Name: Murad Ali

Roll no: Cd600370

Course: Critical Thinking and Reflective Practices (8611)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Level: Bed (1.5 Year)

ASSIGNMENT No. 1

Q. 1 What are essential aspects of critical thinking? Describe in detail

Critical thinking skills allow you to understand and

address situations based on all available facts and information. Typically, using
critical thinking at work involves processing and organizing facts, data and other
information to define a problem and develop effective solutions.

It’s a good idea to reflect on the critical thinking skills

you already possess and which you may need to develop. You should include
your strongest critical thinking skills on your resume and discuss them during
interviews. In addition, you might consider setting goals and adopting practices to
help you build the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in your job.

In this article, we explain what critical thinking is, why

it’s important and how you can improve your skills in this area.

critical thinking

Critical thinking is the act of analyzing facts to

understand a problem or topic thoroughly. The critical thinking process typically

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includes steps like collecting information and data, asking thoughtful questions
and analyzing possible solutions. For example, if you’re working in human
resources and must resolve a conflict between two employees, you will use
critical thinking to understand the nature of the conflict and what action should be
taken to resolve it.

Here are additional courses of action you might take when using critical thinking
for problem-solving at work:

 Identify a problem or issue

 Create inferences on why the problem exists and how it can be solved
 Collect information or data on the issue through research
 Organize and sort data and findings
 Develop and execute solutions
 Analyze what solutions worked or didn’t work

 Identify ways to improve the solution

Being objective is a fundamental part of critical thinking.

That means analyzing the problem without allowing personal bias, emotions or
assumptions to influence how you think about it. Instead, a strong critical thinker
will only analyze the problem based on the context and facts collected after
conducting thorough and impartial research.

Critical thinking skills are essential in every industry at every

career level, from entry-level associates to top executives. Good critical thinkers
can work both independently and with others to solve problems. Issues such as
process inefficiencies, management or finances can be improved by using critical
thought. Because of this, employers value and seek out candidates who
demonstrate strong critical thinking skills.

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 important critical thinking skills

Here are five common and impactful critical thinking skills you might consider
including on your resume or discussing in your interview:

1. Observation
2. Analysis
3. Inference
4. Communication

5. Problem solving

1. Observation

Observational skills are the starting point for critical

thinking. People who are observant can quickly sense and identify a new problem.
Those skilled in observation are also capable of understanding why something
might be a problem. They may even be able to predict when a problem might
occur before it happens based on their experience.

Improve your observation skills by slowing down your

pace of processing information and training yourself to pay closer attention to
your surroundings. You might
practice mindfulness techniques, journaling or actively listening during and
outside of work to thoroughly examine what you’re hearing or seeing. Then,
consider if you notice trends in behavior, transactions or data that might be
helpful for your team to address.

2. Analysis

Once a problem has been identified, analysis skills

become essential. The ability to analyze and effectively evaluate a situation
involves knowing what facts, data or information about the problem are

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important. This also often includes gathering unbiased research, asking relevant
questions about the data to ensure it’s accurate and assessing the findings
objectively.

Improve your analytical skills by taking on new

experiences. For example, you might read a book about a concept you’re
unfamiliar with or take an online math class to push yourself to think in new ways
and consider new ideas. Doing so can help you build the skills to interpret new
information and make rational decisions based on sound analysis.

3. Inference

Inference is a skill that involves drawing conclusions

about the information you collect and may require you to possess technical or
industry-specific knowledge or experience. When you make an inference, that
means you are developing answers based on limited information. For example, a
car mechanic may need to infer what is causing a car’s engine to stall at
seemingly random times based on the information available to them.

Improve your inference skills by placing focus on

making educated guesses rather than quickly drawing conclusions. This requires
slowing down to look for as many clues as possible—such as images, data or
reports—that might help you evaluate a situation. Carefully consider all the pieces
of the puzzle together before making a decision.

4. Communication

Communication skills are important when it comes

time to explain and discuss issues and their possible solutions with colleagues and
other stakeholders. Communication is an important skill to have and improve on
for many purposes at work including critical thinking.

