Stories as mirrors: reflective practice in teaching and learning

Abstract

This paper illustrates how learners who tell THEIR stories can enhance their learning. Two educational contexts were compared to illustrate different forms of reflective practices. From Israel, first‐year students in a teacher training college who were training to become English teachers participating in an ‘Introduction to Education’ course, were contrasted with candidates undertaking a practice‐based professional doctorate programme in the United Kingdom. Data were collected from observations and the analysis of linguistic autobiographies, personal diaries, reflective journals, narrative accounts and research diaries. Evidence from narrative accounts of students and teachers showed how they can improve the capability to learn and construct meanings from their own life experiences. The use of research diaries on the two professional doctorate programmes showed how candidates collect, and analyse, their daily work as insider researchers. Our conclusions are that these tools represent an ever‐increasing, but low resource consumption, educative device and they extend reflective learning beyond individuals to the wider group of learners.