Donald Schon introduced the terms “knowing in action,” “reflection in action” and “reflection on action,” and the power of reflection in teaching. His work draws on John Dewey’s work that asserts one could draw insights from experiences in the classroom through reflective practice. For Schon, reflective practice is where one becomes aware of their implicit knowledge base and learns from their experiences.
- Knowing in action is also known as tacit knowledge. This is when you do something without thinking about it at a conscious level. The more experience you have doing something, the more tacit knowledge you develop. However, this is not enough. If we are doing things in automation mode, we miss out on what is occurring around us, especially how learners are reacting to our teaching.
- Reflection in action means we are reflecting on behaviors as they happen. In other words, we are reflecting on our teaching as we are teaching.
- Reflection on action is when you reflect after you teach. What observations do you have about how you taught, how effective it was, what worked, what didn't work, etc. You also reflect on how your students reacted to your teaching and other activities you utilized while teaching. Most importantly, what would you do differently next time, now that you have reflected on action.
For other models, visit the resources below to gain a comprehensive understanding of Reflective Practices and to learn more about Schon.
