Donelle Knight-French-EDLM6200-Reflective-Reflexive Practices in Technology-Enabled Environments

Reflections by Donelle Knight-French

As I started to work on my lesson plan assignment for module 4, I couldn’t help feeling like was between a rock and a hard place.  Here is one of my dilemmas.  I teach from a range of syllabi and none of them includes a reflective aspect.  My question as I wrote the plan was if this element was not included in my syllabus if it really made sense to focus on it in my own practice.   Another dilemma that I faced was in wondering if the use of references as well as presenting the lesson plan really has any benefits. These dilemmas will be the focus of today’s article

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What?

The lesson plan assignment was the most challenging assignment I have done since starting this program.  While I am very much accustomed to writing lesson plans.  I am not asked to justify or to present this information.  Furthermore, I have never associated providing references with the creation of a lesson plan before.  Normally, if I create a lesson plan it is generally a guide for me and in most cases it is never shared with anyone else, except for evaluation purposes.  This was therefore a very disorienting experience.  In addition, I have never been called on to incorporate reflective elements in my lessons because it is not a requirement which is stated in the syllabus. 

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So what?

This experience helped me to realize that perhaps I think of a lesson plan as a personal and private document.  I have notice that this is counterproductive, as collaboration and sharing of ideas is important to the development of a growth mindset of continual improvement.  In terms of providing references and presenting the lesson plan in engaging manner, I am essentially justifying why the lesson will work and explaining why it is important.  Being able to justify and explain the lesson plan fosters a deeper understanding of the lesson and execution of that lesson could become more efficient as a result.  In addition, sharing and presenting lesson plans to colleagues using the presentation allows for valuable feedback and ideas to be shared.  I am also apprehensive with incorporating reflection especially as it relates to my examination classes, however in trying to justify my lesson plan I was able to realize that I can apply reflective activities that are directly in line with the business syllabus.  This is because being able to reflect is an invaluable skill in the field of business (Provis, 2015). 

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 Now What?

1.          I am considering setting up informal meetings with my co-workers who teach the same or similar subject, to engage in present their lessons to me and vise-versa as a means of exchanging ideas and also to improve and strengthen our lesson planning and execution skills.
2.     For our co-workers’ meetings, since I do not want to scare persons away, lessons can be presented orally.  I presented my lesson using PowToon.  However, working with PowToon is time consuming and can be expensive.  I have an account, because I love the program but this may                                                             be a deterrent for busy teachers.  
3.            Reflection needs to be incorporated into students' individual courses so that they can have plenty of opportunities to reflect.  Reflection leads to the development of analytical skills, which are transferable to many situations (Quinton & Smallbone, 2010).  Bearing this in mind I will be incorporating reflective activities into business classes.  The lesson plan assignment formed the basis on which this will occur.

References

Provis, C. J  (2017).  Intuition, analysis and reflection in business ethics.  140 (1), 5-15.  Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.library.open.uwi.edu/article/10.1007/s10551-015-2688-z#citeas


Quinton, S., & Smallbone, T. (2010). Feeding forward: using feedback to promote student reflection and learning - a teaching model. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 47(1), 125–135. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.library.open.uwi.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=46de78d9-568c-4ac2-9f5d-8ee57acfb173%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=47992453&db=ehh