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 Improve your communication skills within the
context of critical thinking by engaging in difficult discussions, for example,
where you and another participant may hold differing views about the topic.
Maintain good communication habits like active listening and respect to try to
understand their perspective and explain your ideas in a calm, rational manner.
This can help prepare you to evaluate solutions more effectively with your
colleagues.

5. Problem-solving

After you’ve identified a problem, analyzed it and

explored possible remedies, the final step is to execute the solution.

Problem-solving often requires critical thinking to

implement the best solution and understand whether or not the solution is working
as it relates to the goal.

Improve your problem-solving skills by setting goals to

acquire more industry knowledge within your field. Problem-solving at work
typically becomes easier if you have a strong understanding of industry-specific
information. It can also be helpful to observe how others around you solve
problems at work—take note of their techniques and ask questions about their
process.

Q. 2 Describe in detail the phenomenon of social exclusion and

marginalization. How is it less threatening than poverty?

Social exclusion

Many of the approaches to poverty explored in

other sections within ‘Definitions of poverty’ incorporate within them aspects of
social exclusion. The definition of ‘overall poverty’ adopted by the United
Nations talks of ‘social discrimination and exclusion’ and of ‘lack of participation

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in decision-making civil, social and cultural life’. Elements of social exclusion are
an integral part of Townsend’s conception of poverty (see Deprivation and
poverty), and the original Breadline Britain and subsequent PSE surveys
(see Consensual method) incorporated aspects of social exclusion within the
concept of necessities (such as ‘celebrations on special occasions’ or ‘a hobby or
leisure activity’). However, poverty emphasises material as well as social
deprivation, while social exclusion forefronts a person or a group’s ability to
participate in social, economic, political and cultural life and their relationships
with others. And while poverty has a profound effect on some, though not all, of
these aspects of social exclusion, there are other important causal factors of social
exclusion such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender and employment status.

Based on a comprehensive review of the

literature in 2007, Levitas et al. (in their report The Multi-dimensional Analysis of
Social Exclusion for the last government’s social exclusion task force) take as
their working definition of social exclusion:

Social exclusion is a complex and multi-dimensional

process. It involves the lack or denial of resources, rights, goods and
services, and the inability to participate in the normal relationships and
activities, available to the majority of people in a society, whether in
economic, social, cultural or political arenas. It affects both the quality of life
of individuals and the equity and cohesion of society as a whole.

This definition has the advantage of not narrowly limiting the

causal processes at work in social exclusion or the factors that affect life chances.
These are open to empirical investigation.

While the B-SEM identifies the appropriate domains of

investigation, estimating or tracking social exclusion depends on the prior
understanding of the causal relationship between domains and there is potential

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complexity in interactions between these domains. With the present state of
knowledge and data available, it is not known how the domains interact and it is
risky to identify which of the domains have greater or lesser importance.

The current PSE: UK research project is developing this

approach further by separating out cultural resources as a separate domain and
including more measures of life satisfaction, personal development and self-
esteem within the ‘health and well-being’ sub-domain.

In the last ‘Poverty and Social Exclusion survey’ in 1999,

the indicators of the extent of social relations and an ability to participate in
society that had been covered in the Breadline Britain surveys were extended to
widen the investigation. Levels of social participation were found to be affected
by age, gender, household type and employment status as well as poverty. Of all
those variables, poverty had the strongest negative effect on social relationships.

marginalization

Definition

The process of to put or keep putting (someone) in a

powerless or unimportant position within a society or group (Merriam-
Webster,2014).

An alternative definition to marginalization defined by

Jenson (2000) is “Marginals: people the system of labor cannot or will not use, as
a result they are excluded from one of society’s major integrating activities,
thereby missing out on one of the basic factors leading to full inclusion

Marginalization is a kind of exclusion or isolation of

the young people from the main political, social, economic mainstreams
(Hailu,2012).

