Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / This dissertation investigated the the practice of self-reflection by primary school teachers in the Mankweng Circuit, Capricorn District. The aim of the research was to investigate the practice of self-reflection by primary school teachers, in order to suggest and encourage them to use reflective models that will help them improve their practice. The literature revealed that the use reflective models can help teachers to realize their mistakes and improve their practice. Furthermore, the literature revealed that if teachers are exposed to multiple reflective models, they will be able to choose the best model that is appropriate to their practice. The study also focused on the theory of Henderson‟s Ethical Model on Enquiry on Reflective Practice. The theory discusses what characterizes reflective practitioner. This theory explains that reflective teachers are experts who know their subject matter and are able to teach it well. This study was conducted in order to gain a greater insight and comprehensive understanding of the research problem, that is, Self-reflection is expected to all teachers but is seldom enforced. In policy documents, self-reflection is stipulated but there are no formalised templates that guide, monitor and evaluate how teachers reflect on their own practice. This may also result in teachers not reflecting on their work at all and not regarding self-reflection as part of the teaching process; and treat it as a separate issue. The methodology used in this study was qualitative approach. Phenomenological research design was adopted; and in terms of data collection tools, open-ended questionnaires and interviews were used. The findings of this study revealed that teachers in primary schools of Mankweng Circuit do not reflect on their practice because of the heavy work-load that they have. The study further revealed that teachers must be trained to use reflective models to improve their practice. Lastly, the study has recommended a new reflective model for a rural primary school context. The model is titled Big four reflective model: critical thinker; resource allocator, problem solver and practice developer. The model is recommended to be used in teaching in primary schools.

This qualitative study focused on the development of reflective practice with preservice teachers through a framework during an early field experience. The framework provided an explicit structure for the preservice teachers to investigate four focus areas (teachers role, active learning, culture, and assessment). The preservice teachers explored a focus area, dialogued via e-mail with a peer, and then discussed their findings in small groups. The preservice teachers were given a pre and post survey that queried them about their beliefs related to the four focus areas and the concept of reflection. Content analysis of the explanatory statements on the survey, dialogue e-mails and written reflections after small group discussions, and focus group interviews guided a systematic examination of the data. The dialogue e-mails and written reflections were also analyzed using a rubric for reflective levels. The survey results indicated that while a substantial number of preservice teachers maintained the same belief after experiencing the framework of inquiry into practice, an equal or greater number of preservice teachers changed. These preservice teachers became more student-focused as the semester progressed. They also became increasingly self-critical of their own teaching practices which led them to alternative approaches. Consequently, these preservice teachers were able to articulate their beliefs in the context of teaching. The structure of the framework provided opportunities for the preservice teachers to rehearse reflective practice; thus teacher educators have an explicit methodological model for developing reflective practitioners. Moreover, the preservice teachers indicated that the framework increased self-monitoring which facilitated analysis of their teaching. The preservice teachers documented flexibility in reference to instruction to meet the needs of their students. Finally, this study indicates that beliefs may be more fluid than originally thought, but restructuring reflective assignments in preservice teacher programs to include an authentic audience is an important component of developing reflective practice. Additionally, restructuring teacher education to include opportunities in which preservice teachers investigate specific focus areas linked to course requirements may be an additional path to bridge the gap that preservice teachers believe exists between the university and school realities.

Three dimensional (3-D) seismic reflection surveying is accepted as the preferred method for imaging complex geology for proving and developing commercial oil and gas fields. However, the cost of 3-D seismic recording and processing is substantial and often can be as expensive as the cost of production drilling. This is particularly the case for land oil field development, where the cost of 3-D surveying is often unacceptably high. Such high costs also restrict its application in coal exploration, where 2-D seismic methods have long been accepted.During the early 1980's, a low fold technique for recording land 3-D data was devised which offered significant cost savings. The technique was adapted by the author for land 3-D surveying over coal fields. Inherent in the technique was a requirement that the data must have a high signal-to-noise ratio, which is not generally the case in land surveying due to the presence of strong source generated surface wave noise. A further major impediment to the technique was its inability to perform an acceptable stacking velocity analysis because of the low number of seismic traces generated. This thesis defines three data collection and processing advancements in low fold 3-D technology which go some way towards resolving these impediments.The first advancement is a method to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the stacked seismic data, and consists of a Radon-based transform which stacks shot domain data along a curved trajectory, thereby attenuating surface waves on swath recorded data. This transform is termed the 'Radial Transform' of 3-D data.The second advancement is a statics method to improve the stacked image from a low number of input traces. The method uses the concept that if both the reflected and refracted waves pass through a weathering layer with very similar travel paths, then static corrections to remove the ++ / effects of weathering variations on the refraction travel times would be very similar to those required for the reflections. This method, which was patented, is used equally for both 2-D and 3-D field data, and is regularly used in high resolution seismic processing for coal at Curtin University.The third advancement resolves the problem of azimuthal variation of stacking velocities. By predicting the true reflector dip and its azimuth, apparent dip can be included in the normal moveout equation, which is named the Generalized Moveout equation. The requirement for an azimuthally dependent stacking velocity is then no longer an impediment in low fold 3-D processing of coal data.After developing these transforms and applying them to synthetic data, they were tested with success on modelled field data. All field data used within this thesis were either recorded in the field by the author, or were produced with a physical modelling system, which was built by the author at the University of Houston and later at Curtin University.Results indicate that the procedures described in this thesis enable the low fold 3-D technique to be used as a viable method for recording seismic data when survey economics are a major issue. Furthermore, all three advancements are suitable for application in conventional two dimensional (2-D) and swath seismic surveying.

