To adapt to the requirements of the constantly developing school environment, it is necessary to be a reflective practitioner who is able to rethink and analyze the achievements and weaknesses in conducting the definite teaching strategy in order to be more successful or improve the results in the future.
From this point, the reflective practitioner is a person who understands the accomplishments and results of the work and can develop the plan for the further actions basing on the analysis and provided conclusions. It is important to note that such an approach leads to the improvement of the strategies and action plans.
As a result, the effectiveness of the reflective practitioner grows. That is why, teachers should be reflective in order to have the opportunities to develop their skills and correct the approaches to teaching students because the reflective practitioner is the effective practitioner who knows all his or her strengths and weaknesses and can work to develop or overcome them.
The teachers can be discussed as reflective practitioners when they concentrate not only on reflecting their own work results but also on helping students reflect on their achievements. According to Ash and Clayton, self-reports are not enough to guarantee the effective reflection.
The accents should be made on the activities close to reality which help students understand the level of their successes and analyze their experience (Ash & Clayton, 2004).
Moreover, the emphasis on the students’ reflection can help the teacher as the reflective practitioner explore the details of his or her own teaching strategy (Minott, 2009).
Beginning the lesson, teachers set definite learning objectives, and the reflection activities for students and teachers help analyze the level of completing these objectives.
I understand that my reflective practices should be based on analyzing my successes as a teacher along with analyzing the students’ achievements and interests. From this point, the reflection is necessary to compare the result of teaching with the definite standards and develop the strategies to teach the new material.
I am inclined to use the reflection as the practice to correlate the content of the lesson with the students’ needs and their previous successes, to continue teaching the definite material with references to assessing the previous results.
Thus, the reflection is the best way to assess the activity objectively and improve the used strategy with the help of changing the approaches or choosing another learning style which can be discussed as effective for this definite situation and this group of students.
To be an effective teacher, it is important to be not only a teacher leader but also a reflective practitioner.
As a result, being a leader, the teacher should be ready to risk in order to change the situations for better, and being a reflective practitioner, the teacher should analyze his or her activity and make the necessary research to improve the performance according to the fixed standards.
The problem is in the fact that many teachers are not ready to change the familiar approaches to teaching according to the contemporary tendencies or changing situations because they are not ready to risk.
That is why, it is important to answer the question about the readiness to risk to receive the possibility to reflect on one’s leadership qualities, flexibility, and ability to conduct the research to improve the situation if it is necessary (Phelps, 2008).
The teacher should be prepared for risks of such a kind because it is necessary to constantly adapt to different environments and students’ groups because they have different interests and levels of the skills’ development.
In spite of the fact I am not ready to resolve immediately all the problematic situations which can occur within the classroom environment because of the lack of the enough experience, I can state that I am prepared to risk of what is comfortable for me in order to create the better conditions for students.
I am inclined to think that it is the first step to develop the skills of the reflective practitioner or the reflective change agent as well as the teacher leader.
In this case, the reflective change agent always chooses the provision of the necessary alternations in the teaching approach according to the conclusions affected by the reflection results. This is the practice which is chosen by me to improve the students’ abilities.
It is possible to determine the main areas in the educational environment which need researching in order to respond to the students’ demands.
These areas are teaching and learning as the constituents of pedagogy and the communications between students and the other teachers in order to create the positive environment for students to receive the new knowledge and develop their skills.
The research is important to deepen my knowledge in relation to the mentioned areas because there are a lot of factors and aspects to be used to overcome this or that situation. When teachers do not use the research they limit their possibilities for the development, for finding solutions, and for broadening the perspectives.
References
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2004). The articulated learning: An approach to guided reflection and assessment. Innovative Higher Education, 29(2), 137-154.
Minott, M. (2009). The role of reflection in the differentiated instructional process. College Quarterly, 12(1), 1-10.
Phelps, P. H. (2008). Helping teachers become leaders, Clearing House, 81(3), 119-122.