Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Activity 1 - Reflective Thought


Is reflective thoughts useful for lecturers? What do you think? If only King Xerxes did some reflection?! Hit the comment link below and leave your thoughts. Real names only please! Thank you!

395 comments:

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Thomas, Chuen Lam said...

No matter consciously or sub-consciously, we as lecturers are doing / have to to reflective thoughts every day. As we are bombered by new information and knowledge every moment and the whole world is just few clicks from the screen..TV, PC, smartphone, It is important for us to digest and improve. King Xerxes obviously took too big of himself.

Lee Kim Kheng said...

I strongly support reflective thinking at end of every lesson and tutorial to find ways to improve the students' learning as well as our teaching style.

Daniel Lim said...

Reflective thinking allows us to reflect and check what we did is correct if not how to improve or avoid making the same mistakes. Yes, it is definitely useful for lecturers.

Tess said...

Yes, reflective thoughts are useful as it allows us to constantly evaluate our own methods of teaching and communication. It encourages improvements and growths. Tess

Ho Chee Kong said...

Reflective thought are very useful to us as a lecturer in order for us to discover our weaknesses.

So by reflecting, we are able to ponder on those areas that we are weak on in order for us to improve our teaching skills.

Anonymous said...

Chee Chin Yi

Reflective thoughts is useful for lecturers. Acting on these thoughts is also important.

Anonymous said...

Chee Chin Yi

Reflective thoughts is useful for lecturers. Acting on these thoughts is also important.

Carol Tan said...

Yep! It is useful.. It allows one to think of what is effective and what needs to be improved or even discarded. That's the only way to move forward and be better.

Jiat Loong said...

I would agree that reflective thoughts is the best way for us to keep track of the teaching and learning processes and constantly finding ways to improve on it.


Jiat Loong

Andrew said...

How can one progress if one doesn't reflect and find out what went wrong, or how something could be improved on? And this does not apply only to teaching, but to life in general, agree?

Koh Hong Wee said...

Of course reflective thoughts is exceptionally important to me as an Educator. I do feel that teaching and education is a continuously improvement process whereby we need to constantly reflect on what we have done well and vice versa in our curriculum development and delivery process. As times are always changing and the demographics of our students are continuously changing as well, we need to reflect and adopt the methods which are the most suitable for various demographics of students to ensure that the value of our teaching and their learning is always maintained at high standards.

Ban Chow Chuin said...

I think subconciously whenever certain methods doesn't work out, our reflective thoughts bounce into action. If not, the situation couldn't be made better.

Gabriel Yeo said...

Yes, reflective thought is useful for lecturers as it allows us to pause from our busy schedules to review and improve on what has been done to avoid repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Sukitha Kunasegaran said...

There is no doubt that reflective practice is an important process for any educator. However, it does require maturity and humility, to accept that there is always room for improvement. There must be conscious effort on our part to relect on what went well and what could have gone better after every interaction with our students and work on develping the weak spots. Reflective practice would certainly be a signficant contributor towards continued growth and development for us to become even more effective educators.

Anonymous said...

As in the movie, I agree reflective thinking is important.

We often learn from various inputs and as an educator, we gather feedback from namely three sources: students, fellow lecturers, secondary sources (CT, books, movies, etc). It is only with learning that we teach better.

Following this gathering, we then distill the essence and absorb it, becoming better coaches as well.

Ryan J Tan

SEND BACK SERVICE said...

Interesting choice of movie. I have always loved "300". Try to change my race to "Spartan" but got rejected by ICA. Bummer!!!

Reflective thinking allows us to view our performance at a Macro level. Through intense discussion and sharing among colleague, we will and most certainly received valuable feedback..

King Xerxes did his reflection and try to persuade King Leonaids to be on his side.

Try King Xerxes did... but.. "WE ARE SPARTAN"

Esman Supaat

Anonymous said...

meditative thoughts heh....
its important, i agree. but in the context of 300, it was more a issue of ego playing the devil over ruling contemplative thoughts to take the wisest move in the game of war.
And i would figure that King Xerxes reflected and knows that he has the manpower and resources to overcome and subdue King Leonaids.

And i wonder if King Leonaids had approach him in another manner or in more humility would compromise be made. Chances are, "NO"

Ego gets in the way of mankinds' ability to some times communicate our needs and admit our weaknesses.

So the way i see it reflective thought is not just useful but neccessary. And it is not a passive gesture, but should be an agent to activate us into identifying the problems to find the best solution forward to approach any educational challenges.

janice tan...over and out....

Unknown said...

yes, it should be done but not only in teaching but in our daily life as well.

Anonymous said...

I believe reflection is important. A 'Time-Out' Zone, not just a replay of what happened, but what (if any) was not so good, what could be done better, different.

I am also a great believer that feedback is part of reflection. Very often we are only able to evaluate ourselves based on what WE see which could be greatly limiting. King Xerxes and King Leonaids being examples of men/gods with deep self belief but little want of accepting another view ( resulting in what would be hard to evaluate as a better or worse outcome though in this case).

Lastly, other then evalutation, proposed solutions, feed back and opinions from others, the action that should follow reflection is more important

Lorain Kok

Tune Chien Jung said...

I think any person (or vertebrate life form?) will have reflective thought at some point or the other as a pre-emptive mechanism to cope with the uncertain future - otherwise that would imply there is no use for the facility of memory. Then, it could be just a matter of how habitual and how effectively reflective thought can be utilised (eg. with critical thinking skills), and how willing or capable one is able to make good of the meanings from reflective thinking when it is needed in the future. So, reflective thought is not something expected just of teachers. But, teachers do need it in particular to cope with the ever changing syllabi, technology & science, student mannerisms, and to make meaning of personal experiences, as we are expected to be able to be relavant in a workforce that prepares the young for the future - and this should also mean inculcating the habit and skills for reflective thinking onto our charges.

leelav said...
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leelav said...

Reflection (of both the content and processes) will make you a more effective educator, as it means you are constantly growing and improving to be better for yourself and your students.

Desmond Ng said...

Hi, Desmond Ng here...
Reflection is very important in our everyday lives. It enables us to review activities at the end of the day. Be it good or bad, we can further improve to make it better. Just like teaching, reflection will allow us to identify the rooms for improvements and help us meet our teaching objectives.

Mark said...

Esman you wanted to change your race to Spartan? WHahahahahahaha

Teo Wei Keong said...

From Teo Wei Keong, Yeh, reflective teaching is useful for lecturer. In reflective teaching, I will learn what the mistake I have done and correct it. So if King Xerxes did some reflection, he would waste his millions of mens in war.

jacqueline ho said...

of course it is important! to reflect would help us to learn and progress. we are not "all mighty" as lecturers! we make mistakes too. maybe by incorporating students' suggestions and feedback would make the lessons more interesting and engaging...

