Research in Science Education, 1993, 23, 15-23

TOWARDS BECOMING A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER: WHAT TO KNOW AND WHERE TO FIND IT

Anne Byrne & Campbell J. McRobbie Queensland University of Technology

ABSTRACT

Preparing student teachers to teach thoughtfully and to consider carefully the consequences of their work involves creating opportunities for these beginning teachers to learn the skills and attitudes required for reflective practice. The case study described here explores one model of developing reflective practice and the congruent role that the source and use of knowledge of good teaching practice has in the process of developing the reflective practices of a post-graduate pre-service science teacher. Of particular interest are the facilitators and barriers she sees as affecting this development.

INTRODUCTION

Despite apparent overwhelming support in the literature during the last decade for the development of reflective practices in preservice teachers, the definition and description of the key concept, reflection, remains quite open. While the overlap between many authors' ideas and perceptions is often considerable, there are also several discernible differences. These differences, in turn, have led to a multiplicity of recommendations as to the most effective and appropriate form that preservice teacher education aiming towards the development of reflective practices should take.

Grimmet, Erikson, MacKinnon and Rieken (1990) present a functional review of reflective practices with what they see as three pervading orientations or perspectives to reflection in the literature. Their initial pragmatic use of the definition of reflection as "how educators make sense of the phenomena of experiences that puzzle or perplex them" lays the foundation for the rest of their review.

By focussing on how and what knowledge (of good teachers and good teaching practice) is accessed and subsequently used, they build a useful and tangible framework for analysing both current reflective practices of teachers and the practices of teacher educators with respect to the development of reflective practices in their students.

They maintain that their definition of reflection can be developed further by exploring the use of the knowledge base needed for "...making sense of the phenomena...'. Thus, by examining the process of utilisation of that knowledge, they present what they see as three orientations to reflection in the literature.

At the least complex level of reflective practice, they maintain, knowledge from external (research) sources drives practice with the emphasis lying with the replication of desirable teacher behaviours (Cruikshank, 1987).

A second, more complex level of reflection suggests that knowledge of good teaching practice is derived from several available and competing sources, with choices by the practitioner being made in the context of practice as to the best course of action. Thus knowledge informs practice.

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The third level suggests that new understandings are reached as the practitioner "...recasts, reframes and...reconstitutes..." (Schon, 1987 in Grimmet et al., 1991) understandings in such a way as to "generate fresh appreciations of the puzzlement or surprise inherent in a practical situation." Schon (1987) actually spoke of reflective practice as "the manner in which practitioners frame and reframe problematic situations to make sense of the experiences that puzzle and perplex them'.

This process allows teachers to arrive at new understandings of their own practice and thus allows a continual growth in the knowledge of their practice. The emphasis lies with the important theories relating to successful practice being implicit within and growing from the individuars practice itself.

The central premise explored here then, is that as a student practitioner develops from a simple level of reflective practice to a more complex level of such practice, there is a concurrent shift in the perception of that student as to the source and subsequent use of knowledge of good teaching practices.

METHOD

In order to explore this premise, five questions were addressed:

* What change has occurred in the nature of the student's knowledge of good teaching practices and good teachers?

* What shift has occurred in the student teacher's perception as to the source and subsequent use of knowledge about good teaching and good teachers?

* What change has occurred in the student's reflective practice over a specified time? * What are the factors affecting, the conditions facilitating and/or the barriers inhibiting any

changes which may have occurred? * What events may have influenced the nature of her reflective practice?

As this research was concerned with changes in a student teacher's perceptions of her source of knowledge (of good teaching and good teachers), the use of that knowledge, and changes in her approach to reflection, a methodological approach which relied on interpreting her current perceptions and beliefs seemed most appropriate.

To make it possible to obtain adequate data for any such interpretive analysis, it was necessary to use methods that allowed the student every opportunity to express her beliefs about good teaching, the source of her knowledge and about various aspects of her teaching practice over an extended period of time.

Hence a case study of a preservice part-time post-graduate student, Jane, was undertaken. This study spanned her two year course. Throughout the period of this study, Jane was also working full-time as a medical research assistant. Data concerning her reflective practices was collected at the beginning of her course, at regular intervals throughout her course of study and at the end of the period of observation which coincided with the end of her course of study. Apart from attending her formal lectures during this time, she was also involved in two four week practical teaching sessions in a secondary school.

