Collaborative Reflection through Sharing Significant Incidents

This chapter looks at the use of significant incidents in serving teachers’ own classrooms as a means of encouraging and developing reflective practice. The nature of the incidents is structured according to classifications suggested by the teachers. These include successful and unsuccessful teaching strategies, unusual pupil suggestions, pupil misconceptions, and other unanticipated events. After describing and analysing the incidents the teachers’ reflections were shared in group sessions with other teachers and with a university tutor. This then becomes a second level of reflection where the teacher’s analysis and own reflections of an incident are themselves subjected to discussion with all the members of the group. This leads to a form of collaborative reflection during which not only the individual gains further insights but all members of the group gain a mutual benefit from each other’s experiences. Great mutual trust is required for this kind of sharing but it is argued that this form of collaborative reflection can be a more powerful means of learning than more individualised and introspective modes and can lead to more refined and critical reflection on the part of the teachers. The chapter provides examples of significant incidents described by the teachers, their own analyses and reflections, subsequent group discussions and the insights arising from them, and finally the thoughts of some of the teachers on the whole process.