Refining Your Teaching Practice Through Reflection

New teachers are often told that engaging lessons are one of the most important elements of student learning. This is true, but instead of giving ideas for how to engage students, I’m here to offer a few tools for reflection on units, strategies, lessons, and content because self-reflection is an equally powerful tool that is rather overlooked in professional development these days.

Like any professional, educators strive diligently to improve their practice. One way is to self-assess; some might argue that this is the best way toward teacher improvement. Since there are so many elements to being a better practitioner, it can be overwhelming to constantly strive to improve. I think it’s easier to be intentional with reflection and choose the times when you’re most able to be reflective. This might be at the start of the school year or right after a unit is completed. Some teachers like to reflect at the end of each quarter.

4 Tips for Reflection

1. Focus on one thing you want to improve on in the year. Then, ask for feedback on that topic near the end of each quarter so that you have time to make adjustments before the next quarter begins. This is an old tip, but I’ve found that having time to reflect on feedback during a break makes me more open to it.

2. Ask students for verbal feedback. Having very honest and trusting relationships with your students is needed for verbal feedback to work well. If students feel like they can be honest with you and don’t mind telling you the truth, then it’s fine to ask for verbal feedback. If you don’t have this type of relationship or if your students are new to you, then I suggest sticking with anonymous feedback.

Whether you need information from them on a lesson’s content or their engagement, this is a way to build a positive relationship where students are empowered to give meaningful feedback and see their teacher as someone who is constantly striving to improve and willing to change based on their feedback. If you’re interested in obtaining feedback from your peers, that’s always an option.

While anonymous digital feedback is the norm, I’ve found that some students don’t take it seriously. But when I ask for their opinion, my secondary students are eager to share. I often start these sessions when students write their exit tickets or when the whole class is engaged in an ending activity. I invite students up either privately or in small groups, and I explain that I’d like honest feedback on how the lesson went and give specific examples of what I’m wondering about.

This process usually lasts about three to four minutes. I write notes in a notebook that’s specifically dedicated to feedback so it’s not mixed up with the other things I need to do. I go back later and compare my lesson with the feedback, and I add notes to my digital curriculum document. This lets me truly process the feedback.

3. Write a note to remind yourself what to change. I write a short note to myself on my digital lesson plan or on my physical one about one thing I liked and one thing I’d change about each lesson. I don’t always remember to do this, but this is one thing I try to do at the end of the day, and I don’t look at it again until I’m going to teach that lesson next year.

It’s like a short note to remind myself what to look out for in the lesson. For example, a student might say they wanted to work in a group. I’ll write “group work option” and then give it as an option next time, based on student needs. Another student might have said the reading was too long or difficult (a common comment), so I might shorten the reading or give more support in the prereading.

Writing these notes is necessary because I teach multiple grade levels. Of course, if I notice something that needs to be changed right away, I’ll do that by the next class period (giving a different instruction or clarifying something that was unclear) to anticipate expectations.

4. Reflect at the end of each unit. I take time from feedback before I revisit it because sometimes I feel attached to a lesson or unit and I feel I’ve done an amazing job with it. If I give myself some time, even if it’s just a few days, I can usually be open-minded about making changes. Everyone is different, so if you’re not like me, feel free to reflect more often. Regardless, consider using some kind of reflection tool. Here’s a seven-question chart I created that might be helpful to you.

Reading student feedback can sometimes feel confusing because students may contradict each other. Half the class loved learning about a certain topic and enjoyed the speaking activity because it helped them understand the concepts, while the other half said they hated the speaking element and wished I’d just given them a writing activity.

If this happens, I go back to the standard and skill I’m trying to teach. If it’s about speaking, I explain why we’re doing this, and then I have students write for a minute or two about why practicing to speak well is important in the real world or why they would personally benefit from it. If it’s a situation where I have more flexibility, then I’ll give students a choice in how they meet the standard. Some could do the speaking activity while others do the writing piece.

Sometimes I don’t make any changes based on feedback because it doesn’t warrant any change, even if there are strong feelings about a particular skill we are trying to master.

Reflection as Professional Development

Whether you’re more of a reflect-as-you-go educator or like to make time after each big unit, reflective practices are a sincere way to give yourself the ultimate professional development. As Afshan Naseem, Saba Batool, and Mumtaz Akhter note in their article “A Study of Teachers’ Reflections on Their Teaching,” “Reflection is the key to effective teaching and learning techniques.… [R]eflection can improve instructors’ capacity to impart knowledge, have better teacher-student interactions, and hone their classroom management abilities. Teachers’ practice of reflecting also attempts to foster critical reflection, dialogue, and meaningful knowledge storage.”

One of the greatest constraints teachers have is time. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that finding the time to reflect on our own practice in a more formal way can feel a bit impractical and burdensome. So do what makes sense for you and your schedule. I used to reflect often but didn’t write my thoughts down, and I found that I’d make similar mistakes the following year—writing is really helpful for me.

Following these four simple methods for self-reflection have helped me improve my instructional practice and made teaching easier.