Week 17: My Reflective Practice

Description

As a Digital Technology teacher to ensure my teaching methods and resources are adequate, differentiated, and specific I frequently ask students informally for feedback.  I do this so that I can  quickly adapt what needs tweaking to suit their needs.  In line with Zeichner and Liston (1996, in Finlay, 2008) this could be seen as both rapid reflection, and repair modifying material instantly to suit as issues occur or are identified. For instance, one international student in my year 11 class had poor English, he was using Microsoft Web Expression 4, and wanted to know how to use the properties panel in his stylesheet to change colour (plus a few other things).  A video tutorial was quickly created to emphasize every step (e.g. cursor highlighted to show him where to click), in addition, links to a translations site to help him understand the material helped too.

 

On the positive, the video instruction was successful as he was able to create the tasks much more rapidly. Alternately, it was too much for him having to translate his language to English, as well as meeting the assessments marking criteria requiring him to submit a written brief - for goodness sakes! the poor boy couldn't speak English let alone write it - that he withdrew from the class.

Upon reflection, these micro video tutorials were fast to make and valuable for future students with limited English. Mid year I also send out a google form that asks similar questions but also allows students to feedback their personal opinions and wants. This has been helpful as students ask questions they wouldn't otherwise do in a class setting.

Comparative
In light of the MindLab survey, 'Evaluate your reflective practice' (Nov, 2017) my reflective critique graded highly, yet poorly for writing reflections, and sharing information.  Comparing it to others' viewpoints was a real contrast.

Along with my fellow graduates I too need to reflect more or share with others. On the other hand I chose to keep my practice separate from social media.  I don't mind sharing information in a private domain however by limiting my sites or pages to specific users only; I do not like sharing my reflections on social media at all, especially when discussing scenarios - in a small country like New Zealand its not hard to investigate. It is acknowledged the depth of information you reveal with regards to moral, legal and ethics, but using social media such as Twitter to share specific information about my practice is my entitlement. Finlay (2018, p. 11) supports, "The teaching and application of reflective practice have generated a range of ethical concerns. These relate to confidentiality, rights to privacy, informed consent and professional relationships... reflection can have a profound emotional impact on the person reflecting and therefore has the potential to be harmful... Given such dangers, the extent to which students or trainees are obliged to engage in reflection is raising concern."

Critical 
Reflective practice informs and renews my perspective in that you are not only reflecting back in time, but in the moment, acting on it, and adapting situations for it. It is the process of looking forward too. Reflective practice through sharing, and collaborating is something I myself need to develop more with.

UPDATE: 10/4/18 to include video and wordcount (547 words)

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