Reflective practice
Session 4 –
Working together
Introduction
• Welcome to the fourth and final session on reflective
practice.
• In this session we are going to be exploring reflective
practice as a collaborative activity and planning for a
shared approach.
• You will be invited to set up a group reflective practice
event as described in this session, but if this is not
possible you can still take part in the activity from an
individual stance.
Collaborative reflective
practice
• There are no rules that say reflective practice should
happen on an individual basis. Discussion and sharing of
ideas and practices often results in enhanced
understanding and new approaches to learning and
teaching.
• In this session, we are going to develop an understanding
of one such approach – lesson study – and develop too
the skills of observation that are so important to this
approach.
• ‘Lesson study is a system for building and sharing
practitioner knowledge that involves teachers in learning
from colleagues as they research, plan, teach, observe,
and discuss a classroom lesson.’ (Lewis, Perry and
Friedkin, 2009:142).
What is ‘lesson study’?
Activity 1
Watch this short video and use the learning journal to make
notes of points that are of particular interest.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV35Nr0DKFs&list=PL8F2DC1
E5AE07092F&index=5
Professor John Elliott has been in the vanguard of lesson
study research. He writes about some of his research in the
following paper.
www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/184206.pdf
Setting up a lesson study
• The basis for any lesson study is observation. This
foundation skill allows you to build a deeper
understanding of the relationship between learning and
teaching, and to analyse how to make this most effective.
• Lesson study synergises the impact by drawing together
a number of observations on the same classroom events,
which are then analysed and discussed.
• We are going to begin by planning a lesson study and
then developing enhanced observation skills.
Planning a lesson study
• Problematise the focus – what is it that you want to
understand and know more about?
• Be specific – if the focus is too wide you will not be able to
collect the data.
• You have already had some experience of this from
Session 2. Don’t try to observe the unobservable. ‘Is this
student learning?’ cannot be answered by observation.
However, ‘Is this student engaging with the teacher and
offering positive answers?’ is observable, therefore be
clear about what it is you want to know. Observing what
might seem to be a small spectrum of classroom
behaviour is more productive than trying to observe too
much and being superficial in your results.
Stages of lesson study
• Plan using five stages.
1. Explore some of the existing information about your
focus.
2. Undertake the observation lessons.
3. Discuss and analyse post observation.
4. Develop learning and teaching using the data you
have gained.
5. Disseminate your findings.
• If you are working with colleagues, identify the others in
the group – triads are a popular approach. Make sure you
all have time to meet and plan your observations together.
Stage 1: Finding out
• Part of lesson study is to enhance your knowledge of the
field.
• This does not mean long sessions in a library but rather
taking time to check websites (look at Learning Wales, for
example, for a wide range of information and links),
investigate professional journals, talk to colleagues.
• Gather information so that you begin the lesson study
informed and aware of how you might collect relevant
data.
Stage 2: Observe the lesson
• Although teachers observe students every day in the
classroom, for the purposes of lesson study, observation
has some specific skills, and ways of recording
information.
• The following article explores reasons why we might need
to use different approaches.
www.cem.org/blog/414
• There are two major ways of observing – collecting data
using structured observation and collecting data using
unstructured observation. We’ll look at both in the
following slides.
Structured observation
• This involves using a prepared lesson grid, usually timed
so you observe every few minutes – you look and record
every 5–10 minutes. The facilitator’s pack has an example
for you to use or develop.
• Observation needs to focus on something specific.
General ‘what’s happening’ is diffuse and will not tell you
much. Instead choose key events or key students to
observe.
Structured observation
(continued)
• The prepared grid asks you to identify some key
behaviours you are interested in tracking.
• Use the grid to record when these happen. You should not
record any other behaviour as you are only focusing on
the one event you have identified, and the sub-categories
that you have identifying as making up that behaviour. You
might, for example, want to know whether a student
responds in particular ways to a specific context.
• The result will be a detailed pattern of behaviour so this
approach is very useful if you want to know about
particular students’ activities.
Unstructured observation
• This has the same starting point as unstructured
observation – a clear focus, and particular behaviours you
want to know about.
• However, recording is more of a continuous approach.
Instead of checking behaviours every (say) three minutes,
you record those behaviours as and when you see them
happening.
• An example record sheet is available from the facilitator’s
pack.
• This way of observing is very useful if you want a more
narrative way of recording what is happening in the
classroom, as the result will be a ‘storyline’.
• There is no one correct way – choose whichever best fits
the purpose of your observations.
Stage 3: Analysing the data
• Once you have collected your observations, it’s tempting
to write up your impressions so far, rather than analysing
the data.
• However, and particularly if there are three sets of results,
it is important to analyse – really mine – the data.
• Go back to your original questions.
– How have the data illuminated some of the questions?
– What has it demonstrated?
– Are there themes emerging?
– Are there contextual events? Time of day? Types of
subjects?
• Look for patterns in the behaviours you have noted.
Observation in action
Activity 2
Watch this 10-minute video that shows a teacher working
with a primary class. The area to consider is the teacher’s
use of questions.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAz7TD02ytU
Now using either structured or unstructured observations,
what can you say about this teacher’s use of questions in the
classroom?
Further helpful information is available in the following links.
www.nae.edu/File.aspx?id=14350
http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/hotresearch-questions.html
What did you find out?
• There are a number of ways to think about the work of this
clearly successful classroom practitioner.
• However, using the readings, we might ask did the
teacher:
– use wait time successfully?
– positive acknowledgement?
– feedback that encouraged deep thinking?
– did everyone participate?
• Your data analysis should allow you to see strengths and
limitations in classroom performances.
Stage 4: Developing learning
and teaching
Activity 3
Using the sample video of the teacher and questioning,
what, from your observations, would you advise about:
• the strengths of her use of questioning
• how she might develop her use of questioning.
If you are working in a group, please discuss the questions
together.
This approach is exactly the same as you would use to
discover how your own observations might lead to improved
learning and teaching.
Stage 5: Dissemination
• David Hargreaves talks about ‘sticky knowledge’ – that is,
the knowledge teachers have but never get to share, often
because of lack of opportunity. Part of reflective practice is
making those opportunities to share new knowledge.
• This might be simply through describing your research in
a staff meeting. You might write it up for a school
newsletter. You could make a poster presentation which is
left for others to read at their convenience.
• The imperative for reflective practice is – please, don’t
keep good practice to yourself.
Summary
• These sessions have:
– introduced you to the principles and practices of
reflective practice
– demonstrated how reflective and reflexive practice are
linked to teacher research
– developed both individual and collaborative reflective
practice.
• Putting what you have learned to use will enable you to
develop learning and teaching in focused and precise
ways.
• Reflective practice is about developing an informed,
professional voice.
• We hope these sessions have supported you in that.