Critical Reflection Why bother ?

Standard for Initial Teacher Education (Student Teachers) Reflect on and act to improve the effectiveness of their own practice Know how to adopt a questioning approach to their professional practice Demonstrate a commitment to self- evaluation, lifelong learning and continuing professional development.

Standard for Full Registration (All Teachers) Reflect on and act to improve their own professional practice Ensure decisions about professional practice draw on sound evidence and what they have learned from their own experience of teaching Efficiently maintain a record of their own professional development activities and reflections

Standard for Chartered Teacher (Expert Teachers) Critical self-evaluation and development More sophisticated forms of critical scrutiny A heightened capacity for self- evaluation

Standard for Headship (Head Teachers) Provide a rationale for the way they operate, taking account of a variety of perspectives Regularly review their own practice Model their commitment to learning for life as the school’s ‘leading learner’

Becoming Critically Reflective ‘Hunting assumptions’ is crucial. Unexamined common sense is a notoriously unreliable guide to action. ( Brookfield 1995)

Four possible lenses to illuminate our practice Our autobiographies as learners and teachers Our students’ eyes Our colleagues’ experiences Theoretical literature (Brookfield 1995)

Critical Reflection SOCIAL CONTEXT HISTORICAL CONTEXT Theoretical Our autobiographies literature as teachers and learners PRACTICE Colleagues’Stakeholders’ experiences eyes POLITICAL CONTEXT POLICY CONTEXT

Our work does not take place in a vacuum and is not a value- free activity. We have a professional responsibility to be aware of the external influences on our work and to have an informed view about their impact. We need to be able to subject our practice to scrutiny and justify our approaches - to ourselves and others.

Critical reflection helps us develop a rationale for our practice.

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