ID of Student: G00369847

Article/Reading: Stephen Brookfield – Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher

(Brookfield, 2017).

1. CONCISE SUMMARY OF READING

The following tutorial paper will concisely summarise the main conclusions drawn from chapters one and two
of Stephen Brookfield’s book, Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. The main aim and goals of the book is
to provide its readers with a sense of knowledge and understanding, on what it means to become a critically
reflective teacher, and how as educators we can adapt to become critically reflective. Brookfield (2017, p. 2)
states that as teachers we ‘read poor evaluations of our teaching and immediately conclude that we’re hopeless
failures’. Brookfield continues to explain and sets the scene in the following chapters of the book, exploring
how educators can incorporate critical reflection to aid accurate evaluations of their teaching and learning,
informing future practice. According to Brookfield (2017, p. 2) ‘a critically reflective stance toward our
teaching helps us avoid these traps of demoralization and self-laceration’, ultimatley increasing ‘the chance that
we will survive in the classroom with enough energy and sense of purpose to have some real effect on those we
teach’ (Brookfield, 2017, p. 2). Brookfiled aims to provide assitance and guidance for educators, informing
them on how they can encourage and inspire their strudents.

In chapter one, Brookfield (2017, pp. 2-3) states that in order ‘to understand critical reflection properly, we need
first to know something about the reflective process in general’. Therefore, chapter one of the Brookfield book -
Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, explores the initial stages of reflection, which is the haunting of
induvial assumptions. Brookfield (2017, p. 2) explains that ‘assumptions are the taken for granted beliefs about
the world and our place within it that seems so obvious to us as not to need stating explicitly’. Throughout
chapter one Brookfield explores three different types of assumptions, paradigmatic, prescriptive, and casual.
Brookfield explores critical reflection as an illumination of power and provides examples of ways reflection can
be used to change and adopt educational processes. Brookfield explores the preferred classroom arrangements of
seating students in circles rather than rows, critically reflecting on the challenges of row arrangements and
improved successes with circle arrangements. Brookfield also reflects and explores the more desirable approach
of being a facilitator of the learning rather than teaching by traditional means, the transferring of knowledge.
Brookfield considers an educator that practices as a nondirective facilitator of learning, to be implementing the
“fly on the wall” approach, meaning that the teacher allows the students to take control of their learning but
remains present to aid and direct the students when necessary. Brookfield refers to the “perfect ten” syndrome
which also allows the students to take control of their learning evaluating the lessons and suggesting
improvements. Any evaluation that is less than perfect is of disproportionate significance and the students’
evaluations and opinions are therefore imbedded in the designing and modification of the lesson structures.
In chapter two, Brookfield (2017, p. 27) explores how the use of critical reflective practice can aid the ‘creation
of democratic classroom’s’ and aid ‘an engagement in critical conversation’. Therefore, throughout chapter two,
Brookfield communicates four critical reflective lenses which should be used to view our teaching from four
unique viewpoints. These viewpoints have been labelled as the four lenses and include the Autobiographies as
Learners and Teachers, Our Students’ Eyes, Our Colleagues’ Experiences, and fourthly an insight from
Theoretical literature.

Chapters One and Two of Brookfield’s book allows us to challenge our assumptions and place ourselves in a
position that we can ‘stand outside ourselves and see how some of our most deeply held values and beliefs lead
us into distorted and constrained ways of being’ (Brookfield, 2017, p. 28).

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2. CRITICAL REFLECTION

In reading chapter one and two of Stephen Brookfield’s - Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, I feel that
the author produces a good argument for the need of critical reflection and provides useful information on how
educators can imbed reflective practice during the designing of lesson content and delivery. I believe that
Brookfield provides a good argument for the need for critical reflective practice, because he mentions that we
are often subdued and contained by our own assumptions and are unable to witness or understand the need for
change within our individual pedagogy’s. For example, in a leaving certificate construction studies class,
teaching the topic of roof construction we may assume that the students are familiar of the various components
of the roof, simply because we ourselves are knowledgeable of the various roof components, but to over-come
this we need to challenge these assumptions to design out lessons, catering for the needs of the students,
providing effective teachings. Brookfield’s book documents the need for challenging our assumptions and the
need for analysing and reflecting on our teaching styles, methodologies, and pedagogy’s. The strengths of the
book comprise of the acknowledgement of the need for reflecting on the pedagogy’s but more importantly for
the adaption and explanation of practices, procedures and methods that can be implemented to over come our
own assumptions of our lessons. Brookfield provides several approaches that can be taken to ensure a
productive and fruitful learning environment is produced, including organised seating arrangements such as
circles rather than rows, teacher fulfilling the role as a “fly on the wall” and the “perfect ten” syndrome.

