When I encountered this concept again through the MindLab, I began to unpack what Reflection really meant for me and to attempt to determine a process that I could undertake in order to be critically reflective of myself, my practice, our classroom and the process that I undertaken in order to self-assess where I'm am, how I feel about my role as an educator and attempt to determine my future direction.
One article that's really stuck with me throughout this learning has been Finlay's (2009) Reflecting on Reflective Practice. See link here
Reflection, as we're asked to undertake it, can be such a tedious process. With a directive to reflect, a process to follow and questions to cover, any attempt at joy could be utterly removed from what can also be a wonderful experience.
Like yoga, the poses (questions) that are the hardest to hold our attention on are sometimes the most important. Joan Dalton says the challenging conversations should be known as important ones. Likewise, the challenging questions we really need to ask ourselves are the important ones too.
Questions for me like:
What evidence do I have that I am not discriminating against any students in our classroom, that in fact I AM providing equal opportunities, equal support and equal relational time for each of our learners?
Questions like, how is my planning best enhanced in order to accurately target learning needs and ensure completion, coverage and deliberate acts of teaching? And am I reflecting on whether or not I made a difference? What evidence do I have of that?
To be honest, my brain boggles when I begin to reflect, because the longer I remain in teaching (ten years and counting, last month), the more I realise I don't know. The more I realise that a 100 hour work week might (just MIGHT) be enough to make a difference. But that a 60 or even 70 hour week often doesn't seem enough and does leave me just short of a marble run without a marble.
What questions should I ask next?
