School Didactics And Learning: a school Didactic Model Framing An Analysis of Pedagogical Implication of Learning Theory

Reflection on Experiences in Relation to Intentions in Institutionalized
Practice—Circle A.
The first level
of reflection is equal to the circle that constituted the kernel of the previously presented school didactic
model. That circle consisted of the following steps: intention—activity—experience—reflection—
preunderstanding. In some respects it also reminds us of the hermeneutic circle 
(Gadamer)
. Yet this
FIG. 8.2. The three circles—a scheme for how didactic reflection may be related to didactic theory.
8. CLOSING THOUGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES
173

---

reflective process should always be understood in relation to the cultural context and the specific activity in
question.
Kolb’s (1984) model was previously criticized for being neutral to the type of activity and the context
within which this activity both occurs and partly constitutes. The expression teaching-studying-learning
process was taken to indicate the organic relation between the teachers’ and students’ intentional and
contextual inter-activity. In some respects the concept of activity-system used in activity theory reflects this
view (Engeström, 1987). The first circle in the figure thus reflects the students’ and the teachers’ processes
in this respect. The following discussion is, however, delimited to the relation between the teacher’s activity
and didactic theory.
To be more specific “reflection” refers here to thinking about one’s experiences (German 
Erlebnis,
Swedish 
upplevelse,
Finnish 
elämys
). This type of reflection may result in reflected experience (German
Erfahrung,
Swedish 
erfarenhet,
Finnish 
kokemus
).
The next step, reflecting on one’s reflected experience 
(Erfahrung)
may then be called self-reflection. In
other words, the thought processes involved may be the same, but the object of reflection varies. In
reflection (i.e. in thinking about one’s experiences), the 
Erlebnis
is the object of reflection. In self-reflection
again the 
Erfahrung
is the object.
To reflect on one’s continuous experiences during action may then be called reflection on action (Schön,
1983). Observe, however, that reflection on action here means that a teacher may, in the course of teaching,
stop for a while to reflect. In doing this the teacher changes his attention from being engaged in the world or
from his beingness to his experience as such. Thus reflection on action does not refer here to awareness of
the ongoing TSL process (Bengtsson, 1993, pp. 29 ff.) but to reflecting on one’s own experience of the
process.
It should be said that this reflection is situated within the institutionalized practice of teaching regulated
by its own norms.
Making Use of Didactic Theory in Reflecting on One’s Didactic
Experiences—Circle B.
A teacher, as any
practitioner, may circle around on the first level for an hour or for decades. Sometimes, however, there is a
need to take what is called a problematizing attitude towards one’s own experiences. The reasons for this
may be of different kinds. Primarily, though, this need to change evolves from either experienced changes
in the external reality or changes in the individual’s internal world. Both changes may result in an
incongruence between previously reflected experience and present experiences or in an incongruence
between reflected experience and possibilities to realize intended future activity.
This problematizing attitude can mean that a teacher systematically tries to focus on why one’s
understanding of a pedagogical process does not work. On this second level the private experiences may be
compared with another teacher’s, a colleague’s experience or with a model or theory of didactics. To use
didactic theory as an instrument in reflecting on one’s experiences