CK said...

Reflective thought can be found in various facets of our life. It takes count of what we have done and how we did. Same goes for an educator, we need to "size" up who we are "against"! That process, IMHO, is reflective practice. Not only it assist us in bettering what we do, but provides a systematic and logical approach in addressing the problems we encounter.

Oka said...

Alright, I have to type it all over again. I realized my previous comments were not submitted without any google account.

Anyway, I believe reflective thoughts are important not only for lecturers but also for everyone. It gives meaning to what we do. It takes us out of our routine and makes us value what we do.

Joo Ghee said...

Reflective teaching will help lecturers to improve their teaching. However, it is a discipline that has to be cultivated, as most of the time, we would choose to focus on what is ahead rather than what is behind.

molly chee said...

reflective teaching is a crucial process for lecturer to reflect on their teaching methods and teaching experiences. it assists lecturer to think back and analyse why they did this and that and if there are ways to further improve them.The ability to reflect increase the potential of quality instruction.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Confucius said, "He who learns but does not think, is lost." I say, "He who teaches but does not practise reflection, makes the students lost." Reflective teaching is necessary for lecturers to improve themselves and to enhance learning of the students. I will practise reflective thinking for each of my lectures, as I want what's the best for my students.
Xiong Fangli

Unknown said...

Carolyn Liu Yang said...
Reflective teaching is important as it helps us teachers to think critically about our actionsand decisions inside and outside classrooms. It will directly and inderiectly foster effective teaching and learning.

Lim De Yang said...

Reflective thoughts helps to keep the information transferred to the class in check and relevant. It also helps the educator to actively keep check on his own sensitivity towards his audience. King Xerxes was flaring up because he hasn't taken a step back to analyse if his actions were worth the aggression.
- Lim De Yang

Pock Eriee said...

Yes, I think reflective thought is very useful for lecturers, especially for those teaching science subject like myself. Many concepts are dry and abstract, it is very useful to exchange ideas with others to make the subject more interesting and easier to understand.

Oh Ai Ye said...

I certainly believe that reflective thinking is important to keep me current in my teaching career. At times, I do believe one can be complacent like King Xerxes when one thinks that he/she has already built an "empire" of teaching materials. It is often said that learning is part of teaching and through reflective thinking will I inspire myself to learn.

Anonymous said...

It is imperative as it allows us to make calculated decision & fine-tune our next move. It may also allows us anticipate the audiences' response to our deliverance.

Norazhar (Azhar)
MAE

U-Liang said...

Hi U-Liang here

I believe that reflective practise is vital in helping us notice details which prevents our students from learning in our classess. These details may not be obvious at first and are usually something "hidden".

In the clip, Xerxes only focused on the numerical advantage that he had. If he had reflected on the fact that the 300 Spartans were far more skilled and brave compared to his troops, he would not have been so confident of his victory.

Tang U-Liang

Raymond Ong said...

Of course reflective thought are useful for lecturers. It helps lecturer to think, look back and review their own teaching skills and learn to improve further on future lessons.

Yanto Jakop said...

Reflective thought is a constant feedback to our teaching. It is the sole thing, in my opinion, that makes us teach better and better day by day.

Brad Yeo said...

I see it more of an option to improve ones teaching when reflective thoughts are practiced. Plus realizing what works and doesn't in this process, also gives a chance to improve our teaching method. Now i'm reflecting to see how to get Leonidas Abs..

Anonymous said...

This is Adeline Ho.

It is important to relect e.g. after a lesson or end of a term on what we have did well and how we could have done better.

Mary Chin said...

A reflection is more than just thinking about something. Whilst pondering is an internalisation of one's thoughts, reflections takes into account all factors that is external to oneself. That is essential especially in teaching where it involves many other elements like students, environment etc.

Ng Guo Yi said...

To quote an article;

"To teach each child in my classroom, I have to know each child in my classroom. We teachers need to bring not only our extraordinariness but our flawed and real and ordinary humanity to this job, which involves a complex and ever-changing web of relationships with children who often need more than we can give them."

I personally agreed with Mary that reflective thoughts take in ALL other factors into account.

I means if certain things we do in class is not effective, AND if we continue to do it the same way and expect something to change. Then, we are not practicing reflective thinking. I think it is through reflective thinking that we know where goes wrong in class then we can take positive steps to overcome it!

Like how King Xerxes did later in the movie by employing a spy from Leonia’s camp.

Audrey Low said...

Absolutely useful. Reflective thoughts is a slice of life, in a way a sanity process to improve, correct and dare to explore and enhance teaching skills.

Anonymous said...

Neelesh here...

Yes, Reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers. But obviously this is not enough. No point in just being reflective about how the class could have been handled in a better manner if one does not act on these reflective thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Would anyone please explain what exactly reflective thinking and reflective practice are? Thank you very much!

Mai Lan said...

Yes, I believe reflective practice is useful for teaching and learning. It is important that teaching is a learning process for teachers as well.

Mai Lan said...

I'm finding myself is working at level 1 and toward level 2 of reflection. In my course, at level 1, I use media, story, interaction to draw students attention and pull in their interest. But for the same course taught at different classes from different schools, the content and interaction way is changed and adjusted to make it suitable for different students' preferences or backgrounds. And I think this is somewhat working toward the level 2 of reflection.

Mai Lan said...

What Lou Anne Johnson did was getting students' attention by showing them her personal stregth that she can handle them (she's tough as a marine) and challenge them through karate at first. Then start her lesson with what's students' interest rather than her own interest in cooking bean for example. She's slowly gain student's trust and admire by showing them her trust and proud toward them (the boy involved in fighting) and motivate students through reward, competition and challenging.

While all of us saw the class transformed from the 1st clip to the end of 2nd clip, I think we might all agree that her effort was really worthwhile because she cared as a teacher.

Mai Lan said...

Activity 4: to start up, I'm thinking of media interaction, reward and also put in some discipline. The hard part is to find out students' interest and various background so that the activities that I bring to class can be effective.

Mai Lan said...

Activity 5: I think a portfolio mentor is useful for me. As I believe, teaching is also a learning process for a teacher oneself. You can have self-explored learning but a mentor with good experience surely helpful to give advice. Moreover, we can learn more also from success of the mentor.

Mai Lan said...

Activity 6: The purpose of teaching is not that knowledge transfer but trigger the students' desire, curiosity and interest in knowing and understand and actually do/apply things. One student have to take many subjects in order to graduate and for sure, not all the things we're teaching them can be used or even remembered after the course finished. But as a teacher, we can help them to put up the spirit in learning process and make their education life more fun and fullfilling.

Mai Lan said...

