Task 2c: Reflective Theory

When approaching this task, I was reminded of various experiences at school, when we were told about different learning styles and techniques. I spent a long time thinking I was a kinaesthetic learner, and I do still believe that to be true, but through experience I have learnt that I learn in multiple ways and they often depend on the type of learning I’m doing. I think reflective practice is closely linked to this, by reflecting I have noted other ways of learning and decided that the one technique is not always the best approach.

Firstly I asked myself, what is reflection?

I would categorise it as a key tool in understanding your experiences, enabling you to learn from those experiences. According to Dewey a reflective thought is an “active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” [1] (Dewey, 1933). This is an academic way of saying that reflection allows us to look back at an experience and use this experience to change our opinions, our learning and our response to future experiences.

However as noted by Donald Schön (1987) reflection doesn’t always have to be after the event or experience. Reflection as I have discussed it so far would be considered ‘reflection-on-action’, reflecting on something after the event has occurred. I agree with Schön that there is another form of reflection, which he called ‘reflection-in-action’, which refers to reflection on an experience during the experience, responding to the event as it is happening. This particular type of reflection is more commonly used by artists and theatre practitioners in particular. Dancers regularly ‘reflect-in-action’ when correcting themselves during a move or a rehearsal, as a teacher I am always giving pointers and notes, for my students to take these on board and apply them during the lesson requires ‘reflection-in-action. I consider ‘reflection-on-action’ to be a much more intellectual and analytical way of reflecting, it requires deeper thought on the experience and how this can affect your future experiences, ‘reflection-in-action’ could lead to a quick decision which later on may prove to be the wrong choice.

Graham Gibbs (1988) came up with the “Reflective Cycle” based on previous uses of the cycle such as Kolb’s learning cycle (1975) [2]

Gibbs presents 6 stages of reflection and how we process our experiences.

Description – What happened?

Feelings – What did you think and feel about it?

Evaluation – What were the positives and negatives?

Analysis – What do you make of it?

Conclusion – What could have been done differently?

Action Plan – What will you do next time?

It is a cycle because the action you take will feed back to the beginning starting the cycle again.

This neatly breaks down the reflective process into 6 separate thought processes, although they may happen differently for each person, everyone can view the cycle and see how the process experiences. Each of the processes links to a different tool for reflection, describing was discussed in keeping a journal, whereas for me feelings links to making lists. We may not always process for a long time, these 6 six steps can happen extremely quickly especially when taking into account Schön’s ‘reflection-in-action’ when correcting a dance mistake you immediately describe the faults in the step, feel that it needs changing, evaluate what was wrong with the technique, analyse your process, conclude how to proceed and improve and then create an action plan on how to do it right next time. All this happens in a matter of moments, but it is still there in some form or other.

I can relate to this way of processing experiences and information, it is a useful learning tool and I regularly use this in my classes. Dance is such a practical subject that reflecting after the class is not always useful, because you no longer have opportunity to try out the changes or feel the body learn from the evaluation. It is however useful to process feelings and struggles with the career and environment of performing, getting turned down from a string of auditions can be a difficult mental process and reflection can really put your feelings into perspective and is very important if you wish to keep up your confidence and drive. It helps you to persevere by reflecting on how you feel about rejection and what you can do at the next audition to improve your results but also just to come to terms with the face the industry is a tough place to work in and that you may not have done anything wrong and that what you need to learn is to be strong.

Samantha Davies (2005) discussed the benefits and limitations of reflective practice. [3]

Benefits to reflective practice include:

·                    Increased learning from an experience or situation

·                    Promotion of deep learning

·                    Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement

·                    Identification of educational needs

·                    Acquisition of new knowledge and skills

·                    Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values

·                    Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning

·                    Could act as a source of feedback

·                    Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence

Limitations to reflective practice include:

·                    Not all practitioners may understand the reflective process

·                    May feel uncomfortable challenging and evaluating own practice

·                    Could be time consuming

·                    May have confusion as to which situations/experiences to reflect upon

·                    May not be adequate to resolve clinical problems

I can identify with several of these benefits and can see the improvement in my students by asking them to tell me one good thing about their class and one bad thing about their class, I can see that this simple evaluation not only gives a sense of achievement but helps them to self-motivate and learn from their experiences. I can also see that some students find it more difficult than others to come up with evaluation that quickly which leads me to assume they prefer to use ‘reflection-on-action’ and take time and distance to process their experience.

I believe we all use a mixture of all these theories depending on what we are experiencing and what said experience demands from us from a growth perspective. I have however changed my opinion on reflection, I have never kept a diary before or gone out of my way to fully set out my reflection and having tested it both on myself and my students I can really see the benefits of just a small amount thought out reflection rather than just what we do automatically, I can see it change their thought processes when dancing in class and I can attest to how it has helped me change my emotions towards certain difficult experiences.

Bibliography

[1] Dewey, John (1933) How we Think, 2007 reprint, Champaign: Standard Publications, Inc. 

[2] Gibbs, Graham (1988) “Reflective Cycle” online. Image available from: http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/public/liss/documents/skillsatcumbria/reflectivecyclegibbs.pdf

[3] Davies, Samantha (January 2012). "Embracing reflective practice". Education for Primary Care: 9–12

Other reading sources used but not quoted

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood NJ: Prentice Hall