INSIGHT TO REFLECTION STRATEGIES

REFLECTIONS TYPES IN CLASSROOMS

Reflection is the heart of learning.  It is well understood that until the brain recalls and reviews the learnt fact, actual process of thinking and learning does not happen.   How does reflection generally happen?

• Can you reflect on what we have learnt?
• Can you recall on the aspects we have gone through?
• What do you think about this process?
• Design your own idea about the procedures we have reviewed?

These are some of the questions routinely asked to go through the level of learning that has happened inside the classroom.  Uniform learning is scientifically proven false, so is the uniform input of subject concept in classrooms.  Then, how can reflection be adapted to encompass all the non-uniformity inside our classrooms?

Design of reflection strategies based on the students, the lesson and the teacher is very important to achieve its projected outcome or MLLs (minimum learning levels).  Design of varied strategies within classroom space will be both personnel and time constraint philosophy.  Hence, reflection strategies must be based on the environment which is easily adaptable and accountable for most learners.  This includes catering to the types of learners – auditory, visual and kinaesthetic within the classroom conditions.  The lesson or the concept flow need to be taken into consideration while designing the reflection process.  The lesson or concept can be interlinked to any other aid which was previously taught or seen.  The general flow can be as follows.

There are various reflection strategies which are compatible for various lessons.  A pattern of its adaptability can be derived from the given table below.

Some common reflection techniques that can be used based on the subject under consideration:

• Picture based analysis

a.       What does this picture depict?

b.      What inference do you get from the given picture?

c.       Write a story based on the given picture?

d.      Observe and critically review the artistic, cultural and geographical elements of the picture.

e.      How does this picture stand different from the process or culture followed today?

f.        What does this picture tell about the society of the period under consideration?

• Projects

a.       Hypothetical statements and their validity

b.      Questionnaire and their analytical results

c.       Statistical analysis of business data and communication

d.      Society, development and its impact on environment

e.      Scope for socio-economic development of the region

f.        Industrialisation and effect on nature

3.      

• Technical 

a.       Social media Collaboration – Comments on updates, image, video or discussions

b.      Online testing and analysis

c.       Presentations

d.      Classroom Response systems

e.      School podcasts and video channels

f.        Extensions to design and building in technology.

Understandably, teacher recognition of all possible strategies and its implementation will consume a lot of positive engagement from them.  However, planning with proper scheme will benefit learner with positive learning.  Reflection when merely reduced to ‘class tests’ provide no scope for challenge or engagement.  This results in monotony and redundancy in student tendencies towards learning.  Reflection should show case the actual priorities for the application of the learnt.  Mere question and answer type of reflection may be beneficial to a select few, leaving a large gap in the learning outcomes. 

Reflection is not only for reiterating the learnt but also to provide thinking cues to extend the topic for further learning.  Reflection when designed with the right insight kindles interest and ability to extrapolate it to career building skills.   21^st century skill building is more to focus on reflection strategies than the classroom delivery process to build a future ready citizen of the globe.

LEARNING THE JINGLE WAY….

Music soothes heart.

Rhythm provides practice.

To memorize your facts,

And steer your tracks.

Memory is considered a gift in disguise. Though focus of education has shifted from knowledge to skills.  The significant of value of remembering does not change.  Appreciation of all forms reach only to those who can recall and remember.  New terminologies become ‘tongue twisters’ for youngsters in the early stages of learning.  Training them to pronounce and remember spelling is an uphill task for the teacher to achieve.  ‘Jingles’ provide scope for such training.  Understanding that earth is a combination of many spheres can be diagrammatically and poetically represented as follows.

“EARTH – a sphere

Land in it, is lithosphere

Water on it, is hydrosphere

Air around it, is atmosphere

When we all live - its Biosphere”

Tapping makes people happy

Music and dance are form of expressions which gives emotional connection to learning.  It is well known fact that engaging or interesting facts are not easily forgotten.  Similarly, when emotions are associated with learning, it is rarely erased.  Institutions come across many types of differentiation among its learners and teachers. The mode of learning and the learning styles, though not always a constant shows the variation among the learners.  Among teachers, the differentiation is the ability of some to take up the ‘dull’ subjects and change it to ‘entertaining visuals’ while some take up ‘most disturbing’ segment of students to convert them to ‘most obedient’ mates.  The key aspect behind such conversions are ‘strong emotional bonds’ created when learning happens both for the learner and the teacher. When educationists can cater to this part of emotion, learning shows a positive influence.

Many testimonials have shown that music enhance learning.  Clarity of sound, words and rhythm develops with music.  Jingles help develop such aesthetic sense among the students. A well-known jingle of conjunction is an example for this

Conjunctions: 

Rhythmic text goes long way in building a healthy brain.  Text when converted to such brilliant strokes it makes learning memorable. ‘Schoolhouse Rock’s’ adverbs is another of such rhythmic development of learning

  Adverbs:

Mathematics has some of the most confusing terminologies.  Reinforcement and repeating of the concept helps build a concrete understanding of the most basic facts.  Fractions here shows the way.

Fractions:

Creating such jingles can also be promoted in a classroom.  It can be done by the teacher or by an interested student for the benefit of others.  Such work when appreciated provides scope for developing such skills further.  Most often, concepts are presented from different perspectives. Journey of a river, is presented as interesting experiences by many writers and poets, from the language perspective, example ‘River of Life’ by Thomas Campbell compares the flow of river with the stages of life.  This is literature perspective, however, when the concentration is towards developing terminologies the same concept of river can be changed with some amount of literary aspects.

Journey of a River – Geographical terminology perspective.

