By Hamish Barker in 2020.
Understanding a guest is the cornerstone of teaching. But how can we understand the person, their aims, goals personality type in order to give them the best experience we can. In this essay, I aim to build links between concepts such as emotional intelligence, reflectiveness, and reflection in order to help instructors customise lessons and develop awareness into how our daily interactions matter. We will then explore how through this we can reflect on and evaluate our own teaching and processes to improve our approach to learning. I have written this articles in two different accounts, 1) the over analysing tech geek in me and 2) how I would explain/ approach it in the workplace.
Emotional Intelligence/ Reflectiveness
Emotional intelligence/ empathy is the ability to see yourself from another perspective, this concept is most commonly referred to as “walking a mile in someone else shoes” and places emphasis on recognising and responding to the feelings of oneself and students. As we understand this we can respond to encourage an emotional state in the student that is conducive to learning. This social psychology framework of identifying a cause and effect relationship in our lessons is referred to as reflectiveness. Collins (2012) suggests that learning is achieved by mental rehearsing and by “imitating observed actions of other people who serve as models of behaviour”(p.g.288). when placing these two ideas together we can start our journey in understanding our student/ guest in a better way.
When introducing ourselves and getting to know our client we can slowly dissolve the walls on anxiety, finding common ground and maybe sharing a personal first-hand experience. once we introduce ourselves the rest is a process of trust. Place yourself in their shoes and trying to imagine how they feel and working your personal behaviour throughout the lesson around this.
You wake up… “Hey, honey take a look at my ankle, can you grab me the strapping tape please?
“Can’t wait to see Jonah (son) try snowboarding, the kid is fearless.”
“I would love to find a good book while I’m here.”
“The windscreen is iced, Honey boil the jug please…. dammit!”
“The road is quite bumpy and I can’t see a thing. but at least the parking lines are short and the coffee is hot.”
How the hell am I supposed to tie myself into this thing and…. hello!
Each one of these is an opportunity to develop an understanding into the craziness of what it is to get to us on a daily basis. You can see there is a collection of emotions, now let’s try and think of ways we can respond to these stimuli. Look at each thought, place yourself in the situation or in a situation where you have felt uneasy. What type of person is this?
Through using this Social Psychology we are able to relate to our client and understand how people think, reason understands and learn. (Bandura,1977). once we can acknowledge/empathise fears, ambitions, strengths, and weaknesses can we then mould the lesson/ lessons and set a persona that accommodates. controlling the lesson tempo, duration task and terrain will, therefore, be a direct result of our profiling ability.
Reflection in Action
Reflection in action refers to the ability to adapt during the event, As instructors, we are constantly evaluating our teaching, learning, and environment in order to mould the lesson and create the ideal product. this process involves interpreting almost every variable that we come across on the mountain and reacting accordingly from outside influences such as weather, to internal processes such as fear. This reflection in action is usually guided by instructor experience, knowledge, personality and of course the client.
In this article, I have focused more on the mental aspect of the instructor/client relationship as I believe this is overlooked as a tool. interpreting and adapting to the clients verbal and physical cues to gauge their frame of mind e.g. mood and motivation. This type of reflection in action is the greatest tool in itself as it can help us create the atmosphere, culture, and experience they came here for.
Reflection On Action
refers to looking at an event that has already happened and reflecting on what you might do differently/new information gained and how to move forward
- What did i do to help Wendy? would i change anything? What?
- How did i set the tone of the lesson?
- How did i challenge myself today?
- What have i learnt from my lesson today?
- How can i be more prepared for this next time?
- How did her expectations of the lesson meet mine?
In order to learn. We can also shape our reflection on action with reflectiveness as I have below:
- How did her experience contribute to how she now views snowboarding?
- How would she explain her day to her friends?
The answers to these questions can all be found by looking through these lens and being critical about the product you are giving. find something in your approach that you could change, maybe its personality based e.g calmer demeanour or teach based e.g clarity, or technical based/ task based.
An example in my own teaching i acknowledged, was the culture of the lesson being affected by distinguished lines between the client and instructor. This culture was created in a learner lesson due to the directive nature of teaching and closed questions . by placing myself in the clients’ shoes and understanding how these roles are formed I am able to re-position myself through questioning the person about something they are knowledgeable about and spider-webbing to create a sharing culture where we all have something to contribute and learn.
Conclusion
by exploring the links between Emotional Intelligence/reflectiveness, reflection in action and reflection on action we highlight the importance placed on the decisions we make and how they affect the culture created within our lessons. by drawing on personal and social experiences to make decisions in everyday teaching. This helps us make judgment and create our own framework through what most people refer to as empathy. this allows us to constantly evaluate the decisions we make and how this cause and effect relationship can be influenced. By acknowledging these reflective tools we move into a continuous learning process.
“Effective teaching is informed by personal knowledge, trial and error, reflection on practice, and conversations with colleagues. To be a teacher means to observe students and study classroom interactions, to explore a variety of effective ways of teaching, and to build conceptual frameworks that can guide one’s work”. (Fischer, 2001:29)
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bass, J. (1987. Educating the Reflective Pactitioner [Review of the book The reflective practitioner].
Collin, C., & DK Publishing, Inc. (2012). The psychology book. New York: DK Pub.
Dewey, J. (1963). Philosophy, psychology and social practice: Essays. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons.
Fischer, Agneta & Manstead, Antony & Zaalberg, Ruud. (2003). Social influences on the emotion process. European Review of Social Psychology
Goleman, D. (2013). Focus: The hidden driver of excellence. Bloomsbury.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
Malekar, S. S. (2011). Emotional intelligence & leadership: Better work and learning environment. New Delhi: Excel Books.
McDermott, I., & Jago, W. (2005). The coaching bible: The complete guide to developing personal and professional effectiveness. London: Piatkus. p.g.28-50
Schön, D. A. (1991). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Aldershot: Avebury [Ashgate.
Effective Learning culture. (n.d.). Retrieved June 05, 2019, from http://www.tllg.unisa.edu.au/guide.html, Chapter 3 and 8