Reflection in Education Leadership - Essay Example

Reflection in Education Leadership Reflection begins with a dilemma Teachers have been studying for about sixteen years before they start teaching, if they do not reflect on their practice, they are likely to base their practice on imitation of what they have observed teachers do in class. The issue with this is that not all the things they saw their teachers do are effective, or even allowable (Bair, 3006). Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that each class and each student has a unique need that needs to be addressed in the most individualized way possible. Failing to reflect on their practice will ea that the teachers will not be able to serve these students in the way that serves their individual needs. As a result, it is absolutely necessary for these students to be careful in the way they look at their practice. As Larriveea (2009) says, reflective practice has become the de facto method for improving work and it has been used in almost all fields of works from medicine to education. Education leaders and teachers must also be able to use reflective practice as a way to help in improving their work. The principle behind reflective practice is the fact that it is expected to help the worker to pull form his or her work and to think about her works. This then helps he person to be able to improve the way they do work. Reflective practice is also expected to help a person to solve difficult problems that may arise from his day to day work. Leaders in education can use reflective proactive as a way to improve the way teachers are able to help the students to learn. Reflective practice for educational leaders is especially useful in dealing with situations where the teacher may be having problems with one or more students such as student who for one reason or the other is unable to keep up with the rest of the class (Danielson, 2009). Reflective practice is seen to combine some of the best qualities of leadership such as initiative, knowledge, trustworthiness, and action. Reflective practice helps the person to be proactive and to be initiative whenever faced with a dilemma. In education, teachers and educational leaders are faced with constant problems that have predetermined solution. For instance, a teacher may find himself in a situation where the procedures laid out in the curriculum may not be applicable. In such a situation, the teacher may be the one taking the initiative to deal with situation. Additionally, the teacher will need to have knowledge that will help them develop a solution for a certain problem. However, eve as the teacher is being proactive and taking imitative, trust is necessary. For instance, if the teacher decides to alter the curriculum a little in order to help the students to be able to understand the materials, he or she must gain trust from both the parents and the students. As a way to help them change and improve their practice Team leaders must be able to know that they play a major role in the way they affect he teachers who are under their leadership. They must also be able to know that their practice is not perfect and will continually need improvement (Loughran, 2002 ). By recognizing this, they are then able to appreciate what reflective practice is all about. They understand that reflective practice is about improving their practice and the way they offer leadership. They should look at reflective practice as a way to improve the way they offer leadership to those who are below them. This will mean that they need to be able to reflect on their actions and behaviors as well as decisions in order to determine those that work and those that do not. After that, they can be able to know where they need to improve and how they need to improve. To the leaders, reflective practice must therefore be seen as a way to improve their leadership skills by identifying and weeding out the things that they consider to be ineffective. These team leaders and educational leaders such as the school principles must therefore not see reflective practice as a by word. They must regard it with total seriousness and be able to know that this requires effort, a lot of effort (Handal & Vaage, 2005). To them, reflective practice must be regarded as a necessity thing to help improve their leadership skills. According to studies done in the past, it has been indentified that educational leaders such as principals in schools have an effect on the way education is transferred to the students. Their actions and behaviors are fundamental in determining how pedagogical processes in the school will be effective. These leaders must be able to also know that their skills and knowledge need to be improve don a daily basis. No matter the level of experience, they still have something they can learn from time to time. For them to really appreciate the usefulness of reflective practice, they must be able to understand that they do not know all thnghs and that they need to learn more in order to be more effective leaders. They also need to appreciate that they have done mistakes in the past and so they have to reflect on their past decisions and actions in order to see what they have done in the wrong way and what they have done in the right way in the past. This will aid them in ensuring that they are able to eliminate the wrong decision they have done in the past and them improve in the right decision and actions they have done it he past. This will them create a basis for them becoming better and then improving their leadership. In this regard, the leaders must regard reflective practice as a way to achieve continuous development. Continuous development is useful and even necessary in any field of work, education not excluded. In this regard, educational leaders must know that their leadership strategies are not absolutely perfect and that if they do not improve them, they will become obsolete. They must then be able to appreciate that the best way to make sure that this will not occur is by making sure that they take reflective practice in a serious way. As a way to help the teachers to change their practice As has been discussed, these leaders even when they do not themselves teach in classrooms, do impact the learning