Harry stared into a stone basin called a Pensieve that contained swirling, silvery memories. Dumbledore explained that the Pensieve allows wizards to remove excess thoughts and memories from their minds and examine them in the basin. This helps make patterns and connections clearer. Harry had never felt overwhelmed by his own thoughts before. Dumbledore said examining thoughts in the Pensieve makes it easier to understand them. The document describes Harry's first encounter with a Pensieve and Dumbledore explaining its purpose and function to Harry.

1. Harry stared at the stone basin. The contents had returned to
their original, silvery white state, swirling and rippling
beneath his gaze.
“ What is it?” Harry asked shakily.
“This? It is called a Pensieve,” said Dumbledore. “ I sometimes
find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have
too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.”
“Err,” said Harry who couldn’t truthfully say that he had ever
felt anything of the sort.
“At these times” said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin,
“ I use the Penseive. One simply siphons the excess thoughts
from one’s mind, pours them into a basin, and examines them
at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links,
you understand, when they are in this form.’ ( Rowling, 2000)

2. Reflective practice workshop
for ePortfolio creation
Jennifer Rowley &
Wendy Brooks
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The University of Sydney

3. Why reflective practice?
„It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in
order to learn. Without reflecting upon this
experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its
learning potential lost. It is from the feelings and
thoughts emerging from this reflection that
generalisations or concepts can be generated.
And it is generalisations that allow new situations to
be tackled effectively.‟
Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing. A Guide to Teaching and
Learning Methods. FEU

4. Current university students have grown up
surrounded by technology. They are often
labeled digital natives, the Net generation or
millennials.
(Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005; Prensky, 2011; Tapscott, 2009)

5. This workshop will focus on the use of
reflective practice to assist teachers
in helping their students become
reflective learners.
WRITE ON YOUR POST IT NOTE WHAT
YOU WANT TO „WALK AWAY‟ WTH
AFTER TODAY‟S WORKSHOP

6. In the workshop we will discuss
how to connect the theory or
new knowledge you teach to
students to the practical
application of that theory or
new piece of knowledge for
enhancement of students'
learning.

7. Reflective practice
The basic concept of knowledge
production can be interpreted around
Schön‟s (1995) theory of reflective
practice where students reflect on their
practice and knowledge at the same
time as reflecting on the knowledge
and actions experienced.

8. Donald Schon's "Reflective Practitioner"
The focus will be Donald Schon's
"Reflective Practitioner" and we will
be hands on in the application of
Schon‟s work on reflective practice.

9. What is a "Reflective Practitioner"
Professionals who receive real-time
coaching and encouragement to
think carefully (about what they do
while they do it) learn in a more
profound way.

10. Knowledge management
Students‟ work can involve new media
productions that express understanding,
rather than the traditional writing of papers
synthesizing expert opinion (Dede, 2010).
This attempt by students to „manage‟
knowledge through technology-assisted
learning can lead to them operating a
higher level of thinking (Bebensee, Helms &
Spruit, 2010).

11. Reflective writing is:
• Your response to experiences,
opinions, events or new
information
• Your response to thoughts and
feelings
• A way of thinking to explore
your learning
• An opportunity to gain selfknowledge
• A way to achieve clarity and
better understanding of what
you are learning
• A chance to develop/
reinforce writing skills
Reflective writing is not:
• For conveying information,
instruction or argument
• Just description
• Just a judgement about
whether something is good or
bad
• Simple problem-solving
• A summary of course notes
• A standard essay

12. Reflective exercise- THINK ABOUT
THESE QUESTIONS
• What are some ways technology has
been used for you creating or doing
assignments and in-class activities?
• How effective has this use of
technology been?
Could the activity/experience/learning
have been as effective without
technology?
•

13. Thinking specifically about assignments …
• How confident are you creating
assignments using technology?
How important do you think it is to
incorporate technology into assignment
work?
• Were there any surprises? (e.g. did it
take a lot of time/different skills/etc)
• Did any external factors come into
play?

