What is the Reflective Teaching Method?

You’ve probably heard the word “reflection” many times, especially in scientific discussions or when you’re brushing your teeth or fixing your hair in the mirror. But there’s more to it than just checking your appearance.

In education, reflection takes on a much deeper and more powerful meaning. It’s not just about seeing your physical self. It’s about looking at your work, beliefs, methods, and even the results of your efforts. It’s a process that invites you to step back and gain a deeper understanding of what you’re doing. So, let’s explore this intriguing idea together!

What is Reflective Teaching?

Reflective teaching is all about stepping back and examining your approach in the classroom: What do you do, why do you do it, and is it really working? It’s a practice of self-observation and honest self-assessment.

It means constantly analysing and questioning your own strategies, beliefs, and assumptions to find ways to support your student’s learning. This reflection isn’t just a one-time activity but rather an ongoing cycle that happens before, during, and after each lesson.

As a reflective teacher, you might ask:

• What am I currently doing in the classroom?
• Why have I chosen this approach?
• Are my students genuinely learning, and are their results reflecting that?

Regularly exploring these questions can refine and improve your teaching techniques. This approach enhances your effectiveness and creates a more engaging and impactful learning experience for students

Benefits of Reflective Teaching

Reflective teaching offers you valuable insights that can enhance your work in meaningful ways. By planning lessons thoughtfully, reviewing past sessions, and fine-tuning delivery techniques, you can sharpen your subject knowledge and self-awareness. If you’re aiming to elevate your teaching journey, reflective practices provide powerful tools to help you grow and connect more effectively with your students.

Here are some of the benefits reflective teaching has to offer:

1. Grow ProfessionallyReflective teaching is a valuable tool for growth, helping you understand your strengths and areas to improve. This will help you in your professional growth. Start small by setting goals for each class and reviewing what worked afterward. Keeping a reflective journal or recording sessions can offer useful insights to refine your teaching methods. These simple practices can enhance your skills and make teaching more fulfilling in both the short and long term.
2. Enhance InnovationReflective teaching doesn’t have to be complex. After each lesson, set aside a few minutes to reflect on how it went—while everything’s still fresh in your mind. Jot down what worked well and any challenges you faced. These notes can later help you explore ways to improve in those tricky areas.Reflective teaching also opens doors to innovation. Let’s say you notice your student’s attention drifting; that might be your perfect cue to incorporate tools like online platforms, screen projectors, or educational apps to enhance engagement. The same tools can be great for conducting tests and assessments, making your teaching methods more dynamic and interactive. Reflective teaching and innovation really go hand in hand, helping you continuously grow as an educator.
3. Ease the Teaching ProcessTeaching is no easy feat. Between conducting classes, lesson planning, and tracking student’s progress, there’s a lot to manage. Great teachers make an effort to learn each student’s name, foster a safe and welcoming classroom, and keep everyone on track with the curriculum. Reflective practice plays a big role in ensuring every student gains from the learning experience.Motivation is essential for a positive and effective classroom—for both teachers and students. Keeping students engaged enhances their overall experience. For example, if getting everyone to participate individually is challenging, consider encouraging group work; many students feel more comfortable collaborating in smaller teams. Reflective teaching helps you tune into these preferences, making it easier to connect with your students and deliver content in a way that resonates with them.
4. Improve Student-Teacher RelationAs a teacher, you must already value your connection with your students. To truly help them grasp your teaching approach, building positive, individual relationships is essential. Reflective teaching practices offer a powerful way to see each student as a unique learner with specific needs.Students thrive in a safe, comfortable, and genuinely engaged environment. As they start to enjoy learning, you’ll find it easier to connect with them on a personal level—and you might discover a renewed passion for teaching yourself. This mutual enthusiasm can be incredibly motivating, fueling both your students’ progress and your own satisfaction as an educator.
5. Make Lessons EngagingA boring class can be a teacher’s bad dream. To steer clear of this, you can try using reflective teaching techniques that bring more life and energy into your lessons. Every teacher dreams of a lively class where students are engaged, curious, and actively participating. One effective approach is to kick off each class with a “refresher session” to recap what was covered last time. You could turn this into a game-show-style quiz or friendly competition, where students share their thoughts, ask questions, and help each other answer. This refreshes their memory and makes the class interactive and enjoyable.
6. Build Problem-Solving in ClassTeaching is as much about building resilience as it is about imparting knowledge. Facing challenges head-on and finding effective, thoughtful solutions are essential skills in this profession. Reflective teaching can strengthen these abilities, as it involves looking back on your experiences to discover new ways to support students who may be struggling with their learning.
7. Enhance Student PerformanceReflective learning practices can significantly boost student performance. When students take time to reflect on class sessions, they gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses, helping them focus on areas that need improvement. Through reflection, students can better understand complex concepts and retain information more effectively, even during challenging moments.
8. Develop Critical Thinking SkillsReflective learning can be a powerful tool for students to enhance their critical thinking skills and confidently tackle challenges. Learning new concepts and subjects often comes with hurdles, and reflection can make a big difference by encouraging students to think critically and sharpen their analytical abilities.For example, when students encounter questions or difficulties in their coursework, they can begin by clearly defining the issue. From there, they can explore creative ways to resolve it, like discussing it with a friend or seeking advice from a classmate. This process strengthens critical thinking and builds resilience, helping them focus and deepen their understanding of the material.
9. Boost Student MotivationMotivation is the driving force behind a productive classroom and plays a crucial role in a student’s success. When students struggle with motivation, it often leads to poor performance and difficulty grasping new concepts. This lack of drive can result in irregular attendance, disengagement, and sometimes even skipping classes. Reflective learning practices can offer a valuable solution for students who are feeling unmotivated or disconnected. By encouraging them to reflect on their challenges, these practices can help them confront and work through their learning obstacles, fostering a more active and invested approach to their education.
10. Improve Overall EffectivenessWhen teachers encourage students to work in learning groups, they often discover that adding reflection to the mix can make the experience even more impactful. Learning groups naturally foster collaboration, providing a space for students to exchange ideas, absorb new information, and engage with one another in a structured setting. This dynamic not only helps them process what they’ve learned but also boosts their ability to think critically and analyse concepts more deeply.

Ways to Reflect on Your Teaching

As you can clearly see, there are several advantages of reflective teaching. But how to begin implementing it? How to begin reflecting on your teaching for improved results? Here are six ways to do that:

1. Exit TicketsAn exit slip, or exit ticket, is a simple yet effective tool for checking how well your students have grasped the lesson. It provides a quick glimpse of their understanding, helping you determine if they’re ready to move on to the next topic. But it’s not just about assessing the lesson itself—exit tickets can also give you valuable feedback on your teaching methods, allowing you to adjust and improve as needed.
2. SurveysAnother way to reflect on your teaching methods, apart from distributing exit tickets, is by taking surveys. Surveys are great for teachers who want to gather genuine opinions of their students. You can ask them about the previous class conducted and whether the teaching pace was okay or if any adjustments were needed. These reviews are a great insight into how you can get better with your teaching plan.
3. Reflective JournalsAlways have a notebook close by during your lessons so you can jot down any thoughts or feedback as they come up, whether during the session or shortly after. This can include key takeaways from lectures, assignments that went smoothly, areas where things didn’t quite click, or even aspects that just didn’t work at all and need to be rethought or scrapped entirely. It’s a simple way to keep track of what’s working and what isn’t, making it easier to improve your next lesson.
4. Video RecordingsOccasionally, recording the entire lesson can be a valuable tool. It gives you the chance to review your teaching from a fresh perspective. Watching the video allows you to reflect on what you said, your body language, and how you managed the classroom. You might spot things you missed while actually teaching. However, this method isn’t something you can use all the time. It’s important to ensure that your students are comfortable with having a camera in the room, even if it’s focused only on you.
5. ChecklistsChecklists are a great way to self-reflect on your teaching methods and practices. By self-reflecting on your teaching methods, you can analyse what is working and what isn’t and make a checklist for future reference.
6. Peer ObservationConsider inviting colleagues to sit in on your class to gather insights and provide feedback. You can ask them to focus on specific aspects you’d like to reflect on, whether through structured observation or note-taking. While this can be incredibly helpful, there are some challenges. Coordinating schedules can be tricky, and different people may remember or interpret things differently, which could lead to varying perspectives on what actually happened during the lesson.

Reflecting on your teaching methods can bring you a better understanding of what is benefitting you as a teacher and whether your teaching methods are benefitting the students or not. But ways to reflect on your teaching methods shouldn’t be difficult when done the right way!

Last Updated on January 22, 2025