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Examples and/or Illustrations

marginalization is perhaps the most dangerous form of

oppression. A

whole category of people is expelled from useful participation in social life and
thus potentially subjected to severe material deprivation.” Not being included is
costly indeed. (Jenson,2000)

When limiting ones rights, they often oppressed, deemed as

having no value or freedom of speech in society because of their lower position
status wise

Marginalization is a phenomenon of material resources, but

it also includes, for both the EFA Forum and for Iris Marion Young, lack of
capacity to participate politically and culturally, in markets and in other
institutions. Lines of social difference and discrimination often overlay, indeed
sometimes promote, patterns of marginalization. (Jenson,2000).

Discrimination is often the root cause for marginalization

because of the lack of knowledge one may know politically and culturally, their
voices are automatically not listened too in society

Visible minorities, many of whom are new immigrants, point

to racism and discrimination as factors leading to their marginalization in
Canadian society. (Jenson,2000).

Racism and discrimination are what create maringalization.

If discrimination did not exist against certain groups, certain groups would not be
doing certain kinds of labor in todays day and age especially when having
credentials from a home country

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 Another example of marginalization involving move than
just individuals’ income is provided by the increasing concentration of poverty in
urban areas (Jenson,2000).

Ones social status economically can play a big part in

being maringalized, especially if they are racialized at the same time

Q. 3 What is “connectivism”? Critically analyze that how can cooperative

classroom activities result in student’s striving for mutual uplift.

Connectivism is a theoretical framework for

understanding learning in a digital age. It emphasizes how internet technologies
such as web browsers, search engines, wikis, online discussion forums, and social
networks contributed to new avenues of learning. Technologies have enabled
people to learn and share information across the World Wide Web and among
themselves in ways that were not possible before the digital age. Learning does
not simply happen within an individual, but within and across the networks. What
sets connectivism apart from theories such as constructivism is the view that
"learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves
(within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized
information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more
important than our current state of knowing".

Connectivism sees knowledge as a

network and learning as a process of pattern recognition. Connectivism has
similarities with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD) and
Engeström's Activity theory. The phrase "a learning theory for the digital
age" indicates the emphasis that connectivism gives to technology's effect on how
people live, communicate, and learn. Connectivism is an integration of principles
related to chaos, network, complexity, and self-organization theories.

History

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 Connectivism was introduced in 2005 by two
publications, Siemens’ Connectivism: Learning as Network Creation and
Downes’ An Introduction to Connective Knowledge. Both works received
significant attention in the blogosphere and an extended discourse has followed
on the appropriateness of connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. In
2007 Kerr entered into the debate with a series of lectures and talks on the matter,
as did Forster, both at the Online Connectivism Conference at the University of
Manitoba. In 2008, in the context of digital and e-learning, connectivism was
reconsidered and its technological implications were discussed by Siemens' and
Ally.

Nodes and links

The central aspect of connectivism is the metaphor of a network with nodes and
connections.

In this metaphor, a node is anything that can be

connected to another node such as an organization, information, data, feelings,
and images. Connectivism recognizes three node types: neural, conceptual
(internal) and external. Connectivism sees learning as the process of creating
connections and expanding or increasing network complexity. Connections may
have different directions and strength. In this sense, a connection joining nodes A
and B which goes from A to B is not the same as one that goes from B to A.
There are some special kinds of connections such as "self-join" and pattern. A
self-join connection joins a node to itself and a pattern can be defined as "a set of
connections appearing together as a single whole".

The idea of organisation as cognitive systems where

knowledge is distributed across nodes originated from the Perceptron (Artificial
neuron) in an Artificial Neural Network, and is directly borrowed
from Connectionism, "a software structure developed based on concepts inspired
by biological functions of brain; it aims at creating machines able to learn like
human".

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 The network metaphor allows a notion of "know-
where" (the understanding of where to find the knowledge when it is needed) to
supplement to the ones of "know-how" and "know-what" that make the
cornerstones of many theories of learning.

As Downes states: "at its heart, connectivism is the

thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore
that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks".

Principles

Principles of connectivism include:

 Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

 Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information
sources.
 Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
 Learning is more critical than knowing.
 Maintaining and nurturing connections is needed to facilitate continuous
learning. When the interaction time between the actors of a learning
environment is not enough, the learning networks cannot be consolidated.
 Perceiving connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill.
 Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of learning
activities.
 Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and
the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting
reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to
alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
Q. 4 Discuss in detail the advantages of using classroom assessment
techniques.

