For B.Ed

1. IntroductiontoReflection
Aamir Ali
B.ED (1.5 Year)
The Islamia University of Bahawalpur.

2. What isreflection?
“…the way that we learn from an experience in order to
understand and develop practice”
“We learn through critical reflection by putting ourselves
into the experience & exploring personal & theoretical
knowledge to understand it & view it in different ways”.
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
WhyReflect?
Reflection can help us to feel more aware of and confident in ourselves generally,
and in our teaching role. It can help us to:
 Make the best use of the knowledge available.
 Be conscious of our potential for bias & discrimination.
 Challenge & develop the existing professional knowledge base
 Maximise our own opportunities for learning.
 Recognise what we do well so that we can apply these skills in other
situations
 Improve professional judgment
 Learn from successes and mistakes to enhance development
 Plan for future situations and therefore respond more positively to change
 Meet our legal requirement to undertake CPD

3. What is Reflective Practice?
Reflective Practice is a concept which has been extensively used in education for
some time, and is also adopted by other professionals such as healthcare workers. As
with reflection, there are several models of Reflective Practice which vary from writer
to writer, and organisation to organisation. Some of the key ideas are presented here,
but we do not suggest any one is better than any other. Use the content and ideas
which you think will work best for you!
Definitions of Reflective Practice
Reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater
level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an
awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development.
Schon puts it in a nicely simple way
A dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful. (Schön 1987)
Reflective practice’ is a term often used in education pedagogy. It is a continuous
process from a personal perspective that considers critical incidents within your life’s
experiences.
Reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one’s own experiences in
applying theory to practice. In teacher education it refers to the process of trainees
studying their known teaching methods and determining what works best for the
students. All lecturers need to reflect on their experiences in the classroom and adapt
their strategies accordingly.
Pollard and Tann (1993) laid out a set of six characteristics of reflective practice.
They argued that the reflective practitioner:
 has an active concern with aims and consequences, as well as means and
technical efficiency
 requires competence in methods of classroom enquiry (gathering data,
analysis, evaluation) to support the development of teaching competence
 requires attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness
 is based on teacher judgement which is informed partly by self-reflection and
partly by insights from educational disciplines
 is enhanced through collaboration and dialogue with colleagues
Whatever you are reflecting on, the following points are important:
Reflection is an exploration and explanation of events – not just a description.
Reflection often involves revealing anxieties, errors and weaknesses, as well as strengths
and successes. It is usually necessary to select just the most significant parts of the event
or idea on which you’re reflecting. Don’t try to tell the whole story, or you
will end up only describing rather than reflecting.
It is often useful to reflect forward to the future – when you might do
something differently as a result of reflecting – as well as reflecting back
on the past.

4. What is involved in reflection?
Reflection is part of learning and thinking. We reflect in order to learn
something, or we learn as a result of reflecting, and the term ‘reflective
learning’ emphasises the intention to learn from current or prior experience”
Reflection is a type of thinking aimed at achieving better understanding and
leading to new learning. All of the following are important aspects of the
reflective process:
Making sense of experience
We don’t always learn from experiences on their own.. Through reflection, we
can analyse experience, actively attempting to ‘make sense’ or find the
meaning in it. This should lead to learning.
‘Standing back’
It can be hard to reflect when we are caught up in an activity. Reflection
provides a way of ‘standing back’ from the emotions and quick judgments
made at the time, in order to develop a clearer view or perspective.
Repetition
Reflection involves ‘going over’ something, often several times, in order to
explore what happened from different points of view.
Deeper honesty
Reflection is associated with ‘striving after truth’. Through reflection, we can
acknowledge things that we find difficult to admit at the time: feelings or
thoughts we might have chosen to ignore at the time, particularly if we felt
unsure or worried about what others might think.
‘Weighing up’
Reflection involves being even-handed, or balanced in judgement. This
means taking everything into account, not just the most obvious.
Clarity
Reflection can bring greater clarity, like seeing events reflected in a mirror.
This can help at any stage of planning, carrying out and reviewing activities.
Understanding
Reflection is about learning and understanding on a deeper level. This
includes gaining valuable insights that cannot be just ‘taught’.
Making judgements
Reflection involves an element of drawing conclusions in order to move on,
change or develop an approach, strategy or activity.

