REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS A TOOL FOR SCHOOL SELF-IMPROVEMENT

This article explores the importance of reflective practice as a tool for school self-improvement by looking at the relevance and implications of the reflective practice cycle.

The article is structured under the following headings:

ON REFLECTING
THE RELEVANCE OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

WHAT IS THE REFLECTIVE PRACTICE CYCLE?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF RP FOR A SCHOOL?
CONCLUSION:

ON REFLECTING

Have you ever, having returned from a date with someone new, sat down and dissected the events of the evening in minute detail? Perhaps you have wondered whether a comment you made could have had an unintended meaning or was perhaps misunderstood. Have you ever worried whether you have misread your date's body language or particularly if the date goes awry, pondered over what went wrong and how to avoid making the same mistakes next time?

This is perhaps an overly negative view of a possibly lovely evening, but it does serve to highlight the fact that we all, in our everyday lives, take time to ponder and reflect on things that have happened during our day.

Whether this is done consciously or unconsciously, we all respond to circumstances by thinking about them and processing the events through memory and recall. And more often than not, these thoughts create decisions and these decisions create choices which determine future actions.

Thus, we may return from a holiday, armed with photographs and tales, and while reflecting, may decide to return there again next year, or perhaps, because things went horribly wrong, opt for a better travel agent, or different destination.
Or perhaps, as a parent returning from a tour of a few prospective schools for your child, you have sat down to discuss the options open to you. You recall each school visited, and remember the impact each may have had. You weigh the pros and cons of each, consider each scenario from a range of perspectives, and finally make a decision that is not rushed into.

Think of times, recent and past, where you have stopped to reflect and think about an experience.

Here "thinking about" and "remembering" are not synonymous: when we remember we recall events and details; when we "think about" them we employ our critical thinking faculties, using analysis and evaluation, synthesis and reasoning. We ask questions and attempt to find answers; we plan and construct possibilities; we process,

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