Reflective practice, experiential learning Research Papers (original) (raw)

Our poster describes a collaborative, experiential learning approach to teaching ANT 441: Advanced Bioarchaeology1. We employ collaborative learning (where students work on a common task, share information, support one another and then reflect on the process)1, as an alternative to what can be perceived as the overemphasis on competition in an academic setting. While a number of international field schools offer practical experience in the excavation of human remains from a cemetery context for academic credit, we found most students cannot afford these field schools, and/or must work during the summer months (when excavation opportunities are offered) to support their education costs. Our cemetery project provides a low-cost alternative where participants gain the basic skills to excavate, recover and document a burial, and acquire a clear understanding of the importance of contextual information for burial interpretation. We facilitate learning by establishing the project objectives, providing associated learning tasks, and guiding the weekly cemetery project meetings. Students are given the freedom to decide the analyses needed to achieve their goal, learn to articulate their rationale in using particular methods of analysis, perform collaborative data analysis and assess the accuracy and logic of one another’s contributions - becoming more experienced, independent researchers as a result. We promote the participation and learning of all group members by monitoring students’ learning, managing time and resources, and checking that students are on task and engaging with the group process. The course project is divided into a series of manageable learning assessments that build on each other, and increase in complexity. We found scaffolding reduces anxiety over completion of a complex assignment, gives those who procrastinate a solid starting point, offers more opportunities for support and feedback, affords the opportunity to make mistakes in a safe environment, and provides students with a solid sense of accomplishment as they progress through the steps. Students gain critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving skills through an iterative process as new variables are introduced, and ultimately comprehend the advantages and challenges of a collaborative culture of shared responsibility.

This is a reflective text of MBA student on the critical evaluation of his/ her views on the relevant experience.

- by Shobhit Kulshreshtha
- •
- Education, Reflective Practice, Philosophy of Education, Higher Education

Discusses the managed use of reflective learning as part of a complex computer-based strategy simulation, the Business Strategy Game. Introduces the practice of using a Csikszentmihalian Stressometer to aid the students and teachers... more

This article took shape based on an action research conducted in a business English classroom with poster presentation as a remedy to a traditional approach for assessing oral communication. Convenience sampling technique was applied by the researcher who handled the session for the students in an Institution in Oman. The aim was to motivate students and provide them with a real life experience that would enable them to see the benefit of interacting with a public audience. Past experiences of student presentation comprised of students presenting within the classroom with a small audience consisting of 5-6 members. Thus it was quite challenging to convince female students in Oman to present to a public audience. The activity helped students realize that effective poster presentations operate on multiple levels, as they were able to advertise, interpret, conduct surveys and research on the given topic. An experiential learning dimension was given to the whole process, by incorporating reflection on the task. The 'learning by doing activity' developed a sense of achievement and accomplishment and worked as a catalyst to stimulate active interaction between target groups. Poster presentations have the potential to be utilized as an effective tool of assessment combined with a fun element.

- by Anita Boggu
- •
- Reflective practice, experiential learning

The purpose of the study was a critical analysis of the impact of classroom dynamics on students' social interaction in secondary schools in Kenya. Most of the Kenyan secondary schools are faced with the challenge of overcrowding in the classrooms thus unsuited to providing a positive classroom atmosphere hence limited leaner-teacher contact. The critical analysis was to establish and address issues and strategies that must be implemented to create a positive classroom atmosphere where learners feel comfortable to learn and communicate with each other and the teacher. The main purpose of the study was to critically analyze the gender related issues, leaner's personality related issues and the impact they have on classroom dynamics and establish the impact of learners discipline on classroom dynamics. Moreover the study generate the importance of learners participation in the classroom set up and also the role of the teacher in motivating learners who are not naturally motivated. The study adopted a qualitative research design that was valid in studying critical analysis. The study established key recommendations to the school management to ensure that classrooms have adequate space to accommodate all the students comfortably and allow the teacher to move freely and easily connect with the learners. It also recommends provision of in-service training for teachers on how to handle large classes with learners of mixed ability, varying ages and genders, teachers should provide teaching approaches that sustain learner's interest and ensure participation of students in class and finally teachers should provide a friendly learning environment that engages all the learners irrespective of their gender and personality abilities as it enhances a good classroom dynamic and social interaction among learners.

