ED370156 EA025007

 

Title: Reflective Practice for Educators: Improving Schooling through Professional Development.
Author(s): Osterman, Karen F.; Kottkamp, Robert B.
Pages: 219
Publication Date: February 1993
ISBN: 0-8039-6047-6
Available from: EDRS Price MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.
Availability: Corwin Press, Inc., 2455 Teller Road, Newbury Park CA 91320 ($20 paperback--ISBN-0-8039-6047-6; $40 hardcover--ISBN-0-8039-6046-8).
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Guides--Non-classroom (055)
Geographic Source: U.S.; California
Journal Announcement: RIEOCT1994
Target Audience: Practitioners

This book, by two university professors in a professional preparation program, is intended as a conceptually based practical guide to reflective practice for educators at all levels. The first of the book's 8 chapters explores the rationale for reflective practice, a professional-development strategy aimed at behavioral change, and explains how reflective practice facilitates both individual and organizational change. Chapter 2 contrasts the beliefs, assumptions, and strategies of reflective practice with traditional approaches and shows how reflective practice works within the tradition of experiential learning. Chapters 3 and 4 offer general guidelines for engaging in reflective practice. Chapter 3 treats the facilitator's role in establishing an outlines various methods of creating or recreating important aspects of professional practice to help identify the personal action theories that shape behavior. The next three chapters describe reflective practice in action, highlighting the professors' work (1) with graduate courses on reflective practice; (2) on a project involving New York City school principals; and (3) with a Long on reflective practice; (2) on a project involving New York City school principals; and (3) with a Long Island experiment studying reflective conversation among superintendents and other administrators. The final chapter
examines effects and lasting benefits, identifies key aspects, and discusses reflective practice as an empowering, motivational force for change. Included are a subject index and a bibliography of 102 references. (MLH)

Descriptors: *Behavior Change; Change Agents; *Change Strategies; *Educational Change; Elementary Secondary Education; Experiential Learning; Higher Education; *Management Development; *Models; *Professional Development; Supervision; Theory Practice Relationship
Identifiers: Facilitators; *Reflective Practice