Reflective Practice

It goes without saying that we learn from our mistakes. When something goes wrong in our work or personal life we endeavour to take steps to avoid it happening again. These steps are often subconcious and the better we get at reflecting on our successes and failures, the less formalised the process becomes.

As part of the PPD Module, you are required to record your reflections on your experiences in work and how aspects of the Foundation Degree are changing and effecting the type of practitoner you are.

You need to:

· Discuss your experiences at work, relating these to your study at college
· Identify areas for continuing professional development
· Explore recent innovations in Computing
· Discuss any issues that are of interest to you

There are all manners of ways that you can do this - a blog is certainly a very effective tool in facilitating this. As I've said, we should be using the PebblePad system and once the logins make there way to you, I'd certainly recommend using it. For the time being, it maybe that you open an account here. It's free and easy to use (it must be if I'm managing it) and will enable you to start gathering your thoughts.

If you're stuck for ideas or aren't currently working, then concentrate on the 'recent innovations in computing' section - look for articles in newspapers and write summaries of these highlighting what opportunities may open up to you in the future because of these innovations.

I've provided a short reflective extract provided by a student I taught on a teacher training programme. Hopefully, this reveals the sort of information required:

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23 / 09 / 04

GCSE groups finally sorted out and up and running. Managed to get to the room 15 minutes before start, which was lucky because there weren’t enough chairs for such a large group. Seems trivial but it was the first session they’d had where the whole group could be accommodated. It set the tone for the session and ensured that we got off to a good start. Also, used an Ice-Breaker to learn names – students commented on this and said that it made them feel valued as people.
Although not necessarily a spectacular lesson in terms of content, certainly made me appreciate that I had made appropriate decisions regarding approaching the needs of the learners

Actions

1. Knew that this was a large Access group (hence the need to check that there was space for everyone) but had inadvertently brought too few copies of the handbook. Managed to get around this by writing the key points on the board and discussing them but shouldn’t have had to

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The key to reflective practice is little and often - don't feel that you always have to write huge weighty responses. You should aim to put together approximately 10 short reflections. Do remember that it's MUCH easier to get this done if you get into the habit of a writing a short response each week. You should never need to spend more than 15 minutes typing up your thoughts and the actions you'll take as a response.

Do make sure you meet the criteria with your reflections. You need to:

1. Form links between work and study
2. Show how you apply what you learn in college in work and work in college
3. Identify courses you could go on / professional qualifications you could get to progress
4. How computing is changing

If you post these on your own blog (and tell me where it is!) I'll add my own responses / guidance to your comments.

Thanks

Kerry