, the students giving them were more actively aware of what they themselves should being in there own work. Personally I learnt from the experience and so did my students.
I was really interested about Graham Mcfee’s theory on knowing something before you realise what it means. He said “And that means knowing it before getting a definition”. pg18 (McFee 1992). From reading his extract on this in the course reader it lead me to think about I ever experienced that and the answer was yes. My experience of this was on a recent tour of Germany with the performing company Taudevein. I had never before learnt the German Language but in my time out there I learnt what many simple German words meant without knowing there definition. For example “Gutentag” in German means hello, and in my time surrounded in the language I started to understand what it meant by peoples gestures and response to the word without knowing it definition. From reading Grahams Mcfee’s theory on this topic it has made me reflect on my own experiences and look into the thought process I went through to learn from that event
From Reading John Dewey’s theory on reflective thought and Kurt Lewis on action and research it really made me reflect on how I personally learn what which I learning style I fall into. Kolb developed a learning cycle (seen to the right) this really helped me understand the different ways of learning and pushed me to investigate were I entered the cycle. I feel I my learning style is best suited to the “concrete Experience” this involves doing and having the experience. To come to this personal conclusion I looked into the way I created my BAPP Blog to help me understand where I entered the cycle. To start the blog I just “got on stuck in” as I find it easier to learn if I experience it myself this would fall under Concrete learning. Although I did use a hint of active experimentation as I found myself making mistakes as I was going along so I started to plan what I was going to do next. One on my colleges on the BAPP course enters the cycle in the reflective observation I feel this complements my Concrete learning style. This is due to as I go ahead and get started with a project if we are working to together she will stop me and say “ I think this works this doesn’t work” and together it makes a very well balanced effort. I feel that Concrete and reflective observation complement each other greatly and form studying this cycle I hope to use more reflective observation in my professional practice.
After reading Howard Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligence it started my process of looking deeper into other ways of learning. I can personally really learn from Gardeners theory as it can really aid me in my professional practice knowledge of teaching. It can also help me understand different ways my students personally learn. I unconsciously use all of the learning skills that Gardener describes. I use intrapersonal intelligence a lot in my day to day life from teaching or just walking through a busy street. I feel intrapersonal intelligence is a professional and very useful skill as it can only aid you in a situation. Intrapersonal intelligence means that you are able to reflect on other people’s reactions or emotions. For example if someone is irate and acting aggressively you can be aware of it and act to protect your own safety. Or in a teaching environment by someone’s body language you can react in the appropriate way by either comforting the student or dealing with behaviour. I feel that you need to have multiple inelegances for any professional practice.
Gardener Talked about VAK this is three different styles of learning Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic he also describes these three ideas as multiple lenses. Garden said that his theories are like looking through lenses. Although everyone has a comfortable way of learning you should not limit yourself to just looking through one lenses i.e. being one type of learner. I personally use all three styles of learning for different things Visual for academic subjects Auditory for intrapersonal skills but Kinaesthetic for learning sequences of movement and everyday new activates. For me personally I use kinetic learning for most things as it the style I am most comfortable with and the one that work best for me. To try and widen my knowledge of VAK I decided to try and use Gardeners Visual and Auditory lenses for one day to see how affected me. Unfortunately these both made me feel extremely uncomfortable and i couldn’t learn in these styles. I found myself having to go back to the Kinaesthetic to complete the learning tasks. To try and use Both Auditory and visual more in my day to day reflection and I am going to try and take photos to help me and I’m going to start recording some of my lessons to help me reflect using different lenses.
Now I have realised I am a kinaesthetic learner I was interested to read Twyla Tharp’s theory on Muscle memory. I as I dancer rely on my muscle memory and I agree with his statement in the reader.
“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)
When I first went into teaching I found myself hesitating as I have never had to verbally express or explain what my body was doing as I had to express something I knew “nonverbally”. This was a really interesting topic for me personally and by understanding it more I can enhance my professional practice.
Journal writing is a way of reflection and form reading David Boud chapter on Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice writing it has really opened my eyes to this type of reflection. He expresses all the different uses people may use there journal for and this really inspired me to research into journals more. From reading this article I am going to research all the different uses of a journal and post another blog purely on this topic.
Please feel free to comment on this blog with your critical reflection.