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Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)

CATs are spot checks for understanding that are quick, easy, and effective.
Students benefit from the opportunity to check their own comprehension and
reorganize their ideas if necessary. These activities are appropriate for initiating,
clarifying, and summarizing information at any point in a given class session. It is
important to conduct CATs periodically in the class to assess your students'
understanding and provide necessary feedback to reinforce correct concepts and
clarify misconception. Tanner and Allen (2004) describe the iterative nature of
classroom assessment through the graphic below:

Identifying Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-awareness

 Self-confidence Survey. Ask students to complete a brief survey that

measures their confidence in at least three skills or abilities important to
success in the course. Make sure your students know their responses are
anonymous.

 Punctuated Lecture . Suspend a lecture with a low-preparation activity

that allows students to listen, stop, reflect, write, and give feedback to the
instructor in the form of short, anonymous notes.

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  Classroom Opinion Poll . Conduct a poll related to one or two issues
where students can respond yes or no on a short polling form.

Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

 Background Knowledge Probe. Draft one or two open-ended questions to

emphasize important information and to determine an appropriate starting
point for a given lesson.

1.

1. Prepare a brief questionnaire to give students at the beginning of a

course or before introducing a new topic.

2. Use either a few open-ended questions, short answer questions or

ten to twenty multiple choice questions on the content to be
covered.

3. Be sure to let students know that these are not tests or quizzes and
that they will not be graded.

 Minute Paper . During the first or last few minutes of class, have students
write a paragraph about their understanding of a particular topic or an
assignment.

1.

1. Stop class two or three minutes early and ask students the
following two questions (or some variation of them):“What was
the most important thing you learned during this class?” and/or
“What important question remains unanswered?”

2. Students write their responses on index cards or half-sheets of

paper and hand them in.

3. Faculty can quickly find out what students see as the most
significant things they are learning and what other questions they

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 have and can then decide whether any changes or adjustment in
instruction are needed.

 Muddiest Point. Have students describe the most unclear or confusing part
of a lecture, discussion, homework assignment, or field experience in a
course that emphasizes integrating, synthesizing, and evaluating
information. This technique will help faculty determine which particular
aspects of the course content are most difficult for students to learn.

1.

1. Ask student to jot down a quick response to one question: “What

was the muddiest point in __________________?”

2. The question could be asked about a homework assignment, a

video, a lecture, or some other component of the course.

 Focused Listing. Have students identify a web of concepts connected to

one point. This listing can help students focus attention on the significant
aspects of one theory, person, or concept. This technique will help faculty
identify what students think are the most important points related to a
given topic and can be given before, during, or after addressing the topic.

1.

1. Identify a single concept, term, name, or principle that you expect

students to understand.

2. Have students quickly make a list of related terms that are

important for understanding that topic.

3. Give them a time limit or a limit on the number of items they

should write – usually two or three minutes or five to ten items are
appropriate.

 One-Sentence Summary . This technique involves having students answer

the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where, how and why?”

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 about a given topic. They must do this in one informative and
grammatical sentence (usually a long one). This technique will help
faculty find out how well students can concisely and appropriately
summarize information on a selected topic.

1.

1. Select an important topic that you expect your students to be able

to summarize.

2. Try to answer the WDWWWWHW question yourself, as quickly

as you can.

3. Give students about twice as much time as it took you to come up

with the sentence.

 Empty Outline . To assess how well students have learned course content,
give students a partially completed outline on a topic and have them fill in
the blank spaces. This will help faculty determine how well students have
learned the important aspects of a topic and will help students become
more aware of the organization of the main points of the material.

 Memory Matrix . This technique is used to assess how well students recall
and organize content.

1. Give students a table to organize information. Provide row and

column headings and leave cells blank for students to complete.

2. Have students write words or brief phrases in each cell.

Assessing Higher Order Thinking Skills (analysis, synthesis, problem solving, and
application)

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 Pro and Con Grid . Provide a prompt eliciting thoughtful advantages and
disadvantages in relation to an issue or dilemma. Then have students to
analyze the costs and benefits of an issue.