“River, river! You are clever

Straight from a source,

Moving down the slopes,

Waterfalls and streams,

Making your way green,

Down in the plains,

Meandering the fields,

Tribute and distribute,

Along the state,

Alluvial to the delta,

Settling at mouth agate.”

Note: Word ‘agate’ signifies the ‘healing property which brings balance to a tempered soul’.

The philosophy of learning has taken a shift in its approach towards ‘lifelong learning’.  To acquire immense knowledge and develop capacity to learn is to be tuned towards individual abilities and capabilities.  Conceptual understanding is hyped in classroom when process and procedures are set as routines.  Plain sentences seldom draw the students towards learning.  Knowing pretty well, the attention span among learners is not always a constant, it becomes difficult to achieve the goal of learning the concept.

New ways have always interested educationist, however, old ways of singing while teaching has reached a stage of fossilization.   Jingles and Rhymes still steal the hearts of children, proof of such an ability can be seen when some of the advertisement jingles are famous than the product themselves. Good Jingles go a long way in memory retention.  However, rocking music for lessons is still a distant dream.  Developing good jingles  can be a way to achieve a ‘learning generation’.

DESIGNING REAL TIME PROJECTS FOR CLASSROOMS

Our surroundings to work

Skills and projects are connected


The top 10 skills required to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution as given by World economic forum are Creative, critical thinking, complex problem solving, people management, emotional intelligence, negotiation and decision making, adaptability and agility. 

Skill set for the future jobs

Developing these skills have taken top priority in almost all educational systems.  However, it has now become utmost important to consider two sides of a coin – i.e., expecting skill development along sustainable education.  To promote such versatile thought process among youngsters they are to be provided with a first-hand experience of what happens in their surroundings.  Projects manifest certain reality in the work done.  Projects selections are not that which are designed by education boards but those which are engaging and experienced in the world around them.  Real time projects are the one which is to be sought after.  Real time projects cannot be fixed by mentors or boards who situate themselves at remote locations.  They have to be locality based or even their existing community based.  After all it is these communities that lead towards nation building. 

Developing projects for classrooms is a systematic process.

Project process flow

Step 1: Identify the problem: Problem statement

The locality of a region is covered with many issues starting from removal of wastes to labelling of plants to traffic congestion.  The selection of issues is to be individual based.  These issues will be brought to the classroom and students allowed to substantiate and debate the reason for their selection of the problem statement. This allows the ‘Guide’ to group the ‘like thought’ students.

Skills targeted:  Critical thinking, creativity and Negotiation

Step 2: Developing a hypothesis

Students within their groups are allowed to brainstorm and bring out ‘what they feel’ are most suitable reasons for the problem at hand or simply the problem statement.  The thought process of various reasons for the above said problem is then finalised to statements which requires further inquiry.

Skills targeted: Critical thinking, Negotiation, People management, Emotional intelligence

Step 3: Design methodology for collection of data

Based on the hypothesis concluded students are allowed to research and work for their sample data collection. The collection can be questionnaire, experiment or research based on the directions of the thought process in the hypothesis.  The collected data is then to be analysed for cumulative meaning for the hypothesis set.  In case, the data does not match any of the hypothetical statement then students are provided scope for rework on the hypothesis based on the sample data and then proceed with Step 3.

Skills targeted: People management, Self-awareness, Coordinating with others, Stress management, Mistakes management

Step 4: Analyse and Decide

The final data collected from various sources are analysed on the finalized hypothesis. The validity of the data is decided based on various indices as indicated during discussions from the hypothesis.   The represented data provides scope for prediction of the past, present and future of the problem statement under consideration.  The entire process is now documented for the final action plan.

Skills targeted: Complex problem solving, Risk taking, Judgement and decision making, Documentation.

Step 5: Action plan

The predictability of the data provides students to devise an action plan which will further help them monitor and regulate the crisis that has arisen from the problem statement after data analysis.  This stage also allows students to search for global alternatives for the selected problem. 

Skills targeted: Cognitive flexibility, Critical and creative thinking, Complex problem solving.

The entire process of the projects will allow students to

Classroom process flow

Some typical topics for classroom projects

Type	Social	Political	Environmental	Economical
Topics	1.       Community Health 2.       Services 3.       Population statistics 4.       Culture & Tradition 5.       Festivals & Celebrations 6.       Poverty and hunger 7.       Gender biases 8.       Equality and Equity	1.       Elections 2.       Constitution 3.       Governance 4.       E-Governance 5.       Town/Village/City administration 6.       Judicial institutions and functioning 7.       Corruption and its causes	1.       Water management 2.       Waste management 3.       Pollution watch 4.       Greenery cover 5.       Eco friendly processes 6.       Climate 7.       Well being	1.       Responsible consumption 2.       Sales and Marketing 3.       Banking 4.       Profit and loss 5.       Occupation and growth 6.       Sustainable growth 7.       Trade and Sensex

The topics given are in a broader perspective.  Selection of one instance of the topics allows the students to ponder in the right direction.  Bringing up a global citizen is merely not about ‘successful people’ but more about ‘responsible and self-aware individuals’.  Education equation today brings in more technology which provides scope for versatile knowledge and indicative awareness about various topics. 

It becomes more of a teacher to ‘guide’ their students towards the right line of work.  I would say that 21^st century education is more about ‘searching, coordinating and streamlining’ rather than about ‘providing knowledge’.  ‘Right’ and the ‘Wrong’ are individual responsibilities and choices, hence education should show both sides for the student to judge and decide their stand.  Real time projects provide such scope to a large extent.