5. ReflectionProcess:
Description
What happened? Give a concise, factual account
Provide relevant details, aims of exercise and what actually happened.
Aim to put the reader in the picture.
Feelings
Identify and examine reactions, feelings and thoughts at the time.
It is important, although often difficult, to be honest about these.
How can you explain your feelings? What was affecting them? Did they
change? Why?
How did they affect your actions and thoughts at the time?
Looking back, has your understanding of your feelings changed your view of
the situation?
Evaluation
Look at the judgements you made at the time about how things were going.
What was positive? Negative? What made you think this?
Try to stand back from the experience to gain a sense of how it went.
What made you think something was good or bad?
Examine your own judgements and what contributed to them. How do you
feel about them now?
Analysis
In this section of the reflection, you need to examine the experience in depth, and
start to theorise about key aspects. Try to identify an overarching issue, or key
aspect of the experience that affected it profoundly, which needs to be examined for
the future. For example, an aspect of communication or time management might
have played a central part in the outcome.
How was it flawed this time? In what way? Why? How should it work in this
situation?
What ideas or theories are you aware of which look at this? Does theory

6. about this aspect help you make more sense of what happened?
Could you use theory to improve this aspect in the future?
In this section, you need to fully examine and make sense of factors affecting the
situation, and exploring ways to change and develop these.
Conclusion
Sum up the key things learned through the reflective process, the main factors
affecting the situation, and what to improve. This section might include naming
specific skills that need developing, or aspects of organisation to improve. You
might identify new knowledge or training which is needed.
Action plan
This should be a practical section:
What could you do differently next time and how could you prepare for this?
What areas need developing or planning? What resources do you need,
and where would they be found?
What steps will be taken first?
Thesignificanceof ‘reflection’ forteachers
Reflection is a very important practice for teachers as it relates to whether teachers
can continue to move forward, and whether teachers can improve teaching practice
so as to become good teachers. But in the end, reflection ‘is in our own best interests”.
Brookfield (1995) gives us six reasons in answering the importance of ‘reflection’ for
teachers:
1. It helps us take informedactions
For example, when are questioned as to why we
are doing something, we can show how our action springs form certain assumptions
we hold about teaching and learning, and then make a convincing case for their
accuracy by laying out the evidence that undergirds them.
This is true for those teachers who constantly reflect their teaching beliefs /
assumptions and practice. Such teachers can have their teaching beliefs /
assumptions and practice firmly grounded in a clearly understood rationale. They can
justify their teaching beliefs / assumptions and practice when needed.
2. It helps us develop a rationale for practice.
Brookfield (1995) provides us such explanation:
A rational for practice serves as a methodological and ethical touchstone. It
provides a foundational reference point—a set of continually tested beliefs
that we can consult as a guide to how we should act in unpredictable
situations.
3. It helps us avoid ‘traps of demoralization and self-laceration
As teachers often encounter various problems in classroom teaching, for
example, despite our best effort, students show resistance in learning or become
uncooperative / disruptive in the classrooms, or when dropout happens, quite often
‘we tend to accept the blame for problems that are not of our own making’. Another

7. situation is, ‘We become depressed when ways of
behaving toward students and colleagues that we think are democratic and respectful
are interpreted as aloof or manipulative.’ But chances are that it is due to social,
emotional, cultural, and economic pressures entirely beyond our control. If we are
critically reflective, we can avoid all these ‘traps of
demoralization and self-laceration’.
4. It grounds us emotionally.
Teachers can be caught in emotional roller coaster where
every action either confirms our brilliance or underscores our failure. Either we
withdraw from the classroom or we are forced to suppress the emotional content of
our daily experiences. If we have the habit of critical reflection, it can ground us
emotionally.
5. It enlivens our classroom.
Critically reflective teachers are more likely to have classes that are challenging,
interesting, and stimulating for students as they ‘turn the classroom
into a laboratory for purposeful experimentation’
6. It increases democratic trust.
If we adopt a reflective practice, we will know that
something about the effects we are having on students. A teacher who takes students
seriously and treats them as adults shows that she / he can be trusted.
D. Sehon as Reflective Practioner
Donald Schön's 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner introduced concepts such as
reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action which explain how professionals meet
the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through
practice. However, the concepts underlying reflective practice are much older.
Schön built on Dewey’s work and linked reflection more solidly to professional
development and professional practice. Schön claimed that by using reflection,
practitioners can make explicit, hidden (tacit) knowledge. This knowledge is the theory
that underpins what practitioners do often by instinct. Further, this new understanding
can help practitioners improve their practice and become increasingly expert at what
they do.
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.
Major techniques of Reflection

8. Reflective journals
Keeping a reflective journal – sometimes also called a learning journal – is a way to
reflect through documenting ideas, feelings, observations and visions. It can be done
on paper or on a computer. Keeping a reflective journal can help you to
 focus your thoughts and develop your ideas
 develop your voice and gain confidence
 experiment with ideas and ask questions
 organize your thinking through exploring and mapping complex issues
 develop your conceptual and analytical skills
 reflect upon and make sense of experiences and the processes behind them
 express your feelings and emotional responses
 become aware of your actions and strategies
 develop your writing style and skills, and explore different styles of writing
 Develop a conversation with others.
When keeping a reflective journal, these tips may be useful:
 write for yourself, and write every day
 be informal, using language you are comfortable with
 write by hand if you prefer
 write in your own language
 be relaxed and comfortable
 try sitting in different places and positions
 use diagrams and drawings
 record not just events but reflection on process
 ask questions and challenge assumptions
 connect personal and professional experiences to concepts and theories.
Peer groups and Co-operative Inquiry
A group of peers who meet on a regular basis to learn and reflect together can be a
powerful supporting element of individual reflective practice. The group, which decides
together how to use and organize its time, may discuss work-related issues, share
learning journal excerpts or try out a form of collective reflective practice.
Co-operative Inquiry is a reflective practice method for groups which was initially
developed by John Heron to support the reflective practice of participatory
researchers. Heron, a pioneer in the development of participatory methods in the
social sciences, describes the theory and practice of the method in his 1996 book, Co-
operative Inquiry: research into the human condition. It involves a group working
through a structured, four-stage cycle of action and reflection, through which group
member’s move towards developing new ways of acting.
Methods from research and other fields
Reflective practice, reflexivity and first person inquiry are used in research to explore
issues of power and positionality and to make the role and assumptions of researchers
more explicit and integral to their analysis. There are many approaches to this, which