In this paper I critically review and synthesize multiple strands within the leadership, human development, and education reform literatures to offer a new lens for understanding and addressing the complex, adaptive problems facing the US K-12 education system. Specifically, I explore how a particular set of leadership abilities—post-conventional developmental capacities—might serve as a resource in leading US K-12 reform efforts that are adaptive in their aims and effects. In the process, I develop a preliminary conceptual framework to guide exploration of (through research) and experimentation with (in practice) the process of intentionally deploying specific post-conventional capacities to lead adaptive change. This analysis fills several gaps in the literature and provides a foundation for future leadership research and practice, both within education and more broadly.

The paper discusses insights from a post-disciplinary artist who reflects on his artistic practice. This case study is written from an autoethnographical perspective, in a narrative evocative voice, contextualised with Moon's strategies of reflective learning and the Socratic method. Adapted on Moon's suggestions and based on the Socratic discourse of self-examination, semi-structured questions for the self-reflection have been prompted whilst reading texts of Bergson's process philosophy. These questions have then been scrutinised if and how they are relevant to the artist's practice. The artist also reflected on his emotions during the reflective writing process and in retrospective thereof which further developed the writing process and content selection of the self-reflection. The general aim of the subjective reflection was to verbalise the complex layers of meanings that are inherent in his artistic processes. The author anticipates that the self-reflection could serve as a case study for students in mainly, but not exclusively, tertiary art education. Ideally, the research could be a guidance, or inspiration, for students to find their own sources for reflection such as writings, artworks or exhibitions, which could trigger questions about their individual artistic processes and outcomes. Based on the artist's experiences, in the context of his ongoing doctoral research, such self-reflections could enhance other students' and artists' metacognitions as competencies to better communicate their own artistic practices.

- by Ralph Klewitz, PhD
- •
- Arts Education, Autoethnography, Socratic Method, Process Philosophy

In our era of market economy, where the means (money, technology) tend to become the end and the epicentre of human existence, the ever expanding fragmentation of knowledge since the division of study into the disciplines of the trivium and quadrivium and the teaching-learning dichotomy in the dominant western culture have inevitably brought about what Schön describes "the Balkanization of the schools--the division into pieces that don't talk to one another" (Schön, 1987).
It is, more than ever, evident that no single mind in its lifetime can possibly master to harmonise the functions and applications of the countless and rapidly increasing domains and sub-domains of knowledge which have long lost their common (holistic) point of reference, i.e. the age old, fundamental systemic principles of collective universal existence recently re-emerging as the elements of autopoiesis in life systems (Maturana & Varela, 1980 & 1987).
Should teaching, therefore, be regarded as a means of improving schooling, by focusing on generalised issues of the management of curriculum or class, or should it be seen instead as a means of engaging in a critical process of action reflection which is in itself Paideia (=education and acculturation)?

- by Yannis Karaliotas
- •
- Reflective Practice, Teacher Education, Critical Pedagogy, Complexity

This paper discusses the risks of a narrative view of teacher education as it is related to the T philosophy tradition of Subjective Idealism. Indeed, modelling the self may be an invitation to indoctrination. Thus the paper offers deconstructive ways of critically analyzing stories of narrative educators which may prevent mere imposition of influence networks for the sake of personal awakening.

Abstract:
Operating at the intersection of ecopsychology, experiential learning, and wilderness skills, this study explores the topic of healing the human/nature division, considered necessary for a sustainable society, through reconnecting with the earth experientially. The chosen method for earth reconnection is the practice of survival skills as taught by Tom Brown, Jr., renowned tracker and survivalist. Using a personal experiential approach, the researcher experimented with different survival skills himself to test their effectiveness in facilitating his sense of reconnection with the earth, recording his findings in narratives and reflections so that they might be useful to others wishing to reconnect with the earth. The report is organized around the themes of shelter, water, fire and food. Additionally it explores various camp crafts, encounters with wildlife, and a somatic/sensory approach to interacting with nature. Ecological reconnection in urban environments is also discussed. The study concludes that survival skills are highly effective for reconnecting with the earth. Survival skills are ideal for an experiential approach aimed at inculcating a felt sense of connection with the earth because they are somatically engaging, promote sensory interaction with the landscape, and facilitate the direct perception that one’s life is supported by the wild earth. Moreover, practising survival skills is pertinent for ecological education because it reveals experientially the vital connections or interdependency between human life, other life-forms, and the earth.

