centre for mental health and wellbeing research beginning the internal conversation – spending...

Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Research

Beginning the internal conversation – spending time to build nourishing & communicative relationships

Associate Professor Keith R. McVillyClinical Psychologist & Principal Research Fellow

[email protected]


Today’s presentation• Propose the case that it is as much about

ourselves, as it is about the student

• Explore how reflective practice might provide us with the tools needed to make a difference

• Suggest that if we are to make a difference it starts with the individual, but also requires official sanction and systemic action ‘to make it so’


The Underlying Premise• We need to do things differently • It’s our thoughts and behaviour that

needs to change• We need to consider the complexity of

what we are doing• We need to have a conversation with

ourselves, and make our intentions explicit in practice.

• And make our intentions explicit in policy.


• Supporting people with disabilities

IS rocket science.

• We need to take it seriously, professionally and be committed to doing it well.

4

Take home message


A challenge for educators

• We need to be able to grasp the world beyond our classroom

• The curriculum is an artificial construct

• .... It is only a means to an end


National Assessment Program

• “NAPLAN tests the sorts of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling and numeracy”.


A Starting Point


But where might we need to be heading?


A caution for educators.......

• ‘technique is what we do while we wait for the real teacher to arrive … the most practical thing we can do in any activity to know what is going on inside us when we do it’.

Palmer, P. J. 1998. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.


How might we get there?

• Beginning the internal conversation

• Building nourishing communicative relationships with students

• Moving beyond the curriculum task as the focus of activity


Building a culture of reflective practice

• ‘a way of examining our own subjective thoughts about who we are, our identities, beliefs’

• Smith, E. 2011. “Teaching Critical Reflection.” Teaching in Higher Education 16 (2): 211–22

• See also - Loughran, J. 2002. “Effective Reflective Practice: In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching.” Journal of Teacher Education 53 (1): 33–43.


Building a culture of reflective practice

• ‘If we know who to be, then what to do falls into place’.

Cunliffe, A. L. 2002. “Reflexive Dialogical Practice in Management Learning.” Management Learning 33 (1): 35–61.


Reflective thinking

• The concept of reflection dates back to the time of Aristotle

• Reflective thinking arose from situations of doubt, hesitation, perplexity, and or mental difficulty,

• It encourages the person to search, hunt or inquire to find material to resolve doubt.


What do we need to do?

• ‘a cognitive function that involves consideration, contemplation, speculation, musing and pondering’

Hedberg, P. R. 2009. “Learning Through Reflective Classroom Practice: Applications to Educate the Reflective

Manager.”

Journal of Management Education 33 (1): 10–36.


Components of effective reflective practice

• An attitude of information seeking• Focused observation• Selecting and prioritising data• Recognising patterns and deviations • Interpretation and making sense of data• Calm, confident and considered responses• Clear communication• Openness & flexibility• Commitment to improvement

Tanner CA. Thinking like a nurse: a research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. J Nurs Educ. 2006;45:204-11.


Remember Palmer’s challenge ......

• ‘Going beyond the technique’

• ‘Knowing what is going on inside us when we do it’

Palmer, P. J. 1998. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bas


Keeping a Journal

• Journaling might be useful

• Individual reflection• Group reflection (a team journal?)

Holly, M. L. 1989. Writing to Grow: Keeping a Personal-professional Journal. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.


Moderation Sessions


Applying Graham’s Framework of Attainment to Ourselves


Encounter

• Are we present in the activity?• What evidence is there of our

willingness to share the moment – to be a social being social with another social being?

• What evidence is there of our willingness to tolerate dissonance and how do we cope?


Awareness

• Are we aware of the person with whom we share the moment?

• Are we aware of the moment?• Are we self-absorbed in the action of

‘teaching’?


Attention & Response

• Do we show signs of interest in the person and in the shared moment?

• Do we share surprise, enjoyment, frustration?

• Is this a monologue or a dialogue?


Engagement• How do we respond to and sustain the

moment?• How do we respond to and sustain the

social dimension?

• Listening; • Looking; • Feeling; • Smelling; • Tasting.

• Sharing?


Participation

How are we at:

• Sharing the activity• Sharing the moment• Sequencing our actions• Turn taking• Signalling back and forth – a Sender & a Receiver

• Being both a leader and a follower – a teacher and a learner


Involvement

Do we :

• Make an active effort to reach out to the other?

• Joining in their moment and their activity?• Recognising the worth and validating their

moment and their activity?• Making space in our moment and our

activity for the student?


Policy & Practice

• What is your school’s policy on reflective practice?

• How do you make time and space for this?

• Is it a ‘nice to do’ when we get around to doing it?

• Is it something that needs an official sanction to ‘make it so’?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RwzuYfgyZSY

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