In On Reflection, Ellen Rose seeks to initiate a much-needed discussion about what reflection is and should be. The word crops up repeatedly in the discourse of teaching and learning, but its meaning is often vague. True reflection—deep, sustained thought that takes place in conditions of solitude and silence—has been undermined by new technologies that speed up the flow of information and the pace of life, as well as by contemporary schooling that unreflectively embraces technological and market imperatives in the name of outcomes, efficiencies, and the preparation of a global workforce. Drawing on a wide range of thinkers, past and present, Rose outlines the important role reflective thought can play in the classroom and in the world at large, and makes a powerful case for slowing down and returning to our thoughts.

Ellen Rose is Professor of Education at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. She is the author of Hyper Texts: The Language and Culture of Educational Computing (2000) and User Error: Resisting Computer Culture (2003).

Ellen Rose's profile page

• Winner, Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology

"Ellen Rose offers this intellectually engaging and beautifully written argument for recovering the meaning and practice of reflection as an urgently needed antidote to the production-oriented, technology-mediated teaching and learning that pervade educational institutions at all levels.... This carefully argued and insightful book is a testament to the kind of deep, sustained thought that Rose advocates and should be read by anyone who truly values human learning".— “Janice Newson, Professor Emerita, York University

Denis Hlynka, Professor, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba