On Reflection
September 22, 2008
To blog or not to blog. That was the question raised soon after our new Technology Teaching and Learning Specialist, Justin Medved, arrived on our school’s doorstep this August. A blogger – go see his blog - and general web enthusiast, Justin had just come from the International School of Bangkok, where he had successfully turned that school on fire with all things technological. Moreover, he had convinced two of the key administrators there to begin to blog. I was to be his next subject. As it would turn out, Justin found in me a receptive audience. Having just returned from a leadership conference given by Independent School Management (ISM) in Philadelphia, I had been persuaded that ‘reflection’ needed to become an essential part of my job. That being said, by the time Justin and I sat down in September, I was already slipping into a familiar pattern of endless meetings and emails, putting out fires, and biking home as fast as I could so that I could get a start on the tasks that didn’t get completed during the daylight hours. Where was the reflection?
As a school principal overseeing the delivery of two of the International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes (MYP and Diploma), I am constantly reminded that reflection is a key educational value. The IB has developed a list of ten key attributes that make up the ‘Learner Profile’ – number ten is “reflective”. Reflection turns up in so many of the things that our students do, from research in the humanities and the design cycle in technology to assessment criteria in math, science and the arts, from the personal project to reflections on Creativity, Action and Service (CAS), an obligatory requirement for all students. And then there is the mandatory Diploma course that I am privileged to teach, Theory of Knowledge (TOK), in which students continually have to reflect on everything they do as students. Beyond the requirements of the IB, I am daily faced with our school’s motto “Experientia Docet” or “Experience Teaches”. And as anyone knows, experience doesn’t teach much of anything without reflection.
Which brings me back to the blog. A blog appears, at first blush, to be a preposterous undertaking. Who, in their right mind, and in all humility, could believe that their thoughts are worthy fodder for the consumption of the entire world? Only an ego of colossal proportions, or someone much more famous, clever, or humourous than I, could consider such a thing. And yet, I thought, isn’t that the sort of response I receive from some of my students when I ask them to share their thoughts with their class, or write out their reflections? “Why me,” they seem to say, “my reflections aren’t good enough to share”. And then I had my first inkling as to what reflection was and why it might be important. And I began to reflect.
And I continued to reflect. And reflections turned to readings, and readings turned to further reflections, and I suddenly became aware that the blog had done its trick. I was reflecting for I had to blog. I blog; therefore I reflect. I reflect; therefore I am.
So what is reflection, why is it so hard for so many of us to do, and why do we insist upon it as an educational value?
Much has been written on the role of reflection in education. I happened upon the “encyclopedia of informal education”, a web project, in which author Mark K. Smith has conveniently summarized the major literature regarding reflection in education from John Dewey to the present. Suffice it to say, I have a great deal of reading to do before I can pretend to be anything of an authority on this subject. But in the interim, I am able to point to a number of themes that are important to a consideration of reflection’s role in education. In the first place, reflection is not a pleasant dreamy state that we would set to romantic music with a sunset as our backdrop. As Dewey writes, reflective thought is an “active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.” (Dewey 1933: 118) It is a rational, deliberate and purposeful activity that involves critical analysis and synthesis. It is hard work. More recent thinkers have tended to emphasize the role of reflection in responding to experience and make more of the emotions that lie at the core of experience. As Donald SchÖn has written, “The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour.” (SchÖn 1983: 68) In fact, it is often the emotion – whether it takes the form of doubt, puzzlement, or distress – that drives people to engage in reflection.
It is precisely the emotional basis for reflection - not to mention the hard work - that makes reflection so tricky in the field of education. Asking a room full of 14 year olds to reflect on their experience tends to summon up the same response as some of my worst puns. That is why ‘experiential learning’ is becoming so important to the education of young adolescents. Unless you engage such students in authentic tasks leading to emotional responses, you can’t expect real reflection to take place. That’s one of the reasons why at our school we introduced an integrated experiential education programme in grade 9. As a result, we have seen many of our Grade 9 students successfully reflect, for in putting pen to paper they draw together heart and mind.
As our students move into the Diploma programme at grade 11, we witness the transformation that seemed impossible at grade 9 - students want to reflect, as Dewey suggested, on their beliefs and the basis of their knowledge. Suddenly, students are excited to find answers to such questions as “why do I have these beliefs?”, and “how do I know?” Emotional responses are no longer limited to what has been experienced directly, but extends beyond their world of friends and family, TV personalities and popular music icons, to the adult concerns of media manipulation, political machinations, and environmental degradation. The world is suddenly their oyster, and their reflections become vital and profound.
But lest we forget, reflection is hard work. Whether we are sorting out our emotions and discerning personal values and attitudes, or discovering the shaky underpinnings of contemporary truths, reflection takes work, and, I would suggest, it takes practice. As I prepared to write this blog, I was amazed at how difficult it is to keep focused on a single abstract topic for stretches of time over several days. At the same time, the longer I kept at it, the clearer my thinking became. And the more organized my thoughts became, the stronger was my vision.
