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Tasks for Teacher Education: A Reflective Approach (Coursebook) by Tanner, Rosie, Green, Catherine (March 1, 1998) Paperback Paperback

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Rosie tanner.

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Engaging in Reflective Practice: A Practical Guide

• First Online: 23 October 2020

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• Andy Curtis 5  

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

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We begin this chapter by contemplating the question: What is Reflective Practice? and highlighting the important difference between just thinking about our teaching and systematically reflecting on our professional practices. In considering that opening question, we also recognize the multiplicity of meanings of Reflective Practice (RP), and the different ways of engaging in RP. In the same way that ‘one size does not fit all’ in teaching and learning, RP should reflect the individuality of the teacher and their different learners. Some notes on the history of RP are also given, followed by details of the practical aspects of doing RP, using different levels of self-questioning, combined with, for example, video-recording and co-teaching. In the last main part of the chapter, we consider some of the challenges of engaging in RP, and some ways of meeting those challenges.

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Curtis, A. (2020). Engaging in Reflective Practice: A Practical Guide. In: Coombe, C., Anderson, N.J., Stephenson, L. (eds) Professionalizing Your English Language Teaching. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34762-8_20

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The Ultimate Guide to Reflective Practice in Teaching

• Last updated: 7th May, 2024

Posted by: Rico Patzer

What is reflective practice in teaching?

The importance of reflection in teaching, the effect of reflective teaching in schools, 5 benefits of being a reflective teacher.

How to reflect on teaching: getting started

7 reflection activities for teachers

Using video for reflective practice: what the teachers say

Introduction

Good teachers reflect on what, why and how they do things in the classroom. Great teachers adapt as a result of this reflection, to continually improve their performance. In this guide we share everything you need to know about the benefits of reflective teaching, how to become more reflective and encourage others to do the same.

Naturally, most teachers will spend time thinking about what they did in the classroom, why they do certain things, and if it’s working.

Reflective practice is purposeful reflection at the heart of a structured cycle of self-observation and self-evaluation for continuous learning. It’s central to effective professional development (PD) and becoming a more highly skilled teacher.

“Reflective Practice”

Purposeful reflection at the heart of a structured cycle of self-observation and self-evaluation for continuous learning. 

Teacher reflection helps you move from just experiencing a lesson, to understanding what happened and why.

Taking the time to reflect on and analyze your teaching practice helps you to identify more than just what worked and what didn’t. When reflecting with purpose, you can start to challenge the underlying principles and beliefs that define the way that you work.

This level of self-awareness is a powerful ally, especially when so much of what and how you teach can change in the moment.

If you don’t question what your experiences mean and think actively about them on an on-going basis, the evidence shows you are unlikely to improve.

Reflective practitioners can better ride the waves of change

Schools with a reflective teaching culture have an edge in times of rapid change. The shift to blended and online teaching as a result of Covid-19 in 2020 is a great example. Even the most experienced teachers found themselves in uncharted waters. Strategies needed to be reconsidered and delivery forms adapted to the new learning environment. Reflection, collaboration and iteration were critical skills and key for adapting quickly in challenging times.

Reflective cultures support excellence in teaching AND learning

A culture of reflective practice creates a strong foundation for continuously improving teaching and learning.

In an environment where teachers collectively question and adapt, draw on expertise and support one another – student learning benefits too. In fact, developing excellence in teaching has the greatest impact on student achievement.

Encouraging reflective practice in schools, not only benefits individual teachers but the school as a whole.

Developing a culture of reflective practice improves schools by creating a strong foundation for continuously improving teaching and learning. It sends the message that learning is important for both students and teachers, and that everyone is committed to supporting it.

Reflecting practice creates an environment of collaboration as teachers question and adapt both their own practice and that of their colleagues. Teachers can team-up, drawing on expertise and offer each other support. This helps to develop good practice across the school, resulting in a more productive working environment.

But reflective practice in teaching is not just important for teachers and schools. 

Provide your teachers with opportunities for effective reflection:

The best teachers are reflective, and they’re also the first to say that their practice can always be improved. Here’s why it’s worth taking the time to reflect on your teaching regularly – and encouraging your colleagues to do the same:

1. Reflection is at the heart of effective professional development

If you don’t spend time giving purposeful thought to your professional practice you cannot improve. Once you take ownership of your CPD by actively reflecting, evaluating and iterating on your practice, your confidence will sky-rocket.

