Task 2c: Reflective Theory

When I was reading the "Reader 2 - Reflective Practice" I found it helpful to highlight the most important ideas. I am a visual learner, so it makes things easier for me when I use colour, otherwise there are just thousands of words and I probably wouldn't remember anything. I also wrote the most important quotes or sentences down, which helps me to actually write something about it.

David Kolb

It was very interesting for me to read that there are various modes of learning new things. Obviously I knew that there are the "visual", "auditory", "communicative" and "kinaesthetic" learners but Kolb's "Learning Cycle of Experiential Learning" was new to me.

• Concrete Experience: learners do or experience something
• Reflective Observation: new experience - learners watch others doing something
• Abstract Conceptualization: learners deal with a new idea - "work it out in their head first"
• Active Experimentation: learners start to try out ideas

"Kolb's learning cycle is a tool for reflection on how you learn and a tool for approaching experience." (Reader 2)

In my opinion I fall into the category of "Concrete Experience"; for example, in learning a dance routine it's always easier for me when I watch the teacher first, then immediately my brain engages in it and I am involved in the concrete experience. I am very happy with that talent, because especially in an audition it is very important to learn the choreography as quickly as possible.

Howard Gardner

I found a really good website about Howard Gardner's life and it is very interesting. 

http://infed.org/mobi/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-and-education/#multiple_intelligences

On the website it also says: "Howard Gardner viewed intelligence as 'the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural settings'. (Gardner & Hatch, 1989)"

Gardner introduced seven different intelligences:

• Spatial: involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more reduced areas
• Verbal-linguistic: involves the ability to learn languages and to use language to express oneself rhetorically and poetically
• Logical-mathematical: involves to think logically and it's most associated with scientific and mathematical thinking
• Bodily-kinaesthetic: involves to use the body to solve problems and is related to mental and physical activities
• Musical: involves the skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of musical patterns
• Interpersonal: involves the understanding of motivations and desires of other people; allows people to work effectively with others
• Intrapersonal: involves the understanding of ourselves and relates to one's emotional life

There are so many people out there who you can't compare with each other! Every person is different and everyone has different talents. Most learners are a mix of learning styles.

It seems to me that "bodily-kinaesthetic" and "musical" are my two intelligence. They probably are the most common ones among the participants in this course because we are mostly dancers or/and musicians.

Especially “bodily-kinaesthetic” seems really easy to identify because first I have been dancing since I was four years old and second I have been trained in that.

Donald Schön

He introduced the idea of "reflection-in-action" and "reflection-on-action".

• Reflection-in-action: it can happen while you are in the middle of something, for example if you are dancing and something's not working you can change the steps while you are moving
• Reflection-on-action: it can happen when you are looking back on something - you experienced in the past

Reflection-in-action would appear to be more important or useful for dancers / performers because it allows you to change a step or move while you are dancing. Rather than looking back on it, which would be kind of pointless for a dancer because then it would be too late to change anything. I think it is always better to change something on the spot, so we can actually remember the step.

Taking up Schön's idea, Robert Kottcamp likens reflection-in-action to 'on-line' and reflection-on-action to 'off-line'. Kottcamp says that the on-line situation means you are in the middle of an on-going action and in an off-line moment - when it is a past event - you can analyse things.

It is basically the same notion as Schön's idea, using different terminology.

Kottcamp also says that reflection-in-action is harder to achieve but that might be because he is used to reflecting back on something. For me as a professional dancer reflection-in-action seems easier because in the course of my training I was encouraged to change steps or movements on the spot.

I think for most people routine or repeated activities make things easier.

I would like to add a few important items which I copied down from the Reader 2 handbook.

• The process of 'learning from experience' is a process of turning information into knowledge.

I totally agree with this statement because I think every day you can learn something new. And I also think you can only learn from something when you experienced it, which then becomes new knowledge.

I have a really good example: If you tell a small child not to touch a hot plate s/he will probably  not listen because s/he does not know why. So it is most likely that this child needs to first experience 'the hot plate' because then the child's brain associates the hot plate with danger.

• Reflection is a key tool for understanding and learning from experience.

This is a very helpful advice for journal writing, which I first thought would not be as useful as it actually is.

When I personally think about a day in the past I do not fully recall what actually happened. I only realize it when I reflect back on it in my journal.

Writing my journal actually opened my eyes because I can learn so much from my days when I look back on them.


I found a really good quote from John Dewey in this context:

Conclusion

To sum up I would say that at first I was very confused about the Reader 2 - Reflective Practice but as I highlighted the most important things it became clearer and clearer.
The handbook taught me about different intelligences and learning styles, which I had not been aware of before.
One of the most important themes for me is 'Journal Writing' because I still learn so much from it and reflecting back on a day is extremely useful and helpful to me!

Reader 2 - Reflective Practice

Howard Gardner's life: http://infed.org/mobi/howard-gardner-multiple-intelligences-and-education/#multiple_intelligences