This
week I'd like to respond to something Bryan posted. If you didn't see it here's
what he said:
"This
is where I get philosophical, and perhaps a touch melancholy about the state of
today’s education (and world in general):
The
world today is one of constantly competing resources, looming deadlines and
non-stop rushing. Reflection seems to be a skill that is slowly eroding
in our social fabric. As information is available at increasingly
blinding speed and we are called to produce results all the time, pausing to
reflect seems to be happening less and less. At least I know I am guilty
of this, and my observations seem to indicate I am not alone.
The
same seems to be true in our educational systems. Schools must complete
delivery of curriculum in a set amount of time. Class sizes are
growing. So, I must ask: is reflection being sacrificed in our schools
too? I am not a professional educator. I feel I do a decent job of
monitoring my child’s education, but I am largely unaware of the actual
classroom environment and instructional techniques. Is reflection
mandated? Is it used? Davis (2003) describes how “one size fits
all” techniques for reflection prompts are not as effective as ones tailored to
the individual. Are class sizes and competing priorities resulting in
non-effective or non-optimal reflective prompts? Whether for
metacognitive, observational, or other purposes, the benefits of reflection are
clear, and I hope they are not being brushed aside in schools today. To
reiterate, I am not an educator, and am not asking this with an agenda. I
am genuinely curious, and am hopeful that some of the individuals in the class
with a more formal educational background can shed some light on this for
me."
I
thought his comments were interesting for a few reasons. I also am not an
educator but I have the general sense that reflection is not something that
most schools are employing or teaching the kids to use. Although it's been a
long time - reflection definitely wasn't an instructional technique used in the
schools that I went to. In our readings in other classes we've learned about
progressive schools that embrace reflection and make it a key part of the curriculum
but I think these are few and far between. It's a great point, I think
this is definitely a valuable skill that needs to be brought back and
emphasized in schools. But I am unsure about the point about reflection being a
skill that is slowly eroding. It doesn't seem to have been a skill that was
employed in schools for a few generations so maybe this skill has been long
absent in schools rather than slowly on the decline.
In talking to one elementary school teacher this week, I learned that this strategy is being used more than I thought. It sounds like it really depends on the teacher and how progressive they are in their approach to teaching, but there are more and more teachers who are using reflection than probably 20 years ago. Although this is one person's perspective, I trust their view over my limited knowledge of educational practices. Still, it sounds like there's plenty more room for improvement with the use of reflection in schools.
The
other reason I wanted to respond to Bryan's blog is because he that
gets "philosophical" and seems to suggest that this is unusual for
him. However, getting philosophical is something quite characteristic of
Academy graduates. They rather like to ponder and expound about anything and
everything to whoever will listen. If you catch him doing this - don't be
alarmed, it's quite normal.
John
I believe this would be my final response to your blog as your buddy. I will miss you!!!
ReplyDeleteBefore diving into the content, what happened to your format or style of article??? It seems that you copied and pasted not only Bryan's article but also the style of his article. If you did it on intention, just ignore my message. Yet, if you are suffering from the unique format, you can copy the text of your article and paste onto Notepad and, then copy the text you pasted on Notepad and paste the text again on the blog. I believe this will reset the format of your article.
OK, then let me respond to your response to Bryan's article! His article is, indeed, interesting. And I would agree with your point that reflection has been absent rather than eroding. I'm not a good person to judge this issue, though. I'm young! 24 until March 3rd!! I'm keep advertising my birthday :)
I came to the doctoral program without going outside of school environment. I do not have any real life experiences, unlike my boyfriend who began to work when he was 18. He was in the same grade as me and 25 now :)
So I really do not have anything to compare with schools. Yet, what I was "educated" was that educational institutions tend to be conservative and do not like changes.
From my perspective, reflection is for us to change something. If we reflect and find every thing perfect, we would not change anything. Yet, if that is the case, taking time to reflect might be just a waste of time. I know many people like the act of reflection for its own. They are philosopher type people. I'm not such a person. I need at least two reasons for spending my time. Especially when doing something takes time and requires mental efforts like reflection.
My point is that in order for schools to be reflective, they need to be motivated to change. Change for the better. Probably, competitive environment is something that induces the motivation to change. Although I do not like competing with someone :)
So, I feel that competitive situation actually could enhance reflection mediated by the motivation to change for the better. At least, those schools that will win the game should function in this way. That's my opinion. Let me know how do you feel about my thoughts!