Activity 7: I think I would go for paper portfolio for now but open the oportunity to go for e-portfolio and publish it later. The reason is I need to gain some experience to be more confident.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Chan Yong jiet Grace from CLS:
"Reflective thinking is important indeed to keep us in check with ourselves".

Michelle Lim said...

Reflective thoughts are important as it enable us to better ourselves (in terms of teaching as well) and it would in turn translate to more effective learning for our students.

Qzai said...

ShuFen: Reflective thoughts are necessary in all profession ( including teaching). It is a review process, a form of feedback on what works and what doesn't. So that we do not keep doing the same actions and expecting a different result. Every reflective thought is an enlightening journey.

Lai Teck said...

Definitely. Reflection is probably natural to most people. Yet, the tougher part is to follow up on what we have reflected on and make changes.

Anonymous said...

Indeed. Reflecting back and 'analyse' what happened and think of what ' could had happened' are essential to every professions, not just educators. It’s part of a learning process!

Liow Zhengping

Anonymous said...

Reflective thoughts serves as a moment for us to stop and ponder amidst our busy schedule to relect on our lessons and to make neccessary changes for subsequent improvements.

Minyi said...

Reflective thoughts serves as a moment for us to stop and ponder amidst our busy schedule to relect on our lessons and to make neccessary changes for subsequent improvements.

Anonymous said...

IVAN HO,

reflective thoughts are definitely useful, if King Xerxes have reflected, he would have figured out how strong and crazy leonidas's troops of 300 are, he could have deployed SAR21s and rpgs to defeat them say if its M+1... they could have finish the spartans at M+3... :) yeap...

Varian said...

"Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep." - Albert Camus

Yes. Otherwise.. *glances above*

Anonymous said...

reflecting need not necessarily be analysing what could have happen if...., I think reflection is more of an expression of self realisation on the highlights of the consequences that occurred. Surely reflecting thoughts do help on improvisation. At the same time in today's world of uncertainties and surprises one needs to understand the difference between reflections and assumptions, or else would end up like King Xerxes

Ujjaval Parekh

carmen chan yuen mun said...

Of course reflective thinking is very important, especially when facing the students. As a lecturer, we always have to understand the whole situation and also the attitude of a particular student before we do something. Analysing and taking action are two things compulsory before solving a problem. if Kinf Xerxes understand and analyse well, the war is not needed!

Yenn Giin said...

Reflective thinking is important, its like looking at the mirror every morning and allowing reality to tell you whether that new facial cream or bb cream is working or not.

Sylvia Larkim said...

I think as lecturer, we will need to reflect on the things that we have taught to the students. Does the students seem to enjoy and understand the lesson. Did they leave the classroom feeling that they have enjoyed and understand the subject from the our teaching?
Being reflective helps us improve and be the best at our own field.

KIM YOUNGKOOK said...

Reflection will improve our teaching and prevent from doing the same mistake. And for our teaching, it should not be finished by just reflection. Reflection should be accompanied with how to implement it and improve our teaching after reflection.

Liu Sin Yee said...

Reflection is necessary, not just for lecturers, but for all career types. However, I think reflection is particularly important for lecturers. Lessons are always work-in-progress and there's bound to be room for improvement. The process of reflection may inspire new ideas and help one to scrutinize habits one has in each classroom. Making honest reflection a habit may help to reveal distractions and true motivations that hinder effective teaching. E.g. in the case of King Xerxes - the desire to rule and conquer sidetracked any genuine concern for bloodshed and lives.

Benjamin Tan said...

This is benjamin. I feel that a reflective thinker is aware of his own knowledge or rather the lack of it. He recognizes that there is no single solution to a problem and hence will not indulge in complacency. This is the begining of wisdom.

Anonymous said...

Reflective Practice is indeed very important as it allows one think back on what has happened in the classroom and what can be done better to. It also serves as an honest assessment of oneself, a self-critique of both strenghts and areas for improvement.

Emma said...

Reflective Practice is indeed very important as it allows one think back on what has happened in the classroom and what can be done better to. It also serves as an honest assessment of oneself, a self-critique of both strenghts and areas for improvement.

EMeyer

Anonymous said...

It will be useful as it will help us to think through and improve ourselves

-Fang Siong

Grace Yip PC said...

It is useful an a good habit to reflect what has already happen, be it good or bad. For positive points, we can continue with it, for negative, we can improve on it.

Ng Ko-Vin said...

Hi Mark,

Reflective thinking is important for us.

It allows for us to rethink how lessons may be changed and improved such that content can be better absorbed.

Regards
Ng Ko-Vin

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Suxiu Ng said...

Reflective thought is useful for lecturers especially if we are able to rethink and improve the activities presented from the student point of view

Li Juen said...

Hi, This is Li Juen. Reflective thought is definitely useful for lecturers, where we reflect on what went good and wrong during lectures/tutorials and sought ways to improve our teaching styles and classroom mgt etc. However, more importantly, we must be aware of the various tools and ways to carry out such reflective thinking systematically, so that time and effort is not wasted.

Goh Kok Min said...

Hi good people,

This is Goh Kok Min. Indeed, reflective thoughts is very important to educators like us.

It makes us reflect on the lesson we just conducted and the teaching tools that we used. Most importantly is how these efforts have help in enhancing the students learning experience.

From: Goh Kok Min

Cheah Yee said...

Yes, I think it is important.. It is a way people can self improve...

Steven Ong Hoon Jin said...

Reflective thoughts are certainly useful for lecturers to engage the class successfully. Based on feedback, observations from classes/students, the lecturer can fine tune or modify the teaching plan to better reach out to the class.

Woo Ming Wei said...

Lecturers should find reflecting a very natural thinking action. All students are mysteries that cannot be understood completely. Reflection on the lecturer's part is one natural way to process feedback and form a (supposedly more accurate) mental model of the students or of the situations. From that, we can tune, tweak our actions for better results in teaching these unfathomable minds.

Loh Kheng Hui said...

Loh Kheng Hui, SB:

Indeed!, If we don't reflect, how deep can we learn. I always reflect on my actions, and that includes teaching too. How can we do better each time, if we all bother to reflect, that's definitely a must for all educators and learners! Cheers.

Anonymous said...

This is Simon Tan.
Reflective thoughts are crucial for self-evaluation and possibly an improvement.

Chow Kong Ming said...

Reflective thoughts are useful as they are divine, the king of thoughts, the answer only a mad man will contradict.

But ... the idea of reflection, you see, teaching all those students of ignorance have left a nasty cramp in the hippocampus, so reflection will be hard.

Leslie Neo said...

Reflective thoughts are definitely useful for lecturers as they ponder the issues of lessons taught and learned. As much as we are teaching (or being facilitators of teaching), we are and must also learn how to improve or progress. Reflective thoughts prompt us to do that.

Q said...

Hi, this is Q,

Lecturers need to do reflective thoughts to polish their skills in being better at "selling" (the way lectures, tutorials or studio workshops are delivered)the "goods" (the relevant knowledge and experience) to oftenly reluctant buyers (the students).

lenz said...

Definitely... reflect and improve

Edmund Lui said...

Edmund Lui

Yes, we should always access the situation and analysis what is the best solution to the problem. King Leonaids should not have fought the war and should delay till more aids arrive..
similarly we should examine the situation and be flexible in our teaching..

Chan Li Mei said...

Reflective thought is essential to lecturers in the classroom. As a form of evaluation, a lecturer needs to look back on his actions(especially as we can make as many as 100 mistakes per lesson) and evaluate if we could have done things differently.

Isabelle said...

Isabelle checking in: As Confuscius says: Think 3 times then Act.

I interpret it as think and rethink and reflect (3 times..ha) on your thinking before you take action. In teaching, I totally agree that reflective thinking is beneficial.

Asad said...

Reflective thought is definitely a useful tool for lecturers to improve their performance as an educator. It would help them to utilize and remember their every day experience.

I personally believe that there is no limit to become better and more effective in whatever we do. The challenge is to cognitively use appropriate tools to achieve this goal.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that I don't really think using a movie that is known to have insulted the history and civilization of a nation is appropriate for this educational blog.

cheow said...

brooding allows one to improve and better oneself

Wales Ong said...

Reflection - is not only important to "teaching", it is actually the most important tool to keep us, our life going forward...Whether reflection is documented or verbally spoken, we are already 'documenting" some learning officially, or unofficially.... Wales Ong, SB

KweeThiam said...

Reflective thought is definitely important and required of lecturers. The classroom is a 'war zone' and the students, our 'opponent'. We need to 'concur' them, ie listen to us an are able to apply what we inculcated to them. The 'war zone' and 'opponent' might be the same, but the strategy used, I opine is always different. To strategise, we need to reflect! - Cheong Kwee Thiam, SMA.

Bina Rai said...

Definitely reflective thought is beneficial to improve performance and learning in class. As Albert Einstein said insanity = doing the same things over and over and expecting different results. If we want different results, then we need to reflect on what we are doing right and the areas we can improve. -- Bina

June Yeo said...

Yes, reflective thoughts are important to lecturers as they will help us to improve ourselves. In fact, self reflection is always important in our normal daily life as it makes us better people :>

Chicken-Mee-Rice said...

Hi Jimmy Fan here. I think there will be few (if any) practitioner that will debate against the usefulness of reflective thinking. However, maybe what's important here is how we use the conclusions we arrive at to inform and better our delivery to our students subsequently.

Chicken-Mee-Rice said...

Hi, Jimmy Fan again. reflective thinking is undoubtedly a useful tool for practitioners but really what you do with the conclusions that you've reached have far wider implications. King X is just too full of himself to think otherwise (plus, he has to play the bad guy role here!) ; )

chris ho said...

Reflection is an adjective, as explained in the Oxford dictionary it means 'relating to or characterised by deep thought'.

So often then not we always in most cases succumb our actions to finish a task at hand, without evaluating the efficiency of that action to yield an outcome, or even question oneself if that is the best final outcome we can hope to achieve.

When we become too focus on just having to deliver the lectures to the students, we become myopic, as we do not question if the newly acquired lesson could indeed benefit the students' learning and also if the learner could indeed absorb the knowledge and applied it in their future industry practices.

If one could cultivate deep thoughts activities aligned to the above context, then yes indeed reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers.

Anonymous said...

Shwu Lan said...
Reflective thought is essential to a lecturer, as it helps us to develop a questioning attitude and new perspectives. With these we will be able to identify areas for change and improvement.

Anonymous said...

Nan Feng here.
If the teaching is difficult for most of the students then the lecturer has to think about what other method is there to bring across the idea more easily. Perhaps discuss with more senior lecturers.

Tan Heok Foon said...

Reflective thinking focuses on the process of making judgments about what has happened. It is useful for lecturers to identify areas of improvement and growth in personal and professional contexts. Taking time to reflect can help us to identify which approaches that have worked well, and in that way reinforce good practice. It also will encourage us to ask ourselves questions about our classroom practice. The task of teaching requires constant and continual classroom observation, evaluation and subsequent action. However, to be an effective lecturer, it is not enough to be able to recognize what happens in the classroom. Rather, it is imperative to understand the ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ specific decisions are made as well. This understanding comes through the consistent practise of reflective thinking.

Raphael Wong said...

I believe that reflective thinking should be practise on a daily basis, especially special momment whether is a success or failure. To truely understand the whole process on how and why you haev reacted in that way.

In fact both King Xerxes and King Leonidus are very firm in their own standing, none of them willingly to listen with an open heart. King Leondius is confident that his enemy were all slaves rather than warriors, cause he believed King Xerxes was not a good leader. In the end he rejected King Xerxes's offer (a goode deal taht no one could resist. There is no thoughts about their love ones and common people


As a lecturer, "Reflective Thougths" is very important, it helps you to analysis and think through about what you have done especailly what you have done for the students. Also how do you really engage students to do well in academic and work life. To become a true warriors...which King Leondius had - 300

Huishan said...

I think reflective thoughts are useful. Not only applicable to lecturers but also to life. By reflecting it will drive one to improve.

Unknown said...

Jessica here.

Reflective practice benefits all in the process.

the students can learn better and the teachers can teach better. we often do not take the time to stop and think it out and just get things done.

Jeremiah Kwok said...

Yes, definitely. It helps us to see what we did right and where we went wrong.

Daphne Chan said...

Reflection is important because aids us in our teaching and get us to see how our students comprehend the lesson which we plan. Gathering feedback is crucial for teaching improvements.

Phyllis said...

I think reflective thoughts are useful to lecturers. Through feedback from others, self-evaluation and reaction from the class, lecturers are able to gauge whether a certain instruction/ teaching method is effective. Only then can he/she decide whether to engage the class in this way more or should he/she change the mode of delivery.

Pertaining to the movie clip "300", I think King Xerxes probably engaged in reflective thoughts when he choreographed his battle strategies against the Spartans - thinking & rethinking how to defeat the resilient troop of a mere 300. However, I think he probably had no wish to reflect or even negotaite with King Leonides to understand what mattered to the Spartans as his thirst for power is far too great- he did not want to be a good, benevolent ruler; he just wanted to conquer all lands.

Sng Li Sar said...

Obviously, Xerxes hasn't taken the time to investigate how the opponents' modus operandi is superior despite its tiny size. His pride won't allow him to spend time thinking how his own force is inferior because he does not want to believe that it is.

