John Dewey Throw-Back

     Hi readers. Just a quick post this week -- sorry (I'm a bit under the weather and not at my blogging-best!).
     Remember all that John Dewey you had to read as a undergrad education major? Well I stumbled upon some wise words from the father of progressive education just the other day on -- of all places! -- Facebook. I think I first saw the quote on Edutopia, a Facebook page that I "like" due to some interesting education blogs they sometimes post. Imagine my delight as I came across the following quote while scrolling through recent status updates:

"We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience."

~John Dewey

     Teachers, surely we can relate. We can have those wonderfully magic days in our classrooms where every objective is met smoothly by smiling students, every minute is well-paced. But, is it really just that 50 minute experience, the in-the-moment of teaching that lesson, that we learn from? Or does our learning truly come when we take the time to be reflective practitioners, when we sit down after teaching that lesson and reflect upon just what made it all work so well, and how can we replicate this magic in the future? The same can be said for those wonderfully horrid lessons -- if we take the time to reflect, these can also be excellent learning opportunities.

     But this doesn't stop with the teachers. Students should also learn from reflecting on experience. Of course, the first step has to be (as I wrote about in my previous post) making sure that the students are the ones doing the work and having the learning experiences in your classroom. But, as Mr. Dewey reminds us, the next step is equally -- if not more -- important. We must provide our students with opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences. Students must also engage in metacognitive practices, and, in order to do so effectively, must be taught how to be self-reflective about their work in the classroom.

     There's lots of ways to help students engage in thinking about their own thinking and about their own learning. Interested, and teach in my district? Then give me a shout and we can work together on building more opportunities for students to reflect!