2. Remain relevant and innovative

Self reflection helps you to create and experiment with new ideas and approaches to ensure your teaching is relevant, fresh and impactful for your students.

3. Stay learner focused

Reflective practice will help you better understand your learners, their abilities and needs. By reflecting, you can better put yourself in your students’ shoes and see yourself through their eyes.

4. Developing reflective learners

Reflective teachers are more likely to develop reflective learners. If teachers practise reflection they can more effectively encourage learners to reflect on, analyse, evaluate and improve their own learning. These are key skills in developing them to become independent learners, highlighting the important role of teachers as reflective practitioners.

5. Humility

When you reflect you must be honest. At least honest with yourself about your choices, success, mistakes, and growth. Self-reflection acts as a constant reminder to stay humble and continue working hard to achieve results.

If you’d like to find out more about teacher reflection, download our FREE practical guide to ‘Enabling effective teacher reflection’.

How to reflect on teaching: getting started with reflective practice and tools to help

Do you want to get better at reflecting on your own teaching, or are you supporting colleagues to get started with reflective practice? Either way there’s some simple steps you can take.

Step 1: Gather insights

First, you need to gather information about what happens in the classroom, so it can be unpicked and analyzed. Here are some different ways you can do this

Keep a teacher diary/journal

After each lesson, write in a notebook or in the notes section of your phone about what happened. You could even send yourself a voice note. Note your reactions and feelings as well as those of the students. This relies on you remembering to do it, and your ability to recall the details, which means it’s not as thorough or reliable as other methods.

Invite a peer to observe

Invite colleagues to come into your class to collect information about your lesson and offer feedback. This may be with a simple observation task or through note-taking on a specific area you’ve said you’d like to reflect on. Of course, there are challenges with this approach. Timetabling is an obvious one, and another drawback is the potential for differing memories and perceptions about what went on in the lesson.

Record your lesson

A video recording of your lesson is valuable because it gives you an unaltered and unbiased view of how effective your lesson was from both a teacher and student perspective. A video also acts as an additional set of eyes to catch behaviors that you may not have spotted at the time. It also means you can come back to it at a convenient time, and watch a short clip, rather than having to remember to take notes or rely on your memory.

Have reflective discussions

Does videoing or analyzing your own practice feel like a big hurdle? A great starting point can be to simply get together in a small group (in-person or online) to watch a publicly available video of another teacher and then encourage discussions about the teaching and learning they’ve observed.

Get IRIS Connect for your school and provide your teachers with a powerful tool for video reflection:

Once you’ve gathered information on your lesson, the next step in reflecting on your teaching is to analyze it. But what should you be looking for? Here are some suggested reflection activities.

7 reflection activities for teachers:

The ratio of interaction

How much are children responding, versus how much are you talking to them? Is there a dialogue of learning in their classroom or is the talking one-sided?

G rowth vs. fixed mindset

The way you respond to your students can inspire either a fixed or growth mindset. Praising students for being ‘smart’ or ‘bright’ encourages fixed mindsets, whilst recognising when they have persistently worked hard promotes growth mindsets. Carol Dweck found that people with growth mindsets are generally more successful in life…so, which are you encouraging students to have? Read more about Carol Dweck’s theory of the growth mindset .

Consistent corrections

Are you correcting the students consistently? Teachers should avoid inconsistency; such as stopping a side conversation one day but ignoring it the next, as this causes confusion with students and the feeling that the teacher is being unfair.  

Opportunities to respond

Are you giving your students enough opportunities to respond to what they are learning? Responses can include asking students to answer questions, promoting the use of resources such as whiteboards or asking students to discuss what they have learnt with their neighbor.

Type and level of questions

Do the questions being asked match the method of learning that you want to foster in their classroom? The type of questions you ask students can include open or closed, their opinion on certain topics, or right or wrong. Is the level of questions being asked appropriate for the students’ level of learning? To find out more about open questions read our blog: Questioning in the classroom.

Instructional vs. non-instructional time

The more students are engaged in learning activities, the more they will learn. Try to keep track of how much time they give to learning activities compared to how much is spent on other transitional things such as handing out resources or collecting work at the end of the lesson.

Teacher talk vs. student talk

Depending on the topic, decide how much students should be talking about what they’re learning compared with how much they should be talking to them.

