Module One Readings: 'Educating the Reflective Practicioner' by Donald A. Schon.

Even if my MA is taught online, I actually live not too far from the University Campus, so I decided to go to the actual library (not the online library this time) and borrow this book. 

Published quite a long time ago (1987), 'Educating the Reflective Practitioner' is a book that is still worth reading, especially if you are, like me, in the process of reviewing and questioning your practice, in any field.

To be really honest I found some chapters more interesting than others. what follows is how I interpreted the book in relationship with my own experience and practice as a Dance teacher and previous dance student.

Professionals become aware of what they actually know, mostly from their experience. Schon claims that Reflective Practice helps developing of your teaching and I agree with that, as I think that by exploring more about ourselves and challenging what we deliver, we can make a positive impact on our students' learning processes.

In Chapter Two the idea of Knowing-in-action and Reflection-in-Action are introduced.

What is called Knowing-in-action is basically: doing something related to our learning, without thinking too much about it. It's spontaneous, which also means it has an unexpected outcome. (Example: riding a bike). 'We reveal it by our spontaneous, skillful execution of the performance; and we are characteristically unable to make it verbally explicit'. (p. 25).  So I believe that definitely occurs when, for example, we are teaching dance to a group of beginners.

Then there is Reflection-in-action: thinking back in what we have done before, reflecting on past experiences. It can be like stopping and thinking after the fact occurred, or it can happen in the middle of the action without interrupting it.

'In the midst of action I invented procedures to solve the problem, discovered further unpleasant surprises, and made further corrective inventions' (p.27)

Reflection-in-Action questions and criticizes knowing in action in order to understand it better, and to see if it affected our knowing-in-action.

This made me think of visualization in Dance: thinking of a class, exercise or performance that already happened. By using Reflection-in-action on the next class, exercise or performance we work on improvement, teaching ourselves, again from experience (experience = Knowing in action).

Skipping to Chapter Five: 'The Dialogue Between Coach and Student'. 

I found this part of the book quite relevant to my practice as it talks about examples of teaching where sometimes the student is asked to start doing something before he/she knows what it means.

The students accepts the challenge and trusts the coach, following the instructions given.

For example: I have a new ballet student in class and we are learning sautès in first position. The student would follow my instructions as well as imitating my movement or his peer's movement. He is asked to start by doing a pliè, then push into a jump stretching his feet in the air and land with again a pliè (...and so on). In order for it to work effectively, teacher and student must coordinate in the learning process. For example: I observe the student's execution and start giving him a few corrections to increase his physical awareness during that movement, while the students hopefully listens and does it again trying to apply those corrections. Both coach and student are experimenting during the process.

When problems or confusion occur, they both have something to reflect on: the student should perhaps develop listening and understanding while the coach should experiment new ways of showing/explaining that are appropriate for the student's potential and difficulties.

An other chapter to mention is Chapter Eight: 'A Master Class in Musical Performance'. Here examples of music classes are described by the author, mentioning different approaches by different teachers.

There is a part where a music coach makes legitimate for the student to like or dislike the interpretation of a musical performance. The coach then should guide the student on how to achieve what they said they liked. An other music teacher compares the student's last performances to previous ones. It helps him becoming aware of various possibilities providing a 'framework for experimentation' (p.182). I believe this is about building a relationship of deep understanding between the coach and the student. In my experience, I found it much easier with professional training students. In order to facilitate this relationship I think student's critical thinking in dance, should be encouraged from earlier times in their training.

Finally, I'd like to mention a short sentence from Chapter Ten, Part Four: 'Implications for Improving Professional Education': 'Learning by doing, coaching rather than teaching, and a dialogue of reciprocal reflection-in-action' (p. 303). 

I feel this reflects my practice a little bit. I tried to demonstrate and lead by 'coaching' rather than just 'giving information'. However, that 'dialogue of reciprocal reflection-in-action' is something I'd like to develop much further.