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Reflection

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Reflective learners assimilate new learning,


relate it to what they already know, adapt it for
their own purposes, and translate thought into
action. Over time, they develop their
creativity, their ability to think critically about
information and ideas, and their metacognitive
ability (that is, their ability to think about their
own thinking).
Effective Pedagogy, NZ Curriculum p. 34
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Reflection is about becoming aware of your own thinking


processes, and being able to make those transparent to
others.
Reflection captures the idea that if a gap is found between
how we would want teaching and learning to be and how it
actually is, then something will be done to close that gap; it
is not enough just to reflect or identify that there is a gap.
Teachers themselves can become reflective practitioners who
reflect with their students on the teaching and learning
process, and teach their students to use reflective
strategies to strengthen their own capacity to learn.
Absolum, M. pp 142-143
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You can use this presentation to:


Update, review and/or reflect on the formative
assessment practices of Reflection in your
classroom or school
Use as a resource for exploring professional
development in Reflection/metacognition.

In the presentation you can:


clarify the purpose and value of reflecting on the
learning and the learning process
identify strategies that teachers can use when
teaching students how to reflect.
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Reflection asks and answers the


question:
How is my learning going?
Reflection assesses the why and how of the
learning and what to do as a result.
Prior to reflection, students must self assess
against criteria. This addresses the what of the
learning and the learning process.

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Reflection - why the emphasis ?


Powerful learners are reflective. They are able to
step back and take stock of progress. They are
able to mull over their actions and consider how
they might have done things differently. Good
learners are self aware, able to contemplate their
actions to continually grow their learning power.
Guy Claxton, from Whats the Point of School?

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A case for Reflection


Reflection is a metacognitive skill which is
considered integral to good learning.
Reflection provides information for teachers and
students about the quality of the teaching and
learning taking place.
Reflection is what enables teacher and students
to co-construct next learning.
Students need to be able to reflect in order to
own or make decisions about their learning.
Students who can reflect are more likely to be
engaged in their learning.
Reflection builds the learning-focused
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relationship.
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What is necessary , to ensure both


teacher and students become routinely
reflective?
Making time for reflection
Planning opportunities for reflection
Training yourself and your students in
reflective techniques

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Reflective methods are more effective


when teachers apply self and peerassessment techniques to
understanding standards and criteria
and this application can result in
improved learning.
Falchikov, 1995; Dochy, et al.,1999; Liu &
Carless, 2006; Thuy Vu & DallAlba, 2007
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A reflective process can help


student learning by developing
metacognitive skills.
Hacker, Dunlosky, Graesser, 1998; Hacker & Dunlosky, 2003;
Masui & De Corte, 2005

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How do you think about how you think?


Focus on the word below and its spelling. Turn to a colleague and describe what
strategies you would use to remember the spelling.

fissiparous
Now ask your colleagues to share the strategies they used:
e.g. double ss and the suffix ous
break words into syllables
meaning and root word as significant hooks

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Through this process you can:


become conscious of your and others thinking
processes in a particular learning situation.
How does this benefit teachers and students?
Teachers will gain an awareness that students will
also use a variety of strategies for learning.
Teachers can share their thinking processes with
students.
Students see an example of thinking about
thinking.
Teachers have an awareness of how they think
Students are engaged in reflective conversations
Page 12about thinking about thinking.
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Metacognition is what people


know or think about their own
thought processes and is the
individual monitoring of ones own
thoughts.
(Hacker & Dunlosky, 2003)
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A numeracy example
Discuss the strategy you used to answer this problem?

73+28
How did you solve this?
partitioning method (70+20, + 3+8)
use my knowledge of tidy numbers (73+30, -2)
round one number, then add the remaining ones (70+28, +3)

Learners present a variety of different strategies to answer


this problem; discussion might centre around the most
effective strategy for this problem
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You can take the learning further, by reflecting or


thinking metacognitively about the strategy
used:
Was it easy or hard?
What helped you?
How would you do it next time?
Why will you change the way you solve it?
This leads on to identifying the where to next
with the learning
Do I need to change my way of learning?
Where do we go from here?

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Reflection for students works best at the


end of a lesson:
to consolidate the learning
to recap on the why of the learning
to give students opportunities to discuss
strategies for learning, and possible
tricky bits
to establish a where to from here

and a recap at the beginning of a lesson


is very effective too.
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Some possible reflective questions


What were you learning and why?
How did the learning go? What were the
tricky bits and why?
What new learning can we celebrate?
What helped the learning to happen?
Who needs more help and what needs to
be re-taught?
from Clarity in the Classroom
by Michael Absolum
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You will probably have to train students to


reflect well (or at all!)
If its a new process in your classroom, tell
students whats happening and why.
Model the type of answers you expect:

To give students possible and


appropriate responses to reflective
questions
To show students that all learners find
things difficult.

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Possible process for active reflection


Getting started with reflection
Re-cap the learning intention and success criteria
Ask a reflective question
Give students 15-30 seconds thinking time to:
let them think!
create the expectation that all take part
Model appropriate responses (at first)
Give students opportunities to respond:
Whole class
In groups
In pairs
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And now?
Considerations for your classroom practice
Where can this fit into the overall plan of the
learning?
Where to next? As individuals and as a class
Reflection is an assessment strategy that
links with and feeds back into planning

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Back to AFL Tools

Self-evaluation
Self-evaluation involves learning how we
learn, whereas self-assessment is
what we learn. To train pupils in selfevaluation, use questions such as:

Think about what has happened when the


learning has taken place
What really made you think? What did
you
find difficult?
What do you need more help with?
What are you pleased about?
What have you learnt new about X?
How would you change the learning
activity to suit another class?

The teacher can model answers to these


to show the pupils how to self-evaluate.
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Back to AFL Tools

Talk Partners

As a plenary or a starter
referring to the previous
lesson, students share
with a partner:
three new things they
have learnt
what they found easy
what they found difficult
something they would
like to learn in the future
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References and readings


Absolum, M. (2006). Clarity in the classroom. Auckland: Hodder Education. pp.142
163.
Clarke, S. (2001). Unlocking formative assessment: Practical strategies for enhancing
pupils learning in the primary classroom. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp.39-49.
Claxton, G. (2008). Whats the point of school? Re-discovering the heart of education.
Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Claxton, G. (2006). Expanding the Capacity to Learn: A new end for Education? Conference
Warwick University, September 6, 2006.
Discusses the teachers role in developing the students capacity for learning, helping them
to become better learners. Particularly pp.9-13.
Stoll, L., Fink, D., & Earl, L. RoutledgeFalmer (2002). Its About Learning (and its about
time), Chapter 2, entitled Learning about learning.
Chapter of a text by international authors, discussing metacognition and the science of
learning.

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