Janet Lord Education
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Research
    • Research Matters Seminar November 2012
    • Paper on the development of professional identities in early career teachers: a conceptual synthesis of the literature
    • Emerging teachers’ perceptions of the factors that affect their espoused professional identity. A partial case study using narrative methodology.
    • Work on the professional identity of doctoral students
    • What does it mean to be a teacher?
  • Publications
  • Contact

Blog about Education

Models of reflection

5/18/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
(Image from Growth Coaching International, http://www.growthcoaching.com.au/articles-new/changing-the-lens-critical-reflection-through-coaching?country=au)


People who have worked with me or read any of my writing on reflection will know that I'm really keen on Stephen Brookfield's 'lenses' model for reflecting on teaching.  he's recently updated his book so we have a 2017 version of the 1995 ideas, but really there is little difference.  So I thought I would look for other models, so see if I am missing something new, or something that is useful. 

I found Terry Borton’s (1970) ideas - 3 stem questions: 'What?', 'So What?' and 'Now What?' that were developed by John Driscoll in 1994. Driscoll matched the 3 questions to the stages of an experiential learning cycle;  and added trigger questions that can be used to complete the cycle.  But this is old, and not very complex. 

Johns' model is based on five cue questions which enable you to break down your experience and reflect on the process and outcomes. John (1995) used seminal work by Carper (1978) as the basis for his model exploring aesthetics, personal knowing, ethics and empirics and then encouraging the reflective practitioner to explore how this has changed and improved their practice. But this is really designed with nursing practitioners in mind, and I am not sure that it really works too well for teaching?

Tom Russell (2013) wrote a reflective article looking back on 35 years as teacher educator, and suggests that teacher educators rarely model reflective practice, fail to link reflection clearly and directly to professional learning, and rarely explain what they mean by reflection, with the result that student teachers may complete their initial teacher education with "a muddled and negative view of what reflection is and how it might contribute to their professional learning". (p.88)  To be honest, in my role as external examiner I have seen this - trainees encouraged to reflect on their practice, but often offered no more of a structure with which to do this than 'reflection in and on action' which is really not much use in this context.   For Russell, the problems relating to reflective practice result from the fact that teacher educators have not sufficiently explored how theories of reflective practice relate to their own teaching, and so have not made the necessary "paradigmatic changes" themselves which they expect their students to make. 

I would agree; it's lip service only, very often, that I see.   And this can result in unhelpful and not very interesting egocentric descriptions of practice.  

Do we need to be constrained by existing models?  Well, maybe not.  But we do need a starting point.  So after
a bit of  literature search, I think I would still go with Brookfield as far as my own and my students' practice goes.   


References

Borton, T. (1970). Reach Touch and Teach, London: Hutchinson cited in Jasper, M. (2003) Beginning Reflective Practice, Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Second Edition.  Jossey-Bass: San Francisco

Driscoll J. (1994) Reflective practice for practise. Senior Nurse. Vol.13 Jan/Feb. 47 -50

Johns, C. (1995). Framing learning through reflection within Carper’s fundamental ways of knowing in nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 22, 2,
226-234

Russell, T. (2013) 'Has Reflective Practice Done More Harm than Good in Teacher Education?' Phronesis, 2(1), pp. 80-88




0 Comments

Grammar schools again....

5/11/2018

 
Picture
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/11/grammar-schools-in-england-to-get-50m-expansion-fund
An article in the Guardian today (see link, left) says:Grammar schools in England will be given tens of millions of pounds to expand, after the education secretary, Damian Hinds, unveiled a fund for selective schools that agree to improve applications from disadvantaged children.

The £50m fund will potentially allow the creation of new “satellite” campuses of grammar schools away from their existing sites, although the Department for Education said there would be a “very high bar” for such expansions.
“By creating new schools where they are needed most and helping all great schools to grow, we can give parents greater choice in looking at schools that are right for their family and give children of all backgrounds access to a world-class education,” Hinds said.


One of the things I teach about is social justice.  and what concerns me here is access to education.  We know that marginalised groups do not have access to the same educational opportunities as do other groups, for all kinds of intersecting reasons. 
Some great tweets this morning say it all:

Angela Rayner‏: All schools need more funding, Tory answer? Pour more money into a few grammar schools. Buildings crumbling&class sizes increasing, Tory answer? Build more free schools(a programme that is failing). Tories continue to ignore parents, school leaders,teachers&evidence based policy.

and Professor Tim Bale, who teaches politics at Queen Mary:
Tim Bale‏: The main argument against grammar schools is not that they are 'elitist' & 'divisive' (even if they are), it's that all the research shows that they just don't do the job they are supposed to do, namely to promote social/educational mobility. And yes I did go to one: so shoot me.

Teachers I work with are in schools that quite literally are falling down round their ears; children are going hungry; teachers are spending money on school supplies  73 % – of teachers surveyed said that they regularly purchased stationery items, such as pens, pencils and board markers. Fifty-eight per cent had paid for books. And 43 per cent had paid for art materials. This is from a TES survey of more than 1,800 teachers, conducted jointly with the NEU teaching union and reported in Setember 2017; it reveals that 94 per cent of teachers are having to pay for school essentials such as books, stationery and storage equipment.
https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teachers-are-spending-hundreds-pounds-year-classroom-supplies


Teaching is and always has been the most important  job in the world, for all kinds of reasons, one of the most salient of which is fighting inequality. Michael Apple, in his 2013 book 'Can education change society?', finished with the words (p174).  'There is educational work to be done'.   Let's get to it!


 


 


    Picture

    About me...

    I was a psychology and social sciences teacher for many years and now I am in the throes of a teaching and research career in HE. I care passionately about education. This blog will show you why and how.

    Categories

    All
    Caring
    Conferences
    Education
    Education Policy
    Empowerment
    Finland
    Gender
    Grammar Schools
    Learning
    Metacognition
    Pedagogy
    Psychology
    Reflection
    Reflective Practice
    Resistance
    Schools
    Social Justice
    Teachers
    Teaching
    Technology
    Transition
    Universities
    Women

    Archives

    October 2019
    February 2019
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    February 2017
    August 2016
    October 2014
    June 2014
    December 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Research
    • Research Matters Seminar November 2012
    • Paper on the development of professional identities in early career teachers: a conceptual synthesis of the literature
    • Emerging teachers’ perceptions of the factors that affect their espoused professional identity. A partial case study using narrative methodology.
    • Work on the professional identity of doctoral students
    • What does it mean to be a teacher?
  • Publications
  • Contact