their learning institution in a serious way (Riley, 2015). Their actions are always a way to either aid or hinder learning. As a result, they should be able to see reflective practice as a way to help the teachers who are under their leadership to be able to become better teachers. It is necessary to note at this point that even the teachers need to be use reflective practice as a way to improve their practice. However, as has bens seen, applying reflective practice is not an easy process, especially if any positive results are to be achieved from it. Teachers may find it hard to use reflective practice and this is where their leaders need to come in and support them to use reflective practice. These teachers are likely to continually go to their leaders with problems that they need solved. Instead of giving the teachers readymade solutions, the leaders can and should use reflective practice to help the teachers to use reflective practice. In other words, the educational leaders are not only supposed to use reflective practice for their own practice but are also required to make sure that they help their followers to use reflective practice. For instance, a teacher can go to his leader with problems of a difficult students whose also parents are also not supportive with regard to the situations thus giving the teacher a difficult dilemma on how to take corrective action without getting into trouble with the student’s parents. In such a case, instead of the leader giving the teacher a ready solution, they can choose to nudge them towards using refection as a way to deal with the situation. In this regard, not only is the leader using reflective practice, he is also being an ambassador for reflective practice. This would then mean that leaders should see reflective practice as a way to help the teachers to be better in what they do. In this case, reflective practice for educational leaders in schools is more than a matter of just thinking about ones career, it is a process of looking for opportunities to improving the learning experience of the student. Educational leaders must realize that they run institutions that are mandated and given the responsibility of not just teaching but also offering emotional and other types of development to the students. They must then realize that since this responsibility is not an easy one, they must be able to offer the maximum possible support to the teachers. This will mean using reflective practice to help the students to be able to overcome the issues that they are going through in their practice. They must review their decisions and their actions with regard to how they relate with the teachers in order to see if this is offering any foundation for the pedagogical services in the school to be improved. As a way to solve difficult problems that do not have redefined problems Educational leaders must also regard reflective practice as a way to solve difficult problem. Although many pedagogical problems within a learning institution are solved by the teachers themselves, most of them are also solved by the teachers. Most of these problems are not necessarily easy to solve and may need to be solved in a very careful way. As has been discussed, reflection starts with a dilemma. It is necessary to note that when faced with a dilemma, it is necessary to stop and think in order to consider all the options and may be even develop more options. Reflection helps in avoiding making careless decisions that can be detrimental in achieving positive results. When faced with any of the many kinds of dilemmas that a leader in education institution face, it is necessary to use reflection as a way to make sure that they are able to develop the best practice. For instance, the leaders may find themselves having to decide how to deal with students with disabilities. There are laws and regulations that determine and give guidelines on how students with disability should be treated with regard to their curricular and extracurricular activities. One issue that that comes up in with this is that not all students with disability have an obvious disability. The classification process can be challenging especially when the parent of the student does not agree with the classification that his or her child has been given. For instance, some parents may be unhappy when their child has been classified as having a learning disability, yet the only way to really help such a child with a learning disability is to classify the stud etas thus in order for the student to be accorded the necessary help. In such a case, the educational leaders are faced with two types of dilemmas. First, if they give in to the parent’s pressure to not classify his or her student as having a disability, they will be contravening the law because the student will not be given the help required by law to be afforded to him or her. The school will therefore either act in a way that is against the law, or it can go against the parent and do what the law requires. In both these decisions, they still stand a risk of finding themselves in a court of law. When faced with this type of a dilemma, it would be necessary for the leader to revert to refection in order to make sure that he comes up with the best resolution for this problem. Reflective practice then becomes very necessary in making such critical decisions. The reflection offers the teacher or the leader with certain elements that are necessary for good decision making to be possible. Without reflective practice, it would be almost impossible for the educational leader to come up with a viable solution for a problem with such a dilemma. Refection should therefore be regarded by educational leaders as a way to improve decision-making both for themselves ad for the teachers whom they lead. This is because reflective practice allows the leader to achieve the following elements of good decisions making. Hindsight Hindsight refers to looking back and reflecting on the past decisions. Reflective practice to a leader should therefore mean him looking back and evaluating the decisions that he or she has arrived at in the past and how effective or otherwise they were. Hindsight does not help to correct past mistakes but helps in preventing these mistakes from being repeated. As