Reflection is the process when you consider if your targets have been met and how you might revise and improve your instructional output. The majority of this information comes from Char Booth’s 2011 book Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning.
Meeting your targets
What are the results of your assessments? What feedback did you receive? What was the learner’s experience? Did you meet your goals?
“At its best, assessment is reflective (a way of attuning to a learning scenario and adjusting the impact of your teaching). It can also be communicative (a means of demonstrating your investment in the learning process); Interactive (a method for engaging activity and connecting with learners); structural (a way of transitioning between activities); nuanced (a strategy for bringing the unique qualities of a learning interaction to the fore); and didactic (an opportunity to facilitate learner self-evaluation and reinforce content).” (2011) Booth continues by providing seven reflective strategies for educators.
- Learn in the moment. Don’t miss opportunities to observe and evaluate your own instruction sessions. Immediately after a class, ask yourself what stands out, what worked, and what needs to be improved.
- Never throw anything away. A main tenet of reflection is how you can recycle, revise, and reuse what you (or someone else) has already created. “Reflective teaching is a commitment to continuous change based on meaningful experience and learner insight, and considering concrete ways to revise a learning scenario or object allows even rote learning interactions to become more dynamic.”
- See “shortcomings” as challenges. This allows you to focus on what you’d like to change or improve rather than avoiding what you may be ashamed of.
- Lighten up, toughen up. Trying something new may lead to greater instructional comfort. Yes, it’s scary, but once you are “an expert at experiencing discomfort,” you become more mindful of your teaching practices.
- Shake it off, but learn from mistakes. When something goes wrong, and it will, it’s vitally important that you take stock of what happened, how you can learn from it, and move on. This is probably one of the hardest prospects of reflective teaching. Moving on and letting go is hard for everyone, but you must remember that this is a learning opportunity for you and will inform your reflection.
- Invite feedback, and take it seriously. Incorporating learner input is fundamental to reflective practices. Consider creating a feedback loop in your assessment activities. The feedback loop consists of four assessments:
- Pre-assessment is conducted before instruction to establish prior knowledge and analyze the scenario.
- Formative Assessment evaluates materials during design and gives insight to the quality and character of an in-progress interaction.
- Summative assessment occurs at the conclusion of an interaction and judges its overall effectiveness.
- Confirmation assessment occurs well after an interaction and tracks retention and recall of actionable knowledge in authentic settings.
- Be flexible. It is so tempting to rely on your same instructional tools and objects, especially when you’re in a time crunch. A benefit of reflective teaching is that it allows you to adapt to the scenario rather than you trying to radically restructure the instructional setting. Flexibility allows for your teaching practice to evolve, grow, and respond to the learning climate.