David Rogers, a multi-award winning geography teacher and Deputy Headteacher at Focus Learning Trust, Hindhead says: “Video provided me with a powerful opportunity to reflect upon and develop my own practice based upon capturing what actually happened. Having led the adoption of lesson capture software in a number of settings, I know that these platforms are not for anyone to judge lessons. If you don’t believe me, video yourself and share the recording with colleagues.” Discover what else David learned from recording his practice here >

Assistant Headteacher Ryan Holmes says: “In the middle of the whirlwind of a teacher’s day, finding the opportunity to take a step back and reflect is not easy. I have found filming my lessons a valuable opportunity that provides me with the space I need to more objectively look back at my lessons, away from the hustle and bustle of the lesson itself. It is an opportunity to identify strengths and areas of improvement.” – Read more about Ryan Holmes experience here >

The IRIS Connect video technology enables teachers to easily capture their lessons and review an objective record of their teaching and learning. Using the IRIS Connect mobile app, teachers record their lessons which are automatically uploaded to a web platform. Once there they can privately view the videos and annotate their teaching practice using time-linked notes and analytical tools. If they choose too, they can also share their videos with trusted colleagues, inviting them to give their professional feedback and advice.

These videos become an invaluable resource for the individual teacher and wider school, allowing many teachers to benefit from the solutions of successful teachers.

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Eight Ideas For Reflective Teaching

How do you become a better teacher? Being a better teacher has as much to do with learning new ideas as it does with being aware of what is working well in your classroom, and things that you need to improve on. In other words, teachers need to be aware of and employ reflective teaching practices.

So, what exactly is reflective teaching? Scott Thornbury ( An A-Z of ELT, 2006 ) summarizes it as “when you reflect on teaching, you think back on it, in order to understand it better and to take steps to improve it. It means being able to think critically about the experience, to identify problems, and to ‘re-frame’ these problems… in order to identify possible solutions and to formulate these as a plan of action.” Therefore, it is more focused than just going into the staffroom and announcing that you just had a really great lesson and discussing it with your colleagues.

If that’s what reflective teaching is, how exactly does it work? To help with this we should turn to David Kolb’s 1984 Experiential Learning Cycle, which is as applicable to teachers as much as anyone else working in a professional environment.

The cycle is divided into four separate stages, the first of which is the concrete experience, in our case the lesson. The second stage is the reflective observation, whereby we review and reflect on the experience in an objective, yet balanced way. That is followed by the idea of abstract conceptualization in which reflection gives rise to a new idea or concept the teacher has learned from the experience. The fourth and final stage is that of active experimentation at which point the teacher plans and applies what they’ve learned from the experience.

Without time spent reflecting on your teaching the danger is, as Scrivener (2011) rightly points out, that “twenty years of teaching experience can become no more than two years’ experience repeated ten times over.” And so, there is a real need to find time for reflective teaching practices. To quote Scrivener again, “We can teach and teach. Or we can teach and learn.”

So what exactly can we do to be a reflective teacher? What kind of things can we be doing at the reflective stage of the cycle? Here are eight ideas that you can use.

1. Observations

Observations play a really important part in reflective teaching, but there are different types which can play an effective role in the process. In my school, we used to do developmental observations whereby the observed teacher would choose two or three areas they’d like to be observed on (chosen as areas for improvement). They complete a pre-observation lesson plan, and post-lesson they would complete a reflection form, with specific reference to those points. All the forms involved encourage and directly prompt reflection. These are then discussed with the observer, be it a peer or a manager. The advantage of this is that in the first instance the teacher has had to reflect and think about past experiences and identify areas to improve on, and then within the class, they are working on these areas, before reflecting again and getting specific and objective feedback on those areas. While there is dialogue, the focus and reflection come primarily from the observed teacher, making it a very effective, reflective teaching technique.

2. Peer observations

Peer observations are also a great way to reflect and improve. In my school, we would ask teachers to identify areas that they wanted to improve on and then pair them with a teacher who was particularly strong in that area so that they could watch and learn. At the same time the observed teacher would ask the peer to focus on areas that they had identified as ones to work on, thus making it very much a two-way process, with both observed and observing teacher benefitting from the process.

I would also encourage my teachers to do ghost observations , that is an observation without anyone actually observing. The process is essentially the same as the one described above, only the observer doesn’t actually come into the classroom, meaning the teacher feels less pressure and the lesson is more authentic.

