Reflection

In broad terms, reflection is about thoughtful teaching and thinking about practice (Schon, 1983). Effective teachers continually evaluate their own practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on their students; and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner informed by increasingly sophisticated use of research, professional literature, and evidence from their own practice (Danielson, 2013).

The purpose of reflection is to increase understanding of teaching through analysis and interpretation (Hiebert, Morris, Berk, & Jansen 2007); fostering metacognition and self-regulation (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley & Wilkinson, 2004). Reflection is considered so important to teacher development and continuous improvement that it is incorporated into each of the national standards for teaching (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2013) and is an element of in each of the UVEI teaching standards.

Reflection involves metacognitive thinking including:

• Building a conceptual model of effective teaching/leadership
• Seeing the relevance of concepts and ideas to practice
• Naming practice
• Analyzing practice through the lens of conceptual models
• Identifying growth
• Goal setting
• Evaluating progress

Dimensions of Reflection:

1. Pre-reflection: Interprets classroom situations without thoughtful connection to other events or circumstances. The teacher’s orientation is reactive, believing that situational contingencies are beyond the teacher’s control. Beliefs and positions about teaching practices are generalized and not supported with evidence from experience, theory, or research. The teacher’s perspective is undifferentiated and general regarding the needs of learners (Larrivee, 2008).
2. Surface reflection: Reports events. Provides lower inference descriptions of what occurred and what they experienced, interprets the situation based on recalling their experiences (Hatton & Smith, 1995; Lee, 2005; Senge; Jay & Johnson, 2002). At this level the teacher’s examination of teaching methods is confined to tactical issues concerning how best to achieve predefined objectives and standards. Beliefs and positions about teaching practices are supported with evidence from experience, not theory or research. The teacher’s view of learners is somewhat differentiated, acknowledging the need to accommodate learner differences (Larrivee, 2008).
3. Descriptive reflection: Attempts to provide reasons based often on personal judgement or experience, one looks for relationships between pieces of their experiences, interprets the situation with rationale, searches for ‘‘why it was,’’ and generalizes their experiences or comes up with guiding principles (Lee, 2005). May focus on “what works” and technical aspects of teaching (Larrivee, 2008).
4. Pedagogical reflection: Candidate examines, frames, and attempts to solve the dilemmas of classroom practice (Hatton & Smith, 1995), drawing from a conceptual framework of teaching and given research theory base (Hatton & Smith, 1995, National Research Council, 2000; Zeichner & Liston, Larrivee 2008); is thinking about how teaching practices are affecting students’ learning and how to enhance learning experiences (Larrivee, 2008); is aware of and questions the assumptions and values he or she brings to teaching (Zeichner & Liston); and is in discourse with one's self exploring possible reasons for choices (Hatton & Smith, 1995; Jay & Johnson, 2002). The teacher’s goal is continuously improving practice and reaching all students (Larrivee, 2008), and through reflection the teacher seeks new clarity on their experiences with the intention of changing/improving in the future (Lee, 2005; Jay & Johnson, 2002), analyzes their experiences from various perspectives (Lee, 2005; Zeichner & Liston), and is able to see their influence on students’ values/behavior/achievement based on evidence from their practice (Lee, 2005; Larrivee, 2008) The teacher’s view of teaching and learning is multidimensional, connecting evidence from practice within a broader research based framework (Larrivee, 2008).
5. Critical reflection: At this level the teacher is engaged in ongoing reflection and critical inquiry concerning teaching actions, thinking processes (Larrivee, 2008), and educational goals and purposes (Zeichner & Liston). The teacher holds up both philosophical ideologies and teaching practices for continuous examination and verification (Larrivee, 2008), taking account of the broader historical, social, and/or political contexts (Hatton & Smith, 1995). The teacher is attentive to the institutional and cultural contexts in which he or she teaches (Nagle 2009, Zeichner & Liston 2014).

Pedagogical reflection (sometime paired with descriptive reflection as a lower inference basis on which to build towards pedagogical reflection) is the dimension most associated with continuous improvement and effectiveness as a teacher, and which correlates with levels three and four on the TCAP. Pedagogical reflection involves both a sophisticated conceptual framework and metacognition.

A conceptual framework refers to the ability to organize understandings, ideas, and evidence into a schema or mental model that facilitates retrieval and application, based on a foundation of knowledge (National Research Council, 2000). In terms of teacher reflection that aids in continuous improvement, conceptual frameworks are drawn from relevant literature (as opposed to solely professional judgement) and are used as a lens to organize, analyze, and evaluate practice. Such frameworks are most effective when they are the organizing frame for practice, as opposed to using literature to justify or rationalize practice that originates from professional judgement (Larivee, 2008).

Metacognition refers to teachers’ abilities to be self aware about areas of strength, areas for improvement, and potential directions for action that are likely to lead towards increased learning, as well as the ability to monitor current levels of mastery and understanding. Practices congruent with a metacognitive approach to learning include those that focus on sensemaking; self-assessment; and analysis of what worked and why, and what needs improving and why. These practices have been shown to increase the degree to which people are able to transfer their learning to new settings and events (National Research Council, 2000), including new teachers ability to transfer from their learning to teach context to their novice teaching context (Nagle, 2009).