2. Reflection
2. 1 Abstract
Reflection is the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences; learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a guide for future behavior (Daudelin, M. W., 1996). Reflective thinking is the "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 [that] includes a conscious and voluntary effort to establish belief upon a firm basis of evidence and rationality" (Dewey, J. 1933). It should be a habitual activity, an ongoing conversation with the self (although the conversation may, at times, include others) that moves hand in hand with the experience" (Goldsmith, S. 1995).
2.2 Academic
Reflection is a cognitive process in which individuals delay their activity (Mead, 1934) and think about what they are doing/saying and contemplate on their actions and choices. iClass defines reflection in two complementary and mutually supportive senses (or levels) that are required by self-regulation and self-personalization.
· Task-reflection: Refers to the students' thinking on the task, content or process of learning, including its wider context (mainly meta-cognition). It can be carried out before (planning), during (monitoring) or after the task (evaluating). Task-reflection thereby targets three separate yet interconnected goals at three different stages: at the planning stage task-reflection aims at developing the student's capacity to plan ahead and to make informative decisions as to what he or she intend to do and what are his or her expectations and goals. This is an important stage in the development of personalized and self-regulating learning. At this stage students can address an array of issues ranging from learning styles, preferred environment to choice of topics. Planning ahead develops the students' capacity to hypostasize, makes for the acquisition of problem-solving skills and prepares the students to set for themselves predetermined goals and tasks. At the monitoring stage, students can begin to address difficulties that they may have encountered along the way and deepen their understanding as to how to make informed planning. This stage enhances the students' thinking about the learning process or specific task. At the evaluation stage, students can check their performance within a specific task, learn more about the learning process and identify. By task-reflection students take on an active role in their particular learning activities and attempt to consciously organize and control the learning environment and content. Student's reflection is paramount for the development of a critical-evaluative attitude, independent thinking, and promoting skills for scientific reasoning. Responsibility is central here for the student begins to view himself from the perspective of an evaluator, or perhaps, from the teacher's perspective, and therefore acquires the capacity to take the role of an (authoritative) "other" (Mead, 1934).
· Self-reflection: reflection on one’s individual parameters, including preferences, values, goals, abilities, styles, interests etc. This type of reflection increases self-knowledge, which is needed for the enhancement of personalization, self-regulation and intrinsic motivation. Stark (1994) describes self-reflection as an important attribute to increasing personal and professional growth. For learning the skills of self-reflection, Saylor (1990) identified the concept of a safe learning environment as an essential supportive element. Reflective journal writing is found to be a means to provide such a safe environment (Riley-Doucet & Wilson, 1997). Self-reflection is predominantly a process of self-evaluation through which students consider the reasons for doing what they are doing and consider whether the choices they make are consistent with their abilities, goals and preferences. On a deeper level, the students' own basic preferences and needs may be put to the test and questioned. Aside from developing learning skills, self-reflection is an essential feature of the process of becoming an autonomous individual who reasons independently within the learning process, in his everyday actions as well as in the shaping of his/her own identity.
Teachers
"Reflection allows students to take a metacognitive stance to their involvement in the project to explore their own individual and collaborative learning and to determine how the experience has increased their abilities for future academic and professional experiences, as well as informed them as to what skills they need to strengthen".
http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/crmodel/strategies/learning_through_reflection.html
In iClass we have distinguished between two kinds of reflective thinking: task-reflection and self-reflection. Task-Reflection is a cognitive competence whereby the student takes a 'step back' from ongoing activity and considers or evaluates his or her actions or choices while engaging in a specific task, activity or learning process. Fostering task-reflection can be applied in various ways depending on the kind of activity in question. For example, in the case of reading comprehension, a text and questions are given to the students. After responding to the questions (also in multiple choice), the students are asked to answer a series of open questions in which they explain why they have marked what they have marked. In this activity the students are encouraged to evaluate for themselves their answers and stress why or what were the reasons for the choices they made. Similarly, in other types of activities, such as cooperative activities, projects or games, students can be asked the reasons for making a "move" or a series of "moves" and after consideration, asked to indicate in various ways – depending on the nature of the activity - whether the particular course of action that they have taken is either productive/efficient (is it beneficial to the fulfillment of a certain goal or task), commendable (is it the "right" thing to do) or accurate/correct.
At the level of self-reflection, students can be asked to write an online (either personal or shared) diary, personal journal, or blog in which each writes about the experiences he or she had within a certain activity and expresses his/her thoughts concerning individual conduct and perhaps the conduct of others (including the teacher-instructor). In this reflective process, students are asked to be sincere and share their thoughts with others. Reflective thought is a developmental competence which evolves linguistically and therefore demands a certain level of linguistic competence (both verbal and written). Thus, the application of reflective thought should be accompanied by writing instruction. Hatton & Smith (1995) indicate that reflective processes can be fostered by interpersonal relationships.
*Students may be required to complete several activities designed to encourage reflection. These activities may include peer interviews in "critical friend" dyads and written reports wherein they reflect upon the factors that had influenced their thinking and action. Engaging with another person in a way that encourages talking with, questioning, or confronting, helps the reflective process. This situation places the learner in a safe environment where self-revelation can take place. Students are able to distance themselves from their actions, ideas, and beliefs, by holding them up for scrutiny in the company of a peer with whom they are willing to take such risks (Hatton & Smith (1995).
Environments that promote interpersonal interaction may result in greater reflection (Bandura, 1977). Social interaction may enhance motivation and prolong engagement with the task. Social interaction would almost certainly bring forth more information and ideas that could be shared and perhaps result in deeper thinking about the subject. This interaction might take place during the learning activity or it may occur later in formal or informal group discussions.