3. Teaching Diary

This really is as simple as it sounds and has the benefit of being entirely self-directed and personal. After each lesson write down what you did and how the class went – for example: what went well/badly, did the students achieve the goals, were there any issues, what could I do better next time? Importantly, there is a need to ask why these things happen and once you identify that you can begin to think about what you can do differently and identify how to improve. As well as providing a written record it gives teachers the opportunity to express their self-development in a personal fashion. To paraphrase Jeremy Harmer (2015), the main thing is keeping a record of the past together with thoughts on how to do it better next time.

4. Recorded Lessons

While not something that will appeal to all teachers, this can be a very effective way to analyze your performance (and that of your students) in class, and with modern technology, it’s relatively easy to implement. Apart from acting as a great record of your teaching, you will undoubtedly notice things about yourself that you’re probably not even aware of, which is, of course, a good thing. If you don’t like the idea of video recording yourself, you can also just make audio recordings of your lessons. These can be particularly useful, not only for reflecting on pace and clarity of instructions and presentations but also as a measure of teacher talk time as opposed to student talk time.

5. Board Photos

Our students do it all the time to save them time and having to make their own notes, but how often do you take a photo of your own board work? Given that students are ‘taking’ notes in this way, it puts even more pressure on the teacher to make sure their board work is up to scratch. Therefore, it can be a good idea to take photos of your board work throughout a lesson for later analysis, especially if it’s an area you want to improve on.

6. Student Feedback

Involve your students – their feedback and observations are as valid as your own. Reflecting with students and getting their feedback ensures that it will be more student-focused. This can be done through a questionnaire, using post-it notes, five-minute papers or asking the students to keep their own learning diary, reflecting on how they felt in the lesson. You can give them open-ended prompts along the lines of (1)What is the one thing you are likely to remember from today’s class? (2) What was the most confusing concept we covered? (3) Is there anything you think I should be doing differently? (4) Is there anything you would like to know more about?

It’s important to note that these should be done anonymously where possible. Student focus groups are another way you can collate their feedback, though it’s a good idea to ask a colleague to conduct these for you so the students don’t feel pressured.

7. Hot Notes

While the above reflective teaching practices focus more on delayed reflection (i.e. post-lesson), it can be a good idea to also make on-the-spot or ‘hot’ reflection notes during the lesson. Keeping a notebook or post-it notes with you in class allows you to make observations in the midst of the lesson on anything that strikes you as being particularly good or bad. Using post-it notes can also be useful to stick in your coursebook to remind you of what you did with certain activities, how well they worked and why.

8. Shared Planning

Planning lessons with colleagues is a great and simple way to improve your teaching as it allows you to combine your strengths for best practice to create better lessons. As well as planning lessons together, shared planning also means adapting colleagues’ lessons or getting a colleague to check your lesson plan, much like you would for a ghost observation.

In conclusion, we can say that reflective teaching practices are a vital part of our professional development. If we can implement them effectively and promote them to the teachers in our schools, not only will they become better teachers, but they will also become more innovative and confident teachers. And that can only be a good thing for everyone involved.

Task                                                                                               

What reflective teaching practices will you try out?

References and Further Reading

D. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development , 1984

R. Gower, Teaching Practice , 1995

J. Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching 5 th edition , 2015

Mann & Walsh, Reflective Practice in English Language Teaching, 2017

J. Richards, Practice Teaching: A Reflective Approach, 2011

J. Richards, Towards Reflective Teaching

J. Scrivener, Learning Teaching 3 rd edition , 2011

S. Thornberry, An A-Z of ELT, 2006

  www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/File/back_articles/Towards_Reflective_Teaching.pdf

Getting Started with Reflective Practices , www.cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gswrp/index.html

Reflective Teaching , www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/reflective-teaching-exploring-our-own-classroom-practice

Author: Alex Warren

I like the idea “hot notes” best of all. I have tablet with me during the day and this is one more way to use it more effective.

Thanks, Alex for the great ideas for teaching. I share your point of view on involving your students’ feedback. And for a better understanding, you can even use Gibbs’ reflective cycle ( https://productive.fish/blog/gibbs-reflective-cycle/ ), as using this technique will help educators to see the whole picture from a student’s perspective.

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From Awareness to Action: A Complete Guide to Reflective Practice Cycles for Teachers

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Reflective practice is a process that helps educators explore their decision making and professional experiences. Reflecting on your teaching can give you valuable insight into your strengths and weaknesses.

It also helps you see the effect of different pedagogical approaches on students’ learning, allowing you to choose methods that are most effective for your students.

John Dewey advocated for reflection as a critical element of the learning process.

we do not learn from experience, but from reflecting on experience. Dewey, 1938

Reflective thinking is not a single event to tick off, nor an isolated experience. Reflection is most effective when it is a series of connected phases of thinking. These phases of thinking are often outlined in a cycle as we return to an initial starting point or the habit continues.

Reflective practice is:

learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and practice Finlay, 2008

The cycle of reflection is an integral part of reflective practice, and it’s not always easy to know where to start. That’s why I’ve created a comprehensive guide that will walk you through all the steps involved in a range of reflective practice examples so that you can get started right away.

I have put together this guide to bring together a range of reflection models and approaches. In this guide, we will explore the following reflective thinking cycles and approaches:

• Gibbs Reflective Cycle
• Rolfe et al, Reflective Practice Model
• Four Lenses Approach by Brookfield
• Experiential Learning Reflection by David Kolb
• Retrospective, Introspective, Prospective Thinking
• ‘Reflection-in-action’ and ‘reflection-on-action’ by Schön
• Frequently Asked Questions about Reflective Practice

Summary and Conclusion

Although there are many different approaches and research methods, the fundamental principle of reviewing the teaching and learning experience is to improve the outcomes for the teacher and students.

In the Gibbs reflective practice cycle, there are multiple steps to help structure your reflection. It involves an examination of the facts, emotions and analysis of the details. The process concludes with a review of improvements and setting the next steps.

The Gibbs Reflective Cycle has six different stages:

1 – Description

What happened?

Outline the details of a lesson or event. Record the sequence of events, the context and any relevant information. Stick to the facts and low inference details, so you are not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions.

2 – Feelings

What were you thinking or feeling?

Record your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Reflect on how you felt before the event or lesson took place. How did this help with teaching? How did it affect your students? It is essential to connect with our emotions as they can affect our teaching and learning performance.

3 – Evaluation

What was good and bad about the experience?

Reflect on the positive elements of events, lessons or interactions with students. Try not to focus too much on negative points, as this may make you feel disheartened. If any critical moments during a lesson or event need further exploration, jot them down.

4 – Analysis

What sense can you make of the experience?

What is your interpretation of the episode or lesson? What questions do you have after reflecting on this experience? This step helps educators consider alternative perspectives to look for connections between different parts of their experiences. It also allows them to explore underlying motives that may influence their judgement.

5 – Conclusion

What do you need to improve on?

In this phase of the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, you consider what you have learned from the experience. What insights can be gained? How will this affect your next steps or plans? Review your notes and look for patterns and connections. What areas of your teaching practice require more attention? Which parts need to be improved upon in the future?

6 – Action Plan

How will you improve?

The final reflection in the cycle focuses on your next steps and shifting from thinking to action. Write down a range of small steps you can take to move closer to your goals. You might also record notes on what you need to learn or where further research would be beneficial. Make sure these changes are realistic and achievable in the short term so they don’t overwhelm you.

Benefits of the Gibbs Reflective Practice Cycle

• Individual steps make the process clearer and easier to begin.
• Separate steps allow you to focus on separate types of reflection.
• Splits up description from evaluation, which encourages a deeper reflection.
• Includes the importance for teachers to connect with the emotional experience.

Next up, we explore Rolfe’s reflective thinking model.

What, So What, Now What?

Rolfe et al Reflective Thinking Model

Three simple questions that pack a punch when explored together. Use this method when reflecting on a shared experience.

The precise split between what is observed and why it might be meaningful is powerful. It helps you not get lost in the swamp of interpretation, too soon at least!

The outline of the steps below is from Liberating Structures .

• If needed, describe the sequence of steps and show the Ladder of Inference (see below). If the group is 10–12 people or smaller, conduct the debrief with the whole group. Otherwise, break the group into small groups.
• First stage:  WHAT?  Individuals work 1 min. alone on “What happened? What did you notice, what facts or observations stood out?” then 2–7 min. in small group. 3–8 min. total.
• Salient facts from small groups are shared with the whole group and collected. 2–3 min.
• Second stage:  SO WHAT?  People work 1 min alone on “Why is that important? What patterns or conclusions are emerging? What hypotheses can I/we make?” then 2–7 min. in small group. 3–8 min. total.
• Salient patterns, hypotheses, and conclusions from small groups are shared with the whole group and collected. 2–5 min.
• Third stage:  NOW WHAT?  Participants work 1 min. alone on “Now what? What actions make sense?” then 2–7 min. in small group. 3–8 min. total.
• Actions are shared with the whole group, discussed, and collected. Additional insights are invited. 2–10 min.

