Reflective teaching

An important asset to professional development

Introduction
Reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater
level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates
opportunities for professional growth and development. Reflective practice’ is a term often used in
educational pedagogy. It is a continuous process from a personal perspective that considers critical
incidents within your life’s experiences. Reflective practice is simply a dialogue of thinking and
doing through which I become more skillful. (Schön, 1987)
“The most distinctive of these very good teachers is that their practice is the result of
careful reflection. …….They themselves learn lessons each time they teach, evaluating what they
do and use these self-critical evaluations to adjust what they do next time”. (Why colleges
succeed, Ofsted, 2004, Para 19)
Jenny Moon (2005) suggests “Reflection is a form of mental processing that we use to fulfill
a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. It is applied to gain a better understanding of
relatively complicated or unstructured ideas and is largely based on the reprocessing of
knowledge, understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess.”
Also the process of reflections helps teachers to monitor their own development from raw beginner
to experience professional.
David Berliner (2001) outlines the stages of teacher development as going from the
Novice, raw recruit who is learning the basics and is relatively inflexible to the expert, who is very
much like the racing driver or the professional footballer who is completely at one with their art,
performing effortlessly and naturally. Experience and length of service don’t necessarily make an
expert. Experience needs reflection if we are to become expert teachers.

Importance of reflective teaching

Roffey-Barentson & Malthouse (2009) introduce useful 10 ‘benefits of reflective practice’ which
are summarized below:
1. Improving your teaching practice
If you take the time to reflect on your teaching, and reflect on how different parts of what you do
work well, where aspects of your teaching can be improved, and how problems which arise could
be solved, that is bound to help you to improve your teaching.
2. Learning from reflective practice
Purposeful reflection helps ‘deep’ learning take place, and for you as a teacher, it will help you to
make connections between different aspects of your teaching and what goes on around your
teaching. Reflective practice will help you gain new learning and use it in your teaching.
3. Enhancing problem solving skills
When starting off with reflecting on your teaching you may tend to concentrate on problems which
arise. By carefully and honestly considering and analyzing those problems, you will improve your
own capacity to find solutions.
4. Becoming a critical thinker
Critical thinking is about ‘thinking well’, and ‘taking charge’ of your own thinking, and reflective
practice will help you recognize and adjust what you think to take account of changes in
circumstances, and by doing that help you to be better equipped to find solutions which work.
5. Making Decisions
If you regularly reflect on your teaching in depth, you are regularly going to come across the need
to make decisions, but the results of your reflective practice will help you to make those decisions
in a more informed, thoughtful and objective manner.

6. Improving your own organizational skills

If you are thinking carefully about what you are doing, identifying possible actions and choices, trying
out solutions, and adjusting what you do to take account of the results, this involves a good deal of
organization. By breaking down issues and problems into steps or stages, you will get better at
organizing your time and your activity to concentrate on the important, ‘solution-focused’ actions.

7. Managing personal change

Working in education involves managing regular, rapid, pressured and often confusing change, which
can be one of the most difficult aspects of being a teacher. If you are using the techniques of reflective
practice, which involves, calm, thoughtful, honest, critical and organized thinking and action, this
should introduce a calming and less emotional response to that change. As reflective practice is itself
focused on seeking positive improvements and solutions, managing change more effectively should
take place.

8. Acknowledging personal values

There will be things which take place within your professional situation as a teacher which you will
wholeheartedly agree with, and others which will worry or alarm you. This is because they may agree
or disagree with your own personal values such as what you believe in, and what you think is wrong
or right. How these are affected by teaching will vary, but you will almost certainly come across major
clashes of values as part of your work. Reflective practice is an excellent way of acknowledging and
recognizing that those values exist and have an effect, but which concentrates on helping you to
choose approaches and actions which can help you to resolve those clashes without it adversely
affecting the professional balance of your work as a teacher.

9. Taking your own advice

Teachers are often more critical of their own teaching than anyone else, and it could be possible for
this to develop into an attitude about teaching which is negative and destructive. The techniques and
approaches of reflective practice will place you in a position where you are an

informed, positive agent in your own development and improvement and one where you can ‘take
your own advice’ with a confidence that it is reflective, focused and informed advice.

