Abstract:

The ability to critically reflect on professional practice is a highly valued skill in many professions. This is especially the case in teaching where teachers are confronted on a daily basis with many problematic pedagogical, management and interactional issues which require deep thought to respond to appropriately. This paper reports on the author's experience of supporting teachers to critically reflect on their practice during a year long e-learning post-graduate paper. Teachers from early childhood settings, primary and secondary schools in New Zealand, as well as teacher-educators and community educators participated in this course. Participants shared their experiences with each other, while sharpening their skills in critically reflecting on their educational practice. Benefits of this course included being able to obtain relatively immediate feedback on problematic issues from a group of colleagues, drawing on perspectives from a community of learners, sharing successful strategies for similar problems, sharing knowledge, skills and resources, and learning about issues affecting other sectors of education. Challenges for the course involved making it relevant to educational professionals from different sectors of education, and gathering contextual knowledge to make sense of the particpant's experience, so that an informed and helpful response can be offered. Also discussed in this paper is the challenge of deeping critical reflection to include the broader philosophical, social, cultural and political realities within which the practice of teaching is situated.

Keywords:

critical reflection, teaching, e-learning.