Reflective Practice in an Educational Setting: A Music Teacher's Journey

Question

Task: How does reflective practice contribute to the professional development of a music teacher in an educational setting?

Answer

Introduction

The term, “reflective practice” refers to the ability to reflect on the role performed or played by an individual in relation to optimizing further scopes of learning consistently. Precisely, it can be claimed that the “reflective practice” enables to ensure a continuous learning process. The key concept of reflective practice claims that it is closely related to the introspection derived from experience. In a nutshell, it can be derived that continuous learning is a strategic approach that often leads to optimizing overall experiences. On the other hand, experiences that are obtained over the period usually offer a strategic direction to ensure in-depth learning of an individual. In respect to this information, this report aims to reveal various significant aspects of reflective practices in support of my overall experience in an education setting in order to reflect on my further professional development opportunities.

Precisely, my experience as a professional music teacher in an educational setting will be evaluated in support of strategic reflective practices with an emphasis on my professional and personal learning scopes and further development opportunities by drafting an essential action plan. It is expected that this critical reflection on my role in the education setting will enable me to enhance my competencies in the coming days.

Rationale

In the beginning, it is highly essential to state that I am involved in performing my responsibilities as a professional music teacher in a British School in Abu Dhabi. I am very confident to deal with the professional hurdles that I use to experience on regular basis. This is to be included in this context that I have acquired adequate knowledge of music through exhaustive practices and proper studying on this subject over the period. My role as a music teacher in an esteemed international community school in Abu Dhabi has helped me to enhance my comprehensive ability because I need to deal with a good number of students on regular basis. The same practice has eventually enhanced my communication skill as well. Apart from that, I can address a significant upliftment in my leadership quality.

Apart from that, my involvement in this education setting has enabled me to reflect on the significance of active listening. Now, I am come to know that compassion with active listening helps in optimizing professional growth by enabling consistent competencies upliftment. In a nutshell, my experiences in this education setting have offered me an opportunity to initiate a “self-skills audit” to reflect on further competencies (i.e. both professional and personal) development scopes over the period strategically (Van Beverenet al. 2018).

Aims and Objectives

This report aims to reflect on the experiences that I have been still obtaining by getting professionally occupied as a proficient music teacherin the international community school (i.e. an eminent British School) in Abu Dhabi.

Objectives

• To understand various aspects of reflective practices applied in determining professional roles in the context of an educational setting

• To reflect on the essential competencies and necessary skills to ensure consistent growth in aprofessionalcareer.

• To draft a well-crafted strategic development plan to optimize a better career prospect in the education industry domain in the coming days.

Methodology

When it comes to reflecting upon the adopted methodology in initiating reflective practices, it is highly relevant to state that the term, “strategic reflective practice” refers to the use of detailedself-analysis aspects in optimizing proper comprehensiveness, multi-step evaluation, and effective interpretation ability of the events with an emphasis on the obtained experiences collectively (Brown et al. 2021). Precisely, it can be claimed that strategic reflective practice is indeed essential in evaluating my key strengths and significant weaknesses that have become evident when offering professional responsibilities in the educationalsetting of the international community schools in Abu Dhabi. Concerning to this context, I am going to apply the Gibbs reflective model in order to evaluate my key competencies along with my strengths and identified weaknesses with relevant details.

On the other hand, it is necessary to mention that further discussion of this reflective practice will be based on the information and key points such as realizations, experiences, leanings, etc. that have been acquired throughout my professional journey as addressed in a real-life educational setting (i.e. at international community school in Abu Dhabi). In addition to this context, it must be included that different elements of Gibbs' reflective model such as description, feelings, analysis, evaluation, conclusion, and action plan will explore various aspects of my professional journey and the same will strategically reflect on further potential development opportunities of my competencies over the period (Ardianet al. 2019).

Apart from that, a wide range of information obtained from secondary sources including scholarly articles, and journals will be enlisted to authenticate the overall relevancy of this reflective practice. Precisely, a rich source of relevant information obtained from reliable secondary sources will be included to support the facts and evidence that will be derived from this reflective practice based on my professional involvement in an educational setting.

Findings of literature review

In addition to this context, it is important to state that a reflective practice aims to shed light upon an overall understanding of my competencies both in the personal and professional spheres. Even, reflective practice is often followed by a multi-step evaluation to optimize a better understanding of the key contexts (Brown et al. 2021). Therefore, a strategic reflective practice is a well-designed concept that is applied to critically evaluate the areas of competencies in developing skills, expertise, etc. as the interlinked aspects of optimizing self-development (Sweet et al. 2019).

My professional involvement in the educational setting at one of the eminent international schools of Abu Dhabi as a proficient music teacher has claimed that my communication skill is excellent, apart from the great competencies that I possess in Music. My reflective observation on this point has unveiled that effective communication skill has smoothened the path of teaching music to the wide range of students with whom I tend to communicate on regular basis. In my opinion, both the students and the teachers are complementary to one another when it comes to considering learning. In this context, it is highly relevant to state that Kolb’s reflective practice is one of the strategic approaches in determining the self-reflection of an individual in a specific context such as " an educational setting" in support of proper critical analysis and thorough explanation (DunnGalvinet al. 2019).

