Reflecting on PACT week 3

Our second activity for week 3 of PACT involved identifying how one of the selected readings can help us better reflect on our practice. Four resources were suggested and while I would have liked to have selected one of the SEDA specials I couldn’t locate a library source, so selected Chandran’s presentation instead. I was also surprised to find out at last week’s webinar that the ‘what? so what? now what?‘ model of reflective practice had an owner – while I was familiar with the model I had never heard of Gary Rolfe. His field may be healthcare but reflective practice is universal and it is using his model that I constructed this blog post.

My plan was to expand my wings beyond my usual written format and to include my reflections as a voiceover to Chandran’s presentation slides on prezi. I was hoping the QuickTime Player would have this feature built in but it seems not (pity). Back to trusty GarageBand then to record my thoughts on Chandran’s slides. Please open up the link to the slides and follow my written thoughts under Rolfe’s headings What? So what? Now what? below. It transpired that my free WordPress plan doesn’t support the uploading of audio files – sigh. The forum’s offer of free Mahara for life becomes tempting!

What?

This is a prezi presentation with quite a bit of animation, circles that are meant to be planets floating through each transition and each planet containing text the author uses to convey the message. It is not easy on the eyes and requires a little navigation forward and back to clarify the intended messages. It doesn’t appear to be an academic presentation since it does not contain any references or attribution to a conference proceeding. It consists of three main sections focusing on 1) definition and characteristics of a reflective practitioner 2) characteristics of a good thinker and 3) benefits of professional and personal development. The language is confusing in places and lacks a strong command of written English.

So what?

Reflective practice is something that we may not think about consciously but most likely it is something that we regularly do. The author’s definition was a basic one involving looking back and considering what improvement to be made in the future. Six characteristics are presented and I have to say that while they all resonate with me, I focus on just three of them here: building relationships; practitioner skills; and working together in partnership. The first of the characteristics of good thinkers has a domain focus in the self with good thinkers being honest with themselves. I believe there’s a strong link between thinking and reflection and certainly had never thought of them in separate terms.

Now what?

I like the term building relationships over the term networking. While both are used n this presentation I feel that an important key to reflective practice is in relationships with others. For me this ties in with domain 3 – professional communication and dialogue in teaching and learning for the simple reason that:

(“Structure of the Professional Development Framework”, n.d.)

The next steps for me are to continue building relationships in the education community, both broad and deep, for the purposes of domain 3 specifically.

So there you have it – what? so what? now what?

 

References:

Chandran, G. Characteristics of reflective practitioner and good thinker, benefits of professional and personal development. Presentation, https://prezi.com/oc5uemczmewu/characteristics-of-reflective-practitioner-and-good-thinker/.

Rolfe, G. What are we doing when we do reflective practice?. Retrieved 26 November 2019, from http://garyrolfe.net/reflection.php

Structure of the Professional Development Framework. Retrieved 26 November 2019, from https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/our-priorities/structure-of-the-professional-development-framework/#!/domains

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay