{"id":8247,"date":"2022-11-21T17:01:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T22:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/?page_id=8247"},"modified":"2025-03-28T17:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T21:39:21","slug":"reflective-practice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/reflective-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching as Reflective Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Principle 5. Teaching As Reflective Practice: Summary and Rationale<\/h3>\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 10\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<p><strong>Reflect on one\u2019s teaching practices and beliefs to maximize self-awareness and continual improvement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Growth as an effective and inclusive instructor is a continual process involving self-reflection, critique, and ongoing learning. Self-reflection includes identifying personal areas of bias or weakness in teaching. One\u2019s beliefs about students, teaching and learning feed directly into how one practices teaching. Engaging in a reflective practice ensures that our beliefs, values, and practices are in alignment through continual growth and adjustment.<\/p>\n<p>Instructors, students, disciplinary norms, and the state of the pedagogical art are all in continual flux, so even the best-prepared and skilful instructor is only such at a moment in time. Successful instructors assert authority and responsibility over their own teaching practices, and develop the reflective capacity to become aware of, and institute, needed changes in their approach to teaching. Exemplary instructors model life-long learning for their students through their own engagement with their discipline, their teaching, and the ever-evolving students in their courses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"prpl-drawer\"><div class=\"prpl-drawer-header\">Teaching as Reflective Practice&colon; Strategies Shortlist<\/div><div class=\"prpl-drawer-content\">\n<div class=\"page\" title=\"Page 10\">\n<div class=\"layoutArea\">\n<div class=\"column\">\n<ul>\n<li>Reflect on current portfolio of pedagogical strategies when preparing any course, even ones that have worked successfully on multiple occasions.<\/li>\n<li>Incorporate regular informal feedback from students and adapt pedagogical approaches to best support student success.<\/li>\n<li>Reflect on how to set up courses to foster inclusive engagement with students.<\/li>\n<li>Proactively seek out novel approaches, activities, and resources to experiment with teaching, and conscientiously collect data to evaluate its effectiveness, including (but not limited to) professional development and feedback from students and peers.<\/li>\n<li>Stay current in disciplinary developments and disciplinary-specific best teaching practices.<\/li>\n<li>Create and participate in communities of fellow instructors that allow for support, peer review, pedagogical strategizing, and critical engagement with teaching practices.<\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"prpl-drawer\"><div class=\"prpl-drawer-header\">Teaching As Reflective Practice&colon; Faculty Resources<\/div><div class=\"prpl-drawer-content\">\n<p><strong><em>&#8220;[C]ritically reflective teaching happens when we build into our practice the habit of constantly trying to identify, and check, the assumptions that inform our actions as teachers. The chief reason for doing this is to help us take more informed actions so that when we do something that\u2019s intended to help students learn it actually has that effect.&#8221;<\/em> (Stephen D. Brookfield, 2017, pp. 4-5)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Instructors, students, disciplinary norms, and pedagogy are all in continual flux, so even the best-prepared and skillful instructor is only such at a moment in time. Exemplary instructors model life-long learning for their students through their own engagement with their discipline, their teaching, and the ever-evolving students in their courses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/195\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-17-104539-1024x808.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"562\" height=\"444\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Being an effective and inclusive instructor involves regular <strong>data gathering and self-reflection, critique<\/strong>, <strong>ongoing learning, and experimentation.<\/strong>\u00a0Self-reflection includes identifying personal areas of bias or weakness in teaching. Our beliefs about students, teaching, and learning feed directly into how we practice teaching. Engaging in a reflective practice ensures that our beliefs, values, and practices align through <strong>continual growth<\/strong> and <strong>adjustment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reflective practice<\/strong> is a Montclair teaching principle that supports all the others: reflecting as and after you design your course, as you implement supportive pedagogy, inclusivity, and universal design for learning, and as you incorporate disciplinary excellence will allow you to observe and adapt your teaching practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strong instructors regularly:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Examine their current portfolio of pedagogical strategies<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, even ones that have worked successfully on multiple occasions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Incorporate regular informal feedback from students<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and adapt pedagogical approaches to best support student success.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Discover new ways to support student success<\/strong>:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Explore<\/strong> <strong>ways to foster inclusive engagement<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong> with students<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Experiment with teaching<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, proactively seeking out novel approaches, activities, and resources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Create and participate in communities of fellow instructors<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that allow for support, peer review, pedagogical strategizing, and critical engagement with teaching practices; these communities can be both informal and formal, organized by leaders who recognize the central role that reflection plays in maintaining excellent teaching.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Repeat the cycle<\/strong>, beginning with further reflection.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"prpl-drawer\"><div class=\"prpl-drawer-header\">Theories on Reflective Practice<\/div><div class=\"prpl-drawer-content\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American educational reformer John Dewey advocated reflective practice, \u201crecogniz[ing] that the \u2018thinking teacher\u2019 requires three important attributes to be re\ufb02ective; \u2018<\/span><b>open-mindedness\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to new ideas and thoughts; <\/span><b>\u2018wholeheartedness\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to seek out fresh approaches and fully engage with them; and <\/span><b>\u2018responsibility\u2019 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to be aware of the consequences of one\u2019s own actions. So, in his view, re\ufb02ections to help develop these characteristics are essential to becoming a successful teacher\u201d (McGregor, 2011). <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Donald Sch\u00f6n (1983) identifies two forms of reflection: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. <\/span><b>Reflection-in-action<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> occurs as you teach, allowing you to consider how things are going during the class session, and to respond and adjust as needed. It enables you to teach the \u201cstudents in the room\u201d rather than the ones you imagined as you planned. <\/span><b>Reflection-on-action<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> occurs after the session, as you assess how things went. Farrell (2019) proposes a third form of reflection, <\/span><b>reflection-for-action<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which involves reflection based on experience that allows instructors to anticipate what might occur. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We can also consider a form of <\/span><b>reflection-for-action<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that involves reflexivity, or \u201cacting on re\ufb02ections, rather than just proposing what you could have done or might do next\u201d (McGregor &amp; Cartwright, 2011, p. 237). Day (1999) cautions that reflection should also involve \u201creflection on self\u2013one\u2019s motivations, values, and inner life\u2013\u201d because teaching requires both intellectual and emotional investment and each needs to be considered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McGregor (2011) summarizes some essential components of re\ufb02ective practice:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Actively focusing on the goals and results of your teaching;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Establishing a pattern of reflection: collecting, assessing, and revising your teaching;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Assessing your teaching using evidence;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Being open-minded and committed to improving your teaching;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Revising your pedagogy based on personal assessment and pedagogical research;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Collaborating and consulting with peers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Essentially, reflective teaching has two components: collecting information about your teaching, and planning your teaching development.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><div class='inset lt-gray'>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/teaching-resources\/reflective-practice\/collect-information-about-your-teaching\/\">Collect Information about Your Teaching<\/a><\/h2>\n<p><em>Useful information for reflection can come from many sources: students, observations, and guided self-observation and reflection.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><div class='inset lt-gray'>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/teaching-resources\/reflective-practice\/plan-your-teaching-development\/\">Plan Your Teaching Development<\/a><\/h2>\n<p><em>Be intentional about your teaching in the time between terms: based on the information you collect, how should you prioritize your teaching development?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><div class='inset lt-gray'>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/teaching-resources\/reflective-practice\/teaching-excellence-plan\/\">Teaching Excellence Plan<\/a><\/h2>\n<p><em>Faculty new to Montclair are encouraged to participate in the Teaching Excellence Plan, a three-year plan for developing your teaching to best support student success.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"prpl-column one-half\"><div class='inset lt-gray'>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/peer-observations\/?\">Peer Observations<\/a><\/h2>\n<p><em>Guidelines, templates, and rubrics for in-person and online courses.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"prpl-drawer\"><div class=\"prpl-drawer-header\">Resources and References<\/div><div class=\"prpl-drawer-content\">\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Augustine. (389\/1968) <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the teacher.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Translated by Robert P. Russell. Catholic University of America Press.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Atkinson, D. J. &amp; Bolt, S. (2010). Using teaching observations to reflect upon and improve teaching practice in higher education. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, 19(3), 1-19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Barbezat, D. (2013). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Jossey-Bass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brookfield, S. D. (2017). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> John Wiley &amp; Sons. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canning, R. (Aug 2004). Teaching and Learning: An Augustinian Perspective. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Australian ejournal\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">of Theology<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/aejt.com.au\/__data\/assets\/pdf_file\/0007\/395647\/AEJT_3.4_Canning.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chick, N. (2018). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SoTL in Action: Illuminating Critical Moments of Practice<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Stylus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Day, C. (1999). Researching teaching through reflective practice. In John Loughran (Ed.), <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researching Teaching: Methodologies and Practices for Understanding Pedagogy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, pp. 215-232.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Felten, P., Bauman, H.D.L., Kheriaty, A., &amp; Taylor E. (2013). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Transformative Conversations: A\u00a0<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guide to Mentoring Communities Among Colleagues in Higher Education<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Jossey-Bass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McGregor, D &amp; Cartwright, L. (2011). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Developing Reflective Practice. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Open University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McGregor, D. (2011). What can re\ufb02ective practice mean for you . . . and why should you engage in it? In D. McGregor &amp; L. Cartwright (Eds.), <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Developing Reflective Practice<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (pp. 1-19). McGraw-Hill Education, 2011.<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Palmer, P., Zajonc, A. &amp; Scribner, M. (2010). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jossey-Bass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sch\u00f6n, D. (1983). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Basic Books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Weimer, M. (2013). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Jossey-Bass.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>For more information or help, please\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:faculty@montclair.edu\">email<\/a>\u00a0the Office for Faculty Excellence or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/montclair-faculty-excellence.libcal.com\/appointments\/\">make an appointment<\/a>\u00a0with a consultant.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><p><em>Last Modified: Friday, March 28, 2025 5:39 pm<\/em><\/p> CK<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"license\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/195\/2022\/08\/CC.png\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" width=\"80\" height=\"15\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nTeaching Resources by\u00a0<a rel=\"cc:attributionURL\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/\">精品成人福利在线 University Office for Faculty Excellence<\/a>\u00a0is licensed under a\u00a0<a rel=\"license\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Third-party content is not covered under the Creative Commons license and may be subject to additional intellectual property notices, information, or restrictions. You are solely responsible for obtaining permission to use third party content or determining whether your use is fair use and for responding to any claims that may arise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">Creative Commons CC BY-NC-4.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Principle 5. Teaching As Reflective Practice: Summary and Rationale Reflect on one\u2019s teaching practices and beliefs to maximize self-awareness and continual improvement. Growth as an effective and inclusive instructor is a continual process involving self-reflection, critique, and ongoing learning. Self-reflection includes identifying personal areas of bias or weakness in teaching. One\u2019s beliefs about students, teaching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":9121,"parent":0,"menu_order":49,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8247","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8247"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13599,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8247\/revisions\/13599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}