reflective practice in teacher learning-PHD.doc

Towards Knowledge Building: Reflecting on Teachers’ Roles and Professional Learning in Communities of Practice Elizabeth Anne Hartnell-Young, 2003, PhD thesis submitted to Department of Education Policy and Management, The University of Melbourne Reflective practice in teacher learning The concept of the reflective practitioner is based on integrating theory and practice, in that the investigation of practice, and the considered reflection on practice are the driving force for the generation of theory. It is therefore, an authentic practice for teachers to engage in. Dewey (1933) drew attention to the need to link the theory of reflection to the practices of teacher education, and the movement has gathered momentum in recent times. In most of the literature surveyed, reflection is closely linked with action. Dewey observed that reflective thinking involves a state of doubt in which thinking originates and an act of searching to resolve the doubt; it therefore looks both back and forward. He made a distinction between routine action and reflective action, suggesting that routine action is guided by factors such as tradition, habit and authority and by institutional definitions and expectations, and is therefore relatively static and unresponsive to changing priorities and circumstances. Reflective action, on the other hand, implies flexibility, rigorous analysis and social awareness. It involves a willingness to engage in constant self-appraisal and development. However in many western technological societies, in particular, the action mode appears to dominate the reflection mode (Kolb, 1984b) and in Victoria the demand to innovate often appears to be interpreted as a further call to action rather than reflection. Schon (1983) describes two forms of reflection: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. Teachers often engage in the former as they act flexibly or think on their feet, but it is the latter — the systematic and deliberate thinking back over one’s