Mentor Junction/ matching reflection

Matching Guided Reflection and Feedback with Teacher Development

As was mentioned earlier, guided teacher reflection is more than encouraging your protege to simply bring something to mind. Thoughts, feelings, and actions must be considered (Dewey, 1933). Unexamined experience forfeits the potential for growth. Guided reflection within the developmental framework implies that reflection can be initiated and provoked as part of social interchange and social role-taking (Mead, 1934). For example when a mentor teacher and his/her protege discuss different possible solutions to one of the protege's classroom management problems, and the mentor encourages the protege to consider how the students might solve the problem, the mentor is deliberately guiding (provoking) the protege to take the multiple perspectives of the students in the class. From a developmental perspective, spoken and written discourse between educators offers 'tools' needed for thinking, feeling, and acting (Vygotsky, 1934/1978).

Given the crucial interplay between experience and guided reflection, we tested the question of how to guide reflection The dependent variables were measures of cognitive development. The independent measure was a specially designed format for guiding reflection (Reiman & Thies-Sprinthall, 1993). Two important findings emerged. The first is that guided reflection may be a keystone in teacher development. The second finding is that growth and development does not come cheaply. If development is a goal, then six months to one year is needed if any significant development is to occur. A unique aspect of the reflection format, used to assist teacher educators and mentor teachers in guiding intern reflection, was its representation of strategies for differentiating instructor responses according to the current level of cognitive-developmental functioning of the intern.

Beginning teachers at pre-reflective levels received written feedback to their journals that was more structured, more direct, more encouraging and accepting, and less complex in the level of questions posed for consideration. In contrast, reflective beginning teachers received written feedback that was less structured, more indirect, more theoretical, and more complex in the level of questions posed for intern consideration. The format that guided written feedback is depicted in Figure 1 and draws on the ATI curriculum of Hedin (1979), original teacher interaction research by Flanders (1970), theory of Sprinthall and Thies-Sprinthall (1983), and the conceptual work of Dewey (1933), Mead (1934), Schon (1983), Zeichner and Liston (1987), and Hunt (1981).

Interaction	Journal Pattern	Instructor Response
1. Accepts Feelings	1a. Teacher has difficulty discerning feelings in both self and others.	Share own feelings.
1. Accepts Feelings	1b. Teacher discerns feelings in both self and students.	Accept feelings.

2. Praises or Encourages	2a. Teacher doubts self when trying new instructional strategies.	Offer frequent encouragement.
2. Praises or Encourages	2b. Teacher has confidence when attempting new instructional strategies.	Offer occasional support.

3. Acknowledges and Clarifies Ideas	3a. Teacher perceives knowledge as fixed and employs a single "tried and true" model of teaching.	Relate ideas to observed events and clarify how ideas affect students' lives.
3. Acknowledges and Clarifies Ideas	3b. Teacher perceives knowledge as a processof successive approximations and employsa diversity of models of teaching.	Accept ideas and encourage examination of hidden assumptions of curriculum and instruction.

4. Prompts Inquiry	4a. Teacher rarely reflects on the teaching/learning process.	Ask questions about observed eventsin teaching/learning.
4. Prompts Inquiry	4b. Teacher consistently reflects on diverseaspects of the teaching/learning process.	Ask questions that encourage analysis evaluation, divergent thinking, and synthesis of theory/practice and broader societal issues.

5. Provides Information	5a Teacher disdains theory, prefers concrete thinking and has difficulty recalling personal teaching events.	Offer information in smaller units, relate to practice, and review regularly.
5. Provides Information	5b Teacher employs abstract thinking, shows evidence of originality in adapting innovations to the class, and is articulate in analysis of teaching.	Relate information to relevant theory and contrast with competing theories.

6. Gives Directions	6a Teacher needs detailed instructions and high structure, is low on self-direction,and follows curriculum as if it were " carved in stone."	Offer detailed instructions but encourage greater self-direction.
6. Gives Directions	6b Teacher is self-directed and enjoys low structure.	Offer few directions.

7. When Problems Exist	7a Teacher has difficulty accepting responsibility for problems and blames students.	Accept feelings and thoughts, use "I" messages, and arrange a conference
7. When Problems Exist	7b Teacher accepts responsibility for actions.	Accept feelings and thoughts.

Adapted from Ned Flanders, Flanders Interaction Analysis System (1970). Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. & Reiman, A. J. (1988). An intervention study of long-term mentor training: Relationships between Cognitive-developmental theory and reflection (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina State University.