Jane was selected for a variety of reasons such as her accessibility, her willingness to participate in this project and her role as a preservice post-graduate student. The main reason, however, that she was selected as the subject of this study was because of her previously demonstrated ability to articulate clearly her feelings, her perceptions and many of the her cognitive processes.

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The data relating to the student's perceptions of her source of knowledge of good teaching practice were gathered using a variety of methods. Because this research is concerned with the "significance of actions and behaviours" (Erikson, 1986) of a student teacher, it was important to collect data that reflected the points of view of the participant herself. It is important because "humans create meaningful interpretations of the physical and behavioural objects that surround them" (Erikson, 1986). Therefore any methods selected had to focus directly on the participant, the "actor", and her perceptions of her world.

Three types of interviews were applied. Firstly, interviews with a general guide and then subsequently, standardised open-ended interviews were used. There were periods of reflection between each episode which allowed for analysis and interpretation of the data. In addition to this, further detail was obtained from a free-write reflective writing opportunity given to Jane half way through her course of study. The third style of interview was undertaken in order to collect a greater breadth and hopefully depth of information on the processes under consideration. Jane was shown a series of videos of contrasting teaching styles in science classrooms and was asked to comment on these, describing the aspects of the teaching she liked and disliked, and how she would cope with similar material and situations. This task is based on research by Calderhead and Robson (1991) and is aimed at encouraging Jane to make more explicit the taken-for-granted assumptions about her knowledge of good teaching practice. Details of the data collection process are shown in Table 1.

An interpretive research method was used in order to interpret the range of qualitative data that was collected from this study. This method, Erikson (1986) argues, is most appropriate for the "identification of specific causal linkages ... and the development of new theories about causes and other influences on the patterns that are identified in the survey data...".

Thus the findings are presented in the form of a number of assertions derived from the data. Assertions are designed to function as key linkages, as constructs which tie up the "various strings" in the data and demonstrate the plausibility of the objective of the research.

TABLE 1 SCHEDULE OF INTERVIEWS OVER THE TWO YEAR PERIOD

DATE

July 1991

July 1991

April 1992

April 1992

May 1992

June 1992

February 1993

April 1993

April 1993

June 1993

NATURE OF DATA COLLECTION

structured interview

video viewing + general guided interview

structured interview

4 week practice school

open-ended interview

writing exercise

structured interview

4 week practice school

general guided interview

open-ended interview

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The framework suggested by Grimmet et al. (1990) for classifying the level of reflective practice of the student was adhered to as closely as possible. Thus the focus throughout remained with where the student perceived her knowledge of good teaching practices to come from and how it was to be used in her own practice. It is the analysis of this accessing and use of knowledge which provided clues as to the nature of reflection which is being practised.

ASSERTION 1: A chan,qe has occurred in the nature of the knowled.qe (of r teachinq practices) that Jane considers to be important.

By referring to expert and novice teachers when working in the area of reflective practice, Berliner (1986) suggested that the networks of knowledge and meanings of experts (experienced teachers) are more complex than those of novices. This is because they include more categories, more detail and more interconnections than do the lesser novice networks. He suggests that when confronted with a problem situation (in a classroom) experts can draw on this rich source of previously "acquired, learned and developed" patterns and knowledge and thus make more "appropriate choices and decisions". This, in turn, assists in the continuing development of the complexity of the networks - a spiralling process.

Reynolds (1992) also distinguishes between what she calls competent and novice teachers on the basis of their ability to reflect on unsuccessful classroom behaviours. Not only was the skill of reflection less honed in the novice group she studied, but their concerns and the priorities they placed on what they felt was important to know differed from the competent teachers.

In July, 1991, Jane was preoccupied with two aspects of her practice, namely, "...how to control them..." and what she called "practical knowledge" of the subject she was to teach (chemistry). "Teaching", she believed, "is about explaining well.., and the subject matter is most important". Also, "1 need a good list of discipline methods that works". She does make a passing mention of the desirability of "making a relaxed classroom environment...". One session of practice school and ten months of her course, however, and a note of desperation entered her discourse. Phrases like "...surviving and coping..." and "...just how will I deal with all I have to know..." as well as "...there's so much more involved than I thought..." (April 1992) surfaced, indicating a shift in her original ideas about both the breadth and the nature of what she felt she needed to know. The "prac school nightmare" opened her eyes to a "whole range of things ... I hope I can find out about before I go back there..." (February 1993).

By June 1993, after that second session and further lecture courses, some of the elements of Reynolds" competent teacher began to emerge in phrases such as "...I have to be ... finding out what is relevant to my kids..." and "..I need to be able to know how to anticipate what is happening in my classroom...'. Students had obviously shaped up in her mind as individuals with needs that she felt she had to assist to meet, "...I must know how to meet their needs for when they leave school...". Her perception of the nature of her subject matter itself was also shifting in this period of time: "1 used to think chemistry, science really, was what they gave us in lectures at Uni - it's nothing like that really is it?. How on earth can I find out what I should be teaching as science in my classes?" (July 1991). But by June 1992, a different note was emerging.

rye never read as many newspapers as I have in the last six months ... it takes so much time to keep up with everything in the world so I can make my grade nine's understand that science is not a dead subject ... that it has relevance for them ...and ironically me too ... I had never really thought about it myself until I had to face survival by being interesting or DIE (her emphasis).

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Of course, how to handle "sanity, survival and stress" were still issues uppermost in her mind. But the focus on her classroom strategies had shifted from "discipline" and "punishment" (July 1991) to "management" of time, people and curriculum (June 1993). "1 need to know how to make them all work the best way I can."

ASSERTION 2: A chan.qe has occurred in the source of knowledge (of .qood teaching practices} that Jane-considers to be important.

Calderhead (1987) in his review of existing theoretical frameworks concludes that the "student teacher, in learning how to teach, has to cope with a wide range of differing experiences... thus the necessary knowledge developed by the student will van /over time in content, nature and ...how and where it is acquired'.

It all seemed so clear-cut in July, 1991:"1'11 learn how to teach from here (QUT)... the lecturers should be able to tell us how to teach." In a sense, this was a surprising admission, as Jane had worked for a number of years and could have been expected to have drawn on many different sources for her knowledge of good practices as she indicated she would normally do at work. A little prompting yielded "1 think I would like to see some really good teachers at work". But, at this point "good" was strongly linked to "well disciplined" and "good grasp of subject matter".

Once again, practice school seemed to challenge her preconceptions and shake her confidence in what she called "the formula for successful teaching". In April, 1992 Jane was saying "I'm not so sure anymore ... everyone tells you something different ... and I keep trying to remember what the teachers I thought were good would have done ...". By June of the same year, "... I just hadn't realised ... how important a role my preconceptions and experiences would play in my own classroom behaviour, especially when I would get stressed and forget what I had been told at College". There was a real note of desperation evident in her words just prior to the second practice session "...I've run out of places to go for help - the apathy of some teachers is appalling...'.

It was not until after this session that a new note of confidence in her own ability to decide on a course of action surfaced (June, 1993): "some days, after a particularly bad one, when my supervisor just shrugs as if he doesn't care, I go home, tear up a few pil low cases with my bare teeth and then get down to the business of sorting it all out. Otherwise, tomorrow will be just as bad ... and I don't have that many pillowcases...".

With this came a decreasing reliance on external sources of wisdom and the development of a more consistent use of her own abilities to deal with situations that arose in her classroom, "... ultimately, there's no-one but me ... I have to decide ...I'm the one who has to live with, wear my decisions about how I'll cope with things".

With respect to the actual nature of her subject as distinct from the style of her teaching, this reliance on herself became more evident after the first teaching practice session. "1 read all the papers now, not just the cartoons and the headlines ... searching for ideas and examples that might grab them ... issues they might respond to ... reasons for studying science." "I'm glad it's science I'm trying to sell, at least the need for its presence in the curriculum is obvious to most kids and why they're doing it ...but it's nothing like what I suffered through at school ... the funny thing is that by doing it this way, a lot of the "good teacher" things just happen as part of the teaching this way..." (June 1993).

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ASSERTION 3: A chanqe has occurred in Jane's reflective practices over the two year period of the case study.

rm sure once they (the lecturers) have given us some ideas on how to teach and I've brushed up on my subject matter, I'll feel more confident than I do now. Sure, r l l make mistakes, but prac school should give me time to iron out a lot of them... (July 1991).

Where is that academic formula for success when I need it?. (May 1992).

That earlier apparently unshakeable confidence took quite a battering at practice school. Jane encountered so many unexpected situations when "all I thought I had to do was know my subject matter and be interesting ... and it just didn't happen that way...I didn't even guess till then that I didn't know what interesting meant to them..." (May 1992). Her indignation and desperation were clear to see at that time, "...I feel like I have to rediscover the wheel.., no-one seems able to give me the help I need" (April 1992,) and "1 cannot believe how naive I was when I first came in ...I had no idea..." (May 1992). And what made it all the worse for her was that "...no-one I turned to seemed to have the solutions I needed ... my lecturers just kept answering my questions with questions" (April 1992).

