Aims and pedagogical means ece technology education

DISCUSSION ........6-10

CONCLUSION ........11

Imagine that you come home at the end of a really bad week where everything possible has gone wrong. When you walk in the front door you are confronted with a time machine which can take you back to Monday morning so you can live the whole week over again. You use this opportunity to think about everything that went wrong and what you could do (if anything) to correct things as well as trying to repeat the things that you have done right. It may not seem like it but this is reflective practice - the act of thinking about our experiences in order to learn from them for the future. In real life you probably don't have access to time travel but you can still work towards being a reflective practitioner. We can all undertake activities to think about our experiences, learn from them and develop an action plan for what we will do next.

Reflective practice was something which developed in disciplines such as teaching, medicine and social work as a way to learn from real life experiences. People in these areas would think about encounters with their students, patients or clients, how these worked and what lessons they could take away. Over time many other areas have adopted the principles of reflective practice, including universities. You can use reflection when studying, for example when preparing group work or when working on assignments. It is also useful beyond academia when you are applying for jobs, as part of a professional qualification or just as a way of thinking about your role.

Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning. According to one definition it involves "paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight". A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning; deliberate reflection on experience is essential.

Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal learning or knowledge transfer. It may be the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. It is also an important way to bring together theory and practice; through reflection a person is able to see and label forms of thought and theory within the context of his or her work. A person who reflects throughout his or her practice is not just looking back on past actions and events, but is taking a conscious look at emotions, experiences, actions, and responses, and using that information to add to his or her existing knowledge base and reach a higher level of understanding.

Schön identified two types of reflection: reflection on action, which is undertaken retrospectively, and reflection in action, which is essentially ‘thinking on your feet’. He also proposed that by repeatedly carrying out the process of ‘reflecting on action’ can help practitioners to build upon previous experiences and scenarios. This leads to the creation an extensive repertoire of rehearsed interventions. When new or unexpected situations occur in practice, this repertoire enables the expert practitioner to respond rapidly and instinctively in an appropriate manner.

Kolb and Fry (1975) looked at the constituent parts of reflection and from these, created a learning cycle framework. Kolb identified four parts to the learning cycle. To make Kolb’s model more understandable, Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell (2001) simplified the terminology.

Reflection-in-action is reflection during the ‘doing’ stage (that is, reflecting on the incident while it can still benefit the learning). This is carried out during the lesson rather than reflecting on how you would do things differently in the future. This is an extremely efficient method of reflection as it allows you to react and change an event at the time it happens. For example, in the classroom you may be teaching a topic which you can see the students are not understanding. Your reflection-in-action allows you to understand why this has happened and how to respond to overcome this situation.

Reflection-in-action allows you to deal with surprising incidents that may happen in a learning environment. It allows you to be responsible and resourceful, drawing on your own knowledge and allowing you to apply it to new experiences. It also allows for personalised learning as, rather than using preconceived ideas about what you should do in a particular situation, you decide what works best at that time for that unique experience and student.

CONCLUSION

This section has introduced the concept of reflective practice and what you might use it for. As we move through this resource you will be encouraged to think about how you might make reflection work for you and how you can become a reflective person in your everyday life.

Ultimately how you choose to reflect will be up to you. You may find that you can just start writing reflections or you may need some prompts. Think back to the reflective practice models highlighted and use any which appeal to you to as a way to get started. If you are new to reflective writing you might find it useful to start with something simple

The following top tips will help you to get started on your reflective journey:

Remember that you don't have to reflect only on the big things. We all have hundreds of experiences a day and each of them is worthy of reflection.

3. Choose your own path

tiveteachingjournal.com

The reflective practitioner -Definition

CONCLUSIONS ...........34

RECOMMENDATIONS ...........34-35

“Easier said than done”, I hear you say. Some teachers are masters in self-reflection, but not everyone has that same gift. That’s why I want to give you some tips on how you can reflect on your teaching.

In this paper I've tried to identify importances of reflective practice, how to reflect, how encourage reflective teaching and so on. On top of that, I added some teacher self-reflection examples and reflection tools that can be use during reflective practice.

An effective science teachers do:

depicts the components of good teaching practice. The way these components are linked to each other is too complex to represent, but the diagram reminds us of what to do when planning our teaching activities. There is no particular order or relationship between the components. You need to do all these things, but how you do them and in what order will depend on your own context. This is your teaching styles, the learners you are teaching, your prior experiences and understanding, the resources available to you and, probably most importantly, the time you take learn about and reflection on your methods.

Description: This tool requires students to provide written or verbal responses to various questions. It can be combined with closed-questions or a checklist. If using this technique, keep in mind that some questions can be too open (i.e., What did you like most/least about this course? could produce responses about how you dress). Try to focus students on their learning (i.e., What is helping you to learn in this course?), and ask them to provide examples and to recommend strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for improvement. Example: How does the sequence of course content in this class support or undermine your learning?