Benefits of Rolfe et al’s Reflective Practice Model

• The obvious benefit is how simple this approach is. The three-part reflective practice model is easy to remember and apply.
• The first two questions help to split the low inference and evaluation phases of reflection.
• So What? Is a great short provocation to keep us connected to what is important.

In the next section, we explore the Four Lenses Approach by Brookfield.

The Four Lenses of Critical Reflection by Brookfield

One of my favourite ways to reflect on an experience is to use vantage points to help me get a broad sense of perspective. Stephen Brookfield outlines The Four Lenses of Critical Reflection . These lenses help educators understand the context of an experience.

Self Colleague Student Theory

Autobiographical lens

When we spend time in this perspective, we consider our own experiences. What were the conditions that led to this episode? How did I feel about it at the time, and how do I feel now? Consider your thoughts, feelings and emotions throughout the experience.

Colleague lens

Shift your thinking and perspective to consider the views of those around you. What would a colleague say about this experience? How have they reacted to it, and what lessons can be learnt from their point of view? Try to be as impartial and objective as possible.

Student lens

By considering the viewpoint of your students, you begin to see a whole new dimension. How would they describe this experience? What did they learn from it, and what advice could be given for improvement? This perspective can help educators understand their role in a lesson or event through a different lens.

Theoretical lens

Relate your understanding to the other approaches and lenses. What is the theoretical framework that explains this experience? What theory of learning or teaching can help to provide a relevant explanation? This perspective will draw upon your knowledge and understanding from training.

Each type of lens offers something unique for educators to consider, so try using all four lenses in one cycle of reflection. You might start by writing about an experience using your autobiographical lens, then move to your colleagues’ views. You can follow this with the students’ viewpoint and finish by drawing upon theoretical perspectives.

Benefits of Brookfield’s Four Lenses of Critical Reflection

• Provokes us to consider multiple perspectives.
• Enhances our understanding of the context and circumstances of an event.
• Promotes a sense of fairness when considering different points of view.
• Frames reflection beyond ourselves and our own experiences.
• Allows us to draw upon the knowledge and understanding we already possess.

David Kolb’s model of reflective practice involves four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation.

The model is based on Kolb’s Learning Cycle, which suggests that we learn by engaging in an activity or ‘experience’. This experiential learning leads to certain feelings about our subject matter.

By reflecting upon these emotions and the emotions of others involved, educators can strengthen their understanding of the experience.

Concrete Experience

The concrete experience is what you did and felt at the time. What emotions were involved? How did others think about it? Was there conflict or tension in any way? By focusing on your own experiences, educators can use this reflection to explain their actions during an event. Record your observations, feelings and emotions during the time of this experience.

Reflective Observation

Reflective observation allows us to reflect upon our thinking processes during the actual encounter through questioning strategies like: “What was I trying to accomplish?” “How successful was my attempt?” This stage helps us understand how we took action and why we made certain decisions when faced with a challenge or problem. It also encourages critical learning from that particular episode by asking ‘what if?’ questions such as: “If I had known then what I know now..”

Abstract Conceptualisation

Abstract conceptualisation is the third stage of Kolb’s model, and it allows us to analyse our thinking processes. This phase helps you to develop new strategies to deal with similar situations in the future. Some questions that help at this stage are: “What would I do differently, if given the chance?” “How could this experience be improved on next time?”.

Active Experimentation

Active experimentation involves planning an alternative route forward based on what we have learned from past experiences. It provides educators with opportunities for growth by applying new knowledge acquired through the reflective thinking cycle in a real-life scenario. Experimenting with new ideas closes the reflection cycle, as the experiments become concrete experiences that start another process.

All four stages provide valuable professional knowledge of how we learn best which will help you become more confident in your ability as an educator.

Benefits of David Kolb’s model of reflective practice

• Orientated towards taking action and experimenting.
• Helps educators understand their own learning processes.
• Encourages self-reflection and an ability to explain our actions during challenging experiences.
• Challenges us to consider new ideas and alternative ways of thinking.

