Tutorial Reflection
Technologies Education
Reflection will assist your learning of the concepts presented each week and the process of reflecting on your practice in developing lessons, simulating your lessons, and your experiences of technologies activities during tutorials will assist you in understanding the concepts and how you will incorporate these in your teaching.
Tutorial Reflection
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius
Reflection
The process of continuous improvement requires challenging yourself, failing, reflecting on your teaching, and putting in place strategies to improve.
Your reflection each week should use a model to structure your reflective process. There are many models available, find one that suits you, and use it to guide your reflection.
You may present your reflection each week as a document, visual image, annotated photo montage, or video clip of up to 90 seconds.
Reflective Writing Booklet.pdfBurton's Model:
What?
- What worked well?
- What did not work well?
So What?
- What did you learn from this?
Now What?
- What will you try differently next week?
- How can you apply what you have learnt next practicum experience?
Gibb's Reflective Cycle
Description
- What happened?
Feelings
- How did you feel about it?
Evaluation
- What was good and bad?
Analysis
- Why did things happen as they did?
Conclusion
- What could you have done differently?
Action Plan
- What will you do next time?
Kolb's Cycle
Experience
- What did you experience?
Reflection
- What did you notice?
Conceptualisation
- What does it mean?
Planning
- What do you want to change?
Reflective thinking is a multifaceted process. It is an analysis of classroom events and circumstances. By virtue of its complexity, the task of teaching requires constant and continual classroom observation, evaluation, and subsequent action. To be an effective teacher, it is not enough to be able to recognise what happens in the classroom. Rather, it is imperative to understand the “whys” “hows,” and “what if’s” as well. This understanding comes through the consistent practice of reflective thinking.
McKnight
Many of us grow up thinking of mistakes as bad, viewing errors as evidence of fundamental incapacity. This negative thinking pattern can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which undermines the learning process. To maximise our learning it is essential to ask: "How can we get the most from every mistake we make?"
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan
Remember, you are not assessed on the quality of your reflections, only that you have created them; the focus is on supporting your understanding of the approaches presented in tutorials and improving your lesson planning, teaching approaches and activity ideas. This reflection will impact many aspects of the course, particularly your portfolio of learning collection of lesson plans, and your subsequent success as a teacher of the technologies learning area.