Effective Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) requires appropriate pedagogies that engage learners in transformative learning. These pedagogies include reflective and active learning, involving experiential, collaborative and learner-centred activities. This paper discusses student experiences and perceptions of an interdisciplinary social science ESD course at a UK university that incorporated reflective and active learning by using a 'flipped classroom' (FC) design and innovative assessments. FC creates time in class for reflective and active learning by moving content acquisition to pre-class study. Adoption of the flipped classroom in social sciences is rare and literature on use of FC for ESD is very scarce; hence this paper offers valuable insights into the design of a flipped social science ESD course, and participants' responses. Results of two surveys demonstrate very positive student perceptions of the course, and illustrate several benefits of the FC design. Over 90% of respondents agreed that in-class active learning exercises made the classes more engaging and the material more memorable than usual, offering useful opportunities to put information/learning into practice, with most students expressing strong agreement. In-class mini-lectures were nevertheless also appreciated, as were reflective practices. A large majority of the students considered the workload reasonable. Findings also reveal the importance of incentivising pre-class preparation using graded assessments such as quizzes, which additionally helped students understand/remember content, and gave confidence about contributing in class. It is clear that the active and reflective learning that FC facilitates engages students in ESD. The paper concludes by offering recommendations for successfully implementing this approach.

Resumen Se presentan diversas prácticas docentes para hacer emerger las experiencias previas y creencias de los futuros maestros sobre los conocimientos didácticos y disciplinares necesarios para el oficio de enseñar. Estas prácticas se han llevado a cabo en asignaturas Abstract Various teaching practices are presented to bring out pre-service teachers' previous experiences and beliefs about the teaching and disciplinary knowledge required to be a teacher. These practices were introduced in subjects in social science education, mathematics education, teaching self-expression through movement and the practical training sessions of the bachelor's degrees in preschool and primary school teaching of the University of Girona.

In the book "The Dalton Plan: Origins and Theory of Dalton Education" we have depicted the historical-theoretical context of the Dalton Plan by comparing the practice and theory of Parkhurst with ideas on education and reform to which she refers: those of the poet cum philosopher Emerson, the developmental biologist Conklin, the psychologist Swift, the educational philosopher Dewey, the education reformer Montessori and the efficiency researchers Taylor and Bobbitt. In this last chapter we discuss the outcome. First we consider how Parkhurst relates to then contemporary science, research, theory development and discussion on education. We then summarize our findings.

- by Piet van der Ploeg
- •
- Critical Theory, Gender Studies, Teaching and Learning, Education
- by Rich Furman
- •
- Criminology, Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology

In this paper, I describe how I engaged a group of
teachers in Lesson Study (LS), a form of teacher
professional development, in an ELT context in Turkey
and supported them throughout the entire process. I
further share the reflections of those teachers on this
process. The project reported here is a pilot application
of this form of CPD - LS - which has been conducted
under the support and guidance of the Lesson Study
Research Group (LSRG) at the School of Education at
the University of Leicester in the UK.

- by Seyit O Gok, PhD
- •
- Reflective Practice, Action Research, Inquiry Based Learning, Teacher Research

One goal of the NATO SAS-105 Symposium is to develop strategies to influence capabilities of military and civilian organizations in order to better harmonize ways to achieve desired strategic effects and outcomes. The paper describes how the complexity of current and future security environments is best addressed through civil-military collaboration. However, given that industrial age assumptions and organizational defensive routines often impede effective interagency planning, the paper outlines how Open Systems Theory (OST) is an effective approach for active adaptation planning combined with Action Research (AR) as a form of Campaign Experimentation. AR is designed to solve complex problems by involving those responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of an initiative while generating scientific knowledge to inform doctrine and policies. The unique position of the Centre for Intercultural Learning as a practitioner in strengthening multi-stakeholder processes will complement the theoretical basis for recommendations.

Relationship self-regulation is a way for couples to work on their relationships by becoming reflective about them, by setting goals for improvement, and by following up with efforts to be a better partner. Reflection is an important process in relationship self-regulation addressed in this study. The aim of this study is to analyse relationship self-regulation narratives after a relationship education intervention. Ten married partners (age 33-43 years) participated in a four-day reflective experiential relationship education programme intervention. The study investigated couples’ experiences of working on their relationship after the intervention. Two focus groups were conducted and narrative analysis was used. Four common themes emerged: becoming aware of one’s inner reactions and re-appraisals, learning to be sensitive, noticing one's own habitual responses and making choice, and experimenting in the relationship. These themes are discussed by applying a couple relationship self-regulation conceptual framework. We revealed that relationship self-regulation emerged as a process of regulation of intrapersonal emotional reactions to partner. Reflectivity in relationship self-regulation may be defined as focusing on oneself, trying to understand one’s own feelings and needs, experimenting to meet these needs, and exploring resources. The research focuses on the study of meaning making and on the reflection processes of partners in couple relationship self-regulation.