This thesis critiques the role that reflection plays in leading teacher professional development. It critically explores the reflective processes that five Advanced Skills Teachers use to create meaning for their practice and to direct their professional learning. The research inquired into how this activity has contributed to their ongoing professional growth by connecting important learning events of the past, to decisions made and action taken when dealing with current problematic curriculum issues. This is relevant as the research was set within Brisbane Catholic Education during a time of system initiated curriculum reform. The theoretical framework for the research was primarily underpinned by critical social theory. It was also guided by an interpretative philosophy, In order to give some consideration to the personal dimension of experience. A case study approach was adopted as it promoted collaborative inquiry. This offered scope and flexibility to extrapolate and to critically explore the embedded values and thinking that underscored the teachers' decisions and actions. Most data were collected through a number of ongoing semistructured and open-ended interviews. The emergent design for the research allowed for systematic, yet flexible and ongoing data collection, analysis and participant feedback. Other supporting data included folio documentation, artefacts, an inquiry project summary sheet and a research diary. The research concluded that reflection plays an important role in enabling teachers to accept moral and professional responsibility for their own personal and professional development. However, this research has attested that there is no single model of what it means to be a reflective practitioner. Reflective practice and teacher professional development are highly idiosyncratic, complex and multi-dimensional phenomena that are clearly influenced by the interplay of a wide range of personal and contextual factors. The research revealed that teachers utilise a variety of reflective forms and processes, through various modes, to serve context specific interests. It also concluded that it was the teacher's explicit awareness of the critical intent behind thinking and subsequent action that appeared to be important to professional growth. This intent was consistently framed around each teacher's moral commitment of care and responsibility to the students as persons and learners. It became the most salient impetus behind professional deliberations and generative efforts to improve practice. Emotion tended to playa powerful, mediating role in this process. Moreover, reflection on the cognitive, affective and social dimensions of knowledge appeared to enable the teachers to consider the values• and ideals that underscored decisions and subsequent actions. The research concluded that reflection involves highly interactive cognitive and sensory processes that enable the teacher to connect with the self, with the students and with others in and beyond the school community. Reflective activity also seemed to enable the teachers to consider the consequences of dealing or not dealing with system initiated curriculum reforms, from the perspective of the students' best interests. The research revealed how the current emphasis on curriculum reform has influenced efforts to create a more holistic curriculum that gives attention to the person of the student. The modelling of reflective processes and the negotiation of aspects of the curriculum with the students provided worthwhile opportunities for these teachers, as well as their students, to articulate assumptions that underscored decisions and actions. The engagement in introspective self-dialogue, social reflection and reflective collaboration with peers and students appeared to enhance personal and professional development. This research also concluded that• administrative recognition and tangible support at the personal, school and system level provided conditions that were conducive to ongoing teacher renewal and development.

This thesis explores the process of an annual appraisal strategy, ‘clinical conversation’, from the perspective of seven nurses who were assessed using this technique. The findings demonstrate that clinical conversation is a strategy which facilitates reflection, both as a solitary exercise and with others, to ensure that learning from experience is optimized. The research used a qualitative interpretive approach informed by the model of Grounded Theory espoused by Strauss and Corbin. All eight nurses who were assessed using the clinical conversation strategy were advanced practitioners working within the scope of sexual and reproductive health. Two of the actual appraisals were observed and seven of the nurses were interviewed within eight weeks of being assessed. The outcome of the clinical conversation was primarily one of learning; the acquisition of new insights into self as practitioner. The learning was facilitated through the process of narration; telling the story of clinical practice. Three distinct narrative cycles were identified, each an experiential learning episode. The experience of undertaking a variety of assessment activities created a narrative with self and triggered an internal reflective thinking process; the experience of working with a peer created an additional narrative, a mutual dialogue reflecting back on practice; the experience of sharing practice with an assessor created a further and final narrative, a learning conversation. Each narrative can be seen as a catalyst for change. Primarily, the nurses felt differently about themselves in practice, the way they saw themselves had shifted. Such a change can be described as an alteration in perspective. These alterations in perspective led all nurses to identify ways in which they would change their actual clinical practice. In this way the nurses attempted to align their espoused beliefs about practice with their actual practice. My study shows that each nurse responded differently to each narrative learning cycle: for some the conversation with the assessor was more of a catalyst for change than for others. In this way clinical conversation may be flexible enough to respond to a variety of differing learning styles. Learning was person specific which is an imperative for the continued professional development of already highly skilled clinicians. The implication of the research is that whilst clinical conversation was designed as a tool for appraising clinical competence, its intrinsic value lies in supporting the professional development of nurses.

