Reflexive Supervision of Study-Practice-Projects and the Promotion of Reflexivity in (Alternative) Practical Phases

Abstract

The  study-practice-project  is  an  innovative  format  of  practice-projects, which has been developed at the University of Bremen in the context of the “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung”. In a studygroup of a defined timespan, students cooperate with a teacher working on a concrete problem regarding school and  lesson  planning  development,  which  has  been  presented  by  this  specific school. Based on the concept of the “reflective practitioner” (Schön, 1987), the idea is to create a space for students wherein they can gather practical knowledge and  competence  in  the  field  of  school  development  as  well  as  research.  As  it
takes place after the practical semester, where the focus is on teaching itself, it represents an alternative and additional practical setting. Beyond the competence of innovation (KMK, 2004), the underlying idea is to reflect upon the practiceproject as well as upon one’s own personal role within the project. Reflexivity is
hereby understood not only as one’s own basic attitude but also as a practice itself, which needs to be well studied. The concept of the seminar developed within this context is to accompany the students by creating moments of re flection during the practical phase of their projects. On the one hand, the discussion about the advantages of reflection on a meta-level is encouraged. On the other hand, reflection  will  be  trained  by  looking  at  potentially  critical  practice  experiences  using structured and instructed methods of reflection. The aim is to professionally handle  the  critical  practice  experience  and  thereby  restore  one’s  own  ability  to  act within the project. It thus also aims at the individual professionalization process.
This article presents the concept of the seminar in detail. We will focus on the methods  used  to  accompany  the  students  in  this practical  phase,  i.e.,  a form  of collegial case advice and a theory-based model of reflection. Finally, we will discuss its applicability for other formats of practical phases.