Week 17- My Reflective practice

Post One

My Reflective practice

Like most schools, we are required to fulfill several criteria that require reflection as a part of our "Registered Teacher Criteria". These obligations include

• Individual Professional Learning documents that cover the 12 criteria for registered teachers
• An annual "Teaching as Inquiry" program that is completed in syndicate
• Informal reflections that emerge from weekly syndicate meetings
• Informal reflections based on AFL practices and weekly plans

Currently, the first two are the only reflections that require formal completion. The latter two, however, would make up the basis for the majority of our reflections.

When I look at my current reflection process in relation to Zeichner and Liston’s (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4) five levels of reflection I would say that  our teams current practices would match up in this way. 

1. "Rapid reflection" - The informal reflections I make based on my weekly plans and the anecdotal notes I either record or store in my memory. We also often make rapid reflections in our team meetings based on discussions around our class programs.
2. "Repair" – This takes place based on "rapid reflections" of planning. We are often able to alter the directions of our overall classroom programs based on the reflections we make during our syndicate meetings.
3. "Review" – This type of reflection traditionally takes place when we have completed units of work or reached the end of term. I think that we don not review our practices formally as frequently as we could because teachers do not have time to reflect when they are in the classroom full time, as forward planning always needs to be done. Reviewing our teaching practice over a sustained period without needing to make recommendations for immediate changes would be a valuable exercise for me and my team.
4. "Research" – Little or none of this is done outside readings provided by senior management. Again, this is because teachers on a full time teaching load do not have time available to them.
5. "Retheorizing and reformulating" –Personally, this course has started my doing this effectively for the first time. I have found it so helpful to reflect on some of the initiatives that I have introduced and drawn parallels to many of the theories and style of leadership that were introduced to me in the "Leadership" section of the course.

I would like to begin to focus more on the "Reviewing" and "Researching" components of my reflection. I find that I have introduced many initiatives in the last couple of years and need to sit back objectively and review these changes and the impacts they have made. As they are mostly digital and based around the "21st  Century Learning Dispositions" it is difficult gather the same raw data that can be gathered by standardized academic assessments, so I have a challenge to encounter. Any ideas that would help me I would consider helpful !