Closed-ended questionnaires

Description: These exercises ask students to provide a written response to a specific prompt that you have given. The prompt is usually written on the board or an overhead for the class to see. They then take one minute to think about the question and another to write their responses. You collect the papers and assess them for recurrent themes, then you can address these themes in the following class. Example: What was the most important concept discussed during this class? What question(s) do you still have?

Blank index cards

Description: If you have a solid rapport with your class, you may want to try a more direct approach to collecting feedback. With this method, you begin each class by asking students to raise issues, make complaints, and ask questions. In order for this to work effectively, students must see the value in such a discussion since it will take away from class time. There needs to be an atmosphere of openness and honest sharing to make this worthwhile. It is a time for discussion about the course and their learning.

Learning letter or student journal

Description: Like email, students can use your voice mail at any time of the day or night to leave messages or provide feedback. Students are likely to use this tool only to inform you of their problems with the course content, not your instructional techniques. If using this method, be sure to check your messages regularly, particularly before each class so you can respond to students’ questions as soon as possible.

Student liaison committee (“ombuddies”)

Classroom visit

Description: The best way for colleagues to provide feedback on your teaching is to watch you teach. The classroom visit enables colleagues to experience both your teaching style and your students’ reactions to it. To ensure you receive useful feedback from the visit, you should meet with your colleague in advance and discuss what you hope the visit will accomplish. Ask yourself: What do I want feedback on? And can I act on the feedback I may receive? Thoughtful pre-planning will result in more focussed comments that you can put into action. Also keep in mind that you are under no obligation to tell your students that you have a colleague observing the class, but you may want to tell them to demonstrate you are interested in improving your teaching. Other tools you may want to use for the visit are checklists (as described in the student section) and videotapes (described next). Plan to meet with your colleague after the visit in order to receive feedback.

Questionnaires/checklists

Description: Any questionnaire or checklist you have students or colleagues complete, you should complete as well and use as a point of comparison. How do your answers compare to those of your observers'? Similar answers can boost your confidence in your ability to read your class, while discrepancies can uncover problem areas you weren’t aware existed.

Keeping up-to-date with professional development is part of reflective practice, but how do you know what skills you need to improve on as an instructor? feedback will give you greater insight into your teaching quality and assist you in identifying teaching blind spots. Based on in-class participation rates, you might think you’re a great lecturer while your students think the opposite. Perhaps your students are only engaged during lectures because it’s the only time they feel that you provide good feedback – and not on their assignments. While end-of-term evaluations are important for enhancing your skills for future learners, formative feedback allows you to more accurately reflect and develop while a course is still in progress.

Formative feedback can help you collect information that show improvement goals and outcomes as well as anticipate end-of-term evaluation results. Furthermore, feedback data in conjunction with a reflective teaching portfolio provides a solid base for promotions or tenure applications.

The best index of an effective school is how the adults interact. Adults may think they teach students how to behave by managing behavior, or teach them responsibility by holding them responsible. But these are actions of control and power demonstrating dominance by an adult over someone who is lesser, either in strength or ability. Children don't learn to talk like adults through direct interaction with adults. Rather they learn to talk by watching and listening to adults talk. Much work is needed in the school community to have the adults model the types of actions they would like their students to exhibit as adults. It begins when students leave for school. All adults, including bus drivers, teacher associates, custodial staff, teachers, and administrators need guidance on greeting people in ways that make them feel important and appreciated. Students need to see this every day and experience consistency. They can learn the importance and value of a positive disposition, but only if there is strong modeling by adults.

Effective teachers also need skills as effective coaches who have the ability to enlist support, cooperation, and responsibility of all players. They develop a team synergism that accomplishes more

Promoting scientific literacy among all of the nation’s people is a democratic ideal worthy of focused attention, significant resources, and continuing effort. To help achieve that end, the committee thinks not only that standards should reflect high academic goals for all students’ science and engineering learning—as outlined in this framework—but also that all students should have adequate opportunities to learn.

children face a complex world in which participation in the spheres of life—personal, social, civic, economic, and political—require deeper knowledge of science and engineering among all members of society. Such issues as human health, environmental conservation, transportation, food production and safety, and energy production and consumption require fluency with the core concepts and practices of science and engineering. a major goal for science education should be to provide all students with the background to systematically investigate issues related to their personal and community priorities. They should be able to frame scientific questions pertinent to their interests, conduct investigations and seek out relevant scientific arguments and data, review and apply those arguments to the situation at hand, and communicate their scientific understanding and arguments to others.

Why are you doing it?

How effective is it?

Use multiple data sources - Considering teaching from at least two different perspectives (student evaluations and personal inventory, or personal inventory and peer observation) can provide a more holistic view of instruction. Instructors should be careful to compare and review outcome data carefully, and even reflect on it with a colleague, before making changes. Additionally, changes should be made slowly (the usual recommendation is one core change per term), and reflected on as well.

Take time to write - If instructors wish to keep a teaching log, they may schedule dedicated time to write their entries, ideally soon after class ends, rather than hoping to find a moment throughout the day. As in any new technique, habit formation is key to continual engagement.