 Concept Map. Have students create a concept map that analyzes and
synthesizes ideas from readings or discussions. Afterwards, ask students to
post their maps (electronically or physically) for peer feedback. Students
can organize their map around one idea or question. Using this technique
will give faculty a visual representation of the associations that students
have formed between different concepts.

1.

1. Select a concept that is both important for students to understand

and that has a fair number of connections to other concepts.

2. Have students begin by brainstorming a list of terms, phrases, or

concepts related to the target concept.

3. Then have students draw or diagram the connections between the

target concept and other concepts that they have learned.

4. The concept map might look like a wheel with spokes, a

geographical map, a flowchart, or some other form of
representation.

5. Having a simple example of a concept map using a different

concept may be helpful for students who are unfamiliar with the
idea of concept mapping.

 Application Card . Ask students to write down one possible, real-world

application of a principle, theory, or procedure on a note card. Encourage
creativity instead of reliance on text-book and lecture examples. This
technique will help faculty determine how well students understand
specific ideas and will encourage students to connect the concepts with
real-life and their own previous knowledge.

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 1.

1. Choose a principle, generalization, theory, or procedure that

students have been exposed to through reading or lecture.

2. Give students an index card and have them write down a possible
real-world application for the concept you chose.

General tips for using CATs

 Select a specific learning objective or teaching goal you want to assess.

 Choose techniques that will provide useful feedback and involve your
students in learning.

 Use more than one technique and use them frequently.

 Plan ahead for data analysis and how you will respond to areas needing
improvement.

 Explicitly share this information with your students.

 Don’t ask feedback on things you cannot or will not change.

 Try out on yourself FIRST before having students complete it in class.

Q. 5 How can a teacher’s diary be helpful for the reflection of a

teacher?

Reflection is a state of mind. It is a state of being

that invites contemplation, analysis and speculation. The reflective journal
is part of this extraordinarily simple practice. It serves as a means for
teachers to candidly share their insights, feelings, emotions, and ideas
in a confidential manner. Similar to a diary, it is meant to inspire
reflection on events leading to both success and failure in the classroom.
Implementing a reflective journal and the reflection process can be very
beneficial and assist teachers in numerous significant ways not only in
terms of their professional careers, but also in their personal lives.

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 Some Benefits of Keeping a Reflective Teaching Journal
Over time, keeping a reflective journal will help
teachers to develop a critical eye for troubleshooting in the classroom. This
practise will then benefit and improve the overall teaching experience, which will
have a direct impact on the student’s learning experience. This creates a virtuous
circle of personal investment, motivation and performance levels for teachers and
students alike.

A reflective journal can coach and train teachers to learn so much about
themselves and their profession. From personal and professional
perspectives, it can help teachers in improving numerous teaching qualities
and skills. The reflective journal can assist them in:

 categorizing and prioritizing teaching objectives;

 identifying what (still) needs to be taught;

 evaluating the resources, activities, tasks, projects or teaching aids that

were used;

 defining innovative and effective instructional qualities;

 heightening self-confidence as an effective teacher;

 determining strengths and positive attributes;

 identifying weaknesses, problems, and points for improvement;

 developing and improving professional skills;

 outlining and archiving successful ventures (as well as failures);

 recognizing signs of stress, responsibility overload and the potential for

burn out;

 understanding, identifying and acknowledging their personal and

professional limits;

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 incorporating reflective procedural practice during teaching;

 assessing teacher-student and student-student relationships;

 cultivating a philosophy of teaching and learning;

 evaluating decision-making patterns throughout the planning and teaching

process;

 fulfilling teaching objectives more accurately and efficiently;

 understanding the complexity of student learning strategies;

 assessing the efficiency of problem-solving methods;

 identifying innovative strategies, approaches, or methods, and

 recognizing that teachers are much more than just teachers.

