The Reflective Practitioner

I consider myself to be a very reflective person but reading Reader 2 and David Kolb's idea of a Learning Circle, have found it very difficult to establish where I begin, my entry point. I can reflect on times in my life both professionally and personally when I have entered the circle at every point. Certainly professionally my 'entry point' is determined by my confidence in what I am learning. If I am confident of success then my entry point would probably be 'Active Experimentation', planning and trying things I have learnt out, times that I am less confident in swhat I am doing would definitely be 'Reflective observation', watching others seeing how others do it before attempting it myself, giving me a starting point and an idea of how others have done it. That is certainly the case with this particular module, reading others bloggs and how they have moved forward has both at times been a positive and negative exercise but definitely a starting point and a 'kick up the backside' to stop hiding from it and getting on with it.

Moving on from Kolb but inspired by him, I very much relate to Peter Honey and Alan Mumford four stages. I truly believe that the learning process comes from experience and that no experience should be regretted, easier said than done at times, but being able to review what has happened, coming to a conclusion and than moving forward from it helps us to learn and mould the future. As a teacher I find that I do this regularly and am constantly reviewing schemes of work, lessons to give my students a better experience the next time I teach the lesson. This not only allows a better learning experience for my students but also for myself. What could I have done better, did I have the knowledge I needed, could I have made it easier for the students and myself.

THE PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER

Donal Schon - Reflection-in-action 'v' Reflection-on-action. Reflection can happen while you are IN the middle of it or looking back on it. One of the hardest things is to be able to write about something you do naturally, which touches on Tacit knowledge. Schon's idea has enabled me to understand the way I respond when teaching and choreographing. I use 'on-line' reflection on a regular basis, changing steps and teaching ideas as I see or feel the choreography developing. making decisions on the spot to enhance my work. I see other dance teachers doing the same thing. I do believe that dance teachers also use 'off-line' reflection. Use of Video and playback is important in my professional life. Giving me the opportunity to watch and make decisions about the success of the choreography and performance skills in order to refine dances at a later date. Although deemed by Robert Kottcamp as harder, Reflection in action comes naturally to a lot of dance teachers who work in the moment on a regular basis, but then use reflection on action to reflect on the changes that have been made allowing for analysis and planning for the next session. Even though, as Kottcamp underlines, dance practitioners are the sole collectors of the data on their own work. the people we are normally preparing our work for others to see so I feel that this is where 'Off-line' reflection is important.

Michael Polanyi - 'I shall reconsider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell'.