Reflective Theory - Lorna

I have to admit, after first skimming Embodied Reflection and the Epistemology of Reflective Practice, I did not easily grasp Schon’s reflective theory. However, after further reading I was able to grasp this theory. Schon’s reflective theory has been viewed as an exploration of “thinking on your feet.” For some, especially in our work environment, this can be a usual occurrence. Schon explains that a person may react to a certain situation, knowing or unknowingly, by using past experiences. For example, a woman walking down a street notices a person approaching her in a hurried and threatening way. The woman reacts by screaming and jumping up and down, drawing attention to her. The person approaching her in a threatening way notices others noticing her. He then walks the other way. In this particular scenario, the woman remembered as a child that if you want immediate attention to yell “fire” (in this case, she just acted a fool). This brings us to Schon’s “implicit knowledge”, also known as “tacit knowledge”.

In Theory in Practice, the terms ‘implicit knowledge’ is taken to mean that ‘we know more that we can tell and more than our behavior consistently shows’ (Argyris and Schon, 1992, p. 10). Argyris and Schon further describe tacit knowledge as “what we display when we recognize one face from thousands without being able to say how we do so, when we demonstrate a skill for which we cannot state an explicit program, or when we experience the intimation of a discovery we cannot put into words’ (ibid.) (Kinsela, p. 397).

Once the person reacts to a situation using their past experiences, they may assess the outcome to determine if it could have been handled differently or used a different approach. Schon refers to this as “reflection-in-action.” By using past experiences, assessing the outcome of the behavior, it is used as a learning tool and provides an on-going learning process. For example, a manager experiences an irate client who is upset with the customer service that an employee provided. The manager intervenes, smiles and talks in a soothing voice to the irate customer. The customer now changes his tone and calms down. After the incident, the manager and the employee look back at the incident to make an assessment to see if the situation was handled properly or if it could have been handled differently. This is known as reflection-in-action.

It has been noted that Schon’s reflective theory has influences of constructivism. Meichenbaum (1995), stated, “The constructivist perspective is founded on the idea that humans actively construct their personal realities and create their own representational models of the world’ (p. 23). Furthermore, Dewey postulated that “all genuine education comes about through experience” (p. 13) (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, p. 162). This brings us to Schon’s reflective theory that knowledge is inherent as we utilize our experiences to form outcomes. From the outcome, we assess it and use it as a learning tool.


References:

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide.
San Fancisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kinsella, E. A. (2006). Constructivist underpinnings in Donald Schon’s theory of reflective practice:
Echoes of Nelson Goodman. Reflective Practice, 7(3), pp. 277-286.

Kinsella, E. A. (2007). Embodied reflection and the epistemology of reflective practice. Journal of
Philosophy of Education, 41(1). pp. 395-409.