Reasons Why Teachers Should Keep a Reflective Journal

With many professions, individuals gain experience,
learn new skills, and evolve professionally with each day on the job. The vocation
of teaching is no different. Whether in-service, novice or seasoned veteran, a
dedicated teacher is always looking to improve their daily methods, so that they
can better respond to institutional demands and their student’s needs. The
reflective journal is a convenient way to do this because in simple terms, it
functions as a mirror and archive of your daily professional activity. It can be a
real instrument for survival when a teacher is caught in a vicious circle of stress
and negativity, brought on by failure in the classroom.

1. Building Understanding and Learning through Notation

The reflective journal is an intuitive way of learning
from one’s own personal and professional experience to inform practice.
Keeping this type of journal is akin to assigning ones’ inner self an archived and
unfiltered voice. It is a safe haven and way to learn about oneself: “the good, the

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bad, and the ugly”, while documenting one’s state of mind from lesson to lesson
and day to day.

Many young or inexperienced teachers are reticent to

speak about their classroom issues with colleagues for fear of judgement (Dave,
the new math teacher, is so incompetent!) or retribution (You will never believe
what Sarah, the French teacher, told me about her class!). It is a way to privately
note down issues and problems, while taking the raw emotion (feelings of
failure, doubt and fear) and panic out of the equation, in order to find concrete
solutions to classroom issues, one logical step at a time.

2. Understanding Learner Development and Monitoring Student

Learning Achievements
It is important to understand how learners acquire
knowledge in the classroom. Monitoring student learning achievements is not
only an individual matter for the simple reason that each student is part of a whole
class. Apart from individual assessments and evaluations, have you ever reflected
on the class as a whole functioning unit? The reflective journal can allow for this
type of observation of and reflection on classroom management and
environments.

For instance, perhaps with certain groups of students,

it would be more appropriate to not only incorporate group activities and tasks,
but also accept that some apprehensive or introverted students work
independently and differently from the others. Depending on the age level of the
students, the approach to teaching (an unfair double standard to some) may need
to be defined and tactfully explained, without insulting or centering out the
concerned individuals.

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 3. Becoming a Reflective Professional
As mentioned earlier (big bullet point list at the
beginning of this article), the teacher who keeps a reflective journal will benefit in
many different ways. The reflection process is a conscious effort at the early
stages, however, over time; this process is rapidly assimilated and becomes
second nature (an unconscious, metacognitive skill). The reflective method will
assist the teacher to acquire many transversal skills that will provide them the
opportunity to work more efficiently in an independent or collegial fashion. These
skills are useful and applicable in both professional and personal life.

4. Improving Decision-making
In noting down lessons, personal and student
feedback, teachers stand to gain a better understanding of what impact their
methods and strategies have on their student’s learning styles. In the long-
term and with much experience, the teacher can learn to quickly perceive eventual
obstacles or pitfalls associated with a specific teaching method or approach.

As the teacher becomes accustomed to the various student

learning strategies and styles, the need for adaptation may be necessary on behalf
of both the teacher and student. Depending on the situation, context, students, and
resources, the teacher who adheres to the reflective process may demonstrate a
very flexible and spontaneous nature, by adapting their pedagogy mid-lesson.

5. Developing Metacognitive Skills

Since reflection is a state of mind, reflection will become
second nature for the teacher who adopts a reflective journal process. This process
will enhance the teaching experience, since it has the following built in “scientific
process”, if you will:

 make an observation (The students are not answering my questions.);

 ask a question (Did everyone understand my question?);

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 form an ‘if’ hypothesis, or testable explanation (Perhaps they can’t see
or understand my diagram on the board. If I improve the diagram, perhaps
this will help.);

 make a prediction based on the hypothesis (I need to use another colour

to illustrate.);

 test the prediction (Use another colour and darken the information on
the board.);

 repeat: Use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions (They are
still not answering – the problem is not my diagram on the board. Perhaps
they don’t understand this problem, question, illustration, and example. Let
me try that again with another method or example.), and then,

 start the process once again.

Over time and with practise, this process can be used directly
in the classroom environment to assess student learning in order to signal the need
or opportunity to modify and adapt a teaching situation. It builds transversal
metacognitive skills since it requires judgement, critical analysis, brainstorming,
and collaboration. And these skills lead to better informed decision-making and
self-confidence building.