But even then, "1 used to go home every day and wonder just where I had gone wrong ... what I had to do to avoid the same disaster all over again" (April, 1992) indicates the essential elements of early reflective practices. At this point though, the search for solutions was still external, "... when times are tough, I tend to fall back on that authoritarian teacher approach I grew up with - then I try to stop and remember what I've been taught and what I've been told is the best way to handle the situation" (May 1992).

The second practice session yielded a whole new approach to dealing with problems. "I've always wanted to help students to learn for themselves, but rve really had to dig deep in me to work out how - I can't remember learning anything like that ... in my own education or at Uni ...so I had to figure something out for myself ..." (June 1993).

Her confidence in herself had grown, and with this came a change in how she saw her role in her classroom. "There's no-one to tell me, although lots of places, especially College, have given me starting points to work it out for myself.., every little thing ... it's all got to be worked out by me to suit me and my kids ... but I find it so daunting and so time consuming ... I can only hope it gets easier" (June 1993).

ASSERTION 4: There are certain discrete events which Jane has identified as inf luencinq her reflective practices.

At the end of her course (June 1993), Jane was asked to review much of what she had said over the two years and list those events which she believed challenged her and may have resulted in a change to her reflective practices. She identified seven events or situations which she said "... made me look at things in my classroom and how to deal with them in different ways from how I would have if I hadn't had exposure to these ideas'. Her list is as follows:

* Lecture on Jerome Bruner's learning theory * Class seminars on misconceptions/alternative frameworks * Ken Tobin's article "Social constructivist perspectives on the reform of science

education" * Reviewing the QId Junior Science Syllabus * Examining the Quad model of science education * Prac school, especially the first one and especially the "year nines from hell".

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Broadly speaking, these events or situations could be classified into two categories. The first of these categories would include all of the new ideas and theories which "... I had no idea existed ...when I came in to the course I thought that teaching would involve telling them everything in an interesting way ... a bit like pouring it in, I guess..'. In particular, Bruner's learning theory had an impact because "... for the first t ime I realised that learning wasn't straightforward.., that there were choices to be made about how students might learn ... even about what learning was...'.

This was further complicated with her exposure to the article by Ken Tobin, "...suddenly I realised that not all teachers now think about teaching and learning theory the same way ... or that they thought the same in the past ... I begin now to understand why there is so much debate about the "right way" to do it all ... why having a Syllabus is necessary ... what comparabil i ty means ... or doesn't mean...".

The whole issue of what comprises science education became equally confusing for her, "... I used to think I just had to be interesting ... but it wasn't till prac school that I realised that what was interesting to me because it was inherently interesting wasn't to them ... I had to question what interesting really meant. Then the Quad model (a model relating to various curriculum emphases developed in the course) came along and I had a glimmer of where I was stumbling around and how I might organise what I was trying to do ... even find some common ground for me and them...'.

The second category of events focussed around the "real-life" of practice school. The less challenging classes that Jane encountered provided her with little concern. They accepted her efforts uncomplainingly and seemed to provide her with little stimulus or challenge in terms of her growth and development as a reflective teacher. "1 guess I was pretty complacent and naive, I now realise, that first week. I just thought all my ideas about teaching were coming together beautifully. How wrong I was...".

She mentioned the year nines in particular, along with some other isolated incidents in her classes as causing her to review her practices, her approaches to teaching and her phi losophies of science and science education.

I dreaded them ... and yet they fascinated me ... like salt and vinegar chips, you know ... you hate them but you keep wanting more. I just couldn't let them beat me. They didn't hesitate to let me know I was boring and I turned them off ... it took so long to find a chink ... to catch them off guard and reel them in ....

She thought she expended more effort with this group than with the other three classes put together.

I pestered everyone who had them ... I even sat in on other subjects and other teachers that had them to see how they reached them ... and though I got some ideas, I didn't get answers ... I had to plough on myself and my supervisor didn't seem to care. But I got them ... sometimes when I got hold of stuff that they could relate to ... sometimes surprising stuff I just picked up from a passing comment ...not the stereotypes of motorbikes and sex ... but unexpected things like ... rusting, growing things, recycling paper. But what a lot of work ... I hac~ to be on my toes with them all the time making sure I wasn't losing their interest ,.. staying alert and listening ....

