Ideas

Critical Reflection
Critical Reflection involves analysis and critical review of the learning process and of the personal experiences of both teachers and learners. Critical reflection informs and supports teaching and learning processes. It also involves having an understanding of how to effect change by identifying problems, framing solutions, and analyzing both their real and potential effects. In both learners and teachers, reflective narratives are used to demonstrate prior knowledge and experience, personal growth, and development of values.

Alright, so I was thinking we could do this Simpson's Troy McClure style (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bps-xbo8wnA). One of us will be the naive kid and the other will be the know-it-all.

Naive: "Oh man! I'll never become a teacher! All these requirements and guiding principles! I understand most of them but what does Critical Reflection mean? It's only March 22, 2010 and i'm already having doubts. Maybe I'll just change my major to business."

Know-it-all: "Don't pick up that briefcase quite yet, Billy! Hi, I'm noah bernhardt from Carroll University, you may remember me from such podcasts as weightlifting: how much is too much. and Carroll u, what about Carroll me? i'm here today to talk to you about the Carroll guiding principle Critical Reflection."

Naive: "Hi Noah, but I already own a mirror, so I think I have all the reflection I need."

Noah: "Oh, Billy that's not quite the reflection we're talking about. Critical Reflection means looking back on your personal experienc es as both a teacher and a learner."

Naive: "But I'm not a teacher"

Know it all: "Haha, not yet, Billy, that's why Critical Reflection is such an important part of the Guiding Principles. According to http://www.carrollu.edu/programs/education/abouttheprogram.asp, Critical Reflection informs teaching and learning processes. It involves how to effect change by identifying problems, framing solutions and analyzing both their real and potential effects.

Billy: Well Noah, I know how I can reflect on myself as a student, but that sure sounds difficult to do as a teacher! How would I do that once I become a teacher?

Noah: Well Billy, just like a student has to evaluate themselves, we teachers have to do the same. This is where reflection comes in! We reflect on how well our lessons plans are getting through to you students, how we can change certain areas of our teaching to better fit each class we have and more importantly, each student we have! Reflection is definitely not something that can be taken lightly by a teacher, so even though it might be one of the less talked about Guiding Principles, it is far from one that should be pushed to the side!

Billy: So Noah, when you say that teachers evaluate themselves what exactly does this do for them?

Noah: Very good question Billy! Evaluating yourself as a teacher is one of the most important things you can do. When I say a teacher evaluates themselves I mean that they look at everything they are doing in the classroom and try to evaluate how well they are getting across to the students. If a teacher is not effectively reaching their students then they cannot expect the students to perform in any particular way. Evaluation is a way for teaching to stay on top of their game and make sure they are doing the best they an in the classroom!

Billy: Well that helps, but is there any way that teachers can get their students input on what they should do in the classroom?

Noah: Actually that is something that is very important for a teacher to do when it comes to self evaluation. Many teachers will ask students how they think the classroom is being run or how effective they think the teacher is at delivering the information to them in a way they can understand.

Billy: Well gee, after Critically Reflecting on this conversation, I think I want to become a teacher after all! Just a start!

-Noah

Noah - That sounds liek a really good idea! We should definitely work on the dialogue for that because I think thatd work really well! I am in between classes right now but I will think of some more dialogue we could use I just wanted to write back to you quick and tell you I liked that idea of having a dialogue. I will post sometime after my classes, I get out at 4 today, so I will talk to you on here later today! My email is whinton@carrollu.edu if you have any other ideas you wanna ask me about you can catch me on there too!

-Billy

Noah - So I was thinking about the different areas that we should definitely cover in our podcast. I was thinking we should make sure we talk about what critical reflection is, why it is important for teachers, good ways to use it, negative ways to use it, questions you should ask yourself as a teacher to reflect, how you can use reflection to help your students, why it is important enough to be a guiding principle. These are just areas that I thought would be good to cover. We dont have to do all of them but I figured I would throw some ideas out there so we atleast have a start on the topics that we want to cover in the podcast

-Billy

Yo Billy, great input. I think the points you brought up are very important. I'm having a hard time thinking up questions a teacher can ask theirself to reflect. Any ideas? Also, feel free to keep adding to the dialogue!

Noah

Hey Noah, that is a good question about what the teachers can reflect on. I was thinking that for a teacher reflection is probably on how well you are reaching the students. So in the dialogue something like...

Noah - Hey, I hope you saw that I posted on here but I figured I would put some more into the dialogue as far as dealing with what reflection is and all of that stuff.

Hey Billy, nice work! Looking great. Bang up job. I added a bit myself, mostly just to adhere to the requirements of telling who is speaking, date the podcast was produced and where the speaker was located. I also included the source of the information, but was wondering if we could just reference a hand book or something? I'm not sure where else we could find this information. Oh, I also copy and pasted your dialogue and put it in with the rest. Yours is in red.

Anyway, what we have so far is great and we should have no problem wrapping it up from here. I'll be adding more stuff later in the day, after I am off of work. Take care and keep up the good work!

Noah