Session 2

'What it means to be a critically reflective teacher' Brookfield
(1995) was reading for Session 2.

This argues that reflection was about hunting assumptions, and that there are three types of assumption:

1. Paradigmic assumptions – about the way things are (e.g. Adults are self-directed learners).


2. Prescriptive assumptions – about the way things should work (e.g. because adults are self directed learners, they should be encouraged to take over their own learning).


3. Casual assumptions – usually stated in predictive terms (e.g. using learning contracts will increase student effectiveness.

Here I couldn’t think of anything that I knew I had to reflect on, but this fitted in well with what we talked about in the session.

Then the question, ‘What makes reflection critical?’ is asked. Brookfield argues that it’s purposes are to understand how considerations of power affect learning situations, and to question hegemonic assumptions which seem to make our teaching easier but may in the long term work against our interests.

Finally Brookfield asks “Why is it important?” Answers might be that it looks at your practise through others eyes, it develops a rational that can be communicated and tested.

Moving on to the lesson, Trish and Jeanette led us through a discussion on what Critical Reflection is.

Some things that stood out to me were, that your perception of an event will vary depending on your mood (and someone pointed out research that says those with low self-esteem like reflection less). That is another reason to get someone else in to peer review and help you look at your work.

Trish and Jeanette pointed out that different critical approaches and models appeal to different people and so choose one carefully that fits your style – you need to enjoy reflecting or you will not do it. I need to have a look at the models and experiment with using one.

When you are reviewing your work don’t get focussed on what went wrong – look at “What made you feel good?” and “Did anything make you feel uncomfortable?”.

If reflection is done to “help us learn more about the way we work” (Berns, we perhaps do not need to use the word reflection. Lets ask ourselves “how can we learn more about the way we work?” and perhaps we will come up with different ideas, and ideas that we will enjoy putting into practice!