Brookfield provides his readers with some real thought-provoking scenarios and teaching techniques that can be
implemented in the classroom. Considering the “fly on the wall” teaching technique, Brookfield (2017, p. 11)
states that educators ‘will put students into groups, give only minimal instructions about what should happen,
and then retreat from the scene to let students work as they wish. However, this retreat is only partial’.
According to Kate McGilly (1996) ‘The best-known tenet of Dewey’s pedagogical crees (1897) is the concept
of “discovery learning”. It is argued that children learn best when discovering for themselves the “verities of
life”’. The following quotation supports Brookfield’s suggestion of placing students in working groups whilst
the teacher acts as a facilitator. Such teaching techniques provide a student-centred learning experience,
ultimately leading to an improved learning environment as the students collaborate and share ideas with one
another. I personally have experienced the benefits of collaborating and discussing ideas and options with peers
and family. Working part time in the family business has really helped me appreciate the value of
communication and discussion. In a business you try to conduct tasks as quickly and as productively as possible.
Often whilst reviewing and reflecting upon options for completing tasks, another person will suggest a method
that you perhaps may not have considered yourself. Brookfield (2017, p. 31) states that ‘the fact that people
recognise aspects of their own individual experiences in the stories others tell is one reason for the success of
peer support groups for those in crisis or transition’. Considering Brookfield’s statement, I feel that this
approach needs to be taken in the reflection of the delivering of teaching and learning within the classroom. This
can be done by transferring ideas and discussing with colleagues their inputs into the delivery and facilitating of
teaching and learning in their subject areas. Settles (2012, p. 4) states that ‘an active learning system is that it
eagerly develops and tests new hypotheses as part of a continuing, interactive learning process’.

In my opinion, a weakness of the book, is the quantity of text per page and its lack of the incorporation for the
Universal Design for Learning. Given that the article is a book, it can be forgiven for the large quantity of text,
but I feel the incorporation of images and info-graphs would support the text and aid an improved understanding
of the documented information. According to Ahead (2017), the UDL guidelines were developed by CAST, a
US organisation, and they are provided to explore ‘that all students learn differently and that to successfully
teach for all students, we have to introduce greater flexibility in to teaching and learning practice’. According to
CAST (2022), ‘Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and
learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn’. UDL consists of three elements,
Engagement – exploring affective networks (why of learning), Representation – exploring recognition networks
(what of learning), and Action & Expression – strategic networks (how of learning) (CAST, 2022). To make
Brookfield’s content UDL compliant, I feel that attention needs to be given to the element of representation,
focusing on how the content is delivered and displayed to the viewers. In my previous tutorial paper, reflecting
on the code of professional conduct for teachers, I used the following quotation that ‘a picture paints a thousand
words’ deriving from the original statement which states to ‘use a picture. It's worth a thousand words’ Arthur

© GMIT Letterfrack 2021-2022

 Brisbane, editor of the New York Evening Journal (Bouch, 2009). Considering the above quotation, I believe it
is also relevant to Brookfield’s book, and if the use of images and pictures were imbedded throughout the text, it
would adapt the use of the Universal Design for Learning, ultimately leading to an improvement of the readers
understanding of the content.

Brookfield (2017, p. 31) states that ‘we may think we're teaching according to widely accepted curricular or
pedagogic model, only to find on reflection, that the foundations of our practice had been laid in our
autobiographies as learners’. Brookfield clarifies the need for reflection and suggests in the above statement that
we base our actions and decisions on our previous experiences. According to Krapivnyk, et al (2021, p. 117)
‘reflection has been viewed as a powerful tool to understand the process of learning and teaching and to reframe
one’s practices. The teacher reflection has been considered a dominant activity for developing practical
knowledge and linking it with educational theories in teacher training programs’. The following quotation
supports Brookfield’s statement reinforcing the need for reflection, leading to an improved future version of a
past teaching experience or technique. In Chapter two Brookfield provides the readers with four critical
reflective lenses forming a process for effective critical reflection. Content such as the four lenses forming the
structured process for productive critical reflection is highly relevant to teachers and especially relevant to
student teachers. As a student teacher I personally have found the four lenses to be beneficial as we desire to
critically reflect and evaluate our classroom environments aiming to provide a productive teaching and learning
environment.

In conclusion I believe Stephen Brookfield’s book, ‘Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher’ is insightful and
helpful, providing its readers with suggestions and processes seeking to become improved reflective
practitioners.

3. LIST OF REFERENCES

Ahead. (2017, November 2). The UDL Framework Explained. Retrieved from Ahead: Creating
Inclusive Environments in Education and Employment for People with Disabilities:
https://www.ahead.ie/udl-framework

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

CAST. (2022, March 07). About Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from CAST:
https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

Krapivnyk, G., Tuchyna, N., Bashkir, O., Borysov, V., Gonchar, O., & Plakhtyeyeva, V. (2021).
Modelling the Process of Reflection in Pre-Service Teacher Education. Romanian Journal for
Multidimensional Education, 116-133.

McGilly, K. (1996). Integrating Cognitive Theory and Classroom Practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Settles, B. (2012). Active Learning. California: Morgan & Claypool Publishers .

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