I think reflective practise is not so much something you learn but something you develop over time. There are definitely ways to train our mind to make sure we are getting the most out of our experiences and reflecting on them.
David Kolb’s cycle explains the different stages of experience we have. ‘Active Experimentation’, ‘Concrete Experience’, ‘Reflective Observation’ and ‘Abstract Conceptualisation’. Everyone will enter the cycle at a different stage when experiencing something new, but once we enter the cycle we will continue going round the cycle. When reading about Kolb’s cycle and Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s ‘stages’ it got me thinking about how much I do this in my life and career.
Everyone reflects after an experience, if someone asked you if you had a good or a bad day you would be able to tell them the answer without really thinking about it based on how you’re feeling after the days actions. This is a more subconscious form of reflecting though. ‘Reflective Observation’ as Kolb refers to it or Honey and Mumford’s ‘concluding from the experience’ I think requires more conscious reflection. Looking at the experience and seeing what went well what went wrong, what could be done to improve? At this point I start to question if too much reflection is counter-productive. I think it is innate in us to be the best we can and be perfectionists. No one can say they were truly happy to loose a race; you enter a race with the intent on winning it. For this reason I do think there’s a point when we stop reflecting in a constructive manner and it starts becoming destructive to us in other ways. To point out all our flaws time and time again is not a healthy way to be.
I realise this is an extreme view of reflective practise but I felt when reading about reflective practise not enough emphasis was put on the potential negative side, if any at all. I know that when promoting the merits you would not mention the negatives but I think in the industry we’re in it is important to recognise the fact that too much reflection can turn into self criticism. I have friends who have reflected on every class and every performance they do in such minute detail that the strive for perfection takes over their lives. Image is important in this profession, whether it is politically correct or not, a casting director will be looking for a certain type and look eg. brown hair or blue eyes. I have seen a few people become ill through constant self-criticism and thinking if they make themselves skinnier they would be more fitting into the stereotype needed.
This being said I do think there is more merits to reflection than there are negatives and I think continual reflection is imperative to a dancer. Continual reflection of course is important in any career, you need to see what is working and what isn’t and adjust what you do accordingly. It is very true what was suggested in Reader 2 that dancers automatically reflect in what Donald Schon refers to as ‘reflection-in-action’. When you are dancing you are constantly self-correcting as you move to make sure you maintain balance and your posture is correct etc. However since I have started teaching I find that what I do is almost a combination of ‘in-action’ and ‘on-action’ reflection simultaneously. Whilst a student is dancing I will be telling them corrections to help them – ‘ reflection-in-action’. I also correct after the student has finished dancing and work with the student to work out what exactly went wrong and what they can do to make the movement work for them – ‘reflection-on-action’.
In conclusion I found all the information about ‘reflective practice’ very interesting and somewhat thought provoking. Do I do as much as I could to get the most out of every experience? Whilst I try during my time to get the most out of it, I don’t necessarily get all that I can afterwards in term of ‘reflective observation’. I have discussed the negative and positive aspects that I see of reflection but I do on a whole think it is an invaluable tool that most of us don’t use to the best of our ability and is often under-rated in how crucial it can be to our us and our career development.
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