ABSTRACT

Reflection on practice is at the core of professional development. Education professionals attend courses and they accept different responsibilities in their constantly changing roles, but these developmental activities do not necessarily demonstrate the type of reflection in which they engage. Geoff, who supports children with challenging behaviour, has obviously engaged in some reflection and recognised that he has some difficulty in managing behaviour when the teacher is not present. His reflection might be very superficial, or it might be in great depth. The person involved might have considered some different solutions; tried and evaluated some alternative approaches; he might have sought help from others. The fact that the teaching assistant has communicated a problem does not necessarily convey the level of reflection in which he has engaged. In this chapter, I will describe some aspects of my own development as a reflective practitioner and provide some examples of reflective events from a range of professional situations to raise awareness of some specific issues

1 C H A P T E R

related to behaviour management. I will also discuss the nature of reflexivity and its relationship to reflective practice and clarify the meaning of these important terms.