Albert Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over against and still experiencing the results to change. In this consideration, it would be very imprudent for educational leaders to continue doing the same thing as they have done in the past and still expect things to improve. These leaders must be able to reflect on their past decisions and actions and evaluate them and so know if they should be repeated or not. In this regard, educational leaders must see reflective practice as a self analysis and a self evaluation that is intended to not only make their practice better but also to improve the way they are able to make decisions in the current time. Leaders in education must therefore see the reflective practice as a way to help them in having good hindsight that will help them to not repeat past mistakes of the past. Hindsight is a necessary and important part of decisions making and must always considered being a strategic advantage. Yet, this hindsight can only come from refection on past actions. Leaders therefore should regard reflective practice as a way to help them to go back and look at a current situation from the past so that they will know how things are likely to turn out if certain decisions are made in a certain way. Insight Insight refers to understanding an issue in a more detailed way. Reflective practice for leaders in education therefore gives the leaders more insight especially when making certain decisions. This can also be explained by the example given above about a situation where the teachers are not sure on to how to deal with students with disability. In such a case, reflective practice will help the leader to reflect on the matters and then have all the information. Refection in this regard is not just a way of thinking about something, it is a way or critically looking at a situation and then being able to develop a deeper understanding of the issue in a way that is effective and productive. Leaders in education must be able t ponder on such serious matters and refrain from making hasty decisions. Not only does this help them to make the best decisions especially in cases where making certain decisions would lead to them going against the law, they are also make decisions that are useful to those concerned such as the students and the teachers. In this regard, although reflective practice is a form of self evaluations as discussed in the above paragraph, it is also a process of learning. It combines self evaluation which refers to the leader looking back at the knowledge he or she already has and helps the leader to learn. Reflective practice therefore is a process of learning new things as well as brushing up the information that he already has but is rusting out. Good decision making is depend on the available information. Without clear adequate information, it is difficult for the person to make good decisions and therefore the reflective process is also a process of learning new information in order to make the best possible decisions. Leaders in education must not make impulse decisions because this can have much negative impact on them, on the teachers and more importantly on the students. With regard to the negative impacts that impulse decisions can have on them, this can refer to the legal implications of making the wrong decisions which can land tem on the wrong side of the law. With regard to decisions which can impact negatively in the teachers, this refers to the decisions that these leaders can make and thus make it harder for the teachers to be effective or to have good working decisions. On the students’ part, the decisions made by these leaders can impact on the way they are able to have a good learning experience either with regard to their curricular or extracurricular activities. In this regard, reflective practice is paramount to these educational leaders who need to be very careful with regard to the decisions they make. Foresight Reflective practice is also a matter of getting foresight about issues. Leaders are supposed to preempt thins and should not wait until things are bad for them to be able to act. As a result, they should be able to speculate issues that are supposed to come out of certain situations and then act in a proactive way. In this regard they should be able to regard reflective practice as way to help them to be proactive in dealing with matters. For instance, they should see reflective practice as a way to reflect on structural mechanisms such as the planned curriculum. As has been discussed, the curriculum that is provided by the government for schools can be too structured and in some cases its implementation may be either difficult or infective. Leaders in education must provide leadership to teachers by anticipating issues with regard to this and then act in a proactive way to avoid negative situations which can lead to an ineffective school experience for the students. They must reflect on the curriculum and then think on how it is likely to affect the way learning is done in their institutions and come up with solutions for problems before it is too late. Reference list: Bair, B. (3006, May). Early Childhood Educators Lead the Way: Reflective Practice as It Informs Leadership. Retrieved April 13, 2015, from The Specila Edge: http://www.calstat.org/publications/article_detail.php?a_id=60&nl_id=7 Danielson, M. (2009, February 14). Fostering Reflection. Retrieved April 13, 2015, from Educational Leadership: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb09/vol66/num05/Fostering-Reflection.aspx Handal, G., & Vaage, S. (2005). Teachers Minds And Actions: Research On Teachers Thinking And Practice. London, UK: Routledge. Larriveea, B. (2009). Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives . Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher, 1, 3 , pp, 293-307. Loughran, J. (2002 ). Effective Reflective Practice: In Search of Meaning in Learning about Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education January 53 , 1 , pp. 33-43 . Riley, J. (2015, March 07). How can senior leaders improve their reflective practice? . Retrieved April 13, 2015, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/mar/07/school-leaders-strategic-reflective-thinking-teaching-schedule Read More