Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective models of John Dewey and Donald Schön

Abstract

In this paper, I take issue with the overuse of reflective practice in teacher education, arguing that the term ‘reflection’ is often utilized without a comprehensive understanding of its quite diverse parentage. In efforts to clarify the term, I trace the ideological lineage of reflective practice in education, detailing the rationalist-technicist model offered in the work of John Dewey and the experiential-intuitive model as it appears in the work of Donald Schön, highlighting the key differences in their respective approaches to reflection through critique. I demonstrate that both models bifurcate knowledge and experience, privileging the former at the expense of the latter. I conclude with a brief exploration of Van Manen’s tacit knowing and its potential for reflective practice in teacher education. Ultimately, this work cautions against an uncritical adoption of reflective models, stressing that in doing so, the very spirit of reflective practice can be undermined.