14. • What worked well?
What needed improvement?
• How will your experiences influence
future decisions/activities?
NOW WRITE ABOUT YOUR
RESPONSE TO READING
AND THINKING ABOUT
THESE QUESTIONS

15. WORKSHOP
• create a web folio, journal and /or
blog to demonstrate understanding of
reflective practice AND facilitating
with technology.
• Initially write a reflective journal in an
eportfolio platform (your choice),
which you can use to create the blog
or web folio.

16. ePortfolios??
• http://youtu.be/_iGVySSlMeU

17. Themes emerging from the
reflective writing study
• the time-consuming nature of assignments using
technology;
• the unreliability of technology as a means of
presenting content in classes (both by lecturers
at university, and in schools for professional
experience placements);
• that technology should be used only when it
can add something not otherwise available;
• and assignments involving the creation of
interactive educational resources are a useful
course component, since future music teachers
will need to engage their students with such
tools.

18. fear
• “I find it difficult to work out how to use
technology, and if I‟m not comfortable
using it, it‟s hard to be creative”
(Participant #37);
• “I still feel completely uneducated and
uninformed of how to exactly use the
technology and how to effectively
implement it in a . . . teaching setting”
(Participant #4);
• “Technology is one of my weakest
points” (Participant #49).

19. Expectation that older lecturers should
more proficient
“I believe that most lecturers are not
proficient in new technologies
themselves and this makes it very difficult
for us to learn from them” (Participant
#28).

20. View of younger children as more
competent
“It is vital to be setting students
assignments that require them to
engage heavily with technology . . .
as teachers, we must appeal to what
the students enjoy doing, and their
generation is most adept and
enthusiastic at . . . technology”.

21. Technology should be complementary to, rather
than a replacement for, traditional practices
• “Technology should only be used when it has
something to add, not for sake of it”
(Participant #18);
• “Technology is extremely important, however,
it is still not necessary” (Participant #7);
• “The most important aspect of the use of
technology is the motive behind it…
Technology should be used as a way of
making things easier, not just because it‟s
there” (Participant #31).

22. These comments all oppose Prensky’s claim:
“our students are clamouring for these
technologies to be used as part of their
education, in part because they are
things the students have already
mastered and use in their daily lives, and
in part because they realise just how
useful they can be”. (2007, p. 41)

23. Exercise contributing to reflective practice
“I feel like I have a little more confidence in my
ability to use technology in assignments and also
feel that I am more easily engaged in work such
as this than if I were to present an essay or even a
normal PowerPoint” (Participant #34);
• “Personally I am not adept at technology but
getting ideas from the teacher about activities
inspires me to have a fiddle around in my own
time” (Participant #33);
• “At first I was hesitant, as I did not know anything
about these computer programs, but was
surprised to find that it was quite simple”
(Participant #19).
•

24. How does this relate to teaching and
learning with ePortfolio?
Think about your purpose for
wanting to incorporate
ePortfolio work for yourself or
your students?

25. Practising reflective writing
• Be aware of the purpose of your reflective writing and
state if it is appropriate
• Reflective writing requires practice and constant
standing back from oneself.
• Practice reflecting writing on the same event /incident
through different people‟s viewpoints and disciplines
• Deepen your reflection / reflective writing with the help
of others through discussing issues with individuals and
groups, getting the points of others.
• Reflect on what you have learnt from an incident, and
how you would do something differently another time.
• Try to develop your reflective writing to include the
ethical, moral, historical and socio-political contexts
where these are relevant.

26. The benefit of reflection:
• Students drawing connections between
technology use, the reflective writing
exercise and their own learning
experiences might potentially develop
more effective skills and practices.
“This reflective practice has allowed me to
constantly devise a “better approach” to
completing an aspect of the task
(Participant #48).

27. Conclusion:
Our study:
•
•
•
•
•
•
identified areas for technology use in their current
learning and future use as music teachers.
identified when it was engaging and contributing to
their understandings
Were hesitant to practice the technology unnecessarily
used technology as a key component in their
knowledge management, and therefore engaged in
the higher levels of thinking required for meaningful
reflection.
developed empathy with the technological processes
and heightened awareness of the learning products
through written reflection .
were understanding of why and how technology
interacts with their learning.