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This two-stage study was conducted to examine the awareness of policy and underlying pedagogy as well as the use of reflective practice by teaching staff (faculty) within a Scottish university. In the first stage, teaching staff completed a questionnaire; of these 14 then took part in stage two, semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis and three main themes emerged: (1) The methods and processes of reflection ('How'); (2) The personal and organisational drivers for employing reflective practices ('Why'); and (3) The barriers to reflection ('Why not'). Significant findings included the dominance of traditional (paper-based as opposed to computer mediated) reflective writing in teaching staff's own reflection, and the importance of both formal and informal group reflection in methods and process. Reasons for reflection focused on the importance of both organisational drivers such as professional standards and awarding bodies, and personal drivers such as personal growth, identity, and psychological wellbeing. Barriers to reflection included both the concrete such as insufficient time and lack of opportunities to share resources, as well as the attitudinal and cultural. Possible ways of tacking these barriers also emerged. Implications for organisational and individual practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School placement is a critical part of initial teacher education (ITE) that provides authentic contexts in which preservice teachers (PSTs) can bridge theory and practice. This paper presents an exploratory study of PSTs' practical knowledge orientations during a six-week school placement. As a reflective tool, concept mapping helped the nine Chinese PSTs probe the orientations of their practical knowledge. The follow-up interviews strengthened our findings of the following three orientations of PSTs' practical knowledge: interpersonal-interaction-oriented, problem-solving-oriented, and professional-identity-oriented knowledge. Based on the participants' annotation, the differences in the PSTs' knowledge orientations are influenced by their prior teaching experience, received mentoring, and critical events during placement. This study provides transnational implications for developing PSTs' practical knowledge with reflection by using concept mapping during on-site practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-service teachers need to prepare for diverse classrooms. Being culturally responsive, they should affirm students from diverse cultures and acknowledge that both their own and these students' cultural practices may shape learning in classrooms. Yet, many teacher education programs often fall behind in terms of focusing on cultural elements. One way to prepare pre-service teachers for culturally responsive teaching is integrating critical reflection into teacher education curricula. Pre-service teachers' reflections tend to be descriptive rather than in-depth. Also, usually, retrospective reflection is practiced in teacher education programs, but pre-service teachers should also learn reflection-in-action, reflection in the moment of an action, for effective teaching in dynamic atmosphere of classrooms. This paper offers a set of literature-driven guidelines for future teachers' learning of culturally responsive teaching through critical reflection-in-action. The conceptual design guidelines presented in this paper focus on how digital scaffolds can be designed to promote pre-service teachers' reflection-in-action in their future diverse classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The established link between quality early childhood programs and positive child trajectories has led to the professionalization of the early childhood workforce in Australia. Attention has concentrated on the upgrading of qualifications and opportunities for professional learning. This paper focuses on exploring teacher professional learning, positioning it as a reflective practice. It considers teacher dispositions, moments of disjuncture and how these influence teacher learning. Theoretically, the paper is informed by Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and reflexivity; Mezirow's theory of transformative learning; and Boler and Zembylas's notion of pedagogy of discomfort. The data are drawn from a statewide mentoring project for newly graduated early childhood teachers in Victoria, Australia. The findings suggest that for teacher professional learning to be transformative, the process must be informed by a pedagogy of discomfort thereby considering the interplay of teachers' professional dispositions, experiences of disjuncture, and acts of deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflective practice plays a significant role in effective teaching. However, for pre-service teachers (PSTs), it can be a difficult process to not only think reflectively but to understand its importance in their teaching practice. This research focused on the development of a framework for written reflective practice embedded within professional experience (PEx) units. In tutorials, PSTs were provided with video technology to film themselves performing teaching tasks. A reflective framework provided a structure to assist in reflecting on the teaching task. Dialogical teaching and coaching by tutors as well as peer discussion scaffolded the reflective process. At the end of the semester, PSTs and tutors were invited to complete a survey on the reflective processes they had used. This paper focuses on the development of the reflective framework and the feedback received on the use of the framework as a reflective tool. The findings reveal that the PSTs and most tutors found the format useful in structuring reflective practice. The framework and its repeated use over time has potential to build professional knowledge and skills and sustain ongoing reflective practice into the PSTs professional careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a theoretical framework for the Self-Reflective Shapes approach, a creative solution that was developed in response to a practical challenge of supporting the development of a culture of reflection. We frame the problem empirically by outlining the context of our work with Kazakhstani teacher-trainers and theoretically by examining conceptions of professional knowing and reflection that can lead to the overemphasis of either explicit, well-defined knowledge outcomes or tacit, ill-defined embodied knowledge. Drawing on diverse reflective