Reflections on Your Teaching

For many of you the term is com­ing to a close, class­es have end­ed, will be end­ing soon or you are wind­ing down a recent unit or mod­ule.

One of the most impact­ful books I have ever read is called, “Becom­ing a Crit­i­cal­ly Reflec­tive Teacher” by Stephen Brook­field. The first edi­tion of this book came out in 1995 and a sec­ond edi­tion in 2017.

Stephen is a high­ly respect­ed edu­ca­tor and author of 20 adult edu­ca­tion books and has more than 45 years of teach­ing expe­ri­ences in Cana­da, Eng­land, Aus­tralia and the US. Many of his books are sta­ples of Mas­ter of Edu­ca­tion pro­grams and high­er edu­ca­tion instruc­tor train­ing cours­es. Stephen has also won numer­ous awards for his insights into effec­tive teach­ing. His words nev­er go out of date.

As we talk about engag­ing stu­dents in being reflec­tive learn­ers and the insights it brings them in being bet­ter stu­dents, build­ing more aware­ness of their metacog­ni­tive process­es (learn­ing about learn­ing) and the impor­tance of stu­dent self-reflec­tion – I want­ed to share some key ques­tions for you to do the same thing.

Below are 6 ques­tions that align with the key ele­ments of Stephen’s book. Take 15 min­utes some­time in the next few weeks to pon­der them as you reflect on the past term, the past year or a recent course.

Ask your­self….

  1. What moment (or moments) did I feel most con­nect­ed, engaged or affirmed as a teacher–when I said to myself “This is what being a teacher is real­ly all about”?
  2. What moment (or moments) did I feel most dis­con­nect­ed, dis­en­gaged, or bored as a teacher–when I said to myself “I’m just going through the motions here”?
  3. What was the sit­u­a­tion that caused me the great­est anx­i­ety or distress–…one I kept replay­ing in my mind as I was drop­ping off to sleep, or that caused me to say to myself “I don’t want to go through this again for a while”?
  4. What was the event that most took me by surprise–where I saw or did some­thing that shook me up, caught me off guard, knocked me off my stride, gave me a jolt, or made me unex­pect­ed­ly hap­py?
  5. Of every­thing I did in my teach­ing this term or past year, what would I do dif­fer­ent­ly if I had the chance to do it again?
  6. What do I feel proud­est of in my teach­ing activ­i­ties? Why?