{"id":586,"date":"2018-09-27T19:15:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T10:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/?page_id=586"},"modified":"2020-09-14T10:29:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T01:29:48","slug":"sen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/issues\/sep18\/sen\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Broaden Perspectives Through Intentional Reflective Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

H\u00fclya \u015een, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u015een, H. (2018). How to broaden perspectives through intentional reflective dialogue. Relay Journal, 1<\/em>(2), 310-316.\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.37237\/relay\/010207<\/p>\n

Download paginated PDF version<\/a><\/p>\n

*This page reflects the original version of this document. Please see PDF for most recent and updated version.<\/span><\/p>\n

The face-to-face mentoring session described in this paper took place on 20th<\/sup> June, 2018 at the School of Foreign Languages of METU in Turkey, as part of my final assignment to Course 4: Advisor Education of Learning Advisor Training Program.<\/p>\n

The primary aim of the session was to guide a learning advisor into a deeper reflection through the use of advising strategies, tools and the three principles of advising. The session was held with a colleague of mine named M who had volunteered to take part in the session, which lasted about 50 minutes. M is an experienced colleague of mine in the field of English Language Education and works at a state university in Ankara, Turkey as a director and English instructor. He has attended the same Learning Advisor Training Program with me provided by Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan, has been conducting both face-to-face and written advising sessions for the last 6 months and has an interest in special education.<\/p>\n

The session was held in order to practice the process of intentional reflective dialogue (Kato & Mynard, 2016) and find out the real challenges my peer experiences both as an advisor and a director. One of the most challenging parts of the session was to initiate the talk with a person who is already familiar with the practice of advising, the flow of a typical advising session as well as advising strategies we make use of to initiate the dialogue. Once failing to initiate the talk with questions like; \u201cIs there anything you want to talk about?\u201d, \u00a0I decided to relate to his emotions to create a relaxed atmosphere and to support further reflection, I asked him how he feels and then describe his feelings through the use of a metaphor as use of metaphors brings more clarity to our ideas and feelings. It was the introductory part of the session where I concentrated on five basic advising strategies, especially repeating, summarizing and complimenting to have my peer feel comfortable, develop rapport and let him experience the state of being listened to (Kato & Mynard, 2016).<\/p>\n

In order to deepen M\u2019s self-reflective processes, I mostly used powerful questions as well as metaphors, my intuition, challenged my peer and tried to link his current practices with his future visions. Please refer to Appendix A for the excerpt from the transcript of my advising session with M illustrating the use of asking powerful questions to widen his perspective.<\/p>\n

While supporting my peer to reflect on his ideas both as an advisor and a director, I tried to observe his utterances as well as non-verbal messages and shifts in mood. For example, I focused on the repeated words which might be related to his values or concerns. He was using the word \u201csystematic\u201d repeatedly and I asked him to clarify what he meant by systematic. Furthermore, he showed excitement while he was talking about his team and I shared my experience with him, which caused him to highlight their positive aspects and how privileged he felt to work with them.<\/p>\n

Throughout the session, I tried to summarize what he said briefly to help us stay focused, which also made him feel the state of being listened to. However, due to the pressure of carrying out an advising session with an experienced colleague of mine, I felt pre-occupied with the idea of asking the right question to support deeper reflection at the initial stage of the session. Once I realized that, I tried to give my full attention to my peer, including everything I could observe, what I could see and feel. This kind of listening is called as \u201cglobal listening\u201d which is also one of the key principles of advising: It\u2019s not about you; it is all about the advisee (Kato & Mynard, 2016).<\/p>\n

After identifying the issue which was mainly about establishing a more systematic approach to decide how to identify the students in need of advising and training the teachers in the institution, I decided to dwell on M\u2019s issue as if it belonged to me by using the tool reflecting on your best-self<\/em> (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 233-234). In order for my peer to have a deeper reflection and to develop professionally, I asked him to reflect on his best-self because focusing on positive emotions would be a driving force for him to solve the issue related to establishing a more systematic approach for advising in his institution accompanied by his best-self more efficiently.<\/p>\n

