Taking a step back from one's professional practice or situation is increasingly recognized as the key to making progress in a career or training programme. A new guide written among others by Jacqueline Beckers, Full Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Education’s Department of Education and Training at the University of Liège, aims to provide trainers with tools to help professionals or future professionals develop such an approach.

Close to 40% of new teachers leave the profession within five years because of difficulties they experience on the job. Reflecting upon the context of their actions and their teaching practice could help them better manage the complex situations they face. The guide (1) developed by two teams of researchers from the Universities of Liège and Namur seeks to support such an approach. "Teachers participate in reflection groups during continuing education programmes, in which they come together to talk about a problem that one of them is having, for example. It could therefore be helpful to provide them with methods to develop effective approaches for dealing with difficult situations, as well as methods to better understand what happened", explains Jacqueline Beckers, one of the book's five authors.

When teachers take a risk...

"This reflective approach is particularly important today, when everything is being called into question", continues Jacqueline Beckers. “It's all the more important in professions that are focused on human interactions, like teaching: a lot of mishaps can happen in classroom, and students or groups of students don't always react the way we expect, which can prevent us from pursuing the objectives we had established with them. When the teacher feels that their class is off to a bad start, such as when students are talking and getting rowdy, they can either ‘pretend nothing is wrong’, or make the effort to stop, ask why, and try to analyse what the problem is. The teacher is taking a risk by stopping the class. It's not an easy thing for a new teacher to do, as they have to be willing to put themselves in a situation of disequilibrium in which they acknowledge there is a problem... In our guide we try to provide professionals and their trainers with tools that will make them more attentive to what is happening, and to the fact that indicators about a particular action can help them not only respond to the situation, but be better prepared in the future. Research by ULg’s PERF(2) Department (Professionalisation in Education: Research and Training) showed that when professionals are trained to reflect on past actions, ideally going back over their steps, they engage more often in reflection on current actions and corrective measures.”

Part of what makes this guide unique is that it brings together in one volume a variety of tools developed by two teams of researchers from two different universities. The five co-authors are women with extensive experience training teachers or other human services professionals.

(1) “Comment soutenir la démarche réflexive ?” Outils et grilles d’analyse des pratiques. Evelyne Charlier, Jacqueline Beckers, Séphora Boucenna, Sandrine Biemar, Nathalie François, Charlène Leroy. De Boeck, 2013
(2) As part of the Faculty of Psychology and Education, the "Professionalisation in Education: Research and Training" Department (PERF) focuses on improving the professionalism of people working in human services, particularly in education. It provides initial training for teachers and teacher trainers, child care workers, educators, home care workers, and home health aides, etc. The team views research and training as closely related, and do both on a continuous basis.