Ruth Leitch & Christopher Day
180
must include a backward step into the self and it is a journey that is its own destination. (Tremmel, 1993, p. 456)
In any analysis, it is initially important to differentiate the terms ‘reflection’and ‘reflective practice’. Reflection is considered as a process or activity that is central to developing practices (Dewey 1933, 1938; Loughran, 1996).However, although it retains connotations of thinking processes andcontemplative self-examination, in this context it seems to remain more a metaphor for representing a process of learning from experience than a term which might be subject to more detailed analysis. In the literature, for example, reflection is predominantly associated with acts of cognition that are linked to learning ‘how’ rather than learning ‘about’ or ‘what’. Dewey (1933, p. 12) defined reflective thinking as a number of phases in thinking,i.e. a state of doubt, hesitation or mental difficulty in which thinkingoriginates, followed by an act of searching or inquiring to find material that will resolve the doubt. In 1996, Loughran, drawing on the work of Dewey (1933) and Goodman (1984), defined reflection as ‘the deliberate andpurposeful act of thinking which centres on ways of responding to problemsituations’ (p. 14). Thus, reflection is associated with thinking and is judgedto involve the cognitive processes of both ‘problem finding’ and ‘problem-solving’, concepts which continue to fascinate in cognitive psychology (Arlin,1990; Csikszentmihalyi & Sawyers, 1995).It was Schön, in the mid-1980s, who distinctively popularised theimage of the ‘reflective practitioner’ by extending Dewey’s (1933)foundational ideas on reflection through observing how practitioners think in action. This led to Schön (1983) coining reflection-
on
-action andreflection-
in
-action as the two forms of reflective thinking. His model of the‘epistemology of practice’ (p. 49) was timely and well received within teacher education and research. According to Schön (1983) reflection-
in-
actionacknowledges the tacit processes of
thinking
which accompany
doing
, and which constantly interact with and modify ongoing practice in such a way that learning takes place. Much of this may remain unconscious, tacit andunverbalised (Clark & Yinger, 1977), though Loughran (1996) suggests that,in meeting unanticipated problem situations, reflection-in-action comprisesreframing the problem and improvising on the spot so that the experience will be viewed differently. Reflection-
on
-action, on the other hand, is viewedas teachers’ thoughtful consideration and retrospective analysis of their performance in order to gain knowledge from experience. Russell & Munby (1992) describe it succinctly as the ‘systematic and deliberate thinking back over one’s actions’ (p. 3). These two processes together, in Schön’s terms,form the core professional artistry of the reflective practitioner. Subsequent research has been focused on determining that reflective practice exists,and identifying enabling and disenabling conditions which affect its use,and the means by which it might be fostered within all levels of the teachingprofession.
D o w nl o ad ed B y : [ U ni v e r si t y of S o u th a m p t o n] A t : 15 :04 6 J ul y 2009
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