There is mounting evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of positive psychology intervention. According to Fredrickson (2008), focusing on positive emotions broadens people\u2019s perspective and opens new possibilities for them. Based on Seligman\u2019s authentic happiness theory, participants are required to identify character strengths that define themselves and the tool is called identifying signature strengths (2005). There are other tools used in this theory such as focusing on three good things happening each day or writing about a time when the participant is at his or her best to reflect on the signature strengths. In this session with M, the best-self tool was used in which the advisee reflects on his or her \u201cbest-self\u201d which is based on his or her actual achievements (Kato & Mynard, 2016, p. 233-234).<\/p>\n

I asked M to reflect on his past and choose a moment when he thinks he was at his best in his life up to now. In order to help him use his five senses to bring the image closer, I asked the following questions to him. He mainly focused on positive emotions such as being motivated, persuasive and conveying his message across effectively while describing his best-self. It was the moment when he took an oral exam in his PhD program in order to be qualified before writing his dissertation. Next, when I asked him to talk about his strengths in general, he referred to the best-self moment and came up with the same qualities he adopted during the oral exam. This experience showed me that the best-self activity became a driving force for him to lift his mood that might open new possibilities for him to broaden his perspective or solve problems more efficiently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As a next step, I asked him to label his strengths by choosing a word or a phrase. He defined his strengths as sincerity and communicating his message effectively. At that moment, I told him that we would switch roles in which I would talk about a problem of mine and M would bring some suggestions to solve it. The purpose of this technique was to enable him to see the issue from a different perspective. When he looked at the issue from a different angle, he would see things differently, and notice things he did not identify before and come up with better solutions. In fact, M was supposed to solve his own problem he stated at the beginning of the session, with his best-self as a driving power. Since the strength vocabulary he chose was very relevant to the context, I used them as a transition to the next step. Please refer to Appendix B for the excerpt from the transcript of my mentoring session with M illustrating the use of best-self activity to widen his perspective.<\/p>\n

At the end of the session, I asked M to reflect on the session by referring to his feelings and thoughts about this activity. He stated that the ideas he came up with as a solution to my problem were not completely new ideas as he had been considering similar steps in his context for some time but constructing strength vocabulary after thinking about his best-self enabled him to have a deeper reflection. He also added that this experience gave him a fresh perspective. One of the reasons why we had a thought-provoking session must be due to our balance in terms of experience and age. Kassau and King (2015) state that partnering mentors and mentees of similar experience prevents imbalances in power and promotes professional development.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the session I conducted with M in order to research how to broaden his perspective through deeper reflection, I needed to have intensive preparation prior to the session and the session itself was so intense for me that I also experienced a kind of transformation and by playing the role of an advisor educator, I experienced\u00a0 mutual growth as well as inspiration and self-confidence. I believe that I managed to take my advising skills and strategies one step forward.<\/p>\n

This mentoring session was nothing like the knowledge transfer I mostly did in my previous sessions with learners where I simply provided learning tips, but more like helping my peer to reflect on himself as an educator. I have been transformed into an advisor who can support her peer to reflect critically and have a higher awareness through intentional reflective dialogue.<\/p>\n

Notes on the Contributor<\/strong><\/p>\n

H\u00fclya \u015eEN, holding an M.A. in English Language Teaching on Language Learning Strategies from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey, works as an English instructor and a learning advisor at Middle East Technical University School of Foreign Languages in Ankara, Turkey. Her interests include language learning strategies, learner autonomy and advising in language learning. husen@metu.edu.tr<\/a><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fredrickson, B. (2008). Promoting positive affect<\/em>. M. Eid & R. J. Larsen (Eds.),The science of subjective well-being (pp. 449-468). New York, NY<\/p>\n

Kassau, S.P. & King, E.T. (2014). Peer mentoring second language teachers: A mutually beneficial experience? Foreign Language Annals<\/em>, 48(1), 143-160<\/p>\n

Kato, S. & Mynard, J. (2016). Reflective dialogue: Advising in language learning<\/em>. New York, NY: Routledge.<\/p>\n

Seligman, M. A., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Emprical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60<\/em>(5), 410-421. doi:10.1037\/0003-066x.60.5.410<\/p>\n

