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Reflecting on our teaching practices is an essential part of our professional growth as instructors.

A reflective practice supports our learning and helps us gain insight into the effectiveness of our teaching methods and approaches.

What is a reflective teaching practice?

A reflective teaching practice entails “considering past or present experiences, learning from the outcomes observed, and planning how to better approach similar situations in the future” (Machost & Stains, 2023). Brookfield (2017) describes it as an intentional and sustained process whereby instructors identify and check the “accuracy and validity of their teaching assumptions” (p. 3). To reflect is to learn from one’s own professional experience as an educator. Reflection involves a conscious examination of our instructor assumptions, beliefs, values, and practices, and their impact on teaching and learning (Aziz et al., 2023).

To reflect is to learn from one’s own professional experience as an educator. Reflection involves a conscious examination of our instructor assumptions, beliefs, values, and practices, and their impact on teaching and learning (Aziz et al., 2023).

Simply thinking about your teaching isn’t the same thing as reflecting on your teaching. Certainly the act of reflection requires thinking, but the crucial point is that a reflective teaching practice is a far more regular and deliberate process than thinking about your teaching from time to time. The process of reflection involves reviewing, analyzing, and evaluating the situation after a teaching experience or event has occurred (Farrell, 2020; Horton-Deutsch, & Sherwood, 2017).

Why reflect on your teaching?

A reflective teaching practice benefits both students and instructors.

It strengthens the students’ learning experience because instructors, through reflection, take more informed actions regarding the teaching and learning environment, biases, principles of inclusion, and more. Consequently, when instructors implement strategies to help students learn, these strategies are more effective due to a deeper understanding of their choices and their interactions with students (Brookfield 2017; Machost & Staines, 2023).

Integrating reflective teaching can be personally and professionally fulfilling for instructors and can accelerate their professional growth (Russell, 2018; Schön, 1987). Faculty who continuously set goals, self-monitor, and self-evaluate develop expertise in teaching and foster significant changes in attitudes and beliefs about teaching (Kreber, 2002; Guskey, 2002; Tanner, 2011).

Since gathering feedback is a crucial part of reflective practice, a reflective practice provides instructors with a holistic view of their teaching practices.

Finally, a reflective practice helps instructors acknowledge, celebrate, and learn from what’s working well in their teaching and classrooms (Machost & Staines, 2023).

What are some benefits of reflecting on your teaching?

Benefits of reflection for instructors

Reflection can help instructors:

Reduce stress and anxiety and increase learning, competency, and self-awareness of their own teaching practice (Contreras et al., 2020).
Promote development of practical insight and understanding of one’s own emotions and imagination (Bulman & Schultz, 2013).
Acknowledge and celebrate what’s working well in their teaching (Machost & Staines, 2023)
Describe what happened, discuss their feelings, evaluate, and analyze the experience, draw conclusions and develop an action plan if faced with the same situation in the future.
Promote fundamental rather than superficial improvements to teaching (Russel, 2018).
Develop their metacognition specific to teaching.
Make teaching more meaningful and rewarding.

Benefits of reflection on instructional practices

Reflection can:

Improve instructors’ self-efficacy as teachers.
Make instructors more effective and efficient in planning and designing their courses.
Help instructors differentiate useful teaching strategies from those that are not working.
Stimulate new insights into instructors’ practices, in their classroom and the program in which they teach (Russell, 2018).
Help instructors determine how to better prepare, deliver, and evaluate their students’ learning.
Improve the quality, affordability or access of resources available to students.
Improve instructors’ knowledge and use of an array of instructional approaches and technologies relevant to their subject area.
Improve knowledge and use of a multifaceted and aligned approach to assessing student learning.

Benefits of reflection for teaching and learning relationships

Reflection may also help instructors (Russell, 2018):

Develop more successful and satisfying relationships with their students.
Improve their interpersonal/ communication skills and their capacity to develop open and trusting relationships with students.
Figure out how to earn students’ respect, work with students, and develop a strong rapport with students.
Focus much more closely and carefully on what is unique about each individual learning in their classes.
Identify and implement alternative, more positive reactions to classroom situations (e.g. students that arrive late).

Benefits of reflection for community

Reflection might also help instructors:

Better understand the culture of their course, department, faculty, school or university through personal experience (Russell, 2018).
Improve their capacity to collaborate with colleagues to promote student learning and success.
Connect to a diverse and broad learning community.
Gain recognition from peers as a positive champion in teaching and learning.

Works cited

Aziz, M. N. A., Mahmor, N. A., Rathakrishnan, M., & Yusoff, N. M. (2023). Documenting teaching anecdotes for reflective teaching: The case with postgraduate students exploring teaching portfolio. Journal of Contemporary Social Science and Education Studies, 3(2), 116-125. https://www.jocss.com/index.php/multidiscipline/article/view/176/132

Bulman, C., & Schultz, S. (2013). Reflective practice in nursing (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Ltd.

Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Bruno, A., & Dell’Aversana, G. (2017). Reflective practice for psychology students: The use of reflective journal feedback in higher education. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 16(2), 248-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725716686288

Contreras, J. A., Edwards‐Maddox, S., Hall, A., & Lee, M. A. (2020). Effects of reflective practice on baccalaureate nursing students’ stress, anxiety, and competency: An integrative review. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 17(3), 239-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12438

Farrell, T. S. C. (2020). Professional development through reflective practice for English-medium instruction (EMI) teachers. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(3), 277-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1612840

Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 8(3), 381-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/135406002100000512

Horton-Deutsch, S., & Sherwood, G. (2017). Reflective practice: Transforming education and improving outcomes (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Kreber, C. (2002). Teaching excellence, teaching expertise, and the scholarship of teaching. Innovative Higher Education, 27(1), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020464222360

Machost, H., & Stains, M. (2023). Reflective practices in education: A primer for practitioners. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.22-07-0148

Russell, T. (2018). A teacher educator’s lessons learned from reflective practice. European Journal of Teacher Education, 41(1), 4-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2017.1395852

Schön, D. (1987). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Tanner, K. D. (2011). Reconsidering “what works”. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 10(4), 329-333. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.11-09-0085

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