6. Improving Observational and Critical Analysis Skills

Every day, a reflective journal will offer moments of
observation and reflection. This should be done in quiet and calm conditions. That
is why it is important for a teacher to note down their thoughts when they
are alone, after class, or at the end of the day, when the experience is fresh in
their mind and not a distant memory or a memory that has been influenced by
another party (a colleague, friend or spouse).

-Keep in mind that reflection is an ongoing process to

develop critical analysis skills. The recent memories are very useful to

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troubleshoot or brainstorm solutions in an unbiased and factual manner. Emotion
may be integrated as a side note into the reflective journal, but the recent
memoires should be based on fact. The recent memories are very unique and
different from distant memories that may be deformed with time or by someone
else’s opinions.

Consider for instance, a job interview experience. After

an interview a candidate will either feel elation (I think I got the job!) or
disappointment (That was so humiliating!). In either case, as soon as the
experience is shared with someone else, this other person will project their
opinions or emotions and sway the candidate’s initial sentiments. This is
particularly true when the experience is negative and the other person wishes to
console or comfort the distressed candidate. For this reason, a job candidate
should note down their feelings right after their interview before speaking to a
peer.

7. Enhancing Professional Development

As mentioned earlier, a reflective journal is a part of
an ongoing process. This ongoing process will consequently have an impact on
metacognitive skills, and also enhance the overall quality of a
teacher’s professional development, since reflection and the reflective journal
methodology encompass an ingrained quality verification process.

It is important to note here that one of the main

underlying objectives of reflection is overall improvement and amelioration.
Therefore, reflection methodology represents a fail-safe measure to
ensure preventative and precautionary assessments, not only in terms of
teaching, and classroom management, but above all in the area of career
management, when difficult and stressful situations (vicious circles) may arise. A
reflective journal will assist a teacher in defining a plan of action within or outside
of the classroom.

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8. Analyzing and Reasoning a Dilemma
If there is one area where reflection and the reflective
journal can really make a difference, it is in moments of crisis and despair.
Taking the time to reflect on issues allows an individual to make better informed
decisions. A reflective journal offers a secure, private, and safe space for this.
In times of crisis, a reflective journal provides structure and support “to empty
one’s sack”, so to speak. This is very precious in diffident moments of uncertainty
and isolation.

Like the diary, the reflective journal serves as

a psychological release and coping mechanism. By means of reflection, the
teacher can better focus on setting goals and recording ideas on the way to
achieving these goals. The reflective journal creates a place for the teacher to self-
reflect, release information or mental clutter, while boosting short and long-
term memory capacity. It also inspires creativity because when your mind is
free of worry and stress, you are in a better position to see the problem(s), build
new foundations and take steps towards innovative solutions.

9. Encouraging Collaboration and Collegiality

When looking for solutions to a crisis, one need not
remain alone and isolated. The reflection process can also be very beneficial
when involving a colleague. Today, with technology, the colleague does not
necessarily have to be that inquisitive colleague across the hall. It can be an
unbiased international colleague in a foreign country, with unique perspectives on
teaching the same types of classes and students.

The reflective journal also encourages trouble-shooting

and problem-solving through collaboration. Collegiality is sometimes crucial to
lesson creation, decision-making and classroom management. What is murky and
complex to one person may be simple and obvious for someone who is not
directly involved or implicated in the situation. Also, the reflective journal

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forum was created as a community-driven collaborative means to create
synergy amongst novice, seasoned, or veteran professionals, in order to
exchange on and address all types of problems, issues, challenges or success
and research related to the vast profession of teaching.

10. Analysing Instruction from a Qualitative Perspective

As we have seen, reflection methodology is an on-

going process that promotes pro-activity. Personal investment in this methodology
can ensure and enhance the overall quality of instruction, since the underlying
objective is to examine and control quality teaching methods and classroom
management. The reflective journal is the recorded combination of theoretical
knowledge and practical experience. Clearly, it would be impossible to remember
and retain the details of every lesson and classroom experience over the course of
the school year. The reflective journal can serve as the archive. Highly
convenient, it can be utilized to backtrack through the lessons and understand
when, how or why an approach or method was a success or a failure.

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