As a leader of a school whose mission is as lofty as one could possibly imagine - “to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who are engaged citizens of the world” – I have to summon up a vision that is capable of making that mission come to life: for me, for my teachers, for my students, and for their parents, all of whom look to me to breathe life into those precious 15 words. I can’t do that on a diet of meetings and emails. I need to reflect. For in reflection, the barely audible stirrings of the heart come to the surface and infuse the mind with a sense of purpose, of order, and, yes, a clearer vision. And that is when I finally came to have a fuller understanding of why we need to have our students reflect.
If I need purpose, order and vision to run a school, how desperately do our youth need these three? In a time when their brains are changing as dramatically as they did in the first two months of their life, when eight subjects fly by in two days, and friends are made and lost in a hallway gathering or flurry of typed messages, when the world seems doomed by global warming, the crash of Wall Street, and rogue dictators in countries that no longer seem so far away, a little bit of purpose, order and vision could go a long way. Reflection may be hard work, but giving students the opportunity to practice this vital thinking skill on an ongoing basis can only benefit them now and in the future.
For in the practice of reflection lies our hope for tomorrow. Reflection will give our children the ability to rise above fashions and fads, to resist evil masquerading as comfort, and find lasting meaning in their lives. Reflection will enable our children to have clear visions of what is good and what is right, regardless of the confusion of media sources that clutter their world.
And that, I suggest, is worth more than a moment’s reflection!
Dewey, J. (1933) How We Think, New York: D.C. Heath.
SchÖn, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. How professionals think in action, London: Temple Smith.
Updated with photos of two landscapes created by our Lower School art teacher, Bart Snow.
15 Responses to “On Reflection”
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September 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
Welcome to the Blogosphere David!
Great first post.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
I too began my blogging journey in the spirit of reflection, even eventually settling on the name, Thinking Allowed (pun intended) for that very reason.
Your thoughts on reflection get to the heart of true experiential learning and to the heart of the conversations that need to be at the center of how schools do business.
While we doubt who could possibly be out there reading our rambles, I can assure you of two things: 1) your writing is as much for yourself as anyone and 2) there is an audience out there for well-thought, well-written discourse on education.
Consider me one of your first subscribers! Great post! Welcome to the blogosphere.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
David, well, what can I say except that I enjoyed your erudite reflection very much!
I am also in an IBO school and value the emphasis on inquiry, creation and reflection.
I think you are well on the way to be a great blogger, one post at a time.
Can I make a small suggestion…lengthy posts, no matter what the quality of writing, are difficult to read, therefore I often break the text up with images or different text styles to help the reader keep moving through. I wish I had more time right now to really get into some valuable reflecting, however my blog posts these days tend to be more of a sharing resources and events style. I look forward to reading more of your blog!
Julie Lindsay
Head of IT and E-Learning
Qatar Academy
Qatar
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Greetings David - thanks for giving me a heads up on your blog - thoughtful first post and I’ll enjoy following along (hitting the ’subscribe’ button).
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
OK, so after reading this I had to leave the computer to allow my brain time to process. Welcome to the blogosphere.
Reflection is so important in any job and as you state we continually ask, and have asked for years for student to reflect without giving ourselves as professional ‘permission’ to do so.
As I was reading I kept thinking about others that you too might be able to learn from. Reflecting is not just the act of thinking and writing but is also the act of reading and thinking.
http://www.sentimentsoncommonsense.com/
Is a blog by a good friend and Deput Superintendent who you might find interesting to read. His reflection time is found in a car, at his desk or at home. He finds time to close the door and gives himself permission to reflect.
http://www.leadertalk.org/
Is a group blog of administrators that will make you think on a daily basis. If you want to they are always looking for more reflective administrators to add to the voices.
http://blogs.saschina.org/pudongtok/
Lastly I point you to a IB TOK blog ran by students in a TOK class. This is their second year of blogging and they are finding this reflective act very rewarding.
We need to give ourselves permission to reflect, and we must give our teachers permission to reflect as well. Allow them to reflect, show them how, and make it a priority within your school. The professional level of your teachers will most certainly raise because of it.
Enjoy the journey and where ever it might take you!
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Wow David- great first post!
As a fellow admin I think it is so important that we also blog…. practice what we preach, model what we are asking our teachers to do with our kids…. be current!
Having just returned from the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai (ask Justin), my biggest learning about blogging is that it is about COMMUNITY, not audience. When I first started blogging, I was very excited to see that people were responding… they were my audience.
After a while though, I have come to realize that the people that I really learn from (either through the blogosphere or in reality) are my community…. the people that I interact with each day. Justin Medved was a HUGE part of my community!!! Dennis Harter (who has also commented on your blog) is also a big part of my learning community. These people are the kind of people that good administrators surround themselves with- people who are thinkers, reflectors and are not afraid to share with us when we are making good decisions (and when we are making bad ones too!!).
