Reflective Practice for Educators - Learning for …

1 Reflective Practicefor EducatorsImproving SchoolingThrough ProfessionalDevelopmentKaren F. OstermanRobert B. KottkampCORWIN PRESS, Sage Publications CompanyNewbury Park, CaliforniaCopywright 1993 by Corwin Press, rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrievalsystem, without permission in writing from the information address:Corwin Press, Sage Publications Company 2455 Teller RoadNewbury Park, California 91320 SAGE Publications Bonhill StreetLondon EC2A 4 PUUnited KingdomSAGE Publications India Pvt. MarketGreater Kailash INew Delhi 110 048 IndiaPrinted in the United States of AmericaLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataOsterman, Karen Practice for Educators : improving schooling though professional development I Karen F.

2 Osterman,Robert B. bibliographical references (p. ) and 0-8039-6046-8. ISBN 0-8039-6047-6 (pbk.)1. Teachers In-service training United States. 2. School administrators In-service training United States. improvement programs United States. 4. Learning . 5. Kottkamp, Robert B. II. Title. 46 dc2O92-37083 The paper in this book meets the specifications for permanence of theAmerican National Standards Institute and the National Association ofState Textbook 94 95 96 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Corwin Press Production Editor: Tara S. MeadContentsPrefaceAbout the Authors1. Reflective Practice : A Powerful Force for Educational Change2. Rethinking Professional Development3. How to Nurture Reflection4. Developing a Reflective Perspective:Gathering Information5.

3 The Process in Practice : Preparing Reflective Administrators6. A Reflective Approach to Principal Renewal7. School Leaders Engaging in Reflection:A Stimulus to Systemic Change8. An Empowering Process ReferencesIndex2 Rethinking ProfessionalDevelopmentIn Chapter 1, we examined Reflective Practice through a wide-angle lens. The subjectwas a conceptual framework for understanding individual and organizational stabilityand change and the promise of Reflective Practice as a means of facilitating significantchange. In this chapter, we narrow the lens angle to focus more directly on Reflective practiceas a process of professional development. The subject is formal professionaldevelopment because, while Reflective Practice may take place in any situation, it isalmost always learned in a formal Learning setting of one kind or another and ourpurpose in writing is to encourage the development and nurture of such learningopportunities.

4 The first part of this chapter describes Reflective Practice as a professionaldevelopment process: What does it look like? How does it begin? The second part of thechapter contrasts this mode of professional development with more traditionalapproaches focusing on differences in assumptions, content, and processes. 2 Reflective PRACTICED efining Reflective PracticeReflective Practice , while often confused with reflection, is neither a solitary nor a relaxedmeditative process. To the contrary, Reflective Practice is a challenging, demanding, and oftentrying process that is most successful as a collaborative effort. Although the term Reflective Practice is interpreted and understood in different ways,1within our discussion, Reflective Practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners candevelop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, anawareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development.

5 As explained in Chapter 1, awareness is essential for behavioral change. To gain a newlevel of insight into personal behavior, the Reflective practitioner assumes a dual stance,being, on one hand, the actor in a drama and, on the other hand, the critic who sits in theaudience watching and analyzing the entire performance. To achieve this perspective,individuals must come to an understanding of their own behavior; they must develop aconscious awareness of their own actions and effects and the ideas or theories-in-use thatshape their action strategies. Achieving this level of conscious awareness, however, is not an easy task. Theories-in-use,as we have seen, are not easily articulated.

6 Schon (1983) has described this process in thecontext of professional Practice . As he explained, professional knowledge is grounded inprofessional experience: Competent practitioners usually know more than they can exhibit a kind of knowing-in- Practice , most of which is tacit (p. viii). Consequently,when asked, master teachers or master administrators are often unable to identify thecomponents of their work that lead to successful Similarly, practitioners who wantto improve their performance are often unclear about how their own actions prevent themfrom being more successful. So, if the purpose of Reflective Practice is to enhance awarenessof our own thoughts and action, as a means of professional growth, how do we begin thisprocess of reflection?

7 How do we begin to develop a critical awareness about our ownprofessional Practice ? Where do we start? Reflective Practice as Experiential Learning Reflective Practice is located within the older tradition of experiential Learning and also themore recently defined perspective of situated cognition. Experiential Learning theorists,including Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget, maintain that Learning is most effective, most likely tolead to behavioral change, when it begins with experience, and specifically problematicexperience. From experience and research, we know that Learning is most effective whenpeople become personally engaged in the Learning process, and engagement is most likely to3take place when there is a need to learn.

8 In professional programs, for example, fruitfullearning often doesn t begin until the person is on the job. Situated cognition focuses on boththe process and the context of Learning . In a view popularized by the recent attention toproblem-based Learning (Bridges, 1992), situated cognition proponents maintain that learningis best accomplished through an active, social, and authentic Learning process. Learning , theyargue, is most effective when the learner is actively involved in the Learning process, when ittakes place as a collaborative rather than an isolated activity, and when it takes place in acontext relevant to the learner (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989a, 1989b; Prestine &LeGrand, 1991).

9 Experiential Learning theory maintains further that Learning is a dialectic and cyclicalprocess consisting of four stages: experience, observation and reflection, abstractreconceptualization, and experimentation (Koib, 1984). While experience is the basis forlearning, Learning cannot take place without reflection. Conversely, while reflection isessential to the process, reflection must be integrally linked with action (Figure ). Reflective Practice , then, integrating theory and Practice , thought and action, is, as Schondescribed, a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skillful (1987, ). In this cyclical process, Learning or the process of inquiry begins with what Dewey (1938b)described as a problematic or an indeterminate situation: a troublesome event or experience,an unsettling situation that cannot be resolved using standard operating procedures.

10 Promptedby a sense of uncertainty or unease, the Reflective practitioner steps back to examine thisexperience: What was the nature of the problem? What were my intentions? What did I do?What happened? In the process of observing and analyzing this experience, problems problem a discrepancy between the real and the ideal, between intention and action, orbetween action and effects further stimulates the inquiry and motivates the learner to absorbnew information as part of an active search for better answers and more effective final stages of the process involve reconceptualization and experimentation. Havingexamined and analyzed the experience, the learner moves again into the realm of theory. Nowmotivated by an awareness of a problem, the learner uses new information to developalternate theories that are more useful in explaining the relationship between actions andoutcomes and to begin the search for strategies that are more consistent with espousedtheories and more effective in achieving intended outcomes.