Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ami Reflection and Updated References
Ami Reflection and Updated References
all
For myself and my students, I need to take a reflexive approach to my teaching. By being able to
take a step back from my pedagogical practice, and critically analyse how successful or unsuccessful
my methods are and making changes where necessary, I hope to continue my journey as both
learner and teacher. I need to always “apply critically reflective lenses to my work” (Faulkner &
Crowhurst, 2015) by taking what I’ve learnt in preservice and continuously building on and applying
building my own skills and resilience (Ferfolja, Jones Diaz, & Ullman, 2015).
As an English teacher with high expectations of my students, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to achieve a
connection with them through the use of language, and pedagogical activities such as creative
writing and close analysis of texts. The choice of these texts needs to aim high – I don’t want to
generalise my students and underestimate their capacity to deal with powerful or confronting
material (Sulzer & Hertling Thein, 2016). Additionally, I don’t want to necessarily always focus on
the negativity in some texts, I’d rather promote positive education and unpack the strengths of
characters and how they deal with setbacks (Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009).
What I’d really like to be mindful of is to try to avoid ‘essentialising’ (Sulzer & Hertling Thein, 2016)
my students, and grouping them under the ‘Adolescent’ umbrella that is socially constructed in
Western Society. By recognising that my individual students have multiple competing demands for
their attention, and how these intersecting spheres of influence can impact on their ability to want
to or even believe that they can achieve great things, I aim to be a mindful and considerate teacher.
References
Arnett, J. J. (2014). Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood (Fifth ed.). Essex, England: Pearson
Education Limited.
Blumenthal, H., Leen-Feldner, E. W., Babson, K. A., Gahr, J. L., Trainor, C. D., & Frala, J. L. (2011).
Elevated Social Anxiety Among Early Maturing Girls. Developmental Psychology, 47(4),
1133-1140.
De Witte, K., Cabus, S., Thyssen, G., Groot, W., & Maassen van den Brink, H. (2013). A critical
review of the literature on school dropout. Educational Research Review, 10, 13-28.
Erickson, S. J., & Feldstein, S. W. (2007). Adolescent Humor and its Relationship to Coping, Defense
Strategies, Psychological Distress and Wellbeing. Child Psychiatry Human Development, 37,
255-271.
Gore, J., Holmes, K., Smith, M., Fray, L., McElduff, P., Weaver, N., & Wallington, C. (2017).
Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for
university equity initiatives in schools. Higher Education Research & Development, 1-18.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1325847
Hawkins, S., McKenzie, V., & Frydenberg, E. (2006). Coping Skills Training to Adolescent Girls in a
Huntley, J., & Owens, L. (2013). Collaborative conversations: adolescent girls' own strategies for
managing conflict in their peer groups. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth,
18(4), 236-247.
Khattab, N., & Jones, C. P. (2006). Growing Up Girl: Preparing for Change through Group Work. The
Waterman and Elizabeth Walker. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 42(1),
98-99.
Mrug, S., Elliott, M. N., Davies, S., Tortolero, S., Cuccaro, P., & Schuster, M. A. (2014). Early
Puberty, Negative Peer Influence, and Problem Behaviours in Adolescent Girls. Pediatrics,
133(1), 1-8.
Seligman, M. E., Ernst, R. M., Gillham, J., Reivich, K., & Linkins, M. (2009). Positive education:
Positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293-
311.
Smith, A. R., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2014). Peers Increase Adolescent Risk Taking Even When
the Probabilities of Negative Outcomes are Known. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1564-
1568.
Sulzer, M. A., & Hertling Thein, A. (2016). Reconsidering the Hypothetical Adolescent in Evaluating
and Teaching Young Adult Literature. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 60(2), 163-
171.