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Thao Pham

|SHARE | Notes of reflection: Orientation Day

In the past months, I participated in the SHARE project. The projects provide varied training sessions for the development of teaching portfolios, teaching philosophies, and instructional strategies. This note is dedicated to the project with my sincere gratitude. I also write to remember what I consider to be extremely valuable for a young educator like myself. I will try to write separate posts on each topic. The first one dedicates to our Orientation day


We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience (John Dewey)

On the first day of our course, we thoroughly enjoyed our training outside of Hanoi. This is the first time I have listened to my colleagues discuss teaching. I recall Dr. Tam's 4H teaching philosophy to this day (Heart, Head, Hand, and Hope).


Developing a teaching philosophy and a portfolio are efforts that resonate strongly with me.

This is the sole reason I maintain this website. What's new is how each subject should incorporate with a different teaching philosophy. It serves as the foundation upon which we build our lesson plan. The concept that each lesson should be a movie with a plot also impressed me. Simply because stories connect people. In addition, we were introduced to reflective practices:

the act of thinking about our experiences in order to learn from them

So why should we reflect?

  • Think about future plans

  • Put self-talk voice to use when learning from what has been done or when moving forward

  • Give areas to improve on or develop knowledge & skills

  • Spark new ideas & ways of thinking

  • Challenge assumptions & see things from a new perspective

  • EI developed from reflection is a useful skill for own wellbeing & when working with others.

  • Maintain a healthy work/life balance by offering a defined process for thinking things through.

How should we reflect?

Some models were introduced by us are

  • ERA Cycle (Jasper, 2013): Experience => Reflection => Action => ....

  • Driscoll's What Model (Borton, 1970; Driscoll, 1990s): What => So What? => Now What? => ....

  • Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1984): Concrete experience => Reflective Observation => Abstract Conceptualization => Active Experimentation.

Here is one of examples on our reflective assignment


This day has left me with many questions about who I am as a teacher and how I should proceed in the next chapter of my career. It also a pad on my shoulder that I am going toward the right direction.

A photo I would love to keep just for future reminder


Thank you for the exprience!


I am forever grateful <3




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