Lesson 3: Reflective Journals
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:
- Explain reflective practice theory.
- Write reflective jounrals with attention to feeling, watching, thinking and doing.
- Explain how the reflective process with impact their everyday interactions with children.
Teaching
Reflective practice is a way of reviewing our own teaching. Ideally, this becomes routine and is a process in which we are able to continuously develop. Continuous reflection on educational practice is highly valued in early childhood education and critical to professional development. In the 1984 David Kolb developed The Kolb Cycle. In this cycle there are four different stages of learning from experience and can be entered at ANY point. However, the stages are cyclical and once entered, optimal learning is done by moving through the cycle.
For Example:
Betty is in a Home Start practicum placement and feels frustrated during the transition to outside. She isn’t sure where this frustration comes from she recognizes the feeling of dread when it is time to go outside. Betty decides to take charge of her own learning and jumps into the learning cycle. She is at the CONCRETE EXPERIENCE. She then sees that to move forward and process this she must OBSERVE AND REFLECT.
She writes about this in her journal that night! She tells her instructor all about the situation and feeling of this time of day. Then she writes about her plan and how this impacts her as a professional.
So Betty asks her cooperating teacher when a good time would be to sit back and observe this time rather than helping out. They agree on a time and Betty watches the transitions. She discovers that there are eight children and only two of them getting all of the ready to go out. The children are all at different stages of getting ready and need different levels of help. They are all yelling to the cooperating teacher for help with various things and the teacher is getting frustrated too!
Betty takes a note for her journal later.
Then Betty notices that all eight children are hot in their outside gear and are getting impatient. The teacher is still struggling to get her gear on. You feel bad because you are just observing but you know this is an important part of the learning cycle.
Betty goes home and writes all about this observation in her journal! She reflects on the children waiting a really long time to go outside. They have to wait for seven other children! They must be so hot in their outside gear. No wonder why they are cranky.
Now Betty is in ABSTRACT LEARNING CONCEPTUALIZATION. She is learning from her observation and reflecting on what happened.
Betty starts jotting down some ideas to make the transition to go smoother. Which kids need what kind of help? Which kids can help other children? Which children like having a job? What if the adults got ready to go out first? This might cut down on some of the time kids spend waiting. Etc. etc. etc.
Betty goes to her practicum site the next day and talks with the cooperating teacher who is more than willing to try new strategies. Betty is ready for ACTIVE EXPERIENCE/DOING! Betty tries it out and she felt less stressed.
She went home and wrote about her new experience in her journal!
In your reflective journals, you are required to be reflective. It is an essential part of your experience and a skill that you will carry as a lifelong learner in the education field. Take responsibility for discovering your own learning needs, examining vulnerable areas, questioning, exploring and analyzing your actions, thoughts and feelings. Reflective journals can trigger a turning point in your educational practice. It should be a collection of expression, thinking and exploration. Through this, you should be able to analyze what exactly you are trying to uncover, learn about yourself and what your beliefs are.
JOURNALING IS NOT JUST FOR WRITING A PLAY BY PLAY OF THE DAYS EVENTS!
I WILL NOT accept a journal entry that simply maps out what you did or saw that day. It will be an AUTOMATIC ZERO for that journal.
Assessment
These Lesson Plans are "Universal" in that they are used for both our face-to-face and Online course offerings. The instructions for the "Discussions" found in this section are for the Online classes only unless otherwise indicated by your Instructor.
Lesson 3 Assignment A - sumbit your first jounral
Journaling - This assignment is ongoing through the entire practicum experience.
A TOTAL of 20 will be completed by the end of the semester. By the middle of the semester you will be graded on TEN journals as part of your mid-semester evaluation grade. Then an additional TEN will be included in your end of the term evaluation grade.
Each journal MUST include:
- A description of what happened.
- What are you FEELING
- What were you WATCHING
- What are you THINKING
- What are you going to be DOING? Or what did you DO? - This section could be a follow up from a previous THINKING process or part of the next THINKING process.
- How does this EFFECT YOU as an educator? What would this look like if this was YOUR educational setting and how would you do it the SAME or DIFFERENT? what did you LEARN?
Each journal entry will be graded according to the jounraling rubric.
TIMELY
|
0 Points Entry was not submitted within the same week site was visited
|
10 Points Entry was submitted in the same week that the site was visited |
|
RUNNING TOTAL
|
0 Points Entry was not added to subsequent entries
|
10 Points Entry was added on to subsequent entries (with instructor feedback added) so that the instructor and student can look through past entries as well as the most current |
|
FEELING |
0 Points Did not provide description |
10 Points Brief description of how you felt and what you are experiencing. |
10 Points Clear, detailed description of how you felt about the situation and what the experience was like. |
WATCHING |
0 Points Did not provide description |
10 Points Brief description of what you are observing and why. |
10 Points Clear, detailed description of what you are observing and why. |
THINKING |
0 Points Did not provide description
|
10 Points Brief description of what you are thinking and what your next steps are. |
10 Points Clear, detailed description of your thoughts. Next steps are clear and reasonable within your role. |
DOING |
0 Points Did not provide description |
10 Points Brief description of what you are doing or what you did. Some understanding of the active experience and how it relates to feeling, watching and thinking. |
10 Points Clear, detailed description of what you did. Description is :
AND/OR
|
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
0 Points Did not provide description
|
10 Points Brief description of how this contributed to your professional development. |
40 Points Clear, detailed description of what you gained from the experience and how this will impact you as a future educator. |
To submit your first journal, you will type out your entry using Microsoft Word and upload the file to the appropriate journal dropbox in MICROSOFT WORD FORMAT (.doc or .docx).
Your instructor will grade your journal and leave comments in the actual microsoft word document and send it back to you through the dropbox.
For each subsequent journal you will need to:
- download the graded version of the previous journal
- start a new page AND LABEL YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY WITH A NUMBER. for example, Journal entry #2 12/27/16 and so on.
- add new entry
- submit into the appropriate dropbox
At the end of the course, you will have a single document that has a total of 20 entries that will consist of all of your entries and instructor feedback. Reminder: each jounral will be graded seperately.
FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT - SUBMIT A PRETEND JOURNAL INTO THE DROPBOX EXPLAINING WHAT YOUR JOURNALS WILL CONSIST OF! You are graded on SEVEN areas (look at the rubric for details!)
Lesson 3 Assignment B
Read Powerful Interactions pages vi-10. Write a one page summary SINGLE SPACED 12PT FONT explaining:
The importance of reflective practice and the use of a journal.
How the learning cycle relates to:
- Being Present
- Connecting
- Extending Learning
How you plan to use your jounraling to enhance your practicum experience
Lesson 3 Discussion
Read chapter 2 in Swinging Pendulums (pgs. 13-15). Why does the general public know what quality means for automobiles, construction, home repair, and medical services but not for child care?