What does your reader expect in a
Reflection Paper?
It is always a good idea to ask yourself why your marker has given you a certain assessment task, and to anticipate what your marker hopes to read. In a Reflection Paper your reader expects you to show that you can:
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acquire a certain amount of knowledge in a specific area of teaching and learning
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relate this knowledge to personal experience
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analyse your current knowledge, your experiences and your own assumptions to gain a broader perspective on the practice of teaching
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communicate these things clearly (logical argument, and writing skills at a professional standard)
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think deeply.
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Because it is labelled as a reflection, don’t be tempted to just write down everything you can think about from your Practice Teaching or own schooling, or simply tell what happened. Analyse your experiences to discover the ideas or concepts that lie behind them, or theories you have learnt that could be applied to them (e.g., constructivist learning; operant conditioning; cognitive stages; multiple intelligences). Thus, never just tell the story: always use an event as a way of referring to an idea or theory. Then structure the points in your Reflection Paper according to these concepts. |
Again, this is good preparation for your professional lives. Looking for the concepts behind experience is an ability that you must have as a teacher in the classroom. You will be teaching concepts far more than just facts. If your students are having difficulties with the cognitive aspects of their work, you will be able to help them best by analysing the concepts behind what you teach in order to discover what they might be missing.