ASSERTION 5: There are identifiable facilitators and barriers to the process of developln.q more complex levels of reflective practices.

Jane, when interviewed at the end of her course (June 1993) was also asked to list what she considered to be the facilitators and the barriers to the development of her reflective

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practices. This section is of particular interest to those of us involved with the planning of this post-graduate course as it gives some insight into how students view the effectiveness of various aspects of the course.

Barriers: * "my own, barely recognised preconceptions and precognitions" * "the feeling of isolation that being part-time brings" * "the apathy that most of my supervising teachers showed to my struggles" * "lack of structure in the course to give us review and discussion time about

problems -- like a debriefing -- everyone was too busy" * "lack of confidence in my own judgements" * " a f e a r o f t h e u n k n o w n - - a n d the consequences -- and a lack of feedback"

Facilitators: * "exposure to all the new ideas, especially when we were in classes that let us talk

and interact" * "watching good teachers and knowing what to look for" * "some of the awful days at prac school when none of my teachers could help me" * "time over the two years to think about it all before I had to jump back in-again" * "much as I hate to admit it, because it frustrated me like crazy, but the lack of

answers from my lecturers - but at least I felt like it was deliberate, not apathetic like at school"

* "the response of the kids when I got it right - they gave me the feedback and the confidence that I could handle it on my own, in my own way..."

IN SUMMARY: SOME THOUGHTS

Jane's reflective practices did appear to change over the two year course as she gained confidence, classroom experience and encountered success with her approaches. This change in her practice was congruent with an explicit shift in the nature of knowledge she considered to be important, the source of such knowledge and how she used that knowledge. As time progressed she seemed to be relying more and more heavily on synthesising her own solutions from her past experiences and her continually growing body of acquired knowledge; knowledge acquired externally and reshaped internally as she processed ongoing experiences.

A few further thoughts with respect to course design are perhaps worth noting here. The nature of the two year part-time course seems to force students back on their own resources more than does the full-time alternative. The time factor itself also seems to give students more time to reflect and reconsider their options. Some of this time could be used more constructively, perhaps, if strategies such as journals and debriefing exercises were structured into the course and applied consistently throughout the two year period. A closer integration between the various subjects could be of benefit also by allowing for some continuity of ideas development.

One area worth exploring in the preparation of student teachers is the effect that the type of class they are exposed to at practice school has on their developing reflective practice. While no one would wish to hand an inexperienced teacher a series of impossible classes, it may be that it is only by regular exposure to more challenging situations that a student teacher is able to explore the sequence of increasingly complex reflective processes. As Jane indicated, "... I had to do something ... and fast ... because they would be there waiting for me the next day ... it had to be worked out by me to suit me and my kids...".

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REFERENCES

Bediner, D.C. (1986). In pursuit of the expert pedagogue. Educational Researcher, 15(3), 5-13. Calderhead, J. (1987). The quality of reflection in student teachers' professional learning.

.European Journal of Teacher Education, 10(3), 269-278. Cruikshank, D.R. (1987). Reflective teachinq: the preparation of students of teachinq. Reston,

VA: Association of Teacher Educators. Erikson, F. (1986): Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In M. Wittrock (Ed.),

Third handbook of research on teachinq. Chicago: Rand McNally. Grimmett, P.P., Erikson, G.L., Mackinnon, A.M. & Rieken, T.J. (1990). Reflective

practice in teacher education. In R. Clift, W. Houston & M. Pugach (Eds.), Encouraqinq reflective practice in education. London: Teachers College Press.

Reynolds, A. (1992). What is competent beginning teaching? A review of the literature. ..Review of Educational Research, 62(1), 1-35.

Schon, D. (1987). Educatinq the reflective practitioner: towards a new desiqn for teachin.q and learnin.q in the professions. San Francisco CA: Jossey Bass.

Schon, D.(1991). The reflective turn. Case studies in and on education practice. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

AUTHORS

ANNE BYRNE, post-graduate student, part-time lecturer, Centre for Mathematics and Science Education, Queensland University of Technology, Locked Bag 2, Red Hill, Queensland 4059. Specializations: science education, science teacher education.

DR. CAM McROBBIE, Acting Director, Centre for Mathematics and Science Education, Queensland University of Technology, Locked Bag 2, Red Hill, Queensland 4059. Specializations: science education, science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments, science reasoning.