They know that effective teachers must continuously reflect on their actions as teachers. The Reflective Decision Maker LHU endorses a model for teacher education that has the teacher as a reflective decision maker at its core and sees the teacher functioning in a changing society. Emphasis is placed on the teacher as a thinking, evaluative professional who takes action within a changing environment - a social, economic, technological and professional environment. The concept of the reflective teacher relates well to the view of teacher as instructional decision maker that was first developed in the late 1970s and continues to be discussed today. The instructional decision maker must know what to teach and how to teach under a variety of conditions related to the learners and the goals of the schools.
Reflection includes action and thus calls for decision making on the part of the teacher.
The reflective decision maker, however, makes instructional decisions in a much more tentative way than a managerial decision maker, considers a wider range of factors, and maintains a consciously critical attitude towards decisions. Although decision makers must engage in reflection and revision, traditionally they have tended to see the range of reflection as being of less scope than do those who see reflection as the governing factor in teaching. To be effective as reflective decision makers, teachers must know the content they teach, engage in caring communication, be able to implement a variety of teaching strategies, and be able to engage in evaluation. And they must have practice in decision making and reflection as part of their educational experiences. We at LHU have a commitment to providing learning experiences that will equip our students with the knowledge and the experience to be reflective decision makers.