A Reflective Lens: Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice | Page 81

A Reflective Lens:
Music Pedagogical Research to Transform Practice

The videos were later used as a tool for the teacher’s
journal writing and self-evaluation. Many researchers
have long used video-cases as a method of instruction
as it provides a strong foundation for observation and
discussion (Hourigan, 2006). Not only can video-cases help
pre-service teachers become more reflective, it also allows
them to help close the gap between theory and practice
(Abell, Bryan & Anderson, 1998); (Boling, 2007); (Kale,
2008).
At the end of each lesson:

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A.

A post-lesson discussion was conducted with my
mentor where I would reflect on how the lesson went
and he would give feedback and suggestions on
what he felt were done well, what the gaps were, and
how I could build on the lessons learnt. Feedback
and guidance from the mentor is not only found to
be vital to encourage reflection, but should also be
a regular part of the classroom method (Barry, 1996;
Powell, 2000).

B.

I wrote a personal self-reflection on how I felt my
lesson went, how I felt while conducting the lesson,
and what I could do to improve my lesson. Selfreflection, according to Larrivee (2000), boosts our
level of awareness which not only allows us to spot
contradictions, but also to re-assess our choices.
(Teacher’s reflection notes are provided in Appendix 2).

C.

Pupils were asked to fill up a weekly reflection log as
a checkpoint for their learning for that lesson and to
assess how engaged they thought they were. Data
collected from the weekly reflections were coded.
(A sample of the reflection log can be found in
Appendix 3).