Reflection

Effective Pedagogy, NZ Curriculum p. 34 Reflective learners assimilate new learning, relate it to what they already know, adapt it for their own purposes, and translate thought into action. Over time, they develop their creativity, their ability to think critically about information and ideas, and their metacognitive ability (that is, their ability to think about their own thinking). Effective Pedagogy, NZ Curriculum p. 34

Reflection is about becoming aware of your own thinking processes, and being able to make those transparent to others. Reflection captures the idea that if a gap is found between how we would want teaching and learning to be and how it actually is, then something will be done to close that gap; it is not enough just to reflect or identify that there is a gap. Teachers themselves can become reflective practitioners who reflect with their students on the teaching and learning process, and teach their students to use reflective strategies to strengthen their own capacity to learn. Absolum, M. pp 142-143

You can use this presentation to: Update, review and/or reflect on the formative assessment practices of Reflection in your classroom or school Use as a resource for exploring professional development in Reflection/metacognition. In the presentation you can: clarify the purpose and value of reflecting on the learning and the learning process identify strategies that teachers can use when teaching students how to reflect.

Reflection asks and answers the question: “How is my learning going?” Reflection assesses the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the learning and what to do as a result. Prior to reflection, students must self assess against criteria. This addresses the ‘what’ of the learning and the learning process.

Reflection - why the emphasis ?   “Powerful learners are reflective. They are able to step back and take stock of progress. They are able to mull over their actions and consider how they might have done things differently. Good learners are self aware, able to contemplate their actions to continually ‘grow’ their learning power.” Guy Claxton, from “What’s the Point of School?”

A case for Reflection Reflection is a ‘metacognitive’ skill which is considered integral to good learning. Reflection provides information for teachers and students about the quality of the teaching and learning taking place. Reflection is what enables teacher and students to co-construct next learning. Students need to be able to reflect in order to ‘own’ or make decisions about their learning. Students who can reflect are more likely to be engaged in their learning. Reflection builds the learning-focused relationship.

What is necessary , to ensure both teacher and students become routinely reflective? Making time for reflection Planning opportunities for reflection Training yourself and your students in reflective techniques

Reflective methods are more effective when teachers apply self and peer-assessment techniques to understanding standards and criteria and this application can result in improved learning. Falchikov, 1995; Dochy, et al.,1999; Liu & Carless, 2006; Thuy Vu & Dall’Alba, 2007

A reflective process can help student learning by developing metacognitive skills. Hacker, Dunlosky, Graesser, 1998; Hacker & Dunlosky, 2003; Masui & De Corte, 2005

How do you think about how you think? Focus on the word below and its spelling. Turn to a colleague and describe what strategies you would use to remember the spelling. fissiparous Now ask your colleagues to share the strategies they used: e.g. double ‘ss’ and the suffix ‘ous’ break words into syllables meaning and root word as significant hooks

Through this process you can: become conscious of your and others’ thinking processes in a particular learning situation. How does this benefit teachers and students? Teachers will gain an awareness that students will also use a variety of strategies for learning. Teachers can share their thinking processes with students. Students see an example of ‘thinking about thinking’. Teachers have an awareness of how they think Students are engaged in reflective conversations about ‘thinking about thinking’.

“Metacognition is what people know or think about their own thought processes and is the individual monitoring of one’s own thoughts.” (Hacker & Dunlosky, 2003)

Discuss the strategy you used to answer this problem? A numeracy example Discuss the strategy you used to answer this problem? 73+28 How did you solve this? partitioning method (70+20, + 3+8) use my knowledge of tidy numbers (73+30, -2) round one number, then add the remaining ones (70+28, +3) Learners present a variety of different strategies to answer this problem; discussion might centre around the most effective strategy for this problem

How would you do it next time? You can take the learning further, by reflecting or thinking metacognitively about the strategy used: Was it easy or hard? What helped you? How would you do it next time? Why will you change the way you solve it? This leads on to identifying the ‘where to next’ with the learning Do I need to change my way of learning? Where do we go from here?

Reflection for students works best at the end of a lesson: to consolidate the learning to recap on the ‘why’ of the learning to give students opportunities to discuss strategies for learning, and possible ‘tricky’ bits to establish a ‘where to from here’ and a recap at the beginning of a lesson is very effective too.

Some possible reflective questions What were you learning and why? How did the learning go? What were the tricky bits and why? What new learning can we celebrate? What helped the learning to happen? Who needs more help and what needs to be re-taught? from Clarity in the Classroom by Michael Absolum

You will probably have to train students to reflect well (or at all!) If it’s a new process in your classroom, tell students what’s happening and why. Model the type of answers you expect: To give students possible and appropriate responses to reflective questions To show students that all learners find things difficult.

Possible process for active reflection Getting started with reflection Re-cap the learning intention and success criteria Ask a reflective question Give students 15-30 seconds thinking time to: let them think! create the expectation that all take part Model appropriate responses (at first) Give students opportunities to respond: Whole class In groups In pairs

Considerations for your classroom practice And now? Considerations for your classroom practice Where can this fit into the overall plan of the learning? Where to next? As individuals and as a class Reflection is an assessment strategy that links with and feeds back into planning

Self-evaluation Self-evaluation involves learning how we Back to AFL Tools Self-evaluation Self-evaluation involves learning how we learn, whereas self-assessment is what we learn. To train pupils in self- evaluation, use questions such as: Think about what has happened when the learning has taken place What really made you think? What did you find difficult? What do you need more help with? What are you pleased about? What have you learnt new about X? How would you change the learning activity to suit another class? The teacher can model answers to these to show the pupils how to self-evaluate.

Back to AFL Tools Talk Partners As a plenary or a starter referring to the previous lesson, students share with a partner: three new things they have learnt what they found easy what they found difficult something they would like to learn in the future

References and readings Absolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom. Auckland: Hodder Education. pp.142 – 163. Clarke, S. (2001). Unlocking formative assessment: Practical strategies for enhancing pupils’ learning in the primary classroom. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp.39-49. Claxton, G. (2008). What’s the point of school? Re-discovering the heart of education. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. Claxton, G. (2006). Expanding the Capacity to Learn: A new end for Education? Conference Warwick University, September 6, 2006. Discusses the teacher’s role in developing the students’ capacity for learning, helping them to become better learners. Particularly pp.9-13. Stoll, L., Fink, D., & Earl, L. RoutledgeFalmer (2002). It’s About Learning (and it’s about time), Chapter 2, entitled ‘Learning about learning’. Chapter of a text by international authors, discussing metacognition and the science of learning.