I doubt there is anything done in this world with some bit of reflection, unless it's always just a routine you complete mechanically.

So here's the key. If you are too proud to admit something might be amiss or something could be improved, it's your pride. Pride will prevent reflective practice. Either that or it's the lack of love/attention. If you can't be bothered with something you wouldn't want to spend time thinking about it.

Lau Chi Kan said...

Reflective thinking is a part of the critical thinking process referring specifically to the processes of analyzing and making judgments about what has happened. Reflective thinking is an active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge, of the grounds that support that knowledge, and the further conclusions to which that knowledge leads. Learners are aware of and control their learning by actively participating in reflective thinking – assessing what they know, what they need to know, and how they bridge that gap – during learning situations.

Lau Chi Kan

Chew Choon Seng said...

To engage in reflective thought is to have humility and believing that what you do will always have room for improvement, and requires constant updates with time and trend. To be truly sincere to the cause of teaching and be ever receptive of student and peers feedback.

Aznan from SB said...

I have just reflected on the question and know that my own reflections often happen not right after the tutorial or seminar is done, but when it is conducive to disengage from the teaching moment and determine if the teachable moment was indeed seized or capitalised. often times this happens when there was some level of discomfort experienced during that moment and so the reflection by re-playing the scenario serves the purpose of,"Gee what could have i done/said to make that moment more engaging or meaningful for me and the students". The best thing about reflection is that it renders everything 20/20 perfect in clarity!

Kan Lume said...

Kan Lume
~ Leonidas DID use reflective thinking in his decision to fight rather than submit.
~ Reflective thinking questions assumptions.
~ Everybody thought that Xerxes was a real God and feared him because of his "divine" power. They submitted to him without question.
~ Only Leonidas believed that Xerxes was mere mortal and could bleed.
~ Because of Leonidas' ability to question assumptions, he recognised that Xerxes was merely a tyrant who wanted to subjugate everyone.
~ that is what lecturers need~!
~ The ability to question existing assumptions and the courage to stand up for what one believes in, despite the costs.
~ How else are we going to stay relevant and inspire new ideas?

Esther Low said...

Definitely useful. I suppose a lot of reflective thinking (side qns: is there a distinction between that and reflection?) is almost intuitive, and we are often unaware it's taking place. Perhaps then its utility is heightened when it's a more conscious process. Sometimes, it's also good to give yourself some time and space before embarking on that reflection.

ricky said...

Hello Peeps,

This is Ricky. Reflection is part and parcel of life. Whatever we do in life, reflecting is a must. Sometimes our action may harm or do well to others indirectly and yet at that moment, it did not come through our mind.

The thing about reflection is that people tend to get complacent or lazy (including me) and they seldom do that. Perhaps by leaving some little clues along the way to remind ourselves on reflection could improve our way of lives?

Vinayak said...

Dr Vel:
I opine that reflection doesn't only aid to better one self in the tasks being assigned but it also should involve an added fore-sight of being able to think from the shoes of the opposite party. In that way, their views could be much weighed upon on neutral grounds before coming to a conclusion or decision.

ricky said...

Ok..don't mind if I add unrelated stuff in here. That pic of my profile was taken with my ex gf 5 years ago..damn..how do I erase that! My current gf will kill me if she see this!!! Argghhhh!!!

Sorry...too much information. Peace

Alfred Lim said...

Xerxes was incapable of reflection. He had delusions of grandeur, which is something we should not be having. We should constantly reflect. No one is infallible.

Alfred Lim said...

Xerxes was incapable of reflection. He had delusions of grandeur - something that we as lecturers, should not be having. We should constantly reflect on our methods and styles. No one is infallible.

Anonymous said...

Agnes Tan said....

Reflective thought is similar to food digestion process. It takes time to allow the lecturer to chew on, look back, recall and absorb all the lessons (be it good or bad lesson) that he/she had conducted. There is always room of improvement for lesson. It takes humility, creativity, innovation and effort to transform a "passive" class to an "active" class.

Anonymous said...

Ye Wei said:

I do think that Xerxes was living in his past glory, with his reflective thinking process disabled. He only thinks that he and his army is invincible,and that Sparta can't do anything significant. Therefore, us lecturers has to be able to understand and identify these symptoms, so as to better facilitate the student's learning in the classrooms.

Kelly Tan said...

There will always be room for one to improve on. Reflection is necessary for progression as it allows a person to take a look at how he/she is currently doing, what they should be doing differently as well as what they can do to raise the bar even higher. Then again, similarly to Xerxes, how many of us do actually have that ability to take a step back and critic on our own work/creation?

Jing Ming said...

Reflective thinking is definitely useful and important for lectures. We growed up from mistakes and so do the lecturers in teaching.

Anonymous said...

Stewart- where your heart is, reflection will be. However, the heart is deceitful, thus look at the interest of others as well.

Anonymous said...

Fayth Tan:

I think reflective thought is very important. A roman proverb came to mind: "Only the foolish learn from experience/mistake — the wise learn from the experience of others"

How will the foolish learn from their mistake unless they reflect and change, are we any less then the foolish?

Anonymous said...

Reflective action is necessary and useful in our everyday life in order to evaluate events and actions and to make sense of them. In that way, we are able to connect the dots. If not, we would be living life in a very piecemeal fashion. We need to make sense of things especially when there are so many things happening around us, be it our interactions with students and/or colleagues.

- Julian kwok

Throwing a spanner into the works: said...

To me, reflection is more cognitive while reflective thoughts are more action-planning.

Both are just as important as lecturers need reflection either immediately after a class or during leisure (wherein a whole cohort would be taken into considerations). However, reflective thoughts, though following from reflections, are more time consuming and execution more tedious as it is mostly trial-&-error rather than some magic equation that will fit all.

As lecturers/teachers, if we are serious about our work, then sub-consciously we will always be doing reflections and reflective thoughts – I do not believe it is something that we have to seat down, spend 12 to 15 hours spread over a few days and work on. Thus, I fear that doing the portfolio might not be exactly all that beneficial as in the case of "getting sucked into it" (just think of browsing online) and also an item that might influence superiors in their appraisals by comparing between lecturers of different benchmarks (just think of checking out the promotional menu and regular menu when ordering a meal).

Collaborative reflective thoughts exercises may sound right, but the fear here is do we really want to share too many of our thoughts with others taking that they not having to judge us to a certain extend? What about ourselves judging the other person? Who will be more fair? What about using your “enemy” (and I use the term here loosely); hey “keep your friends close; and your enemies closer”!

