Reflecting on Reflection: Making it Work Deepali Dharmaraj Senior Teacher Trainer West India Deepali.Dharmaraj@britishcouncil.org

Overview The purpose of this interactive presentation is to enhance your reflective skills as teachers and trainers. Part 1: Reflecting: what it is and what it is not Part 2: Why reflect? Part 3: A reflection toolkit

What is reflection?

Practising Reflecting Think about the key note from this morning. Answer these three questions individually. What was the talk about? What does it mean to you? What now?

Reflective teaching/training This refers to looking at our practice, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about what you could do better. It is a process of self-observation and self-evaluation.

Part 2: Why reflect?

Dangers of reflection

The Johari Window Known to self Not known to self   Known to self Not known to self Known to others Open area: What we and others know: e.g. expectations, knowledge, experience and feelings. Our aim should be to increase this area with close friends because it fosters an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. Blind area: What others know about us, but we don’t know about ourselves. Or aim should be to reduce ignorance and increase self-awareness by asking friends and colleagues for feedback. Not known to others Hidden area: What we know but hide from others e.g. information, fears and secrets. There may be many reasons for concealing these aspects. Our aim should be to develop reflective skills to critically examine our motives and attitudes towards others. This helps us to be genuine and honest practitioners. Unknown area: What we don’t know about ourselves, and others don’t know either e.g. an ability that is under-estimated or un-tried through lack of opportunity or training, a fear we don’t know we have, an unknown illness, repressed feelings or conditioned behaviour. Our aim should be to reduce this area by self-discovery, constructive observation and feedback from others.

Part 3: Reflection toolkit Work in pairs. What are the ways we can reflect? For example: reflection journal.

Reflection toolkit Journal Peer observation and feedback Student feedback Recording – audio/video Online tools: Penzu Professional communities: teachingenglish website

Making it work Work in pairs. Discuss: What? So what? Now what?

References The Self-Directed Teacher: Managing the Learning Process by David Nunan Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms by Jack C. Richards and Charles Lockhart Johari Window: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window