Learning through Reflection

The PAR lesson framework offers a variety of instructional and strategic learning methods that focus on these three steps: Preparation, assistance, and reflection. The reflection phase, however, is in essence the most crucial component of this framework.

Critical and reflective thinking are the focus of this learning phase. As students read to learn, they must also communicate and reflect in a meaningful way about their learning. Reflective thought is a term coined by educator John Dewey, that introduces the necessity of reflection time during learning as it persists towards objective truths. When a student reflects on something they have learned, the information is more likely to be not only remembered, but also used and translated into further inquiry. Case in point, this blog is my personal learning tool for reflective thinking! I see and learn about multiple texts and teaching methods, and then respond to this stimuli through a systematic thought process, which informally evaluates of my own understanding. By reflecting on this information, I am able to make connections between prior and/or future knowledge; for example, this concept of reflective thinking prompts me to consider the value in teaching multidisciplinary lessons so that students can retain material in many facets of their learning and reflect on it throughout multiple content areas.

To practice this reflective behavior, students must be prompted in multiples forms of discussion, debate, lab, application, writing, rehearsal, etc so that they may interact with the given schema. In utilizing these practices, we will engage students in becoming autonomous learners. To provide students with an autonomy for learning, I believe, will be my biggest feat as a teacher. For a student to organize information, read meaningfully, or take personal account for his or her study behavior, proves that student to be outstanding. In order to provide students with this autonomy, however, teachers must provide a classroom with many independent skills.

Communication is a skill that effectively enhances every facet of life. In a classroom, communication must be seen as an informative tool for teachers to manipulate. Listening, speaking, writing, and reading are all communicative arts through which a student makes sense of things. In a study conducted in 2003, American researchers travelled to Japan to witness the classroom dynamics as they compared to the United States'. Japanese schools, with standardized rankings significantly higher than those of this country's, provide a classroom where the children are actively exploring, analyzing and reflecting on discrete problems. This difference in learning leads me to believe that we must think of students as independent researchers in their own critically thinking rather than steeped vessels of memorized information.

Critical thinking is a huge skill that many students, and teachers, shy away from using. Some teachers believe that to think critically means to find fault and emphasize negative components of learning; ironically, this is a negative perspective of how to approach the critical thinking process. When students think critically about something, they have to consider multiple view points and sources of information to conceptualize and then synthesize important information into a concluded thought. This skill, that truly optimizes any learner's life, can be taught to elementary students through critical literacy; which teaches students to read between the lines, detect any bias, or juxtapose two contrasting perspectives.

Reflecting in a learning process is a natural response that many people take advantage of everyday. In elementary settings, students must be taught how to harness and manipulate these skills so that they grow into self-controlled thinkers and autonomous learners. Providing a student with individual accountability for their learning is the greatest gift we can give as educators and life-long role models.