Self-Reflective Practices (Cont.)

Mentor/Beginning Special Educator Interactions and Collaborative Reflection

Reflective collaboration requires time together. Many of the questions asked in passing by beginning special educators involve how, when, where, who, and what. Reflection may involve these kinds of questions, but also involve why and what if.

Taking some time to engage in 'reflective dialogues' is necessary to facilitate collaborative reflection. The role of the mentor during a reflective dialogue is to help the beginning special educator develop their own answers to questions, not provide the answers. Mentors can do this by:

• Asking questions about the context of the event.
• Asking for explanations to the answers mentees develop.
• Probing in additional areas to help the mentee go beyond the technical level of reflection to the contextual and critical levels.
• Sharing similar experiences and what they meant.
• Posing alternative answers to questions to stimulate discussion/reflection.
• Posing alternative cause-effect relationships that might be underlying an event to stimulate discussion/reflection.