Retrospective, Introspective and Prospective Thinking

This three-part model of reflective practice is designed to help educators look back on their work. This reflection cycle considers the past, present and future of an educator’s work to shape effective strategies in the future.

It also helps teachers deliberately tune into their inner-self with Introspective thinking to become more self-aware.

Retrospective Thinking

This first stage of the cycle is retrospective thinking when we look back on what happened. What worked? What didn’t? Retrospective thinking focuses on learning from your experiences by looking at how you have done something previously or why a particular solution has been successful in the past.

Educators can use this information when faced with a similar issue in the future as it allows them to predict what is most likely to occur next time they meet that challenge again.

Introspective Thinking

Look Inward

In this second stage, introspective thinking allows us to look inwardly. Educators can use self-observation and reflection to understand their feelings about a particular situation by asking themselves questions such as: “How did I feel during that time?” Introspective questioning encourages educators to consider new ideas from the perspective of their inner-self and own beliefs.

Prospective Thinking

The final stage, prospective thinking is when we consider the future and how our current work impacts that outcome. Educators are encouraged to plan for change by considering different perspectives, which can help shape new learning experiences moving forwards. Proposing alternative strategies and change management through prospective thinking is particularly useful when educators face new challenges.

Benefits of Retrospective, Introspective and Prospective Thinking

• Supports our planning for change.
• Shifts our perspectives along a timeline.
• Look inward for inspiration when presented with a new problem.
• See the bigger picture of teaching practices to shape future strategies and goals.

Grab a month of prompts to kickstart your reflective practice

For more prompts and questions for these three thinking modes, download a copy of my month of reflective practice prompts and explore my Reflection Workbook.

Next up is Donald Schön’s model of reflective practice.

‘Reflection-in-action’ and ‘reflection-on-action’

Donald Schön’s model explores the difference between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. You can tell from these two phrases that the difference relates to the time the reflection occurs.

Reflection-in-action

Reflection-in-action is when you reflect during a task to help complete it. For teachers, this might occur during a lesson when you are trying to solve a problem with your students. You reflect-in-action by pausing and reflecting on what is happening, which helps you deal with an issue at hand.

For example, if a colleague asks you for your opinion about something and instead of just answering straight away, you spend some time reflecting on what could be said to give the best possible response.

That would be reflection-in-action because you are thinking carefully so that any action can have its desired effect without causing harm or offence.

Reflection-on-action

In contrast, reflection-on-action occurs after completing a task and helps us understand our actions better by looking at them from different perspectives.

Reflection-on-action occurs when you pause after completing your task or activity to make sense of it all. Educators might use this time after lesson planning, teaching sessions, planning for assessment or preparing resources to think about how they can do better next time.

Reflections that occur post-work help us understand if our actions were successful, why we made particular choices and consider alternative approaches moving forward.

Expanded Version of Schön’s model of reflective practice

My riff on this approach would be to substitute the word ‘action’ for ‘learning’. We are familiar with this model when considering assessment ‘for’, ‘of’ and ‘as’ learning. We might similarly use reflection.

Reflection-of-learning

Reflection-of-learning is when you reflect on your own practice. For example, if you are writing a new lesson plan for the next week of teaching sessions, you might sit down at the end of this session and think about what worked well in terms of structure or content.

Reflection-for-learning

Reflection-for-learning involves reflecting on your work before undertaking it. This often happens for new challenges and may include planning time to gather resources, create assessments or think of ways to implement a change in approach.

Reflection-as-learning

Finally, reflection-as-learning relates to the learning gains and growth from engaging with reflection. This is the process of learning about your learning by looking for patterns in your thoughts and identifying how reflection changes us.

Benefits of Schön’s model of reflective practice

• A simple two-part model that is easy to remember and engage with.
• Allows for more directed reflective practice.
• Encourages educators to reflect on their actions both during and after completing tasks or activities.

FAQ about reflective practice for teachers

Q: What is reflective practice?

A: Reflective practice means reflecting on our work to improve in the future. We take time to think deeply to understand our actions and our own practice behaviours better. It’s a self-reflective process that often takes place after some event or classroom practice decision has been made.

Q: What is reflective thinking?

A: Reflective thinking is an approach where one thinks deeply about past experiences or events to gain insight into what happened so you can make decisions moving forward. It’s based on cycles of thought that help individuals gain new perspectives through introspection and contemplation. This type of deep reflection usually occurs after some experience has occurred, such as attending class, watching a documentary or just having dinner with friends.