In this article we present and outline depth-hermeneutics as a new application of a theoretically founded psychosocial approach, with the ambition of inspiring teachers to explore challenging aspects of their relational work with students. Empirical knowledge and psychodynamic theory suggest that teaching and learning are profoundly rooted in relationship based processes. Hence it is a prerequisite for improving learning and supporting teachers’ professional development that challenging aspects in the student-teacher relationship be taken seriously by being examined, with the aim of enabling and supporting learning from experience in reflective practice. We suggest that group-based depth-hermeneutics, a qualitative psychosocial method, may allow for analysis and interpretation of situations and relations in school that may be experienced by teachers as difficult or incomprehensible. Drawing on an empirical example from fieldwork in a Norwegian middle school, we illustrate the nature of a challenging situation and relation in teaching and show step-by-step how depth-hermeneutics can be adapted, adopted, implemented, and facilitated in teacher groups, to increase scenic understanding of such complex phenomena.

This study assesses the relation between self-evaluation and the development of learner autonomy (LA) in English as a foreign language (EFL). Using action-research, the investigation included 22 first-year students taking an oral communication and listening comprehension course in English at the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. Data collection instruments included weekly plan sheets, student diaries, and student portfolios and were subject to several validity measures. Broadly, findings suggest a connection between self-evaluation and the promotion of LA in EFL in four areas: time management, self-awareness and goal-setting, sense of achievement, and skills integration.

This meditative activity challenges children to focus on their walking, and at the same time, "take-each-step-for-kindness." Walk-and-think-kindness": children keep concentrating on this complex meditative exercise. At the end, they reflect on their inner and outer experiences, write about what happened, read orally and discuss everything with classmates and teacher.

- by Jeffrey Pflaum
- •
- Communication, Writing, Walking (Art), Reflective practice, experiential learning

In its ontological presuppositions, epistemological interests and methodological deliberations, critical theory of environmental education research (EER) is simultaneously scientific, normatively (and reflexively) critical, and non-idealistically practical. It is, therefore, a theory of practice, or praxis. Critical EE and its research aim for personal, social and ecological forms of justices achieved transformatively through the de and reconstruction of pedagogical, curriculum, policy and research practices that reconstitute various injustices. Missing from this reconstructive critique is the crucial role of aesthetics and the importance of affectivity in generating meaning about the agency of the researched by the researcher/actor. In this small scale self study of aesthetics and affectivity, we report on the deliberations of a workshop spread over two days about the aim of framing EER as a triad of environmental aesthetics-environmental ethics-ecopolitics. We emphasize how sensuous ethnography in walking provided a methodological means within the mobility genre of interpretive research. We aim to generate meaning about the concept of ecosomaesthetics needed in a new language and images of environmental education. Some key images are included in the following text while others are referenced and available on-line (see footnote 7).

- by Cae Rodrigues
- •
- Critical Theory, Environmental Science, Aesthetics, Ethics

Work intergraded learning is not just an off campus experience which adds practiced to theory as applied by many HE institutions. WIL is a practical application of the academic theory and application can be performed in class as well. Therefore, WIL should be implemented as an integrated part of the Higher education not only on campus but off campus as well. This is a different approach taken in order to make learning more appropriate in and out of class. This new approach argues that WIL is inclusive of various forms of work learning and is not reflected by industry placements only. Simulated projects, service-learning assignments on and off campus and various other activities are incorporated into this new methodology. This paper challenges the traditional approached to WIL. It will present how the new WIL methodology is assigned within a Design Faculty and examples of the practical implication of the projects will be presented. Design as a discipline is by nature a participative field, which more often than not engage in real time industry and community outreach projects. The argument will demonstrate why the Design faculty is therefore a fitting area to apply the new approach for implementing WIL and will be supported by data collected from student feedback and participation.

