ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a look inside a primary school classroom. Charlotte, a newly qualified teacher, is about to finish her lesson with her class of 30 Year 5 children. It is through reflecting on her practice that Charlotte is able to learn from it. This particular practice incident allows us to begin to establish a vocabulary that teachers, as educators, might use when trying to talk meaningfully to each other about the nature and purposes of reflective practice. Becoming a teacher and continuing your professional development thereafter is a challenging and complex business. Arguably, reflecting-on-practice is an essential part of this process. So, in this chapter there are a number of general principles that serve to characterize the practices of reflection. Also, at the heart of this process is the reflective conversation. This chapter sets out the characteristics of what might usefully be regarded as a truly reflective conversation, how it might be developed and nourished, and some of the things to be mindful of when engaging in conversations of this kind.
