The Role of Critical Reflection in Teacher Education

Critical reflection is a reasoning process to make meaning of an experience. It is

descriptive, analytical, and critical, and can be articulated in a number of ways such as in

written form, orally, or as an artistic expression. In short, this process adds depth and breadth

to experience and builds connections between course content and the experience.

Often, a reflection activity is guided by a set of written prompts. A best practice for critical

reflection is that students respond to prompts before, during, and after their experience;

therefore, the prompts should be adjusted to match the timing of the reflection. Critical

reflection can be integrated into any type of experiential learning activity - inside the

classroom or outside the classroom. It is important to understand what critical reflection is

NOT. It is not a reading assignment, it is not an activity summary, and it is not an emotional

outlet without other dimensions of experience described and analyzed. Critical reflection

should be carefully designed by the instructor to generate and document student learning

before, during, and after the experience. If you are considering using critical reflection, there

are four steps to think about, first is to identify the student learning outcomes related to the

experience. What do you expect students to gain as a result of this activity? Understand

multiple points of view? Be able to propose solutions to a problem? Second, once you

identify the outcomes, then you can design the reflection activities to best achieve the

outcomes. Remember, that critical reflection is a continuous process. Third, engage students

in critical reflection before, during, and after the experience and lasltly assess their learning.

A rubric that outlines the criteria for evaluation and levels of performance for each criterion

can be useful for grading reflection products and providing detailed feedback to students. A
teacher can include metacognition, self-awareness, and considering multiple viewpoints

features that result in reflective action. Reflective teachers are more likely to develop

reflective learners. If teachers practice reflection they can more effectively encourage learners

to reflect on, analyze, evaluate and improve their own learning. These are key skills in

developing them to become independent learners. Personally, I have been involved in a

reflective process in what happens in the management of the university until I was one of the

student leaders and I had to go through it and I was worried about how they interrelate and

how do those divisions link in reaching University's delivery agenda. After our discussion,

students write reflective journals on each reading assignment. In their reflections, they must

show what new knowledge they learned, and they must discuss how they will apply their

understandings in their field placement. Before these structured experiences with critical

reflection, almost every student thinks that reflection is something he or she does. However,

by the end of our first discussion, many students have clearly changed their minds and begin

to refer to what they have been doing as perhaps merely “reporting” what transpired during

the day, realizing that simply sitting back and thinking about what trans- pired during the day

does not make them reflective teachers. By this time, it is clear to the teacher candidates that

there is power in the practice of reflective thinking. At the same time, I can sense that they

are beginning a paradigm shift in the teaching of mathematics from the traditional “show and

tell” approach, by which most of them were taught, toward the constructivist model of

teaching through problem solving and inquiry.

The aim of critical reflection is to assist the learner to unearth and unsettle assumptions

and thus to help identify a new theoretical basis from which to improve and change a practice

situation. In essence, this is the critical reflection process: a reflective analysis, particularly of

power relations, which leads to change effected on the basis of new awareness derived from
that analysis. It is important to emphasize these two aspects of the critical reflection process –

analysis and change. In the process the learner is effectively researching their own practice

and developing their own practice theory directly from their own experience. Not only does

this function to evaluate and scrutinize practice, it also teaches the learner the process of

learning directly from their own concrete practice. In other words, they are learning to create

theory that is applicable to practice.

REFERENCES

Bart, M. (2011, May 11). Critical reflection adds depth and breadth to student learning.

Faculty Focus. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-

design/critical-reflection-adds-depth-and-breadth-to-student-learning/.

Jacoby, B. (2010). How can I promote deep learning through critical reflection? Magna

Publications. Retrieved from http://www.magnapubs.com/mentor-commons/?

video=25772a92#.UjnHBazD-70.