Reflective Theory (short essay form)

Task C: Reflective Theory

This piece of written documentation aims to explore what key thinkers have written about reflection, with reference to Reader 2, literature, and online sources. It will also explain my relationship with reflective practice through the duration of this course so far, and from events that have taken place prior to the course.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking, otherwise referred to as active thinking, is the process of actively applying information through the use of experience, reflection and reason before carrying out a particular action (www.criticalthinking.org, 2016). In addition to this, E. Glaser (1941), introduces three properties which critical thinking should include, which are, the ability to consider issues that arise from ones experiences, the ability to reason logically, and the ability to apply the above methods in the correct way, with a thoughtful manor. He also states that critical thinking has a requirement to establish issues/problems, and to distinguish between practical solutions and theoretical solutions in order to establish an outcome and a correct, well suited solution to the problem/puzzle that has arose. Information must be gathered, tested and retried, in order to find a logical explanation.

“…it is possible to examine reflective practice simultaneously as a mode of thinking (Dewey), a way of thinking (Schon), and as critical reflection (Freire) (Lyons. N, 2010).

If one cannot be critical of scenarios taking place, and do not do so in an active method, but can observe significant changes , those particular changes are unknown, and therefore they cannot take advantage of the changes taking place (Freire, P., 2013).

Theorists

Defining reflection is something that many theorists have done, however the work of Dewey, is something that was considered to be the grounds of reflective thinking. He identified reflective thinking as an active yet cautious method of considering an experience or form of knowledge. He defined the process as a way of understanding and defining what is not working in a puzzle. However, Kolb identifies reflection as a method of learning for the individual through experimental circumstances, Boud uses models as a way of reflecting in terms of education, and Schon uses reflection whilst in action and on action, for example, we can reflect during a circumstance and/or afterwards (D, Boud et al, 2006).

Kolb identified the differentiation between individuals. 

From Kolb’s learning cycle, it is clear that we all have a concrete experience, a reflective observation, an abstract conceptualisation, and an active experimentation, however Kolb notices the variations between each person, in a sense that we learn something new and notice that something is missing at different points of the cycle (appendices 1). Kolbs cycle helps an individual to reflect on how we as a person learn and how we go about a particular experience.

H, Garner took this approach that states we all have differentiating methods of learning, and introduced the theory of ‘multiple intelligence's’. It is used when we reflect upon a different outcome, when experiencing and learning, because there are different learner methods, such as; spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kin-aesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic (appendices 2). In addition to this, J, Moon also used the concept of learning to help define reflection, however she did so through use of journals. She stated that there wasn’t one specific method of learning that came from journals, however, she notes that there is a difference between writing descriptively, and writing reflectively. It is informal, deliberative, and gains emotion, which encourages a thought process (J A, Moon, 2006).

D, Schon, as previously mentioned, introduced the idea of reflecting on an action, or after the action, which is considered to be more of a ‘there and then’ approach, fix it whilst you are doing it. This theory has similar aspects to that of Dewby’s approach, in a sense that he observed how different approaches can be made between present and future solutions, and that we might engage with our experiences differently, depending on whether we deal with them now or later (Dewey, 1933).

Through research into reflective practice and critical thinking, I can acknowledge that although the base of these theories stem back to the early/mid 1900’s, I can understand that these theories are still greatly accepted and used even today, because writers still use the core of all of the thinkers work but just slightly adapt from it, such as Gardner elaborating on Kolb’s learning cycle with the concept of multiple intelligences (VAK). This research and critical writing exercise has helped me to challenge key thinkers and to understand the basis of each of their methods, which in turn have inspired me as an individual to reflect on my experiences. Especially from the work of Moon, who explains in her work ‘Learning Journals’, that being a teacher and learner are two different concepts, because what a teacher might be teaching, is not specifically what the learner might learn, but they are still learning something.

In the future, I aim to keep my experiences written down in a journal, but as Moon has expressed, the journal is a secondary process of the learning, and so to capture my learning experience as it happens, I am inspired to search for a method to do so. For example, video class footage of me learning a routine and picking up the choreography, instead of recording the routine at the end because that is not capturing the process, just the product of that particular moment.

References

Boud, David;Cressey, Peter;Docherty, Peter. 2006., Productive Reflection at Work. [online]. Routledge. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=45086> 15 November 2016

Critical thinking.org [online]. Available from:

http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766

[Accessed 14.11.16]

Dewey, John (1933). How we think, 2007 reprint, Champaign: Standard publications, Inc.

Edward M. Glaser. 1941. An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking, Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

Freire, p. 2013. Education for critical consciousness. [Online]. 2nd edn.  Bloomsbury Academic. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zUpMAQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=critical+thinking+paulo+fre&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn2sbO56rQAhXmJMAKHTs1DAEQ6AEIITAB#v=onepage&q&f=false 15th November 2016.

Jennifer A. Moon. 2006. Learning Journals. A handbook for reflective practice and professional development. 2^nd edn. Routledge.

Nona Lyons. 2010., Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry: Mapping a Way of Knowing for Professional Reflective Inquiry. [online]. Springer US. Available from:<http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=283895> 15 November 2016

Appendix

1. 

Simplypsychology.org {online]. Available from:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html

[Accessed 15.11.16]

2. 

Mydiscoverypreschool.org [online]. Available from:

http://mydiscoverypreschool.org/theory-of-multiple-intelligences/#!

[Accessed 15.11.16]