Mentoring suffers the same fate as collaborative above, but the question is who should we have as a mentor – your CM or RO or just someone who you liked/admired? How do we even know if the person we chose as or thought of being suitable as mentor is even distantly qualified? Moreover, most every teacher/lecturer would not want to spend that much time with you on your portfolio – because they maybe too busy with theirs!

Moreover, such a portfolio is a very personal thing – therefore, who exactly is it profiting? Artist, Designers, and Architects used them to ‘sell’ their ‘creative ware’, so are we ‘selling’ our art too? If so, to whom? Also, isn’t doing up a portfolio an indicator that the person can’t really teach because s/he needed self-tracking and external monitoring to consistently aid them to keep in line?

Food for thought, yes?

Joh Ting said...

I believe in reflections- sometimes they yield nuggets of gold as you sieve through what you discuss with your spouse or colleague after a long day.
I also like to read reflections from students. I learn a lot from them. One student wrote in her reflection for a project - which had been very beautifully presented and written - that she was so happy she could choose the topic within the parameters that our teaching team had set. It was the most authentic comment out of a sea of routine comments like "glad we took this module". I learnt from this that by giving a reasonable level of autonomy to our students, we can encourage more motivation than explicit requests for compliance.

Tan Tuan Lin said...

Good example of reflective thoughts. Watched that movie sometime ago.

I feel that it is important to have reflective thoughts although most of us do it on a regular basis without being aware of it. To apply it in the context of being a lecturer will definitely enable better and improved classes for later batches of students whom will appreciate that!

Happy Chinese New Year to All!

Jeremy Tan said...

Reflective thoughts are definitely useful for lecturers. They enable us to improve, by allowing us to see what worked and what didn't work in the lecture. Without reflective thoughts, your teaching may never improve or change to be better; thus potentially leading to problems, as illustrated by King Xerxes, who was blinded by the situation.

whyshallblog said...

Reflection on a lesson conducted helps us to see what has been done well (and what has not) thereby allowing us keep doing what is effective and at the same time to work on improving our weaknesses. The important thing to note is that reflection may sometimes require one to get feedback from the people involved in the lesson. This means eliciting responses from students as to whether the lesson has been useful, and if so how/why. By understanding what works and what does not for the students, we will be able to improve on the way we conduct and deliver lessons. In summary, reflection takes on two parts: self-reflection, and feedback from individuals who are directly affected by our lessons.

- Wong Hongyi

Muzammil Aziz said...

Reflecting and taking time to reanalyse what's been done is really crucial in order to ensure we can better/improve our next intended move. Definately essential for educators especially, in order to ensure we're on the right track and furnishing students with the best possible coaching/tutoring they'll need.

..and in King Xerxes case, he's just got too big an ego to really comprehend the circumcanstances he'll face for acting as such.

Anonymous said...

this is Xinli from MS. Reflective thought is for sure needed and useful in classrooms. It can help me to teach better, and help my students to learn better as well.

Paul Oh said...

Reflective thought is important for new lecturers like myself. What we have learned from our school days and how we were taught may not be the best way to engage the youths of today. Reflecting on how our method of teaching works during our class engagements will only help us improve our formative teaching skills.

Melvin Lim said...

Melvin Lim said...

Reflective thought is important and necessary. Through reflective thinking, we are able to form a wider perspective of the situation (in and out of the classroom), and a better understanding of how we can effectively intereact with our students.

KL Lee said...

Educators are supposed to be thought leaders, so lecturers should exercise reflection

Rudy said...

My interpretation of reflective thoughts is the thining after an event, i.e. conduct of a lesson for lecturers. There are times when I felt "hey, I thought I could have done it better." OR "If given a choice, I would've done it in a another way."

In short, reflective thoughts is a form of "internal review" where I can see which areas I've done well and which areas I need improvements.

Chan Chin Loong said...

I agree that reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers. In fact, anyone who is involved in teaching should practise reflective thinking. Reflective thinking after each lesson helps the lecturer assess his/her teaching method with respect to the students' responses, so that he/she can make appropriate adjustments for the next lesson.

Chiang Teik Weng said...

Yes, reflective thoughts are useful as it gives us the opportunity to think about what we have done right / incorrect and how to do better.

Anonymous said...



Joe Ong said...
I agree that reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers. As not all students will be able to follow what have been taught in the lecture by your method. As some students are visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. Thus practise reflective thinking will help the lecturer assess his/her teaching method with respect to the students' responses,so he/she can make changes accordingly.

Rubaina said...

Rubaina Khan :-

Reflecting on your actions made in your class gives you a way to evaluate whether that is what you wanted to achieve or could have done better or maybe be surprised that you outdid yourself. It prepares you to try to overcome your shortcomings in your last lecture by attempting it in a different way next time.

Anonymous said...

Gail Goh:
Reflective thoughts is definitely useful for a lecturer. Each time after we finished conducting a lesson, we can reflect on what we have done well and not done well for a particular so that we can improve for the next class. Sometimes, our time management is not good, sometimes the teaching method is not as effective, etc. Hence, after having a reflective moment, we will bring out the areas for improvements, which will benefit ourselves as well as our students.

Lynn Zhuo said...

Reflection is one needed skill for our younger generation. Without it, a personal cannot really improve. It goes beyond education but is essential to a person throughout the stages of life. It is the catalyst where a person becomes a positive contributor to the society. That is, an underlying objective of what we hope education can achieve for our students.

Carol Leung said...

This is Carol Leung.
I think reflecting thoughts are useful for lecturers to continuously review the effectiveness of his/her teaching methods. Every module and batch of students are different. Therefore, even if a lecturer has been teaching for decades, reflection is still important.However, it takes discipline to adhere to the habit because our hectic schedule means we are usually rushing from one class to another without taking a moment to think about the previous lecture.

Dylan Eng said...

Reflective thoughts are important for lectureres to change and adopt different methods/approach for different target audience/student. There is no single approach that can work for every student, constant change is important especially in this fast changing world. Today's lecturer/teacher is longer the same as the past.

In 300, the first mistake Xerxes did was to send the Persian messenger who insulted women of Sparta. Xerxes assume Sparta would be of the same as other tribes that he conquered/controlled with whips and wealth.

Jenny Tran said...

As reflective thinking is the processes of analyzing and making judgments about what has happened. it is very useful for for the lecturers.

Kher Hsin said...

Kher Hsin- Reflective thought is indeed very useful to a lecturer. It is a method that allows a lecturer to analyse his own teaching methodology, refine the method and execute in a better way to improve his/her teaching skills for the benefit of students.

Shawn Lim said...

Shawn Lim (SMA)

reflective thought will be useful for lecturers to perform self-analyse of their lecturing style and format so that it will be better suit for this era student. what work in the past may not be workable in this time and what work for class A may not work for class B and vice versa. by engaging in reflective thoughts, it will allow one lecturer to slightly modify the way he bring his lesson to the class.

