Georgea Mohlman Sparks-langer and Amy Berstein Colton

R eflective th inking i s not a new idea Dewey (1933) referred to it in his early works but only a handful of researchers and practition ers were using the term until Schon (1983, 1987) began to write about re flective practice in education and other professions Now, those who have always believed in the impor tance of the critical and analytical thinking of teachers are rallying around the idea This shift toward an interest in re flective thinking has come about partly as a reaction to the overly technical and simplistic view of teaching that dominated the 1980s Gradually, how ever, experts in supervision, staff de velopment, and teacher education have begun to recognize that teaching is a complex, situation-specific, and dilemma-ridden endeavor Recently they have begun to study teachers' values and philosophies in the face of their everyday dilemmas Today, pro fessional knowledge is seen as coming both from sources outside the teacher and from the teachers' own interpre tations of their everyday experiences It is difficult to pin down the exact meaning of the term reflection Most who use the term would probably agree that the opposite of reflective action is the mindless following of unexamined practices or principles But within that agreement, there is quite a range of opinion regarding what reflection is and what it looks like in action. This article presents three elements that are important in teachers' reflec tive thinking The first is the cognitive element, which describes how teachers process information and make deci sions The second, the critical element, focuses on the substance that drives the thinking experiences, goals, values, and social implications The final ele ment of reflection, teachers narratives, refers to teachers' own interpretations of the events that occur within their particular contexts