Reflection and critical reflection
Definition:
Reflective teachers strive to tailor their teaching strategies and approaches to specific contexts, as well as invent new strategies and create personal solutions to problems. Reflective teaching may be instrumental in successfully tackling sensitive topics in a classroom and improve teachers’ ability to better deal with issues of diversity.
Reflection by itself, however, need not be critical, and deliberation about the “nuts and bolts of classroom process” is reflection void of critical aspects (Brookfield 1995). Instead, reflection must be critical when it has two purposes: 1) to question the existing power hierarchies that underpin and sometimes distort educational process and interactions 2) to question our own assumptions and practices of teaching that seem to make our lives easier but might actually reproduce the existing hierarchies. (Brookfield 1995). Let’s consider an example to illustrate the difference:
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Reflection: Setting deadlines for students’ submission of papers more effectively
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Critical reflection: investigation and questioning of the sources of authority underlying the establishment of assessment criteria and submission deadlines (Brookfield 1995)
Consequently, a critically reflective teacher is concerned with “garner[ing] an increased awareness of his or her teaching from as many different vantage points as possible” (Miller 2010). To that end, teachers engage in critical reflection, when they discover, analyze and re-evaluate the assumptions they make about teaching and learning.
| Reflective teaching helps with | Critically reflective teaching helps with |
|---|---|
| establishing democratic and inclusive classroom relationships and interactions | awareness and understanding of implications and consequences of classroom power dynamics on students and their learning (Larrivee 2000, 295) |
| becoming conscious about classroom diversity in terms of students’ emotional and intellectual needs | self-reflection and conscious examinations of personal values and beliefs that inform our teaching approaches (Larrivee 2000, 295) |
| creating authentic learning communities | improving professional practices via regular feedback (Shandomo 2010) |
| turning students into active inquirers | acting deliberately and intentionally when making choices about the learning experiences for students (Shandomo 2010) |
Works Cited
Larrivee, B. (2000). “Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher” Reflective Practice, 1:3, 293-307.
Brookfield, S.D. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Miller, B. (2010). “Brookfield’s Four Lenses: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher”. Avaialble at: https://valenciacollege.edu/faculty/development/courses-resources/documents/Brookfield_summary.pdf
Shandomo, H. M. (2010) “The Role of Critical Reflection in Teacher Education. ERIC 4(1), 101-113.