10. Recognizing emancipatory benefits

If you reflect on the nine benefits of reflective practice which have so far been described, you will
clearly see that this is a model of practice which represents the teacher as someone with influence over
their own teaching and their own destiny as a teacher. This is what is at the heart of reflective practice,
and as such it should help considerably to free you from some of the burdens which can weigh
teachers down, and refresh your confidence and your teaching.
Conceptions of Reflective teaching (Sze, 1999)
Reflective teaching can be dealt with from different angles. Five views can be demonstrated as
follows:

a. Reflective teaching as a thoughtful practice

Reflective teaching is a disposition to think about one’s own teaching practice, instead of
passively following routinized procedures that one has established over years. Reflective
teaching only constitutes mindful teaching. Wallace (1996) asserts that “It is normal for
teachers from time to time to informally evaluate their professional expertise”
b. Reflective teaching as a model of teacher education
There are eight principles that guide reflective practice in teacher education.
a. developmental ( improves by time to make relevant changes)
b. culture-sensitive ( observes culture of the educational context)
c. non-prescriptive ( not imposed in any structured way)
d. emphasis on reflecting on experience and theorizing from it
e. theoretical input should be processed in light of previous experience
f. trainee’s experience should be valued
g. trainer and trainees learn from each other
h. course content should be negotiated with trainees
c. Reflective teaching as an organized professional development
Continuous lifelong professional development has been asserted by most writers.
Organized activities in which teachers work collaboratively can be called “enriched
reflection”. Ur (1996) proposes four elements of enriched reflection: a) vicarious
experience b) other people’s observations c) other people’s experiments d) input from
professional research and theories.
d. Reflective teaching as a classroom enquiry
Richard and Lockhart (1994) stress that classroom-based inquiry aims to develop a
reflective approach to teaching. Teachers collect data about teaching; examine their
attitudes, beliefs, assumptions and teaching practices. Some writers place more emphasis on
teachers as researchers. One way to bridge the gap between theory and practice is to induct
teachers into classroom research.
 e. Reflective teaching as a means to social justice
Bartlett (1990) argues that teachers need to critically reflect on certain fundamental issues of
language teaching. Reflective teaching means thinking beyond instructional techniques,
addressing the questions: “why issues and how to problems”.

Characteristics of Reflective teaching

Pollard and Tann (1993) laid out a set of six characteristics of reflective practice. They argued that
the reflective teaching:
1-has an active concern with aims and consequences, as well as means and technical efficiency
2-requires competence in methods of classroom enquiry (gathering data, analysis, evaluation) to
support the development of teaching competence
3-requires attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness
4- is based on teacher judgement which is informed partly by self-reflection and partly by insights
from educational disciplines
5-is enhanced through collaboration and dialogue with colleagues
6-should apply a cyclical or spiral process in which teachers monitor, evaluate and revise their
own practice continuously.
Implementation of Reflective teaching (Richards, 1990)
Many different approaches can be employed if one wishes to become a critically reflective
teacher, including observation of oneself and others, team teaching, and exploring one’s view of
teaching through writing. Central to any approach used however is a three-part process which
involves:
Stage 1: The event itself
The starting point is an actual teaching episode, such as a lesson or other instructional event. While
the focus of critical reflection is usually the teacher’s own teaching, self-reflection can also be
stimulated by observation of another person’s teaching.
Stage 2: Recollection of the event
The next stage in reflective examination of an experience is an account of what happened, without
explanation or evaluation. Several different procedures are available during the recollection phase,
including written descriptions of an event, a video or audio recording of an event, or the use of
check lists or coding systems to capture details of the event.
Stage 3: Review and response to the event
Following a focus on objective description of the event, the participant returns to the event and
reviews it. The event is now processed at a deeper level, and questions are asked about the
experience.
Approaches to critical reflection
Writers suggest many strategies to implement critical reflection in teaching. Some of them are
outlined below.
1. Peer Observation
Peer observation can provide opportunities for teachers to view each other’s teaching in order to
expose them to different teaching styles and to provide opportunities for critical reflection on their
own teaching. In a peer observation project, the following guidelines may be developed.
1. Each participant would both observe and be observed. Teachers would work in pairs and take
turns observing each other’s classes.
2. Pre-observation orientation session: Prior to each observation, the two teachers would meet to
discuss the nature of the class to be observed, the kind of material being taught, the teachers’
approach to teaching, the kinds of students in the class, typical patterns of interaction and class
participation, and any problems that might be expected. The teacher being observed would also
assign the observer a goal for the observation and a task to accomplish. The task would involve
collecting information about some aspect of the lesson, but would not include any evaluation of
the lesson. Observation procedures or instruments to be used would be agreed upon during this
session and a schedule for the observations arranged.
3. The observation: The observer would then visit his or her partner’s class and complete the
observation using the procedures that both partners had agreed on.
4. Post-observation: The two teachers would meet as soon as possible after the lesson. The
observer would report on the information that had been collected and discuss it with the teacher
(Richards & Lockhart, 1994). The teachers identified a variety of different aspects of their lessons
for their partners to observe and collect information on. These included organization of the lesson,
teacher’s time management, students’ performance on tasks, time-on-task, teacher questions and
student responses, student performance during pair work, classroom interaction, class performance
during a new teaching activity, and students’ use of the first language or English during group
work.
Self-evaluation
“Self-evaluation is one of the most overlooked forms of explicit evaluation. Ideally and
logically, this should precede all other forms of the evaluation of teaching effectiveness.
Self-evaluation can assist teachers to improve the educational experiences they provide for your
students and identify the professional education they need to further develop their capacity to teach
well. It also assesses teachers' readiness to apply for promotion and tenure.