Seligman, M. E. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment<\/em>. New York, NY: The Free Press.<\/p>\n

Appendices<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appendix A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mentor:<\/strong> Are you happy with what you are doing now both as an advisor and a director? (Powerful question)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> Yes, I am happy. I am trying to learn leadership and my way of doing this is letting other people become leaders, realize their dreams and giving them opportunities to do that. There are already some people who step up and they want to take responsibility.<\/p>\n

Mentor<\/strong>: What value do you see in what you are doing right now? (Powerful Questions)<\/p>\n

M<\/strong>: Err, what will make people satisfied maybe by serving the others, helping create a system in which they will have pride. They will say I was a part of the creation of this system and it benefits everyone, not only a few people or myself only.<\/p>\n

Mentor:<\/strong> Why is this important to you? (Powerful Question)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> I question my purpose in life, which is being a person who knows his limits, who is in balance within himself maybe reaching an equilibrium in his mind but in order to do that one should try new things which will benefit the others so we as people have a responsibility to create a better society and everybody in this position should try to do his or her best, I believe as a language teacher, I should try to be a member of such teams who are willing to do so. If I am given the opportunity, I can try to inspire myself and get inspiration from others. This is the way I believe makes me satisfied.<\/p>\n

Mentor<\/strong>: You said you need inspiration too to benefit the others. \u00a0(Restating) Do you have a specific idea about what to do benefit others? (Powerful question)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> Yes, it is advising program what we are doing, The main question in advising is how we can help the ones who are left behind, who are below the standards, who were disadvantaged in terms of getting the opportunities for education. Mainly the starting point for the ones who are disadvantaged is related to not having qualified teachers to teach them English, to teach them how to become autonomous learners, so what we need to do now is to establish a very good system of advising and develop tools to develop our advising program. We have more than a thousand of students in our school. Advising program needs more analytical thinking right now.\u00a0 We need a systematic approach to decide how to identify the students in need of advising in the first place. We need to train our teachers, too.<\/p>\n

Appendix B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mentor:<\/strong> As you defined your strengths as being sincere and conveying your message across effectively, I want to hear about your idea about an issue. I am facing a problem as an advisor. I am supposed to introduce advising as a concept at my institution at the beginning of the next academic year and I have the full responsibility to start an advising program for the first time at METU and I have some concerns about this. Do you have any suggestions? (I made the issue similar to M\u2019s problem he stated during the IRD process but adapted it to my own setting in order not to make it too obvious.) Restating & Metaview)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> First of all, you should definitely decide on the steps of the things you want to apply at school: Step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4 but before that you need to clearly specify your goal to the instructors and you should try to make them believe that this will relieve the burden on the shoulder of every instructors and try to help them all.<\/p>\n

Mentor: <\/strong>Specifying my goals, deciding on each step and convincing the instructors that advising will help them in the long term. You are right. I think this is what I should start with. What about student orientation and deciding on which students need advising more? (Summarizing)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> Students can receive advising orientation in their native language and then classroom instructors may be provided with a kind of guideline to identify such students who may need advising and teachers can guide such students to advising. You need to think about the details of the instructor booklet or guidelines.<\/p>\n

Mentor<\/strong>: These are to the point, effective solutions. I really appreciate your help. Do you think they are also relevant to your context? You mentioned a more analytical thinking and a systematic approach to decide how to identify the students in need of advising. You also talked about training the teachers, too. (Complimenting & Restating)<\/p>\n

M:<\/strong> You\u2019re right. Our problems are more or less similar. I have been thinking about these things for some time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H\u00fclya \u015een, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey \u015een, H. (2018). How to broaden perspectives through intentional reflective dialogue. Relay Journal, 1(2), 310-316.\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.37237\/relay\/010207 Download paginated PDF version *This page reflects the original version of this document. Please see PDF for most recent and updated version. The face-to-face mentoring session described in this paper took place … Continue reading “How to Broaden Perspectives Through Intentional Reflective Dialogue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":539,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/586\/revisions\/1851"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp\/relayjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}