As the final component of its Framework, the Education Division seeks to produce reflective, problem-solving professionals who demonstrate their possession of teaching, administrative, and counseling competencies. These competencies are demonstrated through reflective practice. Reflective thinking means giving critical thought, analysis, interpretation and synthesis to information as opposed to accepting information without judicious reasoning. Educators who rely on habitual behavior and are guided by impulse, custom or authority, rather than their own reflective thoughts, will have a difficult time growing as professionals. The Education Division strongly values reflection as a tool for growth and requires its students to engage in reflective practice as an integral tool of their professional practice. A formula that ensures professional growth is:

Faith + Knowledge + Experience + Reflection = Cognitive and Spiritual Growth

Faculty believe that through continuous reflection about course work and field experiences, MBU students are prepared to become life-long reflective practitioners who seek to improve their skills and knowledge and grow as professionals. Reflective thinking is made up of many parts and reflects the individual desire to engage in inquiry and aggressively seek self-awareness, self-knowledge, and new insights into the world of professional practice.

At MBU, reflection is also a means for linking the faith mission of the institution with contemporary theory, research, and practice in the field. Reflection helps faculty and students to understand that Christian education is not a "one-way street,” but is "committed to the pursuit of truth conducted at the intersection of overlapping discourses" (Cartwright, 199). Reflection therefore provides a means of engaging a plurality of ideas and values without excluding religious discourse.

The curricula for teacher preparation, educational leadership, and counselor education is designed to include critical thinking as an integral component of the instructional strategies. The intent is for the students to address the standards and their competency in meeting those standards through critical thinking, participatory dialogue, and the sharing of ideas and perspectives. Education classes are expected to have designated opportunities for students to practice reflective thinking and expression by relating the content of classroom discussions and dialogue to their personal paradigms and then constructing new knowledge and insight from the interchange of concepts. Reflections provide an opportunity for students to express their interpretations and newly constructed knowledge in written form and to correlate this new knowledge to the standards and competencies. Students are expected to continually improve their sophistication and depth of reflection as they progress through the MBU education program.

Consistent with its belief in the developmental nature of learning, the Education Division has identified three levels in the development of candidates’ reflective skills, corresponding to the first three levels around which the faculty have developed the curriculum:

At the first level of professional development, students are considered to be Exploring the Profession. During this time students who are giving serious consideration to becoming teachers take the first major step toward the profession by completing the admissions packet into the teacher education program and begin taking foundations 300-level courses. The content of these courses introduces the students to concepts and dispositions about teaching and learning, ideas about child growth and development, and technology as it applies to classroom instruction.The students complete the C-BASE basic academic competency test and sit for a personal interview with the education faculty. The objective at this level is to determine whether the student is well suited for education and that education is well suited for the student. To facilitate development of reflective skills, the Education Division has created portfolio courses for undergraduate and graduate students to teach reflective writing to the professional standards.

Level One Reflections

Exploring the Profession: It is our goal that instructors model and teach students the art of reflection. Opportunities are provided in each course for assisted practice and independent assignments requiring reflective thinking.

Candidates for certification are asked to describe the setting/context in which their knowledge, skills, and dispositions were acquired. Candidates for certification learn how to provide accurate and relevant data to verify competency within the standards addressed in the course. Observations and facts are connected to research that comprises the body of data to verify competency within the standards addressed in the data. They learn to interpret and analyze the data and their interpretations, and their analyses allow for inferences and/or decisions that will lead to knowledge and skills beneficial to children. Data are used in the analysis and interpretation to provide evidence of the connectedness and patterns in actions and results. At the foundational level, the candidates for certification must begin to see the connectedness and patterns of actions and results as an important element of professional decision-making. Pre-service candidates are prepared to look into the future based on their observations and analyses, conclusions about practice, plans of instructional, leadership, and counseling activities, and plans for on-going professional development and self-learning.

The candidate for certification will present a reflection for evaluation during an interview for admittance to the professional block for the faculty to determine the level of development in the art of reflection.

At the second level, (Professional Standing) students immerse themselves in the profession through the curriculum, their own performance and competency in professional standards, expectations, and dispositions through more direct and participatory involvement in active learning and action-oriented field experiences and their interactions with faculty, cooperating teachers from their field experiences, and fellow teacher education candidates.

Level Two Reflections

Professional Standing: Students who have been admitted into the Teacher Education Program are at the level in which their skill in the art of reflection is reinforced by opportunities to practice through various assignments that are connected to teaching, administration, and counselor competencies/standards and dispositions. At this level, they should voluntarily and willingly take responsibility to consistently engage in the act of analytic reflection.

The reflections of the candidates for certification persistently and carefully address the standards. They must be able to describe the settings in which the knowledge and skills were acquired and provide accurate and relevant data to verify competency within the standard. They must be able to connect research to observations and facts and interpret and analyze the data to create learning opportunities using professional standards. Interpretations and analyses allow for inferences and/or decisions that are appropriate and beneficial to the intellectual, social, emotional and physical development of children. As they gain skill in using analysis and interpretation of data to provide evidence of the connectedness and patterns in actions and results, their projections into the future are based on their observations and analyses, conclusions about practice, and plans for on-going professional development and self-learning.

While being interviewed for admittance to Professional Internship, candidates for certification will present a general reflection on a teaching, administrative, or counseling standard so that the faculty can determine the students’ level of development in the art of reflection. During this interview, candidates will again be asked to explore their evolving dispositions toward teaching and learning.

The third level (Professional Internship) is the time in their professional development considered their internship. During this period, candidates have the opportunity to draw from all that the education program has provided them via curriculum, scholarship, participation in student professional service and leadership opportunities, experiential learning and personal accountability. During this period, teacher candidates are required to take total responsibility for integrating curriculum, instruction, and assessment in a classroom to which they have been assigned. During the internship, the students are required to apply the knowledge and skills they have attained during the previous levels. It is at this level teachers prepare to take the final step toward professional achievement.

Level Three Reflections

Professional Internship: At this level, students exhibit a refined knowledge and skill of the art of reflection. During the Professional Internship, candidates for certification will produce high-quality reflections that will verify their competencies and dispositions based on the teaching, leadership, and counseling competencies.

Reflections of candidates for certification address the key elements of the standards. They are able to describe extensively the settings in which the knowledge, skills, and dispositions were acquired. They can provide accurate and relevant data to verify competency within each standard. Observations and facts are connected to quality research to compile the body of data. Candidates can interpret and analyze data to create powerful learning and counseling opportunities using professional standards. Interpretations and analyses allow for inferences and/or decisions that are appropriate and beneficial to the intellectual, social, emotional and physical development of children. Data are used in the analysis and interpretation to provide evidence of the connectedness and patterns in actions and results. The connectedness and patterns of actions and results are an important element of professional decision-making that the candidates for certification demonstrate. In-depth projections into the future are based on observations and analysis, conclusions about practice, plans of action for future instructional, leadership, and counseling activities, and plans for future instructional, leadership, and counseling activities, and plans for on-going professional development and self-learning. It is the objective of the education division faculty that at this level reflection has become a natural and automatic cognitive function.

Candidates for certification present their MBU Professional Portfolio for evaluation by students and faculty at the end of their Professional Internship to determine the level of professional growth, competency, and art. The complete evaluation process is required for successful completion of the professional internship and educator preparation program.

The final level of professional development is Induction into the Profession. Having successfully completed the previous levels of development, it is time for MBU candidates to assume a new position as a professional educator.