1. What metaphor would you use to describe your own approach to teaching
What metaphor would you use to describe your own approach to teaching? Can you think of specific examples of how your teaching reflects this metaphor?
Teaching Metaphor

2. THE REFLECTIVE HABIT Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma

3. REFLECTION
“Reflection is a metacognitive strategy that helps teachers think critically upon their experiences, actions and decisions during their teaching practices”
Derya Kulavuz-Onal, Phd candidate at University of South Florida, 2013
“Reflective teaching involves thinking about one’s teaching, on account of which will include terms as reasoning and reasons, critical thinking and analysis as well as planning and evaluating”
Fernando Alexandre, 2003
“To reflect is to look back over what has been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with further experiences”
John Dewey, 1993

4. Places of teaching/learning &reflection
Teacher
Learner
Subject Matter
Context

5. What is required of reflective practitioners?
An understanding of personal theory
An interrogation of personal theory
Comparing personal theory with that of peers and with public theories
Continual adaptation and/or reformation of personal theory

6. Personal Theory – What is it?
A person’s set of beliefs, values, understandings and assumptions
The ways of thinking about the teaching profession
Personal theories may exist at an implicit level – difficult to articulate and therefore examine
Some personal theories exist at the commonsense level, and is related to life experiences

7. Levels of Reflection Van Manen ( 1977) Schon (1983) Valli (1992)
Technical reflection
Practical reflection
Critical reflection
Schon (1983)
Reflection-on-action Reflection-for-action
Reflection-in-action
Valli (1992)
Technical decision making
Deliberative
Personalistic
Critical

8. How do I become more reflective?
What happened? Why?
What was my role in the event?
How did I respond? What beliefs did my actions reflect? Did my actions reflect beliefs/assumptions about which I was not aware?
Did the consequences of my actions raise doubts or did they reinforce my beliefs?
What could I have done differently? Why?
How should I want to act in the future?

9. Conclusion
Teachers need to reflect on their personal theories and prevailing practice at different levels
Teachers need to articulate their own theory, critically examine it and check for consistency, coherency and adequacy
Teachers need to compare personal theory with alternative theories and to re-conceptualize it in order to increase the effectiveness of their professional thinking
Reflection is a never-ending growth process