TOPIC: RELEVANCE

OF REFLECTIVE

PRACTICES IN TEACHING

NATURAL SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION

Reflective practice is the capacity to reflect on action so as to

engage in a process of continuous learning. According to one definition

it involves. Paying critical attention to the practice values and theories

which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and

reflexively. This leads to developmental insight.

Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice based

professional learning. Settings where individuals learning from their

own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or

knowledge transfer, may be the most important source of personal

professional development and improvement.

In this seminar 1 included and studied about the ‘Relevance of

Reflective Practices in teaching Natural science, in this seminar

contains the definition of reflective practices, features of reflective

practices and the relevance or importance of reflective practices.

CONTENT

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Reflective practice was introduced by ‘Donald SC bon in his

book. The reflective practioner in 1983. However, the concepts under

laying reflective practice are much older.

John Dewey was among the first to write about reflective

practice with his exploration of experience, interaction and reflection.

Other researchers such as Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James and

Carl Jung were developing theories of human learning and

development. Marcus Ayrelius’ Meditations has also been described as

an example of reflective practice.

Dewey’s works inspired writers such as Donald section and

David Bound to explore the boundaries of reflective practice. Central

to the development of reflective theory was interest in the integration

of theory and practice, the cyclic pattern of experience and the

conscious application of that learning experience.

DEFINITIONS OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Reflective practice is a way of studying your own experiences to

improve the way you work. It is very useful for health

professionals who want to carry on learning thought their lives.

Reflective practice is the capacity to reflect on action so as to

engage in a process of continuous learning

Reflective practice is the habitual and judicious use of

communication, knowledge, technical skills, reasoning,

emotions, values and reflection in daily for the benefit of the

individuals and communities being served.

Frame the problem of the situation the practioner determine the

features to which they will attend the order they will attempt to

impose on the situation, the directions in which they will try to

change it. In this process, they identify both the ends to be

sought and the means to be employed.

Reflective practice is a process by which you stop and think

about your practice, consciously analyse your practice, decision

making and draw on theory and relate it to what you do in

practice.

Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice based

professional learning settings were individuals learning from

their own professional experiences rather than from formal

teaching or knowledge transfer, may be the most important

source of personal professional development and improvement

further it is also an important way to be able to bring together

theory and practice. Through reflection you are able to see and

label schools of thought and theory within the context of your

work.

FEATURES OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Reflective teaching implies an active concern with aims and

consequences, as well as means and technical efficiency.

Reflective teaching is applied in a cyclical or spiralling process,

in which teachers monitor, evaluate and revise their own practice

continuously.

Reflective teaching requires competence in methods of evidence

based classroom enquiry, to support the progressive

development of high standards of teaching.

Reflective teaching requires attitudes of open mindedness,

responsibility and whole heartedness

Reflective teaching is based on teacher judgement, informed by

evidence – based enquiry and insights from other research.

Reflective teaching, professional learning and personal

fulfilment and are enhanced through collaboration and dialogue

with colleagues.

It enables teacher to creatively mediate externally developed

frame works for learning and teaching.

STEPS / STAGES

The act of reflection is a great way to increase confidence and

become a more proactive and qualified professional. Engaging in

reflective practice should help to improve the quality of care you give

and close the gap between theory and practice.

GIBB’S REFLECTIVE CYCLE

Gibb’s reflective cycle is process involving six steps

Description

What happened

Feelings

What did you think and feel about it?

Evaluation

What are the positives and negatives

Analysis

What sense you make of it?

Conclusion

what else could you have done

Action plan

What will you do next time

It is a ‘Cycle’ because the action you take in the final stage will

feed back into the first stage beginning the process again

The concept of Reflective practice centers around the idea of

lifelong learning in which a practitioner analyses experiences in order

to learn from them reflective practice is used to promote independent

professionals who are continuously engaged in the reflection of

situations they encounter in their professional works. Several models

of reflection exist and are used to draw lessons out of experiences.

Description (What Happend)

Feelings

(What were you thinking and feeling)

Evaluation (What was good and bad about

the experience)

Analysis

(What sense can you make of the s i tuation)

Conclusion

(What else could you have done)

Action Plan

(If i t arose again what would you do ?)

The Different models of reflective practice are given below

(a) Single and double loop learning model by Argyris and schon

(1978)

(b) Kolb’s reflective practice model (1975)

(c) Gibb’s Reflective practice Model (1988)

(d) Johns Reflective practice Model (1995)

(e) Brookfield Reflective practice Model (1998)

(f) Rolfe’s Reflective Model (2001)

(g) Ganshirt (2007)

Benefits

Increased learning from a experience for situation

Promotion of deep learning

Identification of personal and personal, professional Strengths

and areas for improvement

Identification of educational needs

Acquisition of new knowledge and skills

Farther understanding of own belief, attitudes and values

Encouragement of self motivation and self directed learning

could act as a source of feedback

Possible improvement of personal and clinical confidence

Demerits

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 situation / experiences to reflect

upon

May not be adequate to resolve clinical problems

RELEVANCE OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN TEACHING

NATIONAL SCIENCE

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the class

room, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it

works- a process of self observation and self evaluation

Reflective practice is help to collecting information about what

goes on in our class room, and by analysing and evaluating the

information, we can identifying and explore our own practices

and underlying beliefs.

It may them lead to changes and improvements in our teaching

Reflective practice is there for a means professional

development which begins in our class room

Reflective teaching implies a more systematic process of

collecting, recording and analysing our thoughts, observation as

well as those of our students, and then going on to making

changes

If a lesson went well we can describe it and think about why it

was successful

If the students did ‘nt understand a part or portion, we

introduced we need to think about what we did and why it may

have been under

If students are misbehaving what were they doing, when and

why?

Reflective practice is help to modify our teaching methods and

to know about the following facts

How much do you talk

What about are instructions and explanations clear?

How much time does you all cate to student talk?

How do you respond to student talk?

How do you come across to the students

It helps to improve our teaching method

It give more confidence to teach natural science very effective

It give motivation it our teaching method

It give opportunity to share more knowledge about the natural

science to students

It emphasis the way of teaching

CONCLUSION

Reflective teaching is a cyclical process, because once you start

to implement changes, then the reflective and evaluative cycle begins

again. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? How effective is it?

How are the students responding? How can you do it better? As do

something different ways or you may just decide that what you are

doing is the best way. And that is what professional development is all

about.

Reflective practice is help to modify our teaching method,

communication to the students, presentation etc. It develops or improve

the teaching process. We can make our teaching more critically

analysing and evaluating our own practices and it give opportunity to

improve our teaching.

REFERENCE

Tony liver sidge, Marttcochrane Bernie Kerfoot

(2009) Teaching Science, Developing as a Reflective

Secondary Teacher

Jessy Mathews (2008)

Teaching of Natural Science- Theory, perspectives and

practice

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