Reflection 3 :
Through reflecting on my teaching experiences in my case studies It has highlighted to me how little time I have to do this within my day-to-day teaching practice, both on my own or with my wider team. Although naturally I adapt and develop my presentations, my teaching methods, assessment briefs to align with imminent issues or challenges that arise within the unit which is called ‘ “tacit knowing-in-action,” that is, we instinctively know stuff and know how to do stuff, even if we can’t explain how to do it.’ (Saffer, 2023).
Time, however, is needed to be allocated for wider reflection with more team members, this would allow for more structural edits rather than superficial edits to the course which would get to the root of any issues that need changing to benefit the student learning experience and help them achieve the learning outcomes intended for the unit. This is relevant to the practice of ‘reflection-in-action’.
‘Schön notes that it is important to realize that in most areas of practice, there are competing schools of thought about the nature of the practice and how to best solve problems. But the structure of reflection-in-action crosses the divide between them.’ (Saffer, 2023)
I have noticed that there are a few units I teach across that continue to need tweaks year after year, I feel that if we could dedicate time to reassessing the brief the tutor admin time could be minimised and therefore allocated elsewhere.
In the guest lecture session with Lesley Raven, we discussed the benefits of group v’s individual reflection, one participant mention “for me the term “reflective practice” always makes me think of a collective practice rather than something you do on your own. ‘’
The ideal would not only be to have a regular team meeting but also fall out or follow up sessions to start implementing some of the discussion points. As a textile team we have started to meet at the end of each term however I have found that there is so much to feedback on in this session that it can feel overwhelming and finding the time to work on the ideas suggested don’t take priority when we are back in the rhythm of our weekly teaching.
Another way of reflecting I am interested in is that between student and tutor. As a wider team we have recently created Padlet boards for each unit that the students can upload feedback to anonymously. We actively ask them to access the board and let us know what they enjoyed and what they would change, I have found openly asking for constructive feedback has encouraged them to be more honest and therefore actually engage with the practice of reflection.
Overall, this session with Lesley was really enlightening and it was great to see how other courses and programmes view and carry out reflective practice in different ways, which has allowed for me to think differently with potential ideas for the embroidery course.
References:
Saffer, D. (2007). Notes on Donald Schön’s The Reflective Practitioner. Available at: https://odannyboy.medium.com/notes-on-donald-sh%C3%B6ns-the-reflective-practitioner-e67f753879d8 (Accessed: 12 February 2025).
Schön, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Schön, D. A. (1897) Education the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Fracisco: Jossey-Bass.