The Practice of DEEEEEPP!!! Reflection

Who am I as a learner?

The categories in which is seem to align with are the auditory and kinaesthetic so more often than not strategies in instruction that engage me are discussions, physical activities and experiences that affect me in a visceral way.

What I have found that limits my engagement are repetitive, personally, long observations, written and reflective in nature. Not to say that I don’t value these experiences immensely it is just that it takes more effort on my part to find merit in them for myself, and usually I need to connect those activities with one of my strengths to be engaged.

I have found that this is evident in my teaching I enjoy class discussions, physical activities, intellectually varied and challenging experiences, and even some that did not engage the students in any way. So a question I have to ask myself is “am I teaching for them or my own enjoyment?”.

I believe that it should be both.

I have the ability to find interest in almost any subject because of my skills in adapting the conditions in order to appeal to my own interests but I have not shared this ability with my students, asking them questions in which they are offered chances to input their own experiences or understanding my students to the extent to which I can draw on their interests to allow them to be engaged with the experiences. This in conjunction with modelling a positive passion for learning and the subject matter can offer students a learning environment which rewards those positive attitudes.

That last point is one of my highest beliefs in teaching. Teaching may be a profession but learning is only done by choice. Now while this does mean we as teachers need to make the learning experience as attractive as we can to students it does not mean that we subtract those elements that are less attractive but are profoundly important to the growth of our students. So the task of a teacher is to create experiences which allow the students the best chance to engage while at the same time giving them the most successful experience to learn as possible. The only way that this is possible is through a rigorous reflective practice.

The important of reflection has only influenced me recently reflecting on my first prac. While I did set aside time to reflect on my experiences I found that the reflection was quite superficial and do not reconnect with my practice. I did have moments of effective reflection but these were only after intense experiences which if I did spend time in critical and productive reflection could have been avoided. This is the important reason for reflection; it gives us a chance to be aware of the causes and conditions which brought about a specific result. If in reflection we can identify those variables and analyse them for their success can we create better experiences for our students.

But those experiences are constantly changing. It is a fundamental fact in this universe that everything changes. We cannot plan for every eventuality, so why try. It is because we have the power to play with those causes and conditions to create better experiences for our students. Not every student will learn or even want to, all we can offer is the best opportunity for that learning to occur and using deep reflection can give us insight and maybe some tools in order to create and be innovative with those experiences for our students.

Because that is why we teach; so students can learn.