traditions, in this context reflection is focused on developing the freedoms necessary to successfully meet competing educational demands, be they academic, standards-based, developmental, or social-transformational in nature. We propose that acts which balance freedoms and constraints are inherently creative and therefore reflection can be seen as a creative act. This in turn offers a vehicle to manage tensions that arise from the divergent pressures which arise across educators' experiences. Self-Reflective Shapes is presented as an example of such a creative approach as it empowers teachers to focus on the tensions and intentions that are of greatest concern in their context as well as addressing the need to simultaneously develop diverse knowledge forms when addressing multiple, ill-defined and competing educational problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two adult educator professors share reflections on their dialogues, spanning 15 years, focusing on their journey of work and learning at a research-intensive university. Authors refer to intrinsic principles, values, and a shared commitment to contributing to a community shaped and influenced by an intentional focus on 'relationality' in support of individual and collective well-being. By reflecting on dialogues, past and ongoing, an enduring commitment to co-creating learning spaces sustained by care, compassion, and positive regard for colleagues and students is realized. Authors advance a commitment to community as essential to support work and learning spaces that thrive. This discourse is located in the current neoliberal milieu where a focus on performance germane to teaching, securing research funding, scholarship productivity, and compliance pervades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom there are guidelines and policies to facilitate boundaries within professional interactions which recognise power differences between those employed in services and those referred to them. However, perhaps we must acknowledge that these boundaries may have indirectly resulted in an unbridgeable division between professionals and those that use services in current professional policies. This paper considers what it means to be a Clinical Psychologist and user of services or carer with the complexity that surrounds this dual position. Through incorporating personal reflections, it seeks to highlight how hard it can be to break down 'them and us' barriers despite the best intentions of the profession and policy makers. The suggestion is that to be truly equal and inclusive we must shift from relating differently to service users, professionals and professionals who may use services by acknowledging our personal positions; otherwise breaking down barriers will remain an ideal rather than a reality. When it comes to our overall well-being breaking down these barriers could shift us from direct or oblique misunderstandings, judgements and stigma towards understanding, tolerance and acceptance within and between all of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of playfulness in higher education has been considered sparsely when compared to other areas of education, such as primary schools. This paper is an evaluation, and a piece of reflective practice, of teaching a research module to postgraduate students using a combination of playful and non-playful tasks. The evaluation indicates that when initially participating in a playful task, students do not make the links with how it relates to research when compared to non-playful tasks. However, once the playful task is complete, students can relate the task to the research process. For both playful and non-playful tasks, there was a difference in how much students enjoyed participating in them. This could relate to whether the tasks were an individual or group task. There was also a difference in how helpful the playful tasks were, compared with the non-playful tasks, for completing the assignment. This evaluation considers the use of playfulness when teaching not only research, but any subject within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study informing this paper set out to reframe evaluation as a collaborative, participatory, dialogical process with a focus on learning rather than accountability. Evaluation, much like reflective practice, has been shaped in terms of individual activity and deficit-based discourses. Using an ‘insider’ approach, an innovative methodology was developed and implemented in a voluntary youth organisation in the UK. Data gathered via semi-structured interviews before and after the implementation were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The findings suggest that collective spaces for reflection and dialogue are disappearing and yet practitioners highly valued this for its re-energising and restorative properties. Evidence is presented to suggest that narratives, in this case co-constructed stories, enabled collective critical reflection and the development of a shared understanding of practice which in turn supported and strengthened professional autonomy. This paper offers a significant contribution to knowledge in regard to the design and use of participatory evaluation. It is argued that the appreciative, collaborative and reflective aspects of the methodology enabled the learning and development functions to be realised. Evaluation based on collective, reflective dialogue has the potential to provide an evidence base of good practice, enhance staff well-being and improve practice outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the use of critical reflection in reviewing my professional development in a West of Scotland university. The paper explores my development against the changing socio-political, cultural and educational landscapes in the Scottish HE sector. The first part addresses my development as a professional educator, citing seminal experiences that have been influential in my thinking and practice. It examines how social interaction, engagement with peers, the HEA subject centre and students helped form and reform my professional identity, allowing me to develop a robust sense of professional autonomy. The second part explains how the process of critical reflection has led to a deeper understanding of how I reconnect with the moral dimension of professional academic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses a comparison between the basic psychological views on reflection of the most eminent authors of the twentieth century: John Dewey, Donald Schon, Lev