JALT2020 BRERETON Community Reflective Practice
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Over the past year, I have worked with two colleagues to establish a more active community of reflective practitioners across our connected institutions (ICU university and ICU high school). In monthly reflective practice sessions that follow principles of cooperative development, we meet to discuss and explore our teaching practices and beliefs. I’d like to share my reflections and experiences of developing this community so far, the lessons I have learned, the challenges we have faced, and the questions I have pondered on the role of community in teacher professional development.
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JALT2020 BRERETON Community Reflective Practice
- 1. Developing a Community of Reflective Practice Forms and Functions of Community in Education Teacher Development & CUE SIG Joint Forum Peter Brereton pbrereton@icu.ac.jp JALT2020 21 November 2020
- 2. ● Started in April 2019 ● Emerged from similar RP group at Rikkyo ● Monthly (ish) meetings during term time ● Open to ICU university and high school teachers ● Reflecting in a community to all develop individually Our Reflective Practice Group “For professional development to occur, three things are usually involved: a focus, dialogue with another professional, and reflection.” (Mann & Walsh, 2017)
- 3. Preparation Time Cooperative Development Speaker Listener Listener Speaker Pair Discussion Group Discussion “…by having to communicate their ideas and reflections…in a spoken form, the Speaker is compelled to make sense of them and in so doing this helps to clarify their beliefs and values in their own minds.”(O’Leary, 2013)
- 4. Preparation Time Cooperative Development Speaker Listener Listener Speaker Pair Discussion Group Discussion “Speakers who are well listened to consistently report that this listening has a positive effect on both the quality and quantity of what they have to say [plus] a facilitating effect on their thinking and an enhancement of their self-worth.” (Edge, 2002).
- 5. Preparation Time Cooperative Development Speaker Listener Listener Speaker Pair Discussion Group Discussion “…by having to communicate their ideas and reflections…in a spoken form, the Speaker is compelled to make sense of them and in so doing this helps to clarify their beliefs and values in their own minds.” (O’Leary, 2013) “Speakers who are well listened to consistently report that this listening has a positive effect on both the quality and quantity of what they have to say [plus] a facilitating effect on their thinking and an enhancement of their self-worth.” (Edge, 2002). “If you keep to the rules as Understander [Listener], you may feel a little frustration that you were not supposed to add your own contributions…I hope that this frustration starts to feel more like a form of positive, transferable energy…[which] can be put at the service of the Speaker. ” (Edge, 2002)
- 7. Ownership ● Choosing dates ● Suggesting themes/prompts ● Volunteering to facilitate ● Deciding and evaluating the format ● Offering input into future themes Ideals versus Reality I wonder… - Is this an unrealistic ideal for a new community like this? - Does someone always need to take the lead (at first)? - In what ways can a sense of community ownership be encouraged?
- 8. Continuity ● Teacher Availability ● Teacher Interest ● Session Frequency ● Sense of Momentum Ideals versus Reality I wonder… - How could teachers on the ”normal” end of the continuum be encouraged to engage in a reflective community? Should they be? - What role does continuity or momentum play in community? “There is a continuum between, at one end, what Wallace (1991: 56) calls ‘normal reflective practice of many teachers’ or what ‘caring teachers have always done’ (Bailey 1997: 1) and, at the other end, the more structured and rigorous forms [such as] teacher research...“ (Mann, 2005)
- 9. The Purpose of our Group? ● Facilitate deeper individual reflection ● Improve individual awareness of teaching practices ● Help colleagues to become more actively reflective ● Develop connections between teachers across contexts ● Develop a community of reflective practitioners Ideals versus Reality I wonder… As colleagues/managers, what role do we play/what responsibility do we have: - for the development of other teachers? - for the development of a community in our workplace?
