Week 17 Reflecting on reflecting.

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How much to reflect and what for?

My schooling and university education was in the last quarter of 20th century, when the world was slowly changing from trot to canter or from the soaking to spinning cycle to use a washing machine metaphor (vacations are meant for laundry!). Suddenly, log table books were a pile of recycle and Casio digital diaries, PDAs, PC-AT, PC-XT were the buzz words. My teachers, who hitherto seemed knowledge incarnate - were asking us how to “boot the machine” or “connect the printer” or even “insert the floppy”.
Something had definitely changed - a new knowledge cycle had started and that had brought everyone at a level playing field. We - the Gen X - knew things our professors didn’t and that was alarming for them and exciting for us. That prompted me and my friends to stay up late, listening to the humming of the dial-up internet trying to connect us through Hotmail and Yahoo messenger to people all over the world.

I am not too sure, whether our teachers then did any reflection or not, as whenever we heard them talking it was mostly about politics from institutional level right up to the super powers or the high cost of living. Most of their lesson plans, like their notes, were filled in yellowing notebooks or on smudgy OHP transparencies. Classroom situation today is different in many respects.

I have a habit of writing, mostly on broader topics, but the profession has lately made it mandatory for me to focus on classroom happenings and learner voice. I have maintained a weekly reflective journal in a previous place of work and in the present school, I still jot down a few points every few weeks, at least twice a term. Occasionally, I have shared my thoughts with colleagues and HoF to get their feedback. I know that this needs to become part of my regular practice.


Reflection will not only make my practice more informed, but will also help my learners as they will be benfitted by the repairs and revisions of my lessons. Often, as a teacher, we forget that we are learners first and foremost. I feel that constant soul-searching and exploring better ways of doing things that we do, is the way forward to self actualisation as a professional.

References -
1.  Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL.
2.  Gibbs, G (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.
3.  Zeichner, K. M. and Liston, D. P. (1996) Reflective Teaching: An Introduction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. 

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