Based on the information available in the secondary sources, it is now confirmed that Kolb's reflective practice comprises four interlinked approaches in initiating strategic critical reflection (Jarvis and Baloyi, 2020). Precisely, Kolb's reflective practice is generally referred to as the collective outcome of these four consecutive phases including concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation (Chan and Lee, 2021). In accordance with the concept defined in Kolb's reflective practice, the same can be referred to as an effective way of learning. I am helpful to my students and I am very compassionate with them. Over the period, I have realized that this practice has enabled me to understand my students and it has helped me to build better engagement with the students.

In this relevant, it is significant to state that reflective practice in support of critical evaluation enables an individual to have clarity of thoughts. The same is also applied to me as I too even become aware of the areas in which I must reflect and work hard to introduce a further improvement to my professional and personal spheres. Precisely, I must admit that I must hold on to my patience and I must learn how to increase patience because most of the time I need to attain the students who require consistent practice to develop good taste in music. As stated, reflective practice enables reflect upon further scopes of active experimentation by introducing consistent growth of competencies enhancement. In my opinion, reflective practice is a strategic way that enables to the design of work-life balance effectively.

The same has eventually empowered me to influence my leadership skills. In addition to this relevance, I must mention that leadership attributes and managerial skills are interlinked with each other. Proper reflection on the competencies that I have can strategically help me to enhance my mentoring skills as an integral part of managerial activities. Initially, I have already stated in this report that I tend to regularly attain a large number of students at the British School where I am professionally occupied in Abu Dhabi. It refers to the fact that my leadership attributes are indeed effective and I am efficient in people management. This is to be included in this context that I am sound in dealing with conflict management (if required) along with having great expertise in teaching Music to students. In a nutshell, I must state that a critical reflective practice enables active experimentation as mentioned, and the same help to reflect on the areas in which further improvement is needed to be introduced.

Based on my learning and understanding, critiquing on acquired experiences with proper explanation leads to self-realization and the same can be referred to as the most effective outcome of reflective practice (Van Beverenet al. 2018). In accordance with the in-depth critical reflection reflected throughout this report along with the information obtained from reliable sources, it can be derived that reflective practice often leads to optimizing further opportunities for Self-improvement eventually (Ardianet al. 2019). Apart from this, I must admit that reflective practice can strategically help me to address the areas that have caused certain cultural differences in my professional environment (i.e. educational setting) where I am involved in performing my responsibilities as a Music teacher. In my opinion, reflective practice is empowered to initiate a critical evaluation of the areas that are responsible to cause cultural differences.

On the other hand, it is expected that multi-step evaluation will strategically resolve significant cultural differences to some great extent and will enable me to grow cultural compatibility when working in a different nation that is far beyond my country. According to the information available in the secondary sources, it is now confirmed that the adoption of strategic reflective practice enables an individual to attain consistent competencies enhancement in optimizing personal and professional growth over the period (Sweet et al. 2019).In a nutshell, it is essential to mention that my overall experience as a proficient music teacher at the international school (i.e. British school) of Abu Dhabi is indeed satisfying. Even, this professional occupancy in an educational setting has offered me further scopes of self-enhancement through consistent learning and strategic implementation over the period.

Apart from this exhaustive critical reflection in accordance with Kolb’s reflective practice and in support of other wide ranges of reliable secondary sources such as Gibbs's reflective model, the next part of this report will unveil significant implications of this reflective practice with relevant details. The same will be critically evaluated based on my professional experiences in the educational setting of an international community school in Abu Dhabi in accordance with the concepts depicted in the Gibbs reflective model to ensure better understanding.

Conclusion and implications

In accordance with the in-depth critical reflection depicted throughout this report, it can be derived that reflective practice is a strategic way that enables an individual to emphasize on the areas of expertise. The same has also encouraged me to reflect on my professional involvement in the educational setting at the international school of Abu Dhabi where I have been offering my professional responsibilities as a music teacher. On the other hand, this reflective practice has also unveiled the areas that are needed to be enhanced in order to excel in my professional career based on the experiences that I have obtained when working in this educational setting. In order to ensure an effective understanding of this context, the implications are yet to be revealed in support of Gibbs' reflective model.

The implication of the reflective model using Gibbs's reflective model

Description

The description has revealed how effective I am as a music teacher and how confidently I am capable to perform my professional responsibilities in the educational setting.

Feeling

I feel highly motivated and encouraged to offer my responsibilities as a proficient music teacher in the educational setting where I am appointed to.

Evaluation

An in-depth evaluation of my competencies has exposed those areas to which further improvement is required to be introduced (Hariyati and Ungsianik, 2018).

Analysis

Proper analysis has helped me to learn how necessary upliftment can be introduced in order to excel in my professional career.

Conclusion

Gibbs' reflective model supports consistency in uplifting further enhancement wherever required as indicated in the action plan represented below.

Table 1: Action plan
(Source: created by the author).

Reference List

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