Reflection
Experience
Experience
is a good way of learning, it helps turn information into knowledge. Experience
is observing and practicing in doing something but there are different ways for
people to turn experience into learning. When you have experience and reflect
on it this enables you to come up with new ideas which means you are learning
something new. I found this quote while researching experience, and was really
fond of it; ‘The experience gathered from
books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the
experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.’ Samuel
Smiles (Smiles
was Secretary to the Leeds Parliamentary Reform Association May 1840-1845, he also
wrote a book called Self-Help.)
Here are
two definitions of the word ‘Experience.’
2. The content of direct observation or participation in an event
Learning
is more confusing than you think, it is not just about learning a new word but
actually learning what does the word mean? You need to understand the term and know
how to use the word in a sentence. Such as being ‘divorced’ you need to
understand what being married is and not being married, you have to learn the
meaning of that subject just to understand one word. If someone really didn’t know
the meaning or understood the word ‘divorced’ and asked you what does it mean,
you would have to explain what being married is first, and then explain the
word divorced. Otherwise the word divorced does not make sense. Understanding
the concept of a word is much harder than what you think.
The
first step of knowing you don’t know a meaning of a word is when you realise
something is missing. This is called reflection when you look at something and
know you don’t understand. Seeing something is missing is the first stage of
learning something new, you now have the power to find out what is missing to
make sure you can make complete sense of it.
Reflecting
on your work is a useful tool in life especially if you have a career where
things are always changing. Such as a teacher, education is always changing and
different students pick up certain subjects faster than others, it is our job
to reflect on the situation we are in and teach at the right speed and the
correct subjects.
Many
specialists have looked into how experience works, and how is it most
effective, John Dewey is one of these people. He believes there are different
levels of experience, and as he was an educationist he felt the level of
concentration effected the outcome of the quality of experience. He also
thought that if people fully experienced and fully engaged with their life they
would be better in society, solving problems etc… As they were using their
brain to their full advantage. Dewey liked to use the term ‘Reflective thought’
and this meant understanding you had experience and would reflect on it finding
ways to link this to other people or situations and expanding on your own
experience.
David
Kolb
David Kolb believed reflecting on our experience is a tool
we all need, and as we all have the ability to use concrete experience,
reflecting observation, abstract concepts and actively experiment but all of
our minds work differently which means we tend to realise something is missing
or we start learning something new at different speeds. This is an image explaining
experience by David Kolb:
Concrete experience- This is when people start
learning when they are involved in the activity themselves.
Reflective Observation- Some people like to
observe and while watching they start to learn.
Abstract conceptualisation- This just means
some people like to work it out for themselves in the head first.
Active experimentation- Last but not least some
people like to try out new ideas until they find the right way of doing it. I
would call this the trial and error method.
I personally think I observe
something first but then would definitely want to try it out for myself, I’m
not the type of person that will sit there and think about something I like to
have a go for myself and be hands on so I know how it feels and how it would affect
things.
Multiple Intelligences
The next subject I am going to talk about is multiple intelligences, I found this section really interesting as I have never looked into this before. I researched all types of intelligences and while reading up on a few I thought of people I knew who I could slightly connect it too. Howard Gardner broke down the idea of engaging and learning even more than David Kolb, he made known that there was different ways to be intelligent:
- Spatial- knowing what is going on around you, this type of intelligence means a person is very switched on and aware of the situation they’re in.
- Verbal-linguistic-this type of person loves to read, write and learn new things. They are very talented with words and are very good at explaining things, also they can pick up languages easier than others.
- Logical-mathematical- being good at maths, number and patterns. Working out complex calculations in their heads and connecting things together.
- Bodily-Kinaesthetic- like to use the body, sense of touch is extremely important, they tend to notice different textures. They are good at sports and exercise and like to express themselves using hand gestures.
- Musical- understand and appreciate musical rhythm and patterns, also enjoy playing musical instruments.
- Interpersonal- understand people and their relationships, being able to communicate and interact with people, they enjoy relationships at work and at home.
- Intrapersonal- having the appropriate reaction and attitude to other people and their situations, normally enjoy meditation, praying, good at visualisation, good at problem solving and helping with people’s emotions.
- Naturalistic- this type of intelligences are in tune with nature, nurturing and exploring the environment, learning about species, subtle changes in their environment.
This theory comes in handy as it helps us understand there
is many more ways to look at a piece of experience, and the process of turning
it into something we can reflect on and learn something new. This shows us many
ways to engage this process and how there are different ways to learn. We can
all see a piece on information but we would all read it and process it in
different ways. Gardner had this idea of multiple ‘lenses’ which meant we all
see things multiple ways and learn from it differently.
Learning
When people are learning something new, it is important to
think about is what frame of mind they’re in. If they are negative it can
really effect on how they look upon something and can block learning. Also past
experiences are crucial as what has happened in the past has made us who we are
today so we are more sensitive with certain situations and feel certain things
are important which someone else might not feel is.
Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action
Reflecting on something that has happened is very
important, but when you reflect on it is also an interesting subject. Donald
Schon (1987) introduced us to an idea of ‘reflection-in-action’ and
‘reflection-on-action’ the difference being ‘reflection-IN-action’ means
reflecting there and then in the situation, dancers are very good at this as
while dancing can feel something isn’t right and can experiment while
performing a sequence of steps until they find the right movement they like.
‘Reflection-in-action’ normally happens with a full involvement way of working.
Whereas ‘reflection-ON-action’ happens for more academically careers, this is
when someone looks back on something, and analyses it after it has happened.
Both types of ways of reflecting are very helpful, but ‘reflection-in-action’
is more effective as time always has an impact, we are only humans and we
forget certain things, or forget how we felt in that precise moment in time etc...
Having to wait until you reflect on something is hard and having to think back
and correct something for next time, you have to remember as much as you can. Reflection-in-action
is harder to achieve but is more powerful as you are in the moment and you have
to multi-task technically, think on the spot and change it, you have to go with
your gut feeling and take the risk.
On-line and Off-line
Robert Kottcamp also introduced the idea of
reflection-in-action to ‘on-line’ and reflection-on-action to ‘off-line.’ He
also believed that on-line was much harder accomplished and had a bigger effect.
Reflection-on-action/off-line is slightly like an afterthought and you are
looking back on what happened.
For a dancer it would be extremely hard to wait until the
evening or the following day to correct their steps they did yesterday, having
to remember what you did before and how to improve it. Another valid point
would be a dancer choreographing her own dance is a sole collector which means
it is her own work and it is her personal opinion what steps she likes and what
steps she puts into her dance, it is her choice and is her own person opinion
weather she likes her dance or not. Everyone else would have their own opinions
and like different sections or not like the style of dance maybe. When dancing
and reflecting-in-action also brings us to tacit knowledge, which is expressing
what you feel without speaking and showing it with your body, it is in your
choreography.
Tacit Knowledge and Muscle Memory
Tacit knowledge is having an understanding of the
importance of using natural instinct and trusting your own beliefs in the art
form, different types of artists use this in their work weather or
choreographing or not. Another peculiar feeling for a dancer is muscle memory,
it is natural instinct to put our body in that position or remembering a sequence
of steps. We don’t think about it, it just happens. I remember being at
college, I was constantly relied on to remember routines or dances as that was
one of my stronger abilities, but I always use to panic and my mind would be
blank, but as soon as the music came on somehow it would all come flooding back
to me and my body would natural remember it, but if you had asked me to explain
the steps to you, I would of found it impossible. Everything we know and feel
is through using our bodies, ears, eyes, brain, muscles it is the framework or
our world.
Muscle memory is an incredible tool to have, but after
researching more into I found out it cannot be some handle too. The saying
‘practice makes perfect’ is slightly true if you practice well then it is very
helpful, but if you keep practicing again and again when you are tired and keep
making the same mistakes your body starts to remember the mistakes and it
becomes a habit, practicing poorly is useless and does not help at all.
Journal Reflection
I have recently been writing in my journal and at first I
found it awkward and hard to come up with idea’s to write about, but gradually
I have come to grips with it. It is not just about writing what has happened to
you, but how you felt, would you do something differently, what if, planning
for an upcoming event, writing your own personally aims. Expressing your
emotions and feelings in a notebook is really rewarding and sometimes it is
nice to let off steam after a stressful day at work. Reflecting on a daily
basic has made me appreciate more and I actually have more of an understanding
as you actually reflect on what you learn so it has more of an effect on you, I
find I challenge myself more with small goals at the end of the week and I feel
I have been building on my own perception. After all reflection is just made up
of feelings, emotions, and decision making. I have also found my own personal
way of writing in my journal and not only using words to express and reflect
but writing in different colours, using capital letters where appropriate,
exclamation marks, images and little sketches in the corners even if they are
just little doodles they normally can explain the way I was feeling that day.
Another useful way of reflecting is working in a pair or
group which can lead to discussing and confronting each other. Hearing
different opinions is always good and can be a breath of fresh air which brings
new ideas. We are all different at the end of the day and maybe the way we read
and interpret something can be different to the way someone else would.
I was reading an interesting article about journal writing
and how we normally write in our diaries or journals in the evening when the
main events of our days have been and gone so our true emotion at the time has
faded. It is nearly impossible to be able write in your journal though-out the
day with the busy lives we live but if we could you would get our true
emotions, in the heat of the moment, when our emotions are at their highest
when we are most vulnerable. This also brings me to my final point of privacy
especially when writing in our journals, expressing our inner most thoughts and
things we wouldn’t dream of saying out loud has a large amount of danger to
hurting people around us. We cannot leave it in reach of others, or on the
other hand when writing in your journal think would you want a teacher, boss or
friends reading this, and if this did happen how would they react?
Conclusion
Over all learning from experience is something everybody
does in life, but you have to reflect and analyse what you have learnt and
making sure you learn from mistakes and also knowing your next step is
important. We should always be learning something new in life weather it is in
your career subject or everyday life.
No comments:
Post a Comment