Reflective Teaching

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works - a process of self-observation and self-evaluation.


By collecting information about what goes on in our classroom, and by analysing and evaluating this information, we identify and explore our own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to 


changes and improvements in our teaching.


Reflective teaching is therefore a means of professional development which begins in our classroom.

    • Why it is important
    • Beginning the process of reflection
        o Teacher diary
        o Peer observation
        o Recording lessons
        o Student feedback
    • What to do next
        o Think
        o Talk
        o Read
        o Ask
    • Conclusion

Why it is important
Many teachers already think about their teaching and talk to colleagues about it too. You might think or tell someone that "My lesson went well" or "My students didn't seem to understand" or "My students were so badly behaved today."


However, without more time spent focussing on or discussing what has happened, we may tend to jump to conclusions about why things are happening. We may only notice reactions of the louder students. Reflective teaching therefore implies a more systematic process of collecting, recording and analysing our thoughts and observations, as well as those of our students, and then going on to making changes.

    • If a lesson went well we can describe it and think about why it was successful.
    • If the students didn't understand a language point we introduced we need to think about what we did and why it may have been unclear.
    • If students are misbehaving - what were they doing, when and why?

 


Beginning the process of reflection
You may begin a process of reflection in response to a particular problem that has arisen with one or your classes, or simply as a way of finding...