You also allude to a great question- how to fit in this reflection in a day packed with classroom visits, meetings, administravia and all the other things that come across your office in a given day…. and I am not always sure there is a clear cut answer to that one. What I can tell you is that whether you blog, think, talk, go for a run… whatever…. teaching kids (and adults) to take that valuable time to reflect is truly a life-long skill and something we need to be doing in modeling life-long learning.
Looking forward to more of your blogs. I am sure Justin has already set you up with an RSS feeder.
David- you are working with truly one of the BEST in the business!!!
Struan Robertson
ES VP
International School Bangkok
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:51 am
That was a brilliant blog. Do you have any examples of experiential learning?
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:43 am
Well done, David!
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 am
David,
I always enjoy reading anything that you write and this blog entry is no exception. Reflection is something that as teachers, parents or students we do tend to steer clear of because it asks us to put our busy life on hold and venture outside our comfort level in our attempt to reflect on our life. This can be painful and challenging. You assured us that it is worthwhile and inspires us to keep on going!
Looking forward to your next entry.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:01 am
David,
Welcome to the world of blogging. I have added you to my aggregator and will link my next post to your first. It is a beautiful piece of reflective writing and one that I think many people will use as a reference. Congratulations! You’re a web publisher.
As a Deputy Superintendent at Shanghai American School, I have encouraged my colleagues here to use a blog as a communications tool for their communities. My week here has been a crazy one, with all sorts of unpleasant happenings. I am in a bad place right now with time, but I plan on carving out some time to reflect this weekend anyway. I have to do so, and if anybody tells you that you are not being professionally enhanced by this process, they don’t know a thing about it! As my international education colleague Struan says above, it is about community and you just expanded yours to a whole different level.
I look forward to your next post.
Andy
September 27th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Welcome to the world of blogging David!
I particularly enjoyed the way you explored the connections between the reflections we require of students, your reflections as an educator, and on the common purpose behind all of those varieties of reflection.
However, the blogging format is not just a vehicle for thoughtful personal reflection. As commenters on your blog, we’re all now engaging in a peer review and feedback process - another important assessment skill we try to instill in students. In fact, I feel that the most vibrant and interesting part of many blogs ends up being the comments section.
There are other parallels between the blog format and common school curricular concepts, but I’ll only draw one more and leave it at that: judging from the thoughtful effort which clearly went into every line of your post, the authentic nature of the task of publishing your thoughts for an audience around the world inspired you, yet another concept from the classroom.
I agree with you that blogs might seem absurd or self-aggrandizing at first, but the more I’ve been involved with them, the more I’ve found that they can be very powerful, flexible tools for several of the kinds of teaching and learning the IB program espouses - from reflection, to peer feedback, to the stages of the writing process, to porfolio assembly, and more.
Thanks for the enlightening post! It’s an exemplar of the benefits that educators (and students) can reap when they’re intellectually curious about _why_ they’re doing things. You’ve clearly taken the lessons of the TOK course out of the classroom and back to your administrator’s chair. I look forward to reading more of your reflections!
September 28th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Hi David, great to meet you in the blogosphere. As a 5th grade teacher, mother of 2 and a student taking on my masters, I find it hard to carve out time to reflect on what is going on.I have never been good at meditating or slowing down in general but whenever I do, I feel the benefit of it almost immediately.
How can we teach our students to slow down when we are no good at it ourselves? Just like modeling strong writing in the classroom, modeling the act of refection is essential if we want our students to thrive as they take on the many challenges and joys ahead of them.
Thanks for your well written post and I look forward to seeing more of you now that I have you on my netvibes page.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Great starting post David! I particularly enjoyed the comment on whether or not your reflection is worthy fodder for consumption. I have found my blog a good place to store my ideas that I come across and a great way to communicate with other teachers. That said, it is always interesting to notice the unintended audience that somehow find their way to your site and leave a helpful or inspiring comments. Good luck!
October 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Congratulations David on your new blog and for starting the conversation on reflection! There is so much in your post that resonates with me as an elementary teacher, particularly in that I use reflection and metacognition regularly in my classroom with the hope that it will lead to deeper conversations and improved student learning.
Dewey, being a constructivist, understood well that real learning took place when people/students had the opportunities to reflect on their experiences. I agree with you on many fronts and specifically that it does take “work and practice” to be reflective. Being aware of our thinking, being shown how to do it through modeling, and then having a medium through which to collaborate and share will inevitably lead to more inquiry, increased dialogue with a purpose, and hopefully greater knowledge.
No small task, but at least we are thinking about the possibilities and wondering what it might look like for our students.
I look forward to more reflection and to reading your future posts.
October 9th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Great post & summary of reflection. I am a midwifery educator talking to midwives about the importance of reflection in their clinical lives. So it’s not just teachers who find this to be an important learning tool.