(Week 3) Reflection-in-action!

In my last post, I reflected on real-life example of how Schon's idea of the high-ground vs. swamp in my local context here at Algoma University.  In this post, I would like to reflect on Schon's  "reflection-in-action".

While I was completing my education undergraduate degree at Lakehead, my two teachables were Geography and Physical Education.  I remember taking this one course in Kinesiology (also known as human kinetics), where the professor asked me to explain to the class how to "perform a free throw".  Having played basketball my whole life, I quickly, and confidently, accepted the challenge.  However, at that time, I didn't realize that I had never really thought about the mechanics behind the movement and I simply wasn't able to verbalize the motion much to my embarrassment.   The professor then used my failure to explain about tacid knowledge and knowing-in-action. It was a powerful learning moment for me and it taught me, through my own ridicule, to think more from the body, not just the mind.  

In the one of Schon's articles, he gave the example of refection-in-action with the crooked fence.  I relate to this description, because woodworking is one of my favorite hobbies.  I agree that there is a lot of problem solving and reflection-in-action involved within this trade. The whole expression "measure twice, cut once" is a great representation of how a woodworker goes about any project constantly reflecting on each measurement and how the project will all finally fit together in the end.  My father, a seasoned carpenter, always tells me that the real secret to good woodworking is covering up all your mistakes as you work on any project.

The woodworking example, above, is a great representation of how a typical layman might go about refection-in-action. In Schon's article, the Crisis of Professional Knowledge", he explains how many teachers, as practitioners, have a hard time describing what they know and do not know and, as such, might view reflection-in-action as a threat or sign of weakness .  However, Schon's sees this reflection-in-action as part of competent practice and that it is of critical importance.  Can teachers be taught to have a capacity for reflection-in-action or invent on the spot to help students before them?  This is a good question which was posed in class which resulted in a great discussion for Week 3.  I believe that refection-in-action comes intuitively because I've met very few teachers, who don't want to improve their practice.  To do so, there has to an inbuilt system of checking and/or reaffirming that what you are doing at the moment, as a teacher, is meeting the needs of your students.   In this sense, it is like an internal set of checks and balances.