- by Dr Annadine Vlok
- •
- Adult Education, Higher Education, Workplace Learning, Curriculum Development

RESUMEN: La práctica reflexiva forma parte de muchos programas de formación de profesorado. En esta aportación presentamos una propuesta de formación basada en el modelo de formación realista y reflexivo (Korthagen, 2001). La propuesta pone el foco en la interacción y el discurso en el aula, como práctica sobre la que reflexionar, desde la perspectiva de la enseñanza dialógica (Mercer et al., 2007). Una vez diseñada se utilizó en primer lugar en un taller para maestros de primaria y secundaria y pos-teriormente, con algunas modificaciones, en el marco de la tutorización de las prácticas en la escuela de alumnos de los grados de magisterio de infantil y primaria. El análisis de estas intervenciones pro-porciona información sobre las dificultades asociadas a distintos elementos de la propuesta que pueden ser de utilidad para mejorar la adopción del modelo de práctica reflexiva. PALABRAS CLAVE: Conocimiento científico, aprendizaje reflexivo, enseñanza dialógica, formación permanente, Educación Infantil y Primaria. INTRODUCCIÓN: MARCO TEÓRICO Y OBJETIVOS La reconstrucción de conocimiento didáctico y disciplinar es uno de los ejes principales de la for-mación permanente del profesorado. Las políticas educativas pretenden, de una u otra forma, que el profesorado en activo actualice progresivamente su práctica docente con base a las exigencias sociales. Esta actualización, en el sentido de evolución y mejora, implica transformar la propia práctica. Ahora bien, planificar y gestionar una formación permanente que contribuya a reconstruir los conocimientos del profesorado en activo no es trivial y han aparecido diversas propuestas para afrontarla. Melief et al. (2010) exponen que en la formación del profesorado se distinguen tres perspectivas: el aprendizaje deductivo, centrado en la aplicación del conocimiento teórico en la práctica; el aprendizaje por ensayo y error, centrado exclusivamente en la práctica; y el aprendizaje realista, centrado en la conexión entre las experiencias del profesorado en la práctica y el conocimiento teórico. Progresivamente ha ido ga-nando terreno el modelo de formación realista y reflexivo (Korthagen, 2001). Se trata de un modelo

- by Angel Alsina
- •
- Reflective Practice, Teacher Education, Science Education, Mathematics Education

Within the context of institutional volunteering, this paper reports on student understandings and experiences of responsible citizenship through participation in school-based service-learning programs. Increasingly in Australia, and worldwide, schools are embracing the pedagogy of service-learning through programs of community service. We see that schools are incorporating values and civic education, which is key to connecting young people to society. Butin (2010) describes the pedagogy of service-learning as the linking of academic work with community-based engagement within a framework of respect, reciprocity, relevance, and reflection, where the connection of classroom to community and theory with practice influences personal development, enhances community participation, and encourages social inclusion. I set out to use informal interviews and qualitative analysis to garner from school students their perspectives about the social value of service-learning. The spreading of such pedagogies of engagement represent a significant change in the way the new generations will be educated through technologies of citizenship – discourses and programs of service-learning that promote participatory education – to be involved in new participatory systems. The future actors of society are acquiring important citizen qualities not simply through theoretical teaching within the confines of the classroom but more importantly through experimental programs of immersion that involve them in a direct and personal way with community practices of social responsibility.

An homage to long serving studio tables, originally built for the architecture design studios in the faculty of architecture, at the University of Manitoba, this essay reflects on the primary site of making and decisive imagination which... more

Responsive to the challenges of modern times, designers and educators see the need to re-examine their role and responsibility. Several of them adopted human-centered approaches that make the user and the process of interacting and experiencing products their primary focus. To sustain these approaches requires extended theoretical knowledge and a sensibility for complex phenomenon such as human cognitive processes, user behavior and attitudes. Therefore, some schools added courses such as material cultures, eco-design, sociology, anthropology or cognitive psychology to their repertoire. Nonetheless, concerns are being raised about students’ ability to assimilate and apply these notions. Others question if human-centered design really produce significantly different results and if traditional teaching methods are still valid. A design studio has been dedicated to examine these questions and let students compare an object-focused design approach with a human centered approach in which the user and the contextual environment play a central role. The studio not only lets students explore advantages and limits of both approaches and scrutinize the pertinence of their results, it also allows educators to assess the assimilation of theoretical knowledge. The paper describes the experimental setup of the studio as well as its outcome, and stresses the need for raising awareness of how results can vary depending on how problems are being approached. The observations made during the studio contribute to the discussion on changing design practices, which support more than redesign, suggesting context-sensitive design approaches that rather promote design and innovation