Whatever a person does, whether pre-planned or incidental, it needs to be reflected upon. Usually an action is reflected upon after it has taken place which plays a vital role in understanding what happened and why it happened. But what many people underestimate is the significance of reflection before an action and while the action is taking place. Both reflection-on-action (after an action) and reflection-in-action (while the action is taking place) complete the circle of a successful reflection.
But what should be understood at this particular point of time is why reflection in the first place is needed, either before or after an action has taken place, and why it is important for learning.
Learning can be complex as well as very simple if one truly understands how to proceed with it to be more effective. In the words of J. Moon (1999), “Reflection is a form of mental processing — like a form of thinking — that we use to fulfill a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. It is applied to relatively complicated or unstructured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution and is largely based on the further processing of knowledge and understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess.”
If this explanation of reflection is closely analysed, one should be able to infer that reflection is a key step for making learning simple and meaningful. It clearly states that if an outcome is to be achieved a person needs to reflect upon his/her actions to find a solution for complicated ideas. Once a solution, to the difficulties faced by people, is sorted, learning becomes relatively simpler.
Talking about the teaching world, the teachers on a day to day basis come across many such difficulties which students face while learning. Every teacher tries to find solutions to such problems in which he/she is successful at times and at other times is not able to help in any form. This is where reflection takes over and becomes integral to finding the solutions to the problems faced by the students. Whenever a teacher comes across any problem faced by students all he/she needs to do is reflect upon the actions observed by him/her and then try to find a solution depending on his/her observations. But the problem which he/she will face is where to start from? There are many models given by different people which help the teachers reflect on the problems of which solutions are required. A reflective thinking model gives a complete sequence of the steps to be taken in order to find a solution to the identified problems.
According to this model, the first and foremost step to reflection is identifying a problem and framing it using the gathered information. Once the problem is framed all possible solutions which are feasible are to be set and experimented to evaluate whether the solution is practical or not. If the solution is workable then the teacher can implement it for solving the identified problem. If not, then the entire process can be repeated till a solution is taken out.
But reflection is not used merely to find out solutions to the problems. Finding out solutions is only one side of the coin. Reflection can be used in many different ways for many different purposes. One of the purposes in the current times for the teachers is to become reflective practitioners rather than just being teachers. John Dewey considers three attitudes extremely important for reflecting and becoming reflective practitioners: open-mindedness (being open to new ideas), whole-heartedness (being thoroughly involved in a subject or cause) and responsibility (being responsible for one’s actions). If any teacher possesses the attitudes mentioned the entire process of teaching and learning becomes meaningful.
All the teachers who leave an everlasting impact on the students always reflect before doing an act (anticipatory reflection), while doing an act (contemporaneous reflection) and after they have done an act (retrospective reflection). Reflection on the actions at different stages helps the teachers to be more effective in the manner they teach and leave an unforgettable impact on the students. Anticipatory reflection is the first and most common form of reflection which teachers use to counter the question: “How should I approach a particular lesson?”
This form of reflection becomes a guide for the teachers before they actually teach the lesson and helps them in addressing the difficulties they might face during the lesson or at least getting prepared for the problem that might occur during the teaching process. Preparedness of the teachers enables them to be more responsive towards the existence of the events that will occur during the lesson.
Contemporaneous reflection lends a hand to the teachers in thinking on their feet. It helps a teacher to know that we can think about doing something while doing it. It is reflection that is immediately responsive to the learning environment and can assist in handling anticipated or unexpected events. It leads to learning from testing during a teaching
episode and requires a personal acceptance of the risks involved. It requires the teachers to be extensively aware of all the actions taking place during the lesson and to be proactive in responding to those actions.
Retrospective reflection starts with the questions, what happened and why did it happen. It helps to analyse the result of the teaching approaches used, which were decided in the anticipatory reflection. It does not restrict only to this but also helps in improving the lacking in the teaching. It focuses on why something was done rather than how it was done. Using the retrospective reflection the teachers can become aware of the mistakes they commit in their lessons and can correct them for the forthcoming lessons.
The most common tool that can be used by the teachers for reflecting is a reflective diary, which contains ideas, questions and observations that arise from everyday experience. Every time a teacher observes something critical, a reflection should be written. A detailed description of the events and the reasons associated with them are to be noted so that nothing important is missed out. A habitual practice of maintaining and writing the observations in the reflective diary helps in solving the problems and issues which otherwise might have remained unsolved.
Reflection evaluates the process of teaching and learning and gives opportunities for improvement to the teachers. It also helps them in becoming lifelong effective educators.
If a teacher is habitual of reflecting on his/her own actions, he/she can teach the students to be reflective learners, too. By doing this the teachers can make their students better learners and can guide them to become responsible for their own actions so that they may learn to correct them, if needed.
