instructors looking at post-it notes on board

Reflective Teaching

Reflective Teaching invites instructors to examine their pedagogy, articulate reasons and strengths for their strategies, and identify areas for improvement.

At a Glance

Some key takeaways on reflective teaching:

  • Reflective teaching refers to the practice of evaluating one’s own pedagogy, examining curricular choices, considering student feedback, and making revisions to improve student belonging and learning.
  • Instructors can draw on “students’ eyes, colleagues’ perceptions, personal experience, and theory and research” as they reflect on their teaching and consider areas of improvement (Brookfield, 2017).
  • Reflective practices include self-assessments such as reflection journals, teaching inventories, and video-recorded teaching practices,  while external assessments include student evaluations and classroom observations.

What is  Reflective Teaching?   

Benefits

Recommendations

Examples of Reflective Teaching Methods

References and Resources

What is Reflective Teaching?

Instructors engage in reflective teaching when they dedicate time to evaluate their own teaching practice, examine their curricular choices, consider student feedback, and make revisions to improve student belonging and learning. This process requires information gathering, data interpretation, and planning for the future. Reflective teaching involves examining one’s underlying beliefs about teaching and learning and one’s alignment with actual classroom practice before, during, and after a course is taught.

Benefits

Instructors have reported that reflective practices improve their performance as teachers (Zulfikar and Mujiburrahman, 2018). Reflection can encourage instructors to adjust their teaching according to students’ needs and conceptual understanding (Olaya Mesa, 2018). It also enables students to engage with instructors more effectively and provide feedback on pedagogical practices (Cruickshank et al., 1981).

Mira Debs is a woman wearing a blue sweater.

“Some of the most exciting teaching moments have emerged from conversations with students, leading us to co-create something new together. Over the years, this has involved hands on Montessori lessons for college students, a rural education student panel, visits to schools, and new readings for the syllabus.”

—

Mira Debs, Ph.D, Lecturer in Sociology and Education Studies

Recommendations

When reflecting on their teaching, instructors should think critically about their pedagogy and look for evidence of effective teaching. This critical analysis can draw on a variety of sources: Brookfield (2017) lays out four crucial sources: “students’ eyes, colleagues’ perceptions, personal experience, and theory and research.” Instructors can use various tools and methods to learn from these sources and reflect on their teaching. For example, reflective teaching may include self-assessment, classroom observations, consideration of student evaluations, or exploration of educational research. Because each semester’s students and their needs are different, reflective teaching is a continual practice that supports effective and student-centered teaching.

Many sources of feedback are available to instructors to inform their teaching, including: self-reflection, students’ mid-semester feedback, peer review of teaching, and end-of-term evaluations. Instructors should feel empowered to determine what methods fit the needs and context of their situation and to try out different approaches over time. Before collecting feedback, instructors should consider their goals, such as determining whether a particular strategy is working, checking in on the effectiveness of a particular discussion, or understanding if changes in the direction of a course is warranted. After determining the purpose of collecting feedback, instructors should consider what type(s) of feedback to collect and the timing for doing so.

Examples of Reflective Teaching Methods

  • Reflection Journals: Instructors might consider capturing a few details of their teaching in a journal to create an ongoing narrative of their teaching across terms and years. Scheduling a dedicated time during the 5 or so minutes after class to write their entries will facilitate continual engagement and immediate recall. The instructor writes general thoughts about the day’s lesson and might reflect on the following questions: What went well today? What could I have done differently? How will I modify my instruction in the future?
  • Teaching Inventories: A number of inventories, like the Teaching Practices Inventory (Wieman and Gilbert, 2014), have been developed to help instructors assess and think more broadly about their teaching approaches. Inventories are typically designed to assess the extent to which particular pedagogies are employed (e.g. student- versus teacher-centered practices). 
  • Video-Recorded Teaching Practices: Instructors may request the Poorvu Center to video record their lessons while conducting a classroom observation, or instructors can video record themselves while teaching and use a classroom observation protocol to self-assess their own practices. Some Yale classrooms have video cameras installed for lecture capture, which instructors can then use for their self assessment. 
  • Teaching Portfolio: A more time-intensive practice, the teaching portfolio invites instructors to integrate the various components of their teaching into a cohesive whole, typically starting with a teaching philosophy or statement, moving through sample syllabi and assignments, and ending with evaluations from colleagues and students.Though less focused on classroom practices, a portfolio is an opportunity to reflect on teaching overall. The Poorvu Center offers an opportunity for faculty new to Yale to complete a teaching intensive and reflective program, the Faculty Teaching Academy, which includes a culminating portfolio. Faculty who complete the program will receive a contribution to their research or professional development budgets.  The University of Washington CTL offers best practices for creating a teaching portfolio.

  • Student Evaluations (Midterm and End-of-Term): In many courses, instructors obtain feedback from students in the form of mid-semester feedback and/or end-of-term student evaluations. Because of potential bias, instructors should consider student evaluations as one data source in their instruction and take note of any prevailing themes (Reid, 2010; Basow & Martin, 2012). They can seek out other ways to assess their practices to accompany student evaluation data before taking steps to modify instruction. The Poorvu Center offers consultations regarding mid-semester feedback data collected. They will also conduct small group feedback sessions with an instructor’s students to provide non-evaluative, anonymous conversation notes from students in addition to the traditional survey format. If instructors are interested in sustained feedback over time from a student perspective, then they can also participate in the Pedagogical Partners program.
  • Peer Review of Teaching: Instructors can ask a trusted colleague to observe their classroom and give them feedback on their teaching. Colleagues can agree on an observation protocol or a list of effective teaching principles to focus on from a teaching practices inventory.
  • Classroom Observations: Any instructor at Yale may request an observation with feedback from a member of the Poorvu Center staff. Observations are meant to be non-evaluative and promote reflection.  They begin with a discussion in which the instructor describes course goals and format as well as any issues or teaching practices that are of primary concern. This initial discussion provides useful context for the observation and the post-observation conversation.
  • Small Group Feedback Session: In a small group feedback session (SGFS), a trained observer from the Poorvu Center visits class and conducts a group discussion alone with students during the last twenty minutes. The observer then discusses the feedback with the instructor and can provide a non-evaluative write-up of the feedback upon request.

References and Resources

Basow, S.A. & Martin, J.L. (2012). Bias in student evaluations. In M.E. Kite (Ed.), Effective evaluation of teaching: A guide for faculty and administrators. Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Cruickshank, D. R., Kennedy, J. J., Williams, E. J., Holton, J., & Fay, D. E. (1981). Evaluation of reflective teaching outcomes. The journal of educational research, 75(1), 26-32.

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Olaya Mesa, M. L. (2018). Reflective teaching: An approach to enrich the English teaching professional practice. How, 25(2), 149-170.

Reid, L. (2010). The Role of Perceived Race and Gender in the Evaluation of College Teaching on RateMyProfessors.com. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 3 (3): 137–152.

Zulfikar, T., & Mujiburrahman. (2018). Understanding own teaching: becoming reflective teachers through reflective journals. Reflective Practice, 19(1), 1-13.

  1. The Reflective Teaching Journal provides a useful guide on the practice.
  2. The University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Teaching & Learning has a page on approaches to reflective thinking.