What is reflection?
Reflection allows us to think critically about an event or experience that we were part of. It involves looking at not just what happened but also at our thoughts and feelings when we are evaluating.
For me, reflection is very important within a profession such as teaching because it allows us to improve upon the education that we provide for the children. If we do not reflect and evaluate our ways of teaching then the matter of improving the system for children becomes irrelevant.
Going into such a profession without having a knowledge and understanding of reflection, I believe, is a bizarre thing to do because you will not be able to get better at what you want to provide. Reflection is an integral part of your professional practice not just as a student but as a qualified teacher too.
Reflection is about being able to look at your lesson and consider what went well and what could have been better and acting upon those thoughts. There is no use in reflecting on what you have delivered to your pupils but not improving it in order to provide the best possible learning experiences for children.
Danielle, I really liked how you linked the benefit of an enquiring practitioner into practice. It made me understand why we need to be an enquiring practitioner and how to do it. I comes across that you strongly believe all the benefits. The only thing I would have liked to see it a more balanced argument. As most of the points you made were positives, it would have been nice to see some negatives. But overall I really enjoyed reading it and I understand why we must always enquire.
I agree that I have looked more at the positives rather than balanced my view. Thank you for the comment Kathleen 🙂