TASK 3 OF 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REFERENCES ..........52-53

INTRODUCTION

A growth in the capacity to generate innovation through the technique of asking open questions and attending to the answers with an open mind

The ability to be compassionate to self and others and inspire trust through demonstrating trustworthiness. Reflective Practice expands a leader’s self-awareness, brings rigour to critical thinking and hones communication skills, all of which enable greater impact at an organisational level as ways of working and working relationships are being challenged by a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. It aligns with a range of organisational development issues, such as ethics, engagement, empowerment, well-being and sustainability

Improve the way I differentiate instruction. If i am like most teachers, i think i could be doing a better job at differentiating. Check out Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction, a collection of articles, videos, documents, and tools that will help me improve in this area.

IMPROVE MY CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Read some books about a teachers' mindset: Change my mindset to transform my teaching and i’ll notice a big difference in the way i process the daily challenges of teaching.

Create a support group with other teachers who want to make the same kinds of changes in their own mindset. Read either of these books together and set aside some time to talk through the insights and questions that come up as i read. Build mindfulness practice into my regular routine, which will help me reduce stress, feel more purposeful, and actually become more productive.

Looking at my previous lessons as teachers shouldn’t assume pupils will learn how to do this on their own. “Explicit instruction” is needed, especially for low-attaining pupils.

I can help by encouraging pupils to follow a “planning-monitoring-evaluation cycle” for a specific task within a lesson, and model ways to approach tasks so pupils can copy.

It also helps to avoid “split attention” by only expecting pupils to complete one aspect of a step-by-step task at a time. Worked examples can be used to take pupils through each step of a process when they are learning something new, and then phased out as they become more confident. Big topics can be revisited after a gap of time to make sure they are retained in pupils’ long-term memory.

Use practical work as part of a learning sequence

Feedback is also more useful if it poses a question for the pupil to answer, for example, “Can you suggest how the plant might disperse its seeds?” And it can be helpful to point the pupils towards a source of further information: “Go back to your notes from last week and check.”

*Development Plan Attached

It’s also important for students to celebrate and respect their own diverse backgrounds, as well as each other’s. When appropriate, we should encourage students to research and learn about their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This allows them to better understand their own culture as well as the differences and nuances with their peers. As a bonus, this can be a great ice breaker assignment, allowing students to give presentations about their family traditions and culture to help expose the class to concepts outside of their own familiar comfort zone. Acknowledging these differences and creating a safe space for discussion helps promote understanding in the classroom and beyond. Also, as i encourage students to learn about their diverse backgrounds, remember to take the time to highlight what’s offensive and the distinction between cultural celebration and appropriation. Learning how to talk about other cultures in a respectful, mature way is essential for success in life outside the classroom.

As science teachers, we need to attempt to understand how learners reactions to learning in Science are influence by their own misconceptions, prior knowledge and personal interest. We need to understand who they are at home and who they are at school.

Assist a shift from teacher-centred learning to practical, learner collaborate, problem-solve and create understanding.

Improve connection across sites of learning, and with the real world, through formal and informal online networks and access to global communities with expertise and perspectives that can enhance and enrich learning.

It is important therefore to think critically about what various stakeholders in education and training, and authors, mean by the term ‘teaching and learning resources’.

Using resources during Natural Science lesson will make learning and teaching easier for both a learner and teacher. Resources makes learning interesting, because learners get an opportunity to feel the real objects which the teacher talks about. For example during a lesson about Nutrition i can ask learners to bring actual food which falls under good diet. Bringing resources in Natural Science class is very essential.

Then I will explain further how I managed to improve. Since i've reflected on my teaching i managed to identify the room of improvement looking at the way I teach diverse learners. Ever since I've started to use varied strategies in teaching diverse learners, learners has become more engaged to learning. Since I make sure I involve each and every learner in my lesson taking into account their learning preferences. What helped me to improve mostly was attending some training because I was able to figure out how I will improve. Asking for assistance where I felt i needed one i was able to gain new teaching styles from other teachers. After all this reflection my Natural Science lessons has improved, learners enjoys every lesson and you can see that they want to learn more. During experiments learners are more involved since they make use if actual objects and that helps in making learning interesting for them. My class have been doing good actually there are improvements.

CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS

relationships with students or to invite students to participate in the lesson or do not have enough subject matter knowledge. So, it is believed that when all these qualities come together, teacher could form the whole picture of the characteristics of an effective teacher. Despite to this, teacher education programmes at all levels (pre-service and in-service) should integrate reflection in their courses. This can be done through either putting a separate course on reflection and reflective teaching or diffusing reflection and reflective teaching applications in to the whole programme courses in order to develop student teachers’ and practising teachers’ reflective skills and practices. This is so important for growing professional teachers as student teachers expect teacher educators to offer constructive criticism and to share ideas with them and to provide such opportunities and support that they can experiment and develop teaching strategies on their own initiative.

References