Fletcher and Ovens (2015) speak to this as a way of provoking educators to think deeply about their practice. They look to 2011 work by Brown that advocates strongly for the use of self-study. Brown believes that self-study is an important aspect of continuing professional learning. “It is a form of practitioner research in which the development of personal, pedagogical knowledge is facilitated through a careful examination of one’s own learning beliefs, practices, processes, contexts, and relationships (Loughran, 2004; Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015)”. (as Cited in Fletcher & Ovens, 2015, p.215)
Attard and Armour (2005) believe that the ongoing reflective process helps a teacher to rethink and reassess their practice. This, they believe, opens the educator up to new interpretations and allows the educator to possibly change, adapt, and modify their practice. Attard and Armour (2005) also discuss how this is a continuum of learning and doesn’t happen in stages and it is just as important to share reflections within a group in order to gain a wider perspective on the self. The exploration of self-studies by Hamilton and Pinnegar in 2015 reveal that interest, surprise, and curiosity can be key ingredients in orienting self-study researchers in their work. They also show that engaging in dialogue about self-study research can orient, deepen, and sharpen questions, meaning that it cannot happen in isolation. Guidelines for quality in self-study research include interactivity as one of several core features (Fletcher, Ní Chróinín & O’Sullivan, 2016) So "Self Study" means to be a reflective educator. But what then is a reflective educator? A reflective educator uses reflection as an action to engage in the process of continuous learning. It involves learning from your professional experiences, rather than from formal learning methods. It is an important way to bring together theory and practice, as through reflection, the educator can attribute language and theory to his/her personal practice. It is not just a process of looking back on past actions but a conscious effort to look at emotions, experiences, actions, responses and outcomes of activities and lessons, then using this information to reach a higher level of understanding of your practice. The largest impediment to proper reflective practice is the time it takes to properly work through the exercise. Time is already at a premium during a teaching day and the added time for reflection is often just not there. With that in mind I feel that there are three levels to the reality of reflective practice. The first level is the easiest and most often used. This happens on the spot, in lesson reflections on what is happening and how you can modify the activity or lesson immediately to better achieve your goals for that lesson. This is situational and often will help to address problems arising either within the activity itself or in the resulting student experiences/behaviours. The second level is an extension of the first and basically involves taking the modifications from the reflection during a previous class and applying these changes and improvements to the next class. The third level is the least used and the most difficult to develop. This is reflecting afterwards on how a lesson, class, unit, or program went, then taking the reflective thoughts and applying them to future planning. This is a true reflective practitioner and this person allocates time and energy to the process of reflecting on their practice. This can be done in a number of ways and is likely an exercise in trial and error. Typical methods of reflecting would be journaling, collaborative journal writing, self-assessment forms, video recording of teaching, peer review, mentor/protégé experiences, student feedback, concept mapping, brainstorming, free writing, and problem solving. Articles Referenced: Fletcher, Tim & Ovens, Alan. (2015). Self-study in physical education: bridging personal and public understandings in professional practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education, 6(3), 215-219. doi: 10.1080/18377122.2015.1092721 Attard, Karl & Armour, Kathleen M. (2005). Learning to become a learning professional: reflections on one year of teaching. European Journal of Teacher Education, 28(2), 195- 207. doi: 10.1080/02619760500093321 Hamilton, Mary Lynn & Pinnegar, Stephinee. (2015). Considering the role of self- study of teaching and teacher education practices research in transforming urban classrooms, Studying Teacher Education, 11(2), 180-190. doi: 10.1080/17425964.2015.1045775 Fletcher, Tim, Ní Chróinín, Déirdre & O’Sullivan, Mary. (2016). A Layered Approach to critical friendship as a means to support pedagogical innovation in pre-service teacher education. Studying Teacher Education, 12(3), 302-319. doi: 10.1080/17425964.2016.1228049
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