Vygotsky, Vladimir Lefebvre and Georgii Shchedrovitsky. The paper is specifically designed to bring together understandings of reflection from two different perspectives. The first perspective is that commonly seen as encompassing the Western English speaking cultures (e.g. United Kingdom, North America, Australia, New Zealand), the second is that of the Russian speaking cultures of Eastern Europe. Through a comparison of these two world views it becomes possible to reconsider not only how the conceptual development of reflection can be better understood, but also the value placed upon it as an integral component of quality practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a memory and life story process engaged in by three former early childhood teachers. The reflective process was based in interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) and proceeded in a recursive and layered manner, circling around the participants’ memory narratives. The aims of the study were: (1) to develop a critical approach to generating knowledge about childhood, and (2) to consider a teaching strategy for memory work in teacher education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper will identify the dialogical and inquiry-based case methodology used to explore leadership and ethical development with supervisory officers. The case process helped to illuminate educators’ professional knowledge and the cognitive frames used to make decisions. Supervisory officers were able to study the diverse contextual influences upon their professional practice as a means to their ongoing learning and leadership formation. This exploration was facilitated by explicating the multiplicity of dilemmas, tensions or issues that emerge within the educational leadership practices of supervisory officers. Dilemmas encountered in practice served as catalysts for fostering additional professional insight and understanding. Many leadership issues require ethical deliberation, analysis and reflection. These processes can ultimately enhance ethical knowledge. Professional practice and be significantly advanced using ethical dilemmas experienced by educators as the core focus for ethical case discussions and for illuminating ethical frameworks. This narrative approach is effective pedagogy for leadership formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What would healthcare look like if we used artistic activities and reflective practice to better understand our clients, and to develop our own professional knowledge and clinical practice? This paper explores one healthcare practitioner's engagement in the reflective practice process, as catalyzed by the use of an artistic activity - river drawings as a metaphor for life - in professional practice. Insights gained about professional knowledge development and about transforming practice are anchored in the lived practice experience of one occupational therapist working in mental health practice. Connections between reflective practice and implications for clinical practice are made, with a focus on the reflective mutuality and reciprocity of arts-use in healthcare practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of reflective practice with a group of participants during their transition from higher education to professional practice. A longitudinal study was conducted with a group of nine students when they were on a Masters programme with a follow-up a year into practice. The findings suggest that as students, they all considered reflective practice to be very important. After transition the importance of reflection had magnified due to the direct relevance of reflection to their practice. The methods of reflection had changed for some and had been embedded into their practice. The participants had strong positive and negative views regarding the teaching and assessment of reflection as students and practitioners. Implications for programme design and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an account of how I improved my professional practice by keeping a reflective learning journal. It begins with the recognition that to improve my practice I first needed to understand its nature. This resulted in an evolving journey of personal and professional self‐discovery that led to a greater understanding of my role as a practitioner–researcher. I describe how engaging in double‐loop reflection (as distinct from single‐loop reflection) became my real reflective learning, and how that process helped me analyse my theories‐in‐use, leading to an understanding of where and how my practice needed to improve. I acknowledge the importance of recording my practice honestly, and illustrate how writing openly and appreciatively led to a richer reflective and reflexive journal that helped me better understand and manage the change taking place in my organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflective theory and models have largely been dominated by cognitive approaches that characterize reflection as something someone does or applies. To help 'balance' this influence, more esoteric approaches are offered from Buddhist and Native American lore, which characterize reflection as a way of being. The paper does not draw any conclusions from this exploration except to suggest that esoteric approaches may be dismissed simply because they defy rational explanation which, if true, would be paradoxical given the significance of intuition within professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' professional spielraum, which molds their classroom activities, has been shown to be inherently difficult to change. This paper suggests a process that is aimed towards the extension and diversification of teachers' spielraum. The process rests on co-participation of teachers in two different experiential habitats, each one being anchored in different underlying pedagogical assumptions and different ways of professional being. One habitat was a classroom setting that enacted ways of teaching associated with the metaphor of the transmission-acquisition of knowledge, and the other was a habitat that enacted learning as a participative inquiry of social-technological problems. The simultaneous participation in two habitats with different underlying pedagogical assumptions, sometimes even conflicting, encourage processes of reflection and the enactment of context bound teaching, leading to the emergence of practitioners with a versatile repertoire of ways of being and a broader spielraum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]