Devindran Jeyathurai said...

Xerxes failure to reflect led to his downfall - reflection is more a necessity than a luxury, although we might not devote enough time to it ourselves. Without it, we act without thinking, and that can be disastrous. It's too easy to teach on autopilot, failing to take our students' needs and thoughts into account.

Annabel Ang said...

Reflective thoughts are definitely necessary. This will allow us to know what we have done right, make it better or what we have done wrong and change.

Myat Soe (SMA) said...

I believed Reflective Thought is useful for lecturers.
By doing this we can review our weakness and strong areas in teaching and learning.
If King Xerxes did some reflection can be save a lot of life.

Unknown said...

With regards to the clip, I agree reflective thought is important. However, although it seems easy to judge King Xerxes negatively by saying he hasn't engaged in reflective thought--I think his ambitious intentions has clouded his thoughts, and is driving him to win the war at all costs (which he did in the end of the movie didn't he?).

However, I totally agree reflective thought is important in strategizing actions and future planning- which proved to be effective for the spartan leader in maximixing the potential of his small troops. This is useful in relation to lecturers adopting the same technique since we are always faced with lean resources.

dillon said...

king xerxes didnt require any reflection -- he had the power not to. the symbolism of a 'kneel' is not necessary to begin with, given the 'power' both kings possess. instead, we should all dine at foodhaven. after some food, self reflection is important to question the actions by both parties.

Su-Shyng said...

Reflective thought is definitely useful as it helps us to review how we have performed and to improve ourselves as educators. The challenge for me will be to consciously set aside time to reflect on a daily basis... perhaps a log/journal will help me to be more disciplined in this respect.

Heng Jun Jie (CLS) said...

This is JunJie from CLS. After teaching for 2 semesters, I feel that reflective thoughts is an essential process for lecturers. I always use it after every lesson to see where I have gone wrong and to improve myself. I also do this with the help of students too.

Unknown said...

Reflective thought are important for lecturers to identify what we have done well and what we haven't in the classroom. Is it lesson plan or the execution? It is a step to improve our lesson plan and execution. -- Liming

Luan QianQian said...

Reflective thoughts work like mirrors that we use to examine ourselves, our teaching approaches and the way we deliver knowledge. After each lesson/tutorial, we need to ask ourselves questions like which part of the lesson the students respond most actively to and in what way they prefer to be engaged, do I make my points clear enough, how to improve the way to help students understand better, what have I done well which need to be kept doing in further and what need to be done in a different way? By thinking questions like above, we can improve teaching and get students learn much better.

Choon Yee said...

I agree that reflective thought is useful for lecturers because it not only allows us to examine and improve on our weakness, but also enhance our strength in teaching.

cathy cong said...

Reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers. it could be simply the thought from observation on the class, are students engaged? why? how to introduce more active learning in class? how is the response after the lecturer changed the teaching and learning method? reflective thoughts allowed the lecturer to understand the students better, so can apply the right strategy to conduct the lesson to make it more effective.

Wong Hongyi said...

Reflection on action is one way to improve what we are doing. This is applicable whether we are playing a sport or teaching or learning how to bake. When we sit down at the end of the day to think about what we have done in class, the things we enjoyed and the things we wished we had done, it serves as a reinforcement of what we ought to/ought not to do when in the classroom. When we write down such reflections it will further serve as a powerful reminder whenever we revisit the writings.
- Hongyi

Poh Li said...

I strongly agree that reflective thought is an useful tool for us to reflect on the effectiveness of our teaching methods and also initiate the thinking of ways of improving our teaching.

Roland Soh said...

I think reflective thoughts are important as they trigger a cycle for continuous improvement in teaching and learning. Some practices/ techniques may not work well with certain classes and through reflections, there can be customisation to lesson plans and how they are executed.

Tiffany Loy (SD) said...

Tiffany Loy (SD): Yes I think reflective practice is important. It's the difference between constructive criticism (and action after) of one's teaching methods, and generic complaining.

jeffrey xu said...

Jeffrey Xu -

Reflective thoughs are important and useful to the lecturers when dealing with challenging situations and students. As this prevent us speaking throught our emotion thus causing further damages .It is important as well to help improved our teaching approaches

jenny tran said...

I think reflective thoughts are important to us. We can't keep doing the same thing and expect the different result. Reflective thoughts help us to improve on our teaching methods and practices.

Clarence Ong said...

Clarence Ong said:

This is Clarence. I feel Reflective Thought is very important for self improvement. As a professional in the field of teaching, we must always reflect on our way of teaching to improve our skill in better conveying out knowledge to the students.

Simply put, one can't be too comfortable doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting better results. If we are not improving to embrace growth, we are going to be obsolete and be left over by improvement.

Lee Martin said...

Lee Martin:
Lecturers must reflect on what has gone right with a lesson and what has gone wrong, in order to learn from their experiences. Even during a lesson we must reflect on whether we are helping students to achieve the lesson objectives or whether we must change our teaching strategies.

King Xerxes HAS used reflective thought and realised that a direct attack is not working. He therefore changes strategy and offers a bargain. Since this doesn’t work either, he should reflect a little more and conclude he should have his warriors kill Leonaids right now. At least then he will only have 299 left to deal with. Honourable or not, it doesn’t matter: the victorious write the history books!

Clarice Sim said...

Reflection and introspection is definitely useful for teaching and learning, and for life in general. It gives us the time to evaluate our actions and think about ways of improving.

However too much reflective thought becomes rumination. Rumination can be crippling so we have to be careful not to over-think our performances at times.

- Clarice

Wan Kok How said...

Yes. Reflective thoughts is useful to the lecturers, especially when he/she sense that the class does not receive well his teaching or the learning outcome is not meeting his/her expectation.

Chew Boon Seng said...

Reflective thoughts are certainly useful. Since our classes have different dynamics in term of classroom behaviours, learning styles and motivation towards learning. By doing cross sharing of experiences and reflective thoughts between lecturers, it enables good practices to be discussed and shared. In additional, new strategies for classroom management can also be derived.

Clive Lee said...

Reflective thought is definitely useful for lecturers. A lot of lecturers may be expecting students to react or behave in the way they percieve as "appropriate". However, social/world values of the students may be different from lecturers just like the differences in values between king Leonidas and King Xerxes. It is important to reflect on oneself and understand the problem instead of asking "Why won't he listen to me?"

Lorraine Gan said...

Yes, it is useful to lecturers, but perhaps most of us just talk about it and don't follow up or act on it. For example, on the golf course, after you hit a good or bad shot, you have to think and reflect immediately so that you can either replicate the shot, or what you did wrong so that you don't do the same thing...

Roger Low said...

