Building Resident Power and Capacity for Change

An "on the ground" reflection about what it takes for funders to work effective with low-income communities. This report is a set of reflections that began with conversations among fifty people who gathered in Chicago in September of 2008 for Grassroots Grantmakers first "on the ground" learning gathering, and extended over the following several months.The idea for this report came from an interest in doing more than generating proceedings or a report on a meeting.  Our interest was in promoting and supporting reflection about what it takes to work effective in the grassroots grantmaking domain, and in sharing those reflections as a spark for further conversations

A PRESERVICE MATHEMATICS TEACHER’S REFLECTIONS AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICES FOCUSING ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING

How reflections facilitated a preservice mathematics teacher’s thinking about students’ learning was explored by focusing on (i) what one preservice mathematics teacher studying in a two-year alternative non-typical Teacher Certification Program reflected about students’ learning in the context of Practice Teaching, and (ii) how these reflections were revealed in her teaching. Data were gathered through pre- and post-observation conferences (meetings) with the participant based on her observations of 32 lessons and the documents she produced. Inductive coding based on Schön’s (1987) reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action framework revealed that the participant's reflections-on-action were about how and what she should improve in her knowledge and practice to address students' learning better, and her reflections-in-action were about how to modify her teaching to address students' differences. She improved her practice gradually based on these reflections, and the focus of these reflections changed throughout the process. The study showed that mentors and experienced teachers could be instrumental in this process, and systematic, continuous, and supported reflections provide development in reflective practice considering student learning. &nbsp

Age estimates of isochronous reflection horizons by combining ice core, survey, and synthetic radar data.

Ice core records and ice-penetrating radar data contain complementary information on glacial subsurface structure and composition, providing various opportunities for interpreting past and present environmental conditions. To exploit the full range of possible applications, accurate dating of internal radar reflection horizons and knowledge about their constituting features is required. On the basis of three ice core records from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, and surface-based radar profiles connecting the drilling locations, we investigate the accuracies involved in transferring age-depth relationships obtained from the ice cores to continuous radar reflections. Two methods are used to date five internal reflection horizons: (1) conventional dating is carried out by converting the travel time of the tracked reflection to a single depth, which is then associated with an age at each core location, and (2) forward modeling of electromagnetic wave propagation is based on dielectric profiling of ice cores and performed to identify the depth ranges from which tracked reflections originate, yielding an age range at each drill site. Statistical analysis of all age estimates results in age uncertainties of 5 10 years for conventional dating and an error range of 1 16 years for forward modeling. For our radar operations at 200 and 250 MHz in the upper 100 m of the ice sheet, comprising some 1000 1500 years of deposition history, final age uncertainties are 8 years in favorable cases and 21 years at the limit of feasibility. About one third of the uncertainty is associated with the initial ice core dating; the remaining part is associated with radar data quality and analysis

Reflection - quantifying a rare good

Based on a literature review, reflections in written text are rare. The reported proportions of reflection are based on different baselines, making comparisons difficult. In contrast, this research reports on the proportion of occurrences of elements of reflection based on sentence level. This metric allows to compare proportions of elements of reflection. Previous studies are based on courses tailored to foster reflection. The reported proportions represent more the success of a specific instruction than informing about proportions of reflections occurring in student writings in general. This study is based on a large sample of course forum posts of a virtual learning environment. In total 1000 sentences were randomly selected and manually classified according to six elements of reflection. Five raters rated each sentence. Agreement was calculated based on a majority vote. The proportions of elements of reflection are reported and its potential application for course analytics demonstrated. The results indicate that reflections in text are indeed rare, and that there are differences within elements of reflection

An evaluation of the partial reflection technique and results from the winter 1971 - 1972 D region

Fundamental physical and chemical processes, and measurement techniques on the D region are reviewed. Design considerations about a partial-reflection system are made, and the main characteristics of the partial-reflection system at the University of Illinois are presented. The nature of the partial reflections is discussed, particularly reflections produced by gradients in electron density and by random fluctuations in a locally homogeneous random medium. Possible reasons for disagreement between partial reflections and rocket measurements are discussed. Some suggestions are made to improve partial-reflection data reduction, including the use of only maximums of the reflections and deconvolution of the data. The results of partial-reflection measurements at Wallops Island, Virginia during the 1971-1972 winter are presented and compared to rocket measurements

Online Reflections in a Blended Approach to Collaborative Faculty Development

Blended approaches to collaborative faculty development have the potential for stimulating critical reflection, but the process of online reflection by faculty members has not been fully explored in the literature. The purpose of this qualitative action research case study was to examine a blended approach to collaborative inquiry for professional development with a particular interest in the reflections that occurred online. This study had two focal points. First, to explore the relationship between the online reflections and the overall development of the participants and second, to more closely examine the levels of reflection that occurred within the online aspect of this blended collaborative inquiry. This dissertation employed the case study method to examine the experience of seven community college faculty members. Interviews and online discussion transcripts were used to identify themes and this study developed a rubric for identifying levels of online reflection. This study identified six major themes as follows: (a) discussions with other faculty members create a supporting atmosphere that is beneficial to learning about teaching, (b) the online reflections can be challenging, (c) the online reflections allow the discussion to continue and allow participants to keep up while missing a meeting, (d) the online reflections allow for more immediate idea sharing and for more in-depth reflection, (e) the convenience of the course management system facilitated reflection, (f) the lack of incentives to participate and the complicated structure of the discussion boards inhibited reflection. This study identified five levels online reflections occur as: (a) non-reflective, (b) contemplative, (c) problem/content, (d) process/product and (e) premise. This study also identified several patterns of premise level reflections. Based on these findings, this study provides greater insight into the best practices for organizing and conducting blended collaborative faculty development and facilitating critical faculty reflection in online venues

Exploring reflection in pre-service teacher education: a social perspective on the application, value and factors influencing reflection

This study explores the implementation of reflection from the perspective of teacher trainees in two ‘four-week’ teacher training courses in the southeast of the UK and provides a social perspective into reflection. The study reveals that participants conceptualise the different aspects of reflection, written, oral, and reflections made about others, differently in terms of their application and value, and shows a number of factors impacting the understanding and practice of such aspects. Accordingly, the application of written reflection is viewed as an idiosyncratic process and is understood as a systematic activity that is underexplored, while oral reflection is described as an interactional process, characterised by discussion and participation, and portrayed to be a practice of an important value. Participants’ views on the reflections made on others, both peers and experienced teachers, define such reflections in terms of a social process. Three factors impacting reflection are psychological involving trainees’ emotions, contextual, identifying aspects such as the context of reflection, trainees’ status as novice teachers, experience in reflection, and the guidance required, and social, revealing the impact of community dynamics on participants’ reflections. The study followed a qualitative approach and was framed within an ethnographic methodology with an autoethnographic aspect, recounting my insider experience during fieldwork. Data were collected in the two teacher training courses, using interviews, observations of the field, and an analysis of participants’ reflections, then analysed thematically. The findings of the study have methodological implications, focusing on the importance of insider experiences in research, pedagogical implications, suggesting a multi-dimensional framework for reflection, useful in teacher education contexts and beyond, and theoreticalimplications, proposing the integration of a social perspective to the study of reflection