{"id":4321,"date":"2020-10-08T15:17:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/?page_id=4321"},"modified":"2020-10-08T16:50:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T14:50:28","slug":"reflectivity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/glossary\/reflectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='clear'><\/div><div id='sub_menu1'  class='av-submenu-container main_color  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_one_fifth  avia-builder-el-first  av-sticky-submenu  container_wrap fullsize' style='  z-index:301' ><div class='container av-menu-mobile-disabled '><ul id='av-custom-submenu-1' class='av-subnav-menu av-submenu-pos-right'>\n<li class='menu-item menu-item-top-level  menu-item-top-level-1'><a href='https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/glossary\/' ><span class='avia-bullet'><\/span><span class='avia-menu-text'>GLOSSARY<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><\/div><div class='sticky_placeholder'><\/div><div id='after_submenu'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap fullsize' style=' '  ><div class='container' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-4321'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_fifth  no_margin flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_submenu  el_before_av_three_fifth  avia-builder-el-first  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_three_fifth  no_margin flex_column_div   avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_one_fifth  el_before_av_one_fifth  glossa-dettaglio \" style='background: #ffffff; padding:30px; background-color:#ffffff; border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p><strong>Reflectivity<\/strong><br \/>\nFabrizio Chello<br \/>\nSuor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples<\/p>\n<p>The concept of reflectivity began to circulate in the pedagogical literature during the 1980s thanks to Donald Alan Sch\u00f6nin&#8217;s studies (1983\/1993) on professional epistemologies. Its popularity was due to the specific qualities of the concept but also to the cultural setting in which it was developed, in that it was characterized by a powerful drive to rethink the relationship between knowledge and action and overcome the oppositions that had ensnared the Western tradition. The concept of reflectivity has thus also been reused by other epistemological and theoretical approaches. Some of these approaches were very different from Sch\u00f6nin\u2019s, a fact which helped generate certain ambiguities and areas of confusion. This is why I outline the concept here exclusively in reference to the work of Sch\u00f6n and John Dewey, to whom he referred.<br \/>\nSch\u00f6n developed the concept of \u2018reflectivity\u2019 because he believed that the crisis in the professional world, the focus of his analysis, could be traced back to the pervasive domain of Technical Rationality. Specifically, the rationality according to which professionals, as properly trained experts, apply scientific knowledge constructed through standardized research protocols to a specific problematic case in order to identify a possible solution. This idea outlines a hierarchical, deterministic and unidirectional dynamic between theory and practice, and as such it fails to take into account the changing, uncertain and ambiguous nature of the issues that professional face on a daily basis.<br \/>\nIn order to highlight this changeable nature, Sch\u00f6n departed from the neo-positivist view of scientific knowledge by drawing on early 20<sup>th<\/sup> century American pragmatism and particularly John Dewey&#8217;s (1938\/1974) volume <em>Logic: The theory of inquiry<\/em>. In this work, Dewey interprets scientific research as a reflective type of logical process through which a situation initially perceived as uncertain, ambiguous and problematic becomes clear, well-defined and manageable. Therefore, Sch\u00f6n (1983\/1993) was able to think of professional activity as the result of a research process based on Reflective Rationality, i.e. a form of non-applicative and non-standardized rationality allowing professionals to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>analyze the uncertain and indeterminate situations in which they find themselves;<\/li>\n<li>transform these situations into problems to be addressed;<\/li>\n<li>identify the aims of their interventions;<\/li>\n<li>design the actions and tools comprising these interventions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to this vision, professionals carry out an \u2018artistic\u2019 or \u2018artisanal\u2019 type of cognitive work in a tacit and implicit way during their professional activity (reflection-in-action) and\/or in a more explicit and conscious way after their activity is completed (reflection-on-action).<br \/>\nAs Mezirow\u2019s work shows (1991\/2003), Sch\u00f6n\u2019s epistemological idea made it possible to uncover the potentially transformative role of reflectivity as a <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/glossary\/competences\/\">competence<\/a> that allows professionals to look back on their activity in order to question and potentially change their perspectives.<br \/>\nHowever, this idea has also been widely criticized (see Erlandson, 2007), especially in relation to three main areas:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>the concept of reflection-in-action involves a time span too limited for the actor to reflect on problematic aspects; such reflection can only occur in reflection-on-action;<\/li>\n<li>reflectivity, although shared and dialogic, is conceived as an individual competence and, therefore, the absence of a true intersubjective perspective may lead professionals to interpret the product of their reflection in a normative way;<\/li>\n<li>the dominant role of language in the analysis of problematic situations leads to misunderstanding factual reality<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Although these criticisms stem from different theoretical perspectives and purposes, they converge in identifying some weaknesses inherent in the constructivist interpretation of Dewey\u2019s pragmatism that seems to have inspired Sch\u00f6n\u2019s formulation of reflectivity (1983\/1993). In response to these points, \u2018reflectivity\u2019 was re-read more recently in light of Dewey\u2019s perspective (Dewey &amp; Bentley, 1949\/1974) as the function emerging from the transaction between organism and environment and, therefore, a feature that belongs not to individual professionals but to the system in which they operate.<br \/>\nA number of research actions in the RE-SERVES project are designed on the basis of this reinterpretation, with the aim of allowing formal and non-formal educational services to enhance their reflectivity through practices of transactional comparison so as to transform themselves into educational <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/glossary\/educational-community-of-care\/\">communities<\/a> of care.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Selected references<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dewey, J. (1974). Logica, teoria dell\u2019indagine. Einaudi. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1938)<\/p>\n<p>Dewey, J., &amp; Bentley, A.F. (1974). Conoscenza e transazione. La Nuova Italia. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1949)<\/p>\n<p>Erlandson, P. (2007), Docile Bodies and Imaginary Minds. On Sch\u00f6n\u2019s Reflection-in-Action. G\u00f6teborgs Universitet.<\/p>\n<p>Mezirow J. (2003). Apprendimento e trasformazione. Il significato dell\u2019esperienza e il valore della riflessione nell\u2019apprendimento degli adulti. Raffaello Cortina. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1991)<\/p>\n<p>Sch\u00f6n, D.A. (1993). Il professionista riflessivo. Per una nuova epistemologia della pratica professionale. Dedalo. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1983)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><div class=\"flex_column av_one_fifth  no_margin flex_column_div   avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_three_fifth  avia-builder-el-last  \" style='background: #ffffff; padding:30px; background-color:#ffffff; border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p><strong>How to cite this text:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chello, F. (2020). Reflectivity. In M. Milana &amp; P. Perillo (Cur.) RE-SERVES project: Glossary. <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/\"><u>https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3042,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4321"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4393,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4321\/revisions\/4393"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dsu.univr.it\/re-serves\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}