Ms Madiha Zahid B Ed Hons Secondary Semester

Ms Madiha Zahid B. Ed. (Hons) Secondary Semester II

§ Autobiographical lens: Think about the situation in relation to your own previous experiences and your current reactions and feelings. Consider how your personal story and past may have shaped your view of what happened or may have resulted in unwanted physical and emotional reactions and responses. § Students’ views: Try to put yourself in your students’ shoes and review the situation by looking at what happened through their eyes. Consider their reactions and how their stories may have led to the experiences. Also, think about how they have experienced the same situation. You may even be able to include students in your reflections by talking to them about what happened or by offering a system of written feedback.

§ Colleagues’ views: At this stage you are asked to include the views of your colleagues in your reflections. Their experiences and their observations of your work may offer you new insights into what happened and what you can do to improve your work. § Theoretical lens: In order to make sense of your experiences and in order to improve your practice you need to consult literature. Theories will help you gain new insights and better understanding. At this stage you need to relate your reading to the three other lenses in order to get a full view. This will then help you to think of new steps to take and of how you can apply theory to your practice. Each lens provides a different perspective from which to examine our practice. These can operate in multiple directions, allowing us to make sense of and ‘name’ what we do, as well as providing mirrors to reflect back different versions of how our actions are received and interpreted by others.

Hatton and Smith (1995) identified four levels in reflection: 1. Descriptive Reflection This is a description of events or literature. There is no discussion beyond description. The writing is not considered to show evidence of reflection. 2. Descriptive Reflective This is basically a description of events, but shows some evidence of deeper consideration in fairly descriptive language. However, there may be no real evidence of the notion of alternative viewpoints.

3. Dialogic reflection In this level of reflection there is a ‗stepping back‘ from the events and actions which leads to different levels of discussion. There is a sense of ‗mulling over‘ events, a dialogue with oneself and an exploration of the teacher‘s role in events and actions. There is evaluation of judgments and a consideration of possible alternatives for explaining them and hypothesizing about them. The reflection is analytical or integrative, linking factors and perspectives. 4. Critical reflection This level of reflection takes into account the views and motives of others and considers them against the individual‘s own. There is recognition that the frame of reference with which an event is viewed can change according to the acquisition of new information, the review of ideas and the effect of time passing. Such reflection shows evidence that the teacher is aware that actions and events may be ‗located within and explicable by' multiple perspectives, and are located in and influenced by multiple and socio-political contexts.