This thesis examines the development of reflective skills. Reflection has been recognised as a prime mode of creating knowledge for project managers. Reflection literature indicates that reflective skills do not develop naturally; guidance, encouragement and facilitation is usually required for managers to reach their highest learning potential. Among the tools suggested to aid this development are written project journals. While there has been research on some aspects of journals, there was little found on the design of reflective journals relevant to developing project management reflection skills. This study has examined the effect or influence of various designs of reflective journals on different facets of reflective learning. The research question was: ????Are there facets of reflection that can be influenced by journal design????? Evidence for the study was first gathered through literature then from journal content and interviews. Literature on reflective learning revealed the facets relevant to the study: definition of reflection, consequences, emotions, temporal factors and individual and organisational culture. Issues identified in journal literature that needed to be applied to the study of reflection development included the journal audience, assessment and format. Participants in the study were final year undergraduates and Masters students who worked on industry based projects over several months. They were requested to keep journals for the duration of the projects, to submit them for examination and then asked to offer feedback on the various journal designs on completion of the projects. The research was conducted over four years, through seven projects, with thirty students taking part. The journal design went through six modifications. The primary findings from the study were: the majority of participants followed the predicted development hierarchy of reflective development; development of reflective skills is dependent on individual and organisational culture; audience does have an impact on reporting of and reflection on concerns; and journal design can facilitate development of some levels of reflection but has no influence on the development of critical reflection. / Masters by research thesis

Unravelling the Mystery is a qualitative case study that examines the teacher researcher's reflection-in-action as she teaches using process drama. The teacher-researcher taught a class of Year Seven students for a school year. She worked with the students using process drama from 2-5 hours per week. All sessions were recorded and transcribed as part of the reflective practice research. They were then examined to study how the teacher might use reflection-in-action. The data is written as a series of vignettes. The vignettes are used to illustrate reflection-in-action and as a basis for discussion and analysis. In the thesis the data from five of these sessions is presented as vignettes-these vignettes illustrating the teacher's reflection-in-action process. The analysis focuses on the reflection-in-action for the teacher. The vignettes and accompanying analysis for the basis for an illustrative model of the scope of the teacher' reflection-in-action as she works using process drama. The study addresses the following questions: · How might reflective practice inform my teaching? · How can I as a researcher describe and document my reflection-in-action when working as a teacher in process drama? · What is the scope of my reflection-in-action when working as the teacher in process drama? · How might an increased understanding of reflection-in-action be useful to teachers of process drama? These questions are considered in light of the analysis and literature review. The study concludes that reflective practice is valuable to enable teachers to develop their practice. It recommends that this type of research is beneficial to both develop models of practice and to improve the practice of individual practitioners.

During the past fifteen years there has been increasing interest in the role of reflection in professional development, especially amongst teacher educators. Yet although many preservice programs now place considerable emphasis on encouraging and assisting student teachers to reflect on their practice, reflection remaings a problematic notion. There is little consensus, for example, about what constitutes reflection, how it might be identified, and whether it can be promoted. This thesis reports a longitudinal study conducted over four years which explored the above issues within the context of an early childhood teacher education program, in Sydney (NSW), Australia. The specific purpose of this study was to investigate changes in student teachers' reflection on their professional development and practice during their enrolment in the Guided Practice component of their preservice program. A strength of this study is its focus on reflection as a multidimensional phenomenon involving far more than the processes of analytical thought typically addressed by most previous research in this area. Drawing on an eclectic range of literature, this thesis argues that emotion, imagination, intuition, and contemplation can also play an integral role. As such, it asserts that reflection can be seen, in effect, as a complex and holistic search for meaning. Conceptualising reflection in this holistic manner raises numerous methodological challenges. These challenges and the methodological decisions made in response to them are outlined prior to developing profiles of the participants' reflection. These profiles indicated that there was little consistent change in the reflection of eight of the 18 participants. For four student teachers, on the other hand, there was some change, while for six, there was considerable change. Several factors which appeared instrumental in hindering or promoting these student teachers' reflection are identified. These include commitment (or lack of) to teaching and to reflection; an epistemological perspective of received or constructed knowing; and the extent to which the learning environment was perceived as supportive. The study concludes with a discussion of some of the implications for teacher educators and for those intending to undertake further research into reflection.