9. include methods from qualitative ethnographic and anthropological research,
participatory and action research, and feminist research.
Issues in becoming a reflective Practioner
Difficulties with learning to teach
Learning from your experience in schools is central to your ITE (Initial Teacher
Education) and your subsequent professional development. During your course, your
school placements will develop your practical skills and knowledge and provide you
with opportunities to demonstrate your learning. Time in school is likely to make up the
vast majority of your course time so how do you make sure you are learning effectively
while you are there? To help you understand how to learn effectively, it is worthwhile
considering some of the complexities of workplace learning in order to frame our
discussion of how reflective practice can support you.
Complexities of workplace learning
Working in any specific educational context is likely to highlight differences of opinion.
These may be the result of differences between:
 members of staff about what strategies they employ or the beliefs they hold
 the pedagogy of different teachers and the pedagogy promoted by your ITE
course leaders
 ideas you have read about in journals or books and what you see happening in
the school
 your own beliefs, views and assumptions and those of other people.
Critical Thinking and its Application
Primary Sources
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person,
or work of art. Primary sources provide the original materials on which other research
is based and enable students and other researchers to get as close as possible to
what actually happened during a particular event or time period.
Examples of primary sources:
 Autobiographies and memoirs
 Diaries, personal letters, and correspondence
 Interviews, surveys, and fieldwork
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate,
summarize, and process primary sources. A secondary source is generally one or
more steps removed from the event or time period and are written or produced after

10. the fact with the benefit of hindsight. Secondary sources often lack the freshness and
immediacy of the original material.
Examples of secondary sources:
 Bibliographies
 Biographical works
 Reference books, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and atlases
8 Characteristics of Academic Writing
Academic writing has eight characteristics: complexity, formality, precision, objectivity,
explicitness, accuracy, hedging and responsibility. They should all be taken into
consideration when writing an academic text, but the one that is predominant also
dictates the style of that writing. No concession should be made from these eight
features and they should be kept in mind at all times by anyone attempting to be an
academic writer.
1. Complexity in Academic Writing
Complexity in academic writing comes from the fact that the standard written form
of the English language, which is compulsory to be used, is different than the
language we speak daily. The vocabulary used by the written language is more
varied than the one used in conversations. It also uses more complicated words
that are not normally used when talking with someone face to face. The
grammatical aspect of the written language is also different because we don’t
normally use in speaking so many subordinate clauses and passives. The phrases
in the written language are noun-based and those in speaking language are verb-
based. This also makes academic writing different from face to face communication
or other types of writing.
2. Formality in AcademicWriting
In close connection with complexity is formality. Under no circumstances will
academic writing make use of colloquial expression that we consider natural in
daily dialogues we have with friend or colleagues. The degree of formality should
thus be pretty high.
3. Precision or Words in Academic Writing
Academic writing should be very precise. Factual information, figures or charts,
should all be provided and nothing written there should leave room to
interpretation.
4. Academic Writing Objectivity
Another important characteristic is objectivity. Academic writing is not about the
reader or the writer and it shouldn’t contain referrals to any of these. It should focus

11. on the main theme and offer information about it, without the writer getting involved
in a personal manner. This is why nouns are more used than verbs or adverbs.
5. Academic Writing in Explicit Form
The author of an academic writing is responsible for make it explicit and for making
clear how different parts of the text are connected between them and why are they
relevant for the central theme. There are certain words that can be used in order
to emphasis this connection and they are called signaling words.
6. Accuracy of Academic Writing
An accurate use of vocabulary is a must in a text that wants to be academic. Extra
attention should be paid when using words with a specific meaning and the writer
should know that there is a clear distinction between phonetics and phonemics.
This distinction is not so important when it comes to the general use of English
language.
7. Hedge
Some academic writers choose to use a technique called hedge. This has to do with the
way that writer decides to approach a certain subject and with how strong the claims he
makes are.
8. Responsibility in Academic Writing
Last, but not least, academic writing should be treated with responsibility.
Everything stated should be accompanied by proofs and justifications and no
assumptions are allowed. Sources should also be mentioned.