Entrance Slip 1

    Despite the article being several decades old, there are many aspects that speak to me as a new teacher candidate in 2023. In my previous work experience as a science educator I often found that taking time to reflect on what I had taught and how I handled particular situations was very helpful for improving the experience of students and my own abilities. This article does an excellent job of taking that experience, putting it into words, and breaking it down. Furthermore, identifying the three pre requisite attitudes for reflective action has helped me understand how I can continue to build a foundation for my goals as an educator. 

    These are excellent ideals to aspire to, but I do have concerns that they may not be entirely possible or realistic. These concerns are technically addressed in the article, but I have some questions about the authors responses. For example, in the section regarding the possibility of taking time to reflect, the authors point out that reflection does not "need to take place within the classroom to have an impact on classroom practice". This is true, and it may have been possible at the time this paper was written, but as the years have passed, classroom sizes have become larger, leaving educators with a higher workload and fewer resources to accomplish these goals. This kind of mentality could lead a teacher towards burnout early in their career, which is not ideal. Despite the fact that I know it would be difficult to perfectly attain these ideals, I still believe that it is possible to use them to continually improve. As I gain more experience in the classroom and more years of practice, I can slowly but surely use these ideals for improvement and reflection. Fortunately the authors gave advice for beginning the reflective journey before teaching by considering my own predispositions about teaching. This is exactly the place that I intend to start.

    Finally, I also found the last few sections of the article to be particularly helpful. The authors delve into aspects of the practicum and student teacher experience that I never even considered. For example, asking why the teacher if they could explain their particular time, space, organization and instruction methods. This, alongside the concept of asking myself what alternatives could be considered will be valuable questions for my own evaluation of my practicum experience, and what I ultimately take away from it.