Methods of self-Evaluation
1-Self-Reports
Self-reporting involves completing an inventory or check list in which the teacher indicates which
teaching practices were used within a lesson or within a specified time period and how often they
were employed (Pak, 1985). The inventory may be completed individually or in group sessions.
The accuracy of self-reports is found to increase when teachers focus on the teaching of specific
skills in a particular classroom context and when the self-report instrument is carefully constructed
to reflect a wide range of potential teaching practices and behaviours (Richards, 1990).
2-Autobiographies
Abbs (1974, cited in Powell 1985) discusses the use of autobiographies in teacher preparation.
These consist of small groups of around 12 student teachers who meet for an hour each week for at
least 10 weeks. During this period of time each student works at creating a written account of his
or her educational experience and the weekly meetings are used to enable each person to read a
passage from his or her autobiography so that it can be supported, commented upon by peers and
the teacher.
3-Journal Writing
A procedure which is becoming more widely acknowledged as a valuable tool for developing
critical reflection is the journal or diary. The goal of journal writing is:
1. To provide a record of the significant learning experiences that have taken place
2. To help the participant come into touch and keep in touch with the self-development
3. To provide the participants with an opportunity to express, in a personal and dynamic
way, their self-development
4. To foster a creative interaction:
• between the participant and the self-development process that is taking place
• between the participant and other participants who are also in the process of self-development
• between the participant and the facilitator whose role it is to foster such development (Powell,
1985).
4-Recording Lessons
For many aspects of teaching, audio or video recording of lessons can also provide a basis
for reflection. While there are many useful insights to be gained from diaries and self-reports, they
cannot capture the moment to moment processes of teaching. Many things happen simultaneously
in a classroom, and some aspects of a lesson cannot be recalled.
Conclusion
A reflective approach to teaching involves changes in the way we usually perceive teaching and
our role in the process of teaching. Teachers who explore their own teaching through critical
reflection develop changes in attitudes and awareness which they believe can benefit their
professional growth as teachers, as well as improve the kind of support they provide their students.
Reflective teaching suggests that experience alone is insufficient for professional growth, but that
experience coupled with reflection can be a powerful impetus for teacher development.
References
Bartlett, L. (1990). Teacher development through reflective teaching. In J. C. Richards & D.
Nunan (Eds.), Second language teacher education (pp. 202-214). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Berliner, David (2001). The development of expertise in pedagogy. Eric database.
Moon, J. (2005) Guide for Busy Academics No. 4: Learning Through Reflection. Higher
Education Academy.
Roffey-Barentsen, J. & Malthouse, R. (2009) Reflective Practice in the Lifelong Learning Sector.
Learning Matters.
Ofsted reports (2004) Why colleges succeed. Para 19.
Pak, J. 1985. Find Out How You Teach. Adelaide, Australia: National Curriculum Resource
Centre
Pollard, A & Tann, S. (1993) Reflective Teaching in the Primary School.(2nd ed.), London:
Cassell.
Powell, J.P. 1985. Autobiographical learning. In Boud, et al. (pp. 41-51).
Richards, Jack (1990). Towards Reflective Teaching. The teacher Trainer Journal.
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms.
Cambridge University Press.
Schön, Donald (1987) Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers, 1987. 355 pages
Sze, Paul (1999) Reflective Teaching in Second Language Teacher Education: An Overview.
Educational Research Journal. Vol. 14, No.1, Summer.
Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wallace,M. (1996). Structured reflection: The role of the professional project. In Freeman &
Richards. Teacher learning in language teaching (pp281-294). Cambridge University Press.
Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. Cambridge
University Press.

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