Reflective thought is important for lecturers.

Each of us lecturers is but one person, with mainly one personality. Yet, every day, we face many personalities in class. Without reflective thought, how would we begin to understand the personalities that by nature would clash with ours?

Reflective thought would be greatly helpful in finding where our thorns are situated, and we would be able to reposition them or even blunt them, such that we do not unwittingly push away the students who are fully capable of learning but who may be incompatible with facets of our own personality and beliefs.

Even our choice of wording might repel that one or two students who in their young age are unable to separate the learning from the teacher's personality. They may be in the minority, but I reckon that it is precisely such students that require a teacher who respond and not simply ignore.

For that to happen, I believe we would need to reflect. As we have discussed, we are the adult in the class. Do we simply discount the abnormalities, such that the liability is entirely on the student? Since we are the adult, we can take the step to walk towards them. We can initiate the difference that needs to be made.

kingsley said...

Kingsley

Reflective thinking is essential for improvement because we want to make learning enjoyable. Through reflective thinking, we are able to think about what works or what doesn't works, thus, making learning an enjoyable experience

Tan Kah Keng said...

Kah Keng

Yes reflective thoughts is definitely something that we need to do as an educator because not all teaching methods can be used successfully on each and every students, and on different subjects.

Tan Kim Lim said...

Yes. It is useful for us to see how we can deliver the session better. Keeping a journal is a good way.

Eugene KOH said...

Eugene Koh:

Every class and student who we teach and encounter are different and independent of each other. Hence it may seem that reflective thinking is not particularly useful.

However, reflective thought allows one to draw on historical information and personal experiences to process information and make a much more informed judgement/decision/assessment in the future. So reflective thinking is useful when it is carefully applied.

Anonymous said...

May Lim

Reflective practise is definitely an essential tool for teaching. A teacher needs to constantly reflect her actions, processes and methods for improvements to take place. What works for some students does not mean it'll work for all, so some form of reflective thinking is definitely useful to make assessments of the better approaches in the classroom.

Unknown said...

This is Joo Won Lee. I think reflective thoughts are absolutely useful and necessary for lectures who really care about students and are willing to improve their teaching ability, which lead to finding more appropriate teaching ways for students.

For example, there is a lecture who has a lot of teaching experience. It does not means that he/she is a good teacher if he/she does not care or has never gotten any feedback on their teaching. No one is perfect all the time.

-Joo Won-

Zhang Liandong said...

Reflective thought is important for a teacher to get along well with colleagues and students. If we try to be more patient and consider things from every angle, we can avoid the conflicts with the students and will know students well from their point of view. The same reflective thought is also worth trying when dealing with the human relationships with colleagues as well.

Anonymous said...

Lina Fang:

Reflective thought is useful, as it enables one to think back and make improvements in the next lesson. Even if it's teaching the same module to two different classes, the approaches may have to be different as well.

chippy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chippy said...

Su Huiping:

We need to reflect to learn from mistakes or improvement. Just as students need to reflect upon their actions, all the more the educators should reflect.

chippy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Thompson said...

Clearly, reflective thought is important in this case for at least two reasons. 1. If Xerxes employed reflective thought, he would see that Leonidas cares more about living his personal ethics than any particular outcome, and 2. If 300 spartans killed so many of Xerxes army, with few casualties, then they have the potential to win.

Reflective thought is important for lecturers as well as any person who wants to improve their job performance. If we don't reflect on the successes and failures of previous attempts, we can't learn and improve.

Carlson Chong, CLS said...

Yes, reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers. Students are our "clients" whom we interact with almost daily. All interaction cannot be perfect; it is still likely for us to make minor mistakes occasionally. There are things that we can constantly improve, such as the way we deliver lecture. How can we do that? One of the many ways is to constantly do reflection (quick reflection, it doesn't have to be sitting down facing the wall for 30min). Doing reflection allows us to be aware of what we have just done or said or even thought of. That awareness then enables us to improve or make necessary changes, be it the way we teach or the way we interact with our students.

Matthew Koh, CLS said...

Similar to what was shown in the video, lecturers play the role of a leader, consistently leading and guiding our students daily. Leaders who lead the nation are not perfect, mistakes may be made along the way, be it minor or grave mistakes. So do we as lecturers, hence it is critical to do reflective thinking periodically (ideally to be after every lesson) so that we can better assess our teaching methodologies/delivery modes and identify areas that we need to improve and make suitable adjustments for the lessons ahead.

Agus said...

Yes, reflective thoughts are useful for lecturers as this will help lecturer to improved on what was missed out which lack impact to the students.

Faizan Shah (SD) said...

Cant find my comment: so yes reflective thought is important.

YANZO said...

SD YANZO SAYS:

Reflective thoughts is a good component that contribute to a sophisticated teaching pedagogy.

Different learners learn differently in their own way. In order to help learners to acquire deeper knowledge, triggering the process of doing reflective thinking allows them to think back and reflect on the pros and cons of what they have done to achieve the final outcome. In doing so, it allows learners to think back, probe into the blind side of what they been through and analyse into what went well or wrong with the memories of what happened. In the industry, the equivalent of this could be closely tie to evaluation and or, tracking of project effectiveness after project closure.

By doing reflection, we get into a mental process to fulfil a purpose to achieve some anticipated outcome. While applying that reflection, it allow one to gain a better understanding of the ideas or knowledge, and in some cases, emotions of what went through to reach an eventual outcome.

Being reflective lecturers allows the lecturer to learn from every lessons they teach, by evaluating what they did in class and how it can be improved the next time in regards to all the contributing factors to the class -- be it the behaviour of the learners, the teaching materials, the learning objectives set and how lesson were conducted etc.

I deem reflective thinking as a vital component of teaching in order to be a teacher who is more aware of effective teaching for learner in a continuing learning environment. -- Yanzo

Lingyun Tao said...

Reflective thought is a very important not only for teaching but also for general perspective in life. The 300 movie clip clearly illustrates the different consequences of having reflective thought or not. As education takes time or generations to realise the impact, I think it's a must have practice for us as a lecturer to be fair and objective towards the academic progression.

Diana Leyau said...

Reflective thinking allows us to constantly align ourselves so that we can be engaged and be aware of what is happening on the ground. It gives us an opportunity to look back, understand what has been done right and to find out what could be improved. Only by understanding what has been done right, can we continue and replicate the successful formulae and also what we need to improve and change.

This process is important and effective not just in teaching but also in our relationship with people around us and in life as well. - Diana Leyau

Jovan said...

Reflective thought is useful for lecturers especially when you reflect or response to a particular problem that has arisen in one of the classes. It's implies a more systematic process of finding out more about how you teach and how you deal with incident. Such practice would have prevented us from jumping into conclusions.

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