[LIT] Reflection--what does it mean

[Heather Poland]

I think "evaluation" and "reflection" are VERY different. For example, in a
grad class of mine, last summer we had to *evaluate* a teaching strategy we
used in the classroom. It was not about reflection at all, and she held us
to the evaluating piece. For the next class (same professor, next class in
series) she is having us do *reflections* of articles we read. This is very
different. She assumes we read the piece and we are responding to a part of
the article that moved us. I think it is VERY valuable and I do this with my
studentsd. They have to write a reflection on what they read. It gets them
away from writing a summary and into thinking deeper about what they read. I
think what they fail to mention in the article is that good teachers use
*multiple* strategies. I don't only use reflections, I do more concrete work
as well. I think these people tend to look at ONE aspect of something and
run with it, totally ignoring the fact that good teachers use multiple
strategies.

On 9/1/06, Beverly Maddox <bmaddox at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> I saw this in today's Public Education network newsletter--it caught
> my attention because, altho I use the term as freely as anyone else,
> I've never been sure others (especially students) understand what I
> mean.  This year I try to follow us my directions to "write a
> reflection" with explanations like "Think about something you've read
> or experienced and write down your thoughts".  The article made me
> defensive at first.  If you have a few minutes, take a look at the
> article and reflect on it....:
>
> EDUCATORS BEGIN REFLECTING ON THEIR REFLECTIONS "Reflection" as both
> word and action may be the trendiest trend in all of education.
> Education students learn how to be reflective teachers in education
> school. Then, in their own classrooms, they ask their students to
> write reflections on what they have read. After class, the teachers do
> reflections on their own lessons. Principals, administrators, other
> staff members -- all are increasingly urged or even required to engage
> in reflection. And what, a lay person might well ask, does reflection
> mean? A reasonable definition would be "thinking about what you're
> doing," as Professor David F. Labaree, puts it with welcome and
> all-too-rare clarity. It means pausing to take stock in a journal of
> how you felt about the short story you just read or figuring out why
> the lesson you just taught faltered halfway through. "'Reflection' is
> a loosey-goosey term that sounds deep enough to be acceptable for the
> image that ed schools want to convey," said Sandra Stotsky, an
> education consultant. "It's a substitute for real good, useful, hard
> words that used to be prevalent in talking about teacher's work --
> critique, evaluation, analysis," she said. "'Evaluation' sounds like
> there are actually some criteria involved. Whereas if you 'reflect,'
> it sounds psychologically deep and relativistic." The more lucid
> advocates of reflection make the case that it helps students face,
> understand and correct flaws in their writing. In the form of journals
> or notebooks, reflection also affords students the chance to respond
> to works they have read and, in the process, to feel some sense of
> capability as writers. The better education courses have aspiring
> teachers reflect while watching videos of themselves delivering
> lessons. But such concrete applications often feel lost amid the
> numbing invocations of reflection, reports Samuel Freedman.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/education/30education.html
>
>
>
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-- 
- Heather

"The world of books is the most remarkable creation of
man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments
fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out;
new races build others. But in the world of books are
volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet
live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were
written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men
centuries dead." --Clarence Day

"While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little
good evidence exists that there's any educational substance
behind the accountability and testing movement."
—Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds

"When our children fail competency tests the schools lose
funding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase
funding. "
—Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate