"Like other professionals, teachers cannot become effective by following scripts. Instead, they need to create knowledge in use as they practice... knowledge does not exist apart from teacher & context." Thomas Sergiovanni, Moral Leadership

Reflective Practice: A New Paradigm for Professional Development. Equity & Excellence in Higher Education.

Goals: Define Reflective Practice; Design A Critical Incident Protocol; Early Outcomes from the Reflective Practice Application; Implementation Design.

Reflective Practice: A cognitive process & open perspective that involves a deliberate pause to examine beliefs, goals or practices in order to gain new or deeper understanding that leads to actions improving the learning of students. Steven Brookfield

Typical Professional Development Approach: Focus on AWARENESS Reflective Practice Multi Day Training, Courses One Day Training, In-services

New Paradigm-Creating Learning Communities: Focus on Application and Synthesis Reflective Practice Multi Day Training, Courses One Day Training, Inservices

In other words... Reflective Practice is an in-depth conversation about what we do, how it works & why we do it. so that our students are able to learn more effectively in our classrooms.

A Foundation of Reflective Practice: Protocols: A set of guidelines; Clear role definitions. Common elements: Presentation; Clarifying & Probing Questions; Artifacts; Group discussion, excluding presenter; Reflection/debrief.

Reflective Practice: From Awareness to Action. Builds on the strength & wisdom of teaching colleagues. Provides opportunities to discuss new strategies before, during & after implementation. Supports critical thinking & Encourages innovation. Enhances learning for ALL students.

How Reflection Impacts Practice: See ourselves as continually growing; Teaching becomes a connective activity; We learn to speak about what we do- -we discover our voice. from Stephen Brookfield Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher

Practicing a Protocol: Talking about Teaching & Learning using the critical incident protocol: What is the best (or worst) experience you ever had in teaching?

The Critical Incident Protocol: Write about a “critical incident”. Choose one person to be the presenter during the protocol. One person should keep the group on track – the Coach. Ask the presenter to present the incident to your triad. Listen only -- then ask “clarifying” questions. As presenter listens, the other members raise probing or analytical questions. Presenter takes notes on ideas that “resonate” with him/her. Presenter then responds to what was heard. Group engages in a dialogue. Debrief.

Steps of Brief Critical Incident Protocol : Introduction – 5 minutes. Clarifying questions – 5 minutes. Discussion – 10 minutes. Presenter reaction – 5 minutes. De-brief the protocol – 5 minutes.

De-Briefing the Protocol: What do you think the purpose of the protocol structure is? Can you see any benefit to getting together with colleagues to talk about your college teaching using protocols like this? What might be the barriers to doing that? What resources & supports might you need?

De-Briefing the Critical Incident Protocol 2: What was the experience like for the person presenting? For the “consulting” faculty? Even if you didn’t present, what did you get out of it? What was hard about doing the protocol? How is it different from an informal discussion?

Reflective Practice is: Non-judgmental; Collaborative; Equitable; Helpful; Positively focused; A guide for effective communication; Structured.

Reflective Practice is not: Judgmental; Required; Haphazard; Supervision or evaluation; Rigid; Hierarchical.

Reflecting Alone: The Autobiography of me as Learner & Teacher: Learning Logs; Teaching Logs. Videotaping your own teaching. Watching others teach.

Reflecting with a partner: exchanges; Observing one another as a “critical friend”; Journal sharing.

Reflecting with a group: Using “protocols” : Critical Incident; Consultancy; Tuning. Looking at student work. Planning instruction/curriculum. Addressing broad educational issues.

Early Results from users: “A switch in attitude to our students, not your students”. “We see a greater openness to vary educational practices as a result of feedback from reflective practice groups”. “There is a greater willingness to use technology to adapt teaching to student’s needs”.

Research Findings: RP groups are more satisfying than other professional development activities because: It is continual; It is focused on their own teaching & their own student’s learning; It takes place in a small group of supported and trusted colleagues within their own school.  (Dunne, Nave and Ellis, Phi Delta Kappan Research Bulletin, 12/2000)

Role of the Reflective Practice Coach: Establish group norms; Keep groups on track with the protocol; & keep time; Support constructive discussion ; Mediate conflict; Support group with logistics.

Additional Resources National School Reform Faculty: videos, on-line “virtual protocols”, articles, links Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher by Stephen Brookfield Reflective Practice: Creating Capacities for School Improvement by Montie, York-Barre, Kronberg, Stevenson, Vallejo & Lunders