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Teaching PhilosophyReflection and PraxisI guide much of the reflection in my pedagogy. It's a practice that I ask of my students on an on-going basis (at least once a week). It's meant to reinforce and compliment the other four components. Because it's important that my students think about what we are doing in explicit and public ways, all of our reflection activities are done publicly, that is, posted on the Internet, or used in class discussions. Usually I ask students to read some of their reflections to the class. My hope is that not only will they build a shared sense of understanding and struggle in the course, but they'll find profit in what others say and theorize the practices they are mutually engaged in. So like all of the other writing I ask of them, their reflections become public discourse that interrogates, questions, and celebrates. The main benefit I've found from making reflections public is how it can dramatically show students praxis - that is, a practical theorizing that stems from practices, which leads them back to theorizing. In fact, the most educative practice I've seen in our discipline and in my own experience as a teacher and writer is the ability to theorize. Reflection activities simply ask explicitly for my students to attempt to theorize what they are doing in their writing and assessments. When done in a public way, these individual instances of theorizing can be student-driven topics of discussion, and a discourse that problematizes, reveals connections among students' separate experiences of the course, and offers lessons. This is the epitome of praxis. This leads to a more critical stance that is social, positional, and theoretical. Select another link to read more about my teaching:
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