This thesis explores the support of learning through reflection, in the context of medical students and practitioners, working through a series of simulated consultations involving the diagnosis and management of chronic illness. A model of the medical consultative process was defined, on which a web-based patient simulation was developed. This simulation can be accessed over the Internet using commonly available web-browsers. It enables users to interact with a virtual patient by taking a history, examining the patient, requesting and reviewing investigations, and choosing appropriate management strategies. The virtual patient can be reviewed over a number of consultations, and the patient outcome is dependant on the management strategy selected by the user. A second model was also developed, that adds a layer of reflection over the consultative process. While interacting with the virtual patient users are asked to formulate and test their hypotheses. Simple tools are included to encourage users to record their observations and thoughts for further learning, as well as providing links to web-based library resources. At the end of each consultation, users are asked to review their actions and indicate whether they think their actions were critical, relevant, or not relevant to the diagnosis and management of the patient in light of their current knowledge. Users also have the opportunity to compare their activity to their peers or an expert in the case under study. Three formal cycles of evaluation were undertaken during the design and development of the software. A number of clinicians were involved in the initial design to ensure there was an appropriate structure that matched clinical practice. Formative evaluation was conducted to review the usability of the application, and based on user feedback a number of changes were made to the user interface and structure of the application. A third, end user, evaluation was undertaken using a single case concerning the diagnosis and management of hypertriglyceridaemia in the context of Type 1B Glycogen Storage Disease. This evaluation involved ten medical students, five general practitioners and two specialists. The evaluation involved observation using a simplified think-aloud, as well as administration of a questionnaire. Users were engaged by the simulation, and were able to use the application with only a short period of training. Usability issues still exist with respect to the processing of natural language input, especially when asking questions of the virtual patient. Until such time that natural language recognition is able to provide satisfactory performance, alternative, list-based, methods of interaction will be required. Evaluation involving medical students, general practitioners, and specialist medical practitioners demonstrated that reflection can be supported and encouraged by providing appropriate tools, as well as by judiciously interrupting the consultative process and providing time for reflection to take place. Reflection could have been further enhanced if users had been educated on reflection as a learning modality prior to using SIMPRAC. Further work is also required to improve the simulation environment, improve the interfaces for supporting reflection, and further define the benefits of using this approach for medical education and professional development with respect to learning outcomes and behavioural change.

Research into learner autonomy has confirmed the importance of learner competencies such as effective strategy use, goal setting and planning, maintaining motivation, and the ability to reflect and self-evaluate to the development of autonomy. The introduction of key competency frameworks to develop learner autonomy has been a focus of recent curriculum development from primary through to tertiary levels in the New Zealand education system. However, facilitating and managing the development of these learning competencies in a programme of study that has a number of different papers and staff, can be problematic. The learning portfolio is emerging as a possible medium to provide the required framework. This study investigated the effectiveness of an ePortolio in enhancing learner autonomy in the context of a language learning programme. The aim of this study was to gain insight from a student perspective into the usfulness of ePortfolios as a tool to enhance student learning. Investigating learner autonomy and the development of self-reflection resulting from the use of ePortfolios was the main focus of the study. It also examined some of the practicalities of using an ePortfolio to develop the desired learner competencies, and discussed whether an ePortfolio provides an effective framework to record, monitor and provide feedback to students. The results of the study reinforce the findings of previous studies in that there are benefits of ePortfolios as they encourage reflection. ePortfolios also have the potential to support the reflective process by making learning outcomes visible and they promote goal-setting. However, despite these apparent benefits, the findings suggest that there are many challenges, which have the potential to negatively influence its effectiveness. The ePortfolio in this study was used with varying degrees of success. The findings have raised several issues regarding the introduction of an ePortfolio. The time it takes for teachers to give individual feedback and maintain an adequate level of feedback throughout the semester was one major challenge. The extent to which learners need to be trained in the purpose of the ePortfolio and its link to reflection and developing autonomy was another issue that was raised. In addition, getting students to reflect on their learning holistically also proved to be problematic. Overall however, findings as to the effectiveness of the ePortfolio in promoting autonomous learning appear promising, but they have highlighted the need to make changes to the ePortfolio itself. Its integration into the curriculum needs to be reconsidered to maximize its use and gain maximum benefit.