At Rugby School Thailand, ‘reflective’ is one of six core ‘Learner Profile’ characteristics that are woven into all areas of teaching and learning. We will look at what it means to be reflective and why it matters in education.
To be ‘reflective’ relates to or is characterised by deep thought. In the context of our Learner Profile, this characteristic tends to relate to self-reflection, or deep thought about oneself, centring around the following points:
- Understanding your own strengths and weaknesses
- Setting goals that you work towards
- Practising mindfulness
By bringing reflective practice into our education, we allow students and teachers to adjust and respond to individual differences. While for students, this involves reflecting on Effort & Attainment grades and critiquing their own performance or work, teachers can also use reflective teaching techniques to improve their teaching methodologies, which in turn improves the experiences of our students.
The language used to convey these sometimes complex ideas develops as students grow with us. As an example for 2 to 7-year-olds, we adapt the terminology for our core Learner Profile characteristics, so the children learn about the concepts via a collection of animal characters; the idea of being reflective is taught through the ‘Exploring Eagle’ who can see far and wide and the ‘Proud Peacock’ who takes pride in work they have done but remains humble and mindful.
To be ‘reflective’ at school is a continual process, promoting understanding, improvement and growth at all times. Through this evergreen reflective practice and the meta-cognitive skills it promotes, we can see the performance of our students improve. So why not support your child in being more reflective with these simple tools:
- Ask your child to look back at an experience they’ve had at school and describe it briefly.
- Invite them to think about what was positive about this experience and what was challenging.
- Encourage them to think about what they learned about themselves during this experience.
- Finally, set an intention or goal for future scenarios like this.
Rugby School Thailand is a leading British international school for 2-18 year-olds, with boarding from aged 10+.
