2c: Critical Reflection

So far, this course has really opened my eyes and got me asking a lot of questions in regards to my practice and also reflective practices. Having now done some research into the theory of reflection, I am actually quite embarrassed to admit that before I embarked on this course I had never considered or been aware of reflective practices within my profession, or even examined my job as a career or a field. To be honest, I don't think i'd even contemplated my profession at all. Having left college and taken the expected route of moving to London, auditioning for everything and teaching on the side, I haven't ever really taken a breath and thought about what I was doing and why I was doing it, it was simply, what you do. As I have discussed in previous blogs, this course is already allowing me to find the time to consider my practice and then articulate what I want to do within my practice.

Kolbs learning cycle makes so much sense to me as I am very interested as a teacher in the ways people learn and am conscious of different styles, although I had never labelled them into categories. I enter the cycle as a reflective observer but am definitely prone to active experimentation. I like to watch and learn in many situations but when necessary I can be quite hands on in my approach and 'give it a go' in a trial and error fashion. As I teach children and young teenagers I often see reflective observation in practice as the more reserved students tend to lean to this style of wanting to watch someone else do it before they do. I find it interesting that as a teacher I am constantly encouraging students to just get up and give it a go and yet in practice I take the same approach to something new. This in turn has made me change the way I view my classes and taught me to be more understanding of the subdued or even some what reluctant children.

Schon's theory of reflection in action and reflection on action is something I had never thought about before and made me realise how often I do subconsciously reflect during the day. As a performer reflection in action occurs a lot and I would usually refer to it as 'thinking on your feet'. When dancing or singing on stage you are always making adjustments to your rehearsed version to make your performance work in the current situation. For example, if another dancer has gone wrong and is in your path, you may have to change the steps to work around them, or as a singer you may have to adjust you mic if the levels don't sound right or as an actor you might have to prompt another person on stage if they forget a line. The possibilities for reflection in action are endless and constantly happening. Schon said that reflective practice is 'a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skillful.' and I really agree with this. Even the small amount of journal writing I have done so far has allowed me to reflect and develop my skills and make significant changes in the classroom. 
I found Kottcamp's idea of one being more difficult than the other depending on your profession very interesting. As I have already shown, having a background in performance, reflection in action comes quite naturally, where as Kottcamp points out this is not the case for an academic.

Having read (and already blogged my initial thoughts) about the extract from David Boud's 'Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice' I found particularly helpful the list of benefits of journal writing, written by Moon, as when I first began thinking about journal writing I struggled to see the quantity of benefits that journal writing has. The suggested chapter really helped me grasp an initial understanding and allowed me to then take certain ideas further.


references:

Donald A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1983) at 31.
David Boud, Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice.