We envision reflective practices as feedback loops that make learning visible for students and teachers. This has huge benefits for students, such as agency in learning and meta-cognitive skills.
These makeSPACE Reflective Routines offer an entry point for arts-integrated reflection in any content area. They also provide scaffolding for more complex reflective thinking. For example, in science class, a simple routine like “I notice… I appreciate… I wonder…” can become the framework that students use to discuss sculptural 3D models of a science concept during group critique.
During makeSPACE arts integration, students are guided through reflection in action and reflection on action (see Donald Schön’s book the Reflective Practitioner for more on this distinction).
In the Theater Arts Integration Strategy, students begin with exercises such as ‘Walk & Freeze’, which contains pauses for reflection in action. This means students think about their actions as they are making them, and build on that awareness throughout the exercise. Similarly, when collaborating with peers to create a frozen frame scene with their bodies, or a Tableaux Vivants, students frequently pause and consider the choices they are making: What is working? What could be more interesting or effective?
Having practiced reflection in action, makeSPACE students are primed for more retrospective reflection (reflection on action). Using the theater integration example, this can include linking students’ felt experience during Tableau with the content being explored. We might ask How did you feel when expressing this moment from history through your body? How did making a tableau help you understand this historical moment in a new way? As one student has shared in the past, “its like we were there…” (Check out this chapter exploring the experience of three teachers using tableau and the emotions it can evoke in students and teachers alike).