Some quotes from Nelson Mandela:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being an optimist is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.”
Respond
How can Reflective Practice help towards becoming a leader in education?
Reflective practice has at its heart that each of us perceive the world in a unique and different way. Taking a step back metaphorically from the moment or recalling how something went, so it can be improved upon, adds another dimension the the educators or leaders repertoire. Tolstoy as cited in Schon (1995) defines the outstanding educator to be the one who can understand the perspective of the student and adapt the explanation to suit. “These explanations give the teacher the knowledge of the greatest possible number of methods, the ability of inventing new methods and, above all, not a blind adherence to one method, but the conviction that all methods are one-sided and that the best method would be the one that answers best to all possible difficulties incurred by a pupil” (Tolstoy as cited in Schon, 1995, p.). It seems that the teacher should have a high level of awareness and be in the moment when there is a sign of confusion in the students. Schon (1995) sees “confusion as a stimulus, as a starting point of inquiry” (p. 8). It is from here that a teacher would dig deeper, like a researcher posing a hypothesis, to try and find the individuals perception and then react with a suitable explanation suited to the student (Schon, 1995, p. 10). Mindlessly following curriculum or procedures (within an organisation) and not being reflective (about do the students understand or whether there a more efficient way) will lead to stagnant ineffective classrooms and business with a lack of continuous improvement. Whereas understanding of the need for reflective practice within the classroom or business can lead to the action of creative environments where everyone is generating knowledge or making things better. As Schon (1995) demonstrates that it is important to change the institution to allow the possibility of employees, leaders and others to transform into “active, participating, creative contributors to the generation of knowledge” (p.11). Reflective practice would therefore be useful for education leaders as it would ensure a change towards more creative environments which would improve the outcomes of the students within the school. More mindfulness or reflection with any employee would assist in the organisation solving problems faster and becoming more efficient an advantage.
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I agree with reflective practice not only from an educator’s point of view but from the point of view from the student also, as well as the larger educational institution/organisation that is overseeing the learning process. Too often we are swept up into new ideas without stopping to ask the question of whether that works for my student in this particular cohort and whether we are addressing their specific learning need.
As part of an upcoming change to course structure, I was able to reflect on who my students were, what their actual capabilities were and what they really needed and took a step back to see whether the course being delivered was meeting those needs. In collaboration with other teachers we created a scaffold through which the students could spend more time on key elements before passing to the next course that further extended and elaborated on those elements and so on. By reflecting on what each of us were teaching we were able to eliminate duplication, ensure consistency with structure, concepts and terminology but more importantly, create a focus that entered on the student’s learning.
I think there is an issue though, when upon reflection you realise that you need individualised learning for most if not the entire cohort, but the practice is not possible within the learning environment due to time, space or financial constraints. I would stretch as far to say there is a dichotomy between what educators see is needed when they reflect on their teaching practices and the ability to implement this within the business structure most educational institutions are now having to instigate.
As an aside Chris, are you using APA referencing? Have a re read of your post as there might be a page number missing 😉
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