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SYEFEST Activity: Reflective Thinking for Teachers
Contributor: Steve Archibald
"Students are thinking all the time, but experience teaches us that, without reflection on
what we do, we are not likely to benefit from our good thinking."
(Author Unknown)
"Our thoughts are the epochs of our life; all else is but as a journal of the winds
that blew while we were here…"
(Henry David Thoreau)
In our fast paced society, perhaps one of the greatest missing ingredients
is the act of reflection, of slowing down, of being deliberate thinkers.
(Henry David Thoreau)
Activity 1: Learning to Reflect
Objectives:
- To plant the suggestion that there is need for reflective thinking.
- To help us explore the idea that time spent in reflection is not wasted time but is rather time well spent.
- To give participants theory and others' words on the topic which might encourage them to action.
Materials:
- Reflective Thinking Handout
- A copy of Mountain Time by Paul Schullery
Procedure:
- Engage: Relate the story of the 10-year-old bike rider who sees his surroundings for the first time one day. Amazement! The mountains were out there all the time!
- Explore: Take the next 60 seconds to think about an incident in your life which changed the way you look at the world.
- Explain: How would you define the word reflective? (Serious, thoughtful, with careful consideration). The quotations on this page are great starting points to understand the need to slow down and to reflect on what surrounds us and waits for us to see and understand.
- Elaborate: Brain Research suggests that reflection allows the brain to organize and make meaning of sensory inputs.This is important for classroom teachers! We give so much sensory input whether we're inside or outside with our students, but do we give them time to
organize and make meaning of it?
- Read from Mountain Time (pp xiii - xiv).
- Go on to the Recipe for Reflective Thinking activity below.
- Evaluate: Journal prompt and reflection time offered; sharing.
Activity 2: Recipe for Reflective Thinking
Objective: Taking time to reflect.
Procedure:
- Determine a need to reflect. Ask yourself: Do I (or my students) need more time to think about what’s going on around me/us?
- Find a place where you can be undisturbed during the reflective experience.
- Attempt to slow down while you are reflecting. This takes practice because slowing down is mental as well as physical.
- It’s OK to be unproductive in the traditional sense for a while. Perhaps less really is more. Sometimes you should be deliberate about your think time and other times let your mind take you wherever it goes. A focus at time can be of great value.
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