REFLECTION

Jones, M., Shelton, M. (2011). Developing Your Portfolio--Enhancing Your Learning and Showing Your Stuff: A Guide for the Early Childhood Student or Professional, Second Edition. Routledge.

John Dewey

"The self is not something ready-made,

but something in continuous formation

through choice of action"

Reflection: A Definition• The defining characteristic of a portfolio

• Intentionally bringing to consciousness motivations, thoughts, beliefs, questions, assumptions, feelings, attitudes, desires, & expectations to gain insight as to meaning, connections to what is personally known, & in light of new experiences & information

Jones & Shelton, 2006

Reflection• a disposition• a human capability• a cognitive skill

Reflection is a process of…• Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

• Considering implications of past actions, knowledge, or current circumstances

• Projecting into the future

• Making connections across time

• Writing as thinking (product)Reflection makes possible insights needed to learn from experience & alter habitual behaviors

Reflection: PurposesBring experience & knowledge together to

produce new, personally meaningful learning

Connect theory to practice

Strengthen a critical reflection disposition

Provide insight into learning & personal or professional development

Manage emotions throughout the learning process

Reflection Enables Connections

• Relate learning to standards/guidelines (theory to practice)

• Examine impact of learning on personal views or behaviors (transformation)

• Determine relevance & implications of the learning on future action (so what? & what now?)

Reflection Frames Experiences as:

• An observer of self and others – focuses on qualities & content of relationship

• A critical reader of professional literature– focuses on engaging the literature, rather than

simply being a consumer of it

• An implementer of activities– focuses on the processes and products associated

with your activities

Dispositions• Consistent & frequent patterns of behavior

wherein the individual acts intentionally in particular contexts at particular times.

• Ways of responding determined more by characteristics internal to the actor than provoked by the environment

• “Habits of mind,” rather than “mindless habits” Katz, 1995

Some dispositions exercised in the portfolio process• Flexibility of thought

• Intellectual curiosity

• Perseverance

• Risk-taking

• Critical reflection

• Contemplate the meaning of specified learning experiences in relation to guidelines and practice (theory to practice)

• Examine the impact of the learning on personal views or behaviors (transformation)

• Determine the relevance and implications of the learning with regard to future action (so what? & now what?)

Steps in Reflecting & Connecting

“when viewed as a process and when done properly, [reflective writing] has a unique ability to develop the interior life of the writer…”(Fink, 2003, (p. 116).

Reflective Writing

The Role of Reflection To make meaning: bring experience and knowledge together to produce new learning To connect theory to practice – past, present and future To transform the scrapbook into a portfolio

Concrete operations Formal operations

Reflection Continuum

Summary of facts to limited reflection skills

More insightful reflection

Sophisticated, multi-level reflection

•_____ motivated me to…

•I believed that…

•____ has made me question…

•The question this raises for me is…

•I assumed that…

•_____ makes me feel like…

•I realized that…

•_____ made me realize…

Prompts•My expectation was that…

•My views on… have been…

•I imagined…

•It surprised me to find out…

•_____ caused me wonder

•_____ is important to me because…

•_____ has affected the way I think/feel about…