Q: Why are reflective thinking and consistent practice important?

A: Reflective practice helps educators grow and learn, which in turn benefits their students. It’s not enough to learn new things, but you need to implement them into your practice if you genuinely want lasting results. This means taking time to reflect on what you’ve learned and then making an effort to apply it.

Q: Who benefits the most from reflective practice?

A: Many groups can benefit from reflective practices because it helps them develop critical thinking skills. For instance, students trying to learn about themselves can use reflective practice when they’re in school. At work, employees often benefit from the process because it helps them see their strengths and weaknesses, making for more success overall.

Q: How can I incorporate reflective thinking into my classroom practices?

A: Reflectives cycles are beneficial when part of continuous learning and professional development. Reflect on something that has happened or plan for something that will happen. You can use these reflective cycles to evaluate your teaching skills and your own teaching methods and then make changes if need be. There are many reflective practices that you can choose from depending on your specific needs.

Q: How do I get started with reflective practice?

A: The first step to reflective practice is to reflect on experiences you’ve had both in and out of the classroom. This helps you gain more insight into who you are as an educator, which means it’s easier to make changes moving forward if necessary. You can also seek assistance from others, including your peers or mentors, so they support your reflection process. Reflecting alone isn’t easy, but it is beneficial for educators to grow their skills even further!

Reflective practice is a process that can be applied to nearly every aspect of your life, from work to school and even social activities. It’s an essential skill for any reflective practitioner and to develop critical thinking.

This article outlines reflective practice cycles in detail with examples of how educators can use each cycle successfully in their classrooms or schools.

• ‘Reflection-in-action’ and ‘reflection-on-action’ by Donald Schön

Reflective practice cycles are valuable because they help us learn, facilitating professional growth and learning gains.

For those who may not be sure where to start this journey toward greater reflection as an educator such as yourself, I have a Reflective Practice Workbook available in the online store .

I hope this article has been a valuable resource for your reflective practice, and I wish you luck on your journey toward greater self-reflection!

What are some ways you have used reflective teaching? Which of these processes do you plan to implement into your classroom practices in the future? Let me know what resonates by commenting below!

The comparative simple analysis of various reflective practices will provide early childhood educators with a series of connected phases of thinking. Intentional reflection will globally improve outcomes! Million thanks!!

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A reflective approach to teaching & learning, reflection as awareness.

In research on reflective engagement of emergency medicine teams, Duffy et al. (2014) found that, “ ...the team members and leader exhibited a great deal of metacognitive knowledge while reflecting upon the sources of their difficulties.” (Duffy et al. 2014 ). 

"Medical emergencies (e.g., cardiac arrest) present a challenge for medical professionals because they are demanding in terms of both the medical knowledge needed to plan effective interventions and the regulatory skills required to effectively manage the team" (Duffy, et al. 2014 ).

Reflective practice begins with awareness of self and the dynamics between educator and learners in the context of the specific educational setting. The concept of effective reflection is that this awareness is accompanied by a willingness to examine practice for error as well as strengths before taking action to change or improve practice.  

"Reflection is effective when it leads the teacher to make meaning from the situation in ways that enhance understanding so that she or he comes to see and understand the practice setting from a variety of viewpoints,"-Loughran ( 2002 , 36).

Reflection as Metacognition

Metacognition has been associated with successful learning across many disciplines (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999), lifelong professional learning (Schön, 1983; also Plack & Santasier, 2004; Clouder, 2000) and in the practice of teaching (Lougran, 2002).

The process of development that Vygotsky (1978) refers to as internalization and self-regulation applies metacognitive strategies to focused awareness, attention and control.  Such strategies help learners “to increase awareness of thinking processes” and assist them in examining practice for possible error, assumptions, biases as well as strengths (Thompson & Thompson, p. 249, citing Palinscar & Brown, 1987; also Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999).

When preparing learners to problem-solve in situations with unpredictable outcomes, a process integral to medical education, educators should capitalize on reflective teaching to promote reflective learning. One way to promote reflective learning is to provide opportunities for learners for “clarifying the potential goals” and “choosing or inventing an effective metacognitive strategy to achieve a selected goal” (Lin, Schwartz, & Hatano, 2005, p. 253). In other words, asking students to deliberate on HOW they should approach a problem or situation, not only as to WHAT they think of the situation or problem.

​Related Resources

Reflective Practice   Reflective MedEd  Value of Reflection   J Teacher Education