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/development/reflection.html
**Proposed activity to foster Task-reflection and Self-reflection:
The Human Skeleton by Evelyn De La Paz Rios, Rice Elementary School, http://www.criticalthinking.org/resources/k12/TRK12-remodelled-lesson-4-6.cfm#404
The Students Will:
· make their preconceptions about the skeleton explicit by drawing it
· draw another skeleton after learning more about it, thereby examining, evaluating, and modifying their preconceptions
The students' text has a brief discussion of the human skeleton with the names of the different bones.
Critique
Children in the elementary grades have certain ideas about the human body. Some of these ideas are correct and some are not. We must give children the opportunity to correct those which are incorrect by comparing what they do know with what they do not know and actively make their own modifications.
Strategies used to remodel
· thinking independently
· examining or evaluating assumptions
· evaluating evidence and alleged facts
The students will be divided into partners and will take turns drawing each other's body outline as the person lies on the paper. After drawing the outlines, the students will exchange papers with their partners so that everyone will have an outline of his or her body. Without referring to a text book, each student will draw his or her skeleton in the outline. These drawings will hang in the room while the students gather information about their bodies, comparing it to other animals, machines, and artificial parts.
As students gather the information, they will record and map it out on a second body outline. By critiquing their initial ideas, the students will have a better understanding of the process of expanding their information base.
The students will construct a model of a 5' skeleton using plaster, old sheets, and cardboard tubes. The students will work in groups of 2, 3, or 4 to construct some part of the skeleton. After constructing the parts of the skeleton in proportion to the whole, they will assemble the skeleton.
With the modified knowledge about the human skeleton and the interest and humor engendered by making the models, students will be asked to write some creative response: a short comedy, a mystery, or perhaps a poem.
The teacher might then ask: What were you right about? How did you know those things? What were you wrong about? Why did you think that? How could you have been wrong?
Open Schools
Students:
Tanja said to herself: “Today I make a painting as big as my door”
Then she wanted to start painting: “hmm, the paper is not big enough…..so my painting will be as half as big as I intended.”
She started to paint a giraffe. When she was halfway through she discovered the paper was too low for the long neck of the giraffe. She panted the giraffe eating grass. When she finished she looked at her painting and said: “That is a good one, I will give it to my grandmother.” Then she thought; “I am a good painter, next time I will take a much longer paper.”
In this example Tanja thought about her work. In iClass we call it: reflecting. She had a task (making a painting as big as the door), then she reflected before she started and discovered the paper wasn’t big enough. She decided to make a different drawing. She also reflected during her work and saw the paper was too short. She decided to let the giraffe eat food on the ground. Then she reflected after finishing her work and thought it was OK. In the end she also reflected on her self: She thought she was a good painter. This reflection you can also handle in Iclas subjects and tasks you have/want to do
There are different moments you can reflect on a task (task-reflection)
· before starting your task
· during working on your task
· after finishing your task
And then you can always think about yourself. For example: If you are satisfied about the way you function or if you want to develop or learn more things. We calls this self-reflection
Comics:
Child in an room with a lot of rubbish and toys. Text: “My task is; cleaning up my bedroom, reflection before starting: I have to start somewhere…..”
1. Child cleaning one by one the toys. Text: “reflection during task: “ this will take hours!”
2. Child sitting on his bed all the rubbish under it. Text: “ reflection after task: “well done!” selfreflection: “I am a smart guy!”
Teachers:
Matthew was 17 years old when he decided to go to the art academy. For that he had to do some tasks to show what kind of artist he was. One of the tasks was: design a yellow teapot and your inspiration has to be a woman’s shoe. During the work he discovered that he could not go on, he had no inspiration. So I helped him reflecting the task and the way of working he chose. Than he discovered that the yellow colour was one of the things he did not like. He wanted to use red. So he decided to make a red teapot, because the way Goethe looked to colours; red is a very dark yellow. So he could explain his choice of colour to his teacher When he finished he was satisfied about what he created. The drawings where perfect; working with the clay, making the model was more difficult. His presentation on the art-academy was great especiallybecause of the Goethe- theory. After finishing the project he reflected again. He saw that he had come through an “impossible” task, by NOT doing as he was told. He thought hisclay working could use more exercises. We also could help him to do some self-reflection:” In what moment of this process did you need our help? Do you recognize this in other moments of your life?” He discovered that he often blocked when people tell him what to do. Also the fact that other people had to judge his work made him afraid to use his own creativity; his thinking and fear would take over…. Now he experienced that doing his own thing not only made him succeeded but also gave the project more power.
This example shows how reflection can work. iClass distinguishes 4 ways of reflection:
1. Reflection before you start a task
2. Reflection during the task
3. Reflection after the task
4. Self-reflection
A lot of reflection will happen automatically. Especially self-reflection is important to learn more about yourself. The personal growth will increase. Self-reflection needs a safe learning environment. A way to help children to reflect on their own behaviour is asking them to make a diary. Especially teenagers will be interested to look to their own being in relation to the world.
That is the reason we decided to give the teenagers a practical tool to manifest their personal growth. When they come into the group of teenagers they make an Indian shield ( branches bowed in a circle, in between they made some soft leather)Wwhen they think by themselves they have made an important step in their life, they can draw or sew a symbol of this on the shield. This can be a learning step, or a social step, or whatever. The shields are “holy” and very personal. So nobody may judge it and the person does not have to explain it to anybody if he does not want to do. This is the safety rule, so everybody dares to do the selfreflection. So when a student leaves the school, he can takes the shield with him. The shield presents his personal growth during schooltime.