73rd chat, Monday December 19 2016: critical reflection
11am Pacific / noon Mountain / 1pm Central / 2pm Eastern / 7pm GMT

Moderated by @lisahubbell
Storify (pdf, html) by @lisahubbell

Critical reflection: questions and techniques for writing or group discussion to examine our practices

Critical reflection is an essential tool for raising our awareness of how we put theories into practice, and for conscious improvement on an ongoing basis. It can be done through writing, or out loud with others in “critical friend” relationships. It is used in the Ignatian Catholic practice of examen to look back on each day, and often recommended as a professional development tool for practitioners in education, nursing, organizational development, and other fields.

Discussion questions:

• Q1. How/when do you build in time to reflect on your own work/praxis? Frequently, sporadically, in certain settings/circumstances? #critlib
• Q2. Have you found any tools, practices, habits that spur such reflection for you? Is your approach more structured or free-form? #critlib
• Q3. Do you examine your work, strivings, failures in light of specific theories, models, questions? How do you engage with them? #critlib
• Q4. What challenges or obstacles do you encounter in using critical reflection in practice? How do you overcome them? #critlib
• Q5. Does reflection propel you to shift your thinking, to take action? By itself, or combined with other input? If not, what does? #critlib

Definitions:

• praxis (noun): defined by Merriam-Webster as “practical application of a theory”

Suggested readings:

• Forrest, M. E. (2008). On becoming a critically reflective practitioner. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 25(3), 229-232. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00787.x/full
• Deitering, A.-M. (2015, May 1). LOEX 2015: Reflections on Reflection. Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Meta. https://info-fetishist.org/2015/05/01/loex2015/
• Goodsett, M. (2014). Reflective teaching: Improving library instruction through self-reflection. The Southeastern Librarian, 62(3), 3. http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1520&context=seln
• Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (1993). Through the lens of a critical friend. Educational leadership, 51, 49-49. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct93/vol51/num02/Through-the-Lens-of-a-Critical-Friend.aspx
• Graf, A. J. (2016). Learning from teaching: A dialogue of risk and reflection. In N. Pagowsky & K. McElroy Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook: Vol.1. Essays and workbook activities (pp. 9-15). Chicago, IL: ACRL. http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=lib_faculty

Sample questions for reflective writing:

The readings below offer a range of sample questions for reflection. You may want to try using some of these before the chat. If you’re inspired to blog about your experience with critical reflection as a practice, feel free. You may also want to keep your writing or sharing private, and vent to your heart’s content.

• Questions on living one’s values day-to-day:
  • Examen of consciousness – CSB/SJU. (2016). College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, http://www.csbsju.edu/journey/mission-and-vision/meditations-and-reflections/examen-of-consciousness
  • Kendzior, S. (2016, November 18). We’re heading into dark times. This is how to be your own light in the age of Trump. The Correspondent, https://thecorrespondent.com/5696/were-heading-into-dark-times-this-is-how-to-be-your-own-light-in-the-age-of-trump/1611114266432-e23ea1a6 [several in-depth writing prompts in opening paragraphs]
• Questions on teaching and information literacy:
  • booth, char. (2012, February 29). Claremont Colleges Library 3QR. http://www.slideshare.net/charbooth/claremont-colleges-library-3qr%20
  • Brookfield, S. (n.d.) The classroom critical incident questionnaire. http://www.stephenbrookfield.com/ciq/
  • Deitering, A.-M., & Holliday, W. (2016, January 26). ALA_reflectivepractice_handout.pdf. ALA Annual: Instruction Section Pre-conference Workshop (2015): Reflective Teaching: Self-Examination to Assess and Improve Your Teaching Practice, https://amdeitering.info/2016/01/26/ala-annual-instruction-section-pre-conference-workshop-2015/
  • Haarman, S. (2016, June 6). Examen for working with Marginalized students. Examen, http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/23848/examen-working-marginalized-students
  • Hensley, M. K. (2012). Best practices for using critical reflection to improve your teaching. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/34764/IFLA2012_Workbook.pdf?sequence=2
  • Smith, M. K. (2013, June 25). Writing and keeping journals. A guide for educators and social practitioners. The encyclopaedia of informal education, http://infed.org/mobi/writing-and-keeping-journals-a-guide-for-educators-and-social-practitioners/
  • Tewell, E. (2016, October 12). Putting critical information literacy into context: How and why librarians adopt critical practices in their teaching. In the Library with the Lead Pipe, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2016/putting-critical-information-literacy-into-context-how-and-why-librarians-adopt-critical-practices-in-their-teaching/ [several questions near end of article]

More information about resources that were mentioned during the chat and further reading can be found at https://openbooklibrarian.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/critical-reflection-post-chat-materials.