- 10. Edge, J. (2002). Continuing cooperative development: A discourse framework for individuals. University of Michigan Press. Mann, S. (2005). The language teacher’s development. Language Teaching 38, 103-118. Mann, S. & Walsh, S. (2017). Reflective practice in English language teaching. Routledge. O’Leary, M. (2013) Classroom observation: A guide to the effective observation of teaching and learning. Routledge
- 11. CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik Thanks The font in this presentation is Ubuntu, often translated as: I am because we are
Editor's Notes
- Started in April 2019 by three of us. Inspired by Loseva’s long-running group but which was difficult to get to. We were generally good at monthly term meetings but this has been hard since COVID struck. We’ve moved online and had our last session last week. Bringing together two closely connected but actually fairly disconnected institutions was one of the benefits. Those who share a context are often more highly valued - as Dawn mentioned yesterday in our discussion - but we thought it would be interesting to learn about each other’s contexts too. We have had teachers of Spanish, Japanese, and even PE attending. That was interesting, as they discussed how critical thinking was applied in their classes. Joint desire of ours to reflect with others, but also to get people together, particularly those with less experience of explicit, conscious, active reflection.
- We want participants to see it as not just a chat about classes, a bit of a chance to catch up (although it can also be that). Despite the community nature of it, or perhaps because of it, we want individuals to speak and to be heard. Run through cooperative development format of the sessions Quotes: Having to communicate, they are compelled to make sense of their own ideas Being listened to is very powerful reflective tool Frustration for the listener - teachers often like to offer advice, make suggestions and generally help out, but it should be resisted (mentioned in Jennie and Adie’s presentation on Friday too)
- We want participants to see it as not just a chat about classes, a bit of a chance to catch up (although it can also be that). Despite the community nature of it, or perhaps because of it, we want individuals to speak and to be heard. Run through cooperative development format of the sessions Quotes: Having to communicate, they are compelled to make sense of their own ideas Being listened to is very powerful reflective tool Frustration for the listener - teachers often like to offer advice, make suggestions and generally help out, but it should be resisted (mentioned in Jennie and Adie’s presentation on Friday too)
- We want participants to see it as not just a chat about classes, a bit of a chance to catch up (although it can also be that). Despite the community nature of it, or perhaps because of it, we want individuals to speak and to be heard. Run through cooperative development format of the sessions Quotes: Having to communicate, they are compelled to make sense of their own ideas Being listened to is very powerful reflective tool Frustration for the listener - teachers often like to offer advice, make suggestions and generally help out, but it should be resisted (mentioned in Jennie and Adie’s presentation on Friday too)
- In this next section, I'm going to reflect on a few challenges and pose a few questions about developing a community of reflective practitioners
- I think all three of us were all keen for there to be no real leader...Ideally these kinds of things can run themselves. However, I can only speak for myself. I hoped: We’d have multiple owners - any regular attendee really - Letting us know when suits, deciding together the best date/time Suggesting themes/reflective prompts Volunteering to lead Helping to tweak and experiment with the format Offering input and feedback We tried to encourage people for a long time - asking for feedback by email, sending out Google Forms to ask for ideas, to ask for feedback on the format. We got some responses but no volunteers to lead - those who did seem interested said they’d want to wait to gain experience of the meetings first. I’m in no way blaming them, but it was a different reality to that which I’d hoped for/envisaged. It means now that Mike usually rallies the HS teachers while I email the university teachers. I do feel sometimes like I’m intruding or bothering them with announcements and reminders, and I’m beginning to explore having a group chat so that only those interested get the emails. On the other hand, that means those who have a passing interest will never come.
- Again, no intention to criticise, just explaining how I see it. Ideals: - Teachers have time and are interested in reflecting and in helping each other, and in engaging with others. One hour a month... Reality: We have a core of two or three teachers who attend most sessions, with a semi-frequent few more, and a lot more one-time attendees. Availability is an issue, time is hard to find. No time seems convenient for everyone, others clearly prefer to reflect in other ways Quote: Mann Sessions: Ideals: regular participants, growing attendance, sense of community, development of relationships and trust between teachers, long-term - more collaboration. Reality: Because of fluctuating attendance, Continuity can be hard from session to session, we have to re-introduce ourselves and the format and we recently skip goal review because many of us have not set goals recently. Vicious circle? Momentum is difficult to achieve from session to session, perhaps leaving people feel they're joining a new group each time. I feel this may turn people off the sessions if they feel this is the case.
- Ultimately, I wonder about the purpose of the group/the community. What role does it play at ICU university and HS? Is it…? Is it something else? I wonder...what role do we play/what responsibility do we have…?