Reflective Teaching

As teachers, we need to reflect on our teaching to improve ourselves professionally. The reason why reflecting is useful is because it helps you identify areas in your teaching that you would like to change, areas of teaching that are good and you are happy with that you would like to continue, areas that you need to research further, and plan what actions you would like to take in the future. Reflective teaching helps you gain an insight of your teaching practice and learn from you own experience.

There are 6 steps in the reflective cycle:
1. Description: What worked and didn't work in a class?
2. Feelings: What were your thoughts and feelings during and after particular tasks?
3. Evaluation: How did the students behave or react?
4. Analysis: What alternative approach could you have used?
5. Conclusion: What was good or bad about the experience?
6. Action plan: What will you do next time if the same thing happened? What can you do to prevent the same thing from happening?

I understand that teachers are very busy people, but just taking 10 minutes a week to reflect on the highlights would really improve your future lessons.

Why not give it a try?