Task 2c: Reflective Theory

I have thought about reflection and if I actually reflected in my everyday life, and, if I do, how it effects my life, thoughts and personal development.
Thinking about it now, after reading about reflective theory and keeping in mind everything I read about it, I am certain that each and every one of us is reflecting on a daily basis in various ways.
Personally, I am more of a pessimist. So, if I've for instance taken an exam or after a performance, I would usually reflected on it and think "I could have done this better", "I should have known the answer to that question", " I could have done better turns", etc. I don't think that's very good cause I can't change what I did and it just makes me feel bad. After reading "Reader 2", I'm trying to get something positive out of it. I maybe still think "I could have done it better" but at the same time I'm trying to learn from my experience!
And I have definitely said that a couple of times before although I do believe, even if people don't say it they still do because that's the way we all learn. Sadly, most times I learned from my mistakes which wasn't very pleasant at the time but it definitely helped my for my future.

It was interesting to see how many different ways and theories of reflection.
The one I found most appealing was Kolb's learning cycle.

David Kolb created this on-going cycle where one point is leading into the next. We are all in this cycle, the only difference is the point at which we start to learn. Personally, my learning style is "Reflective Observation". I think it's due to my long experience in dance and having to pick up choreographies and corrections that I have to watch somebody else do it first to be able to learn from it.

This also applies to Donald Schön's idea of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, I am using more the last one. I find easier to go back to an event and think about so that I can get some distance, which helps put everything into perspective. Although as a dancer, I am also used to reflection-in-action. Being on stage, you never know what can happen. Since it's a group of individuals performing at the same time, you have to be able to adapt to the situation in that very moment.

Having my experience with both types of reflection, I do agree with Kottcamp when he suggests that reflection-in-action is harder to achieve "... because the actor must simultaneously perform, oberve and analyze the action ..." but I disagree that it's the "more powerful for improvement of practice". On the contrary, I would say reflection-on-action is the more powerful and lasting because it gives the individual more time to reflect and to learn.
As dancers, we probably wouldn't say that reflection-in-action is harder because we are more likely to reflect 'on-line'. Being focused on the choreography, steps, music, performance, etc. is part of the job which we wouldn't be able to do if weren't 'on-line' reflecting. Whereas in everyday life I am using 'off-line' reflection. After every show I would reflected on my performance and try to think of ways to improve it.

I am very intrigued my the idea of tacit knowledge and Osterman's and Moon's idea of trying to find ways to articulate it. Any form of art is a tacit knowledge and each one of them, be it dance, photography, poetry, etc. have a deeper meaning in them and I think it would be important to access that meaning, so that people who have difficulties expressing themselves with words would still be understood.

And I think that journals are an important tool to express yourself, to try understand what is happening in the world and around you, to reflect and to LEARN. At the end of the day, there are many purposes of a journal as Jennifer A. Moon says but like David Boud states "... journal writing is intimately associated with learning, no matter what else it may aim to do."


Here is the link to the whole essay online:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tk4qSEYWaeJFgzT89UM6-XtztkPc6r7hG7VyR6383PM/edit