Reflecting on Your Practice: The Teacher in the Mirror

1. Reflecting on Your Practice:The Teacher in the Mirror Elisabeth L. Grinder, Ph.D. Margaret R. Grumm Maria Leonor L. Marvin Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy Pennsylvania State University

2. Mirror, Mirror on the wall – what in my practice needs my attention most of all?

3. What is teacher reflection? “A careful review of and thoughtfulness about one’s own teaching process”. Stronge, J.H. (2007) Qualities of effective teachers, p. 30 It is natural to learn from experiences -- by doing and then reflecting on what happened. John Dewey’s central approach to schooling Thoughtfully considering one’s own experiences in applying knowledge to practice. Donald Schon (first introduced concept as way to refine one’s craft)

4. In essence, models of reflection help us to: Look at an event  Understand it  Learn from it

5. Reflective practice is a way to develop: • Greater self-awareness about how you teach • An awareness that provides opportunities for growth and development

6. Who is a teacher researcher? A person who looks at his/her everyday practices and asks: “How could I have done that better?” “How well is what I am doing working?”

7. Why should I engage in Teacher reflection? • Teachers rate analyzing and seeking to improve their own teaching as an important factor in their teaching effectiveness. • Effective teachers may reflect either formally or informally – but reflection is the key. • Teachers whose students have high achievement rates continually mention reflection as an important part of improving their teaching. Stronge (2007)

8. What influences the reflective process? • Preconceptions • Personal beliefs • Your understanding of the events • Cultural beliefs • Individual teaching styles

9. What do teacher researchers do? • Develop questions based on what they want to learn about their student’s learning and their teaching. • Investigate questions by systematically documenting and collecting data about what happens in the classroom. • Analyze and reflect on the data collected. (keeping in mind their assumptions and beliefs)

10. Why is teacher reflection in the classroom important? • It is empowering to the teacher. • By finding a better and more effective way of teaching, the lives of students are enriched.

11. To raise new questions, new problems, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and makes real advances Albert Einstein

12. find support for your reflective practice

14. Reflection and Practitioner Action Research (PAR) Research is a high-hat word that scares a lot of people. It needn’t. It’s rather simple. Essentially research is nothing but a state of mind… A friendly, welcoming attitude toward change… going out to look for change instead of waiting for it to come. Research is an effort to do things better and not be caught asleep at the switch. It is the problem-solving mind as contrasted with the let-well-enough-alone mind. It is the tomorrow mind instead of the yesterday mind. -- Charles Kettering

15. PAR in nutshell • Question • Plan • Act • Reflect on the results • Share your results

16. If analysis seems easy, then you’ve probably only found what you already knew before the project began. Reflection = the Heart of PAR analysis • Living the Questions , p117

17. PAR Reflection Technical Reflection Contextual Reflection Critical Reflection

18. Good research analysis raises more questions than they answer. Living the Questions , p117

19. Reflective Learning

20. Moving through the year with Reflection Research informed models that reserve space and time for reflection during the program year. • PA Family Literacy Sequal: Program Improvement based on PAR • Journaling; portfolio; ePortfolio: documenting your reflective journey • Early Reading First: LLIU13 Head Start & PreK

21. How does reflection relate to the Head Start Performance Standards? 45 CFR 1304.52(k)(2)Training and development...must establish and implement a structured approach to staff training and development... This system should be designed to help build relationships among staff and to assist staff in acquiring or increasing the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill their job responsibilities... Honestly assess where you need to develop your skills.  Everyone has strengths and challenges. Professional development is a lifelong, dynamic process. You will need an array of training experiences to refine your skills. Home Visitor’s Handbook: for the Head Start Home-Based Program Option, p. 29 Your reflection question(s) need to help you set goals that align to Early Head Start child/family outcomes or the Head Start Performance Standards.

22. Reflection seems like such a simple matter that we sometimes forget how critical it is to leading, teaching, learning, and social change. In its simplest form, to reflect is to take a look at yourself and what you are doing-like looking in the mirror. The power of reflection comes when you do more than just glance at what you see. In a leadership situation, the reflection on your experience, not the experience itself, increases leadership skill and ability. Debra Ren-Etta Sullivan

23. For further information…... • URL address… http://www.personal.psu.edu/mlm504/blogs/teacher_in_the_mirror/

24. Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs, now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is as far as he knows the only way of coming downstairs, but somewhere he feels there is another way, if only he could stop for a moment and think of it. A. A. Milne