Enhancing Teaching Skills Through Reflective Practice

1. Chapter 16 Becoming a Better Teacher by Becominga Reflective Teacher

2. Overview • Improving Your Teaching and Reflection Skills • Using Technology for Reflection

3. Improving Your Teachingand Reflection Skills • Student Evaluations & Suggestions • Peer and Self- Assessment Techniques • Developing a Reflective Journal

4. Improving Your Teachingand Reflection Skills • Peer and Self-Assessment Techniques  Classroom Observation Schedules  Audiotaped Lessons  Videotaped Lessons  Reflective Lesson Plans  Guided Reflection Protocol  Develop a Reflective Journal – Using a Portfolio with Your Journal  See Online Video Case “Teaching as a Profession: Collaboration with Colleagues”

5. Reflective Lesson Plans • Divide a sheet of paper in half. Label the left-hand side “Lesson Plan.” Label the right-hand side “Reflective Notes.” • On the lesson plan side, note relevant identifying information, the objectives of the lesson, the tasks that are to be carried out in chronological order, the materials and equipment that are to be used, and how much time has been allotted forthis lesson. • On the reflective notes sides, write your thoughts about the worthwhileness of the objective that underlies the lesson, the adequacy of the materials, and how well you performed the basic mechanics of teaching as soon as possible afterthe lesson. • Make changes to the lesson plan based on your analysis of the reflective notes.

6. Guided Reflection Protocol • After choosing one or more teaching episodes that you would like to examine, ask and try to answer the following four questions: • What happened? • Why did it happen? • What might it mean? • What are the implications for my practice?

7. Purposes of Reflective Journals • To serve as a repository of instructional ideas and techniques that you have either created from your own experiences or gleaned from other sources • To give yourself a format for recording your observations and reflections on teaching

8. Journal Entry: Ways to Teach Comprehension Tactics Sources: Information-Processing Theory Ideas for Instruction Note: All the ideas you list here will pertain to the particular journal entry/instructional goal for this journal page. • Ideas generated from past experiences as a student. • Ideas provided by professional colleagues • Ideas collected from student-teaching experience Reflections: Questions and “Restarter” Suggestions for Instruction Reflective Question (to focus observation of my teaching and my students’ learning): Do my students have difficulty understanding the meaning of what they read . . . ? (Record your ongoing reflections, observations, and analytic notes about your instruction and your students’ learning of this topic here. If necessary, you may need to “jump-start” or reorient your instruction. One possible idea follows.) Suggested Action:Schedule a series of sessions on how to study. . . A Sample Reflective Journal

9. A table of contents A resume A statement of your educational philosophy A statement of your teaching goals Official documents Letters of recommendation Teaching evaluations Photographs and videotapes Samples of college work Samples of students’ work Examples of learning activities An autobiography Reflections about how teaching has impacted you Portfolio Contents

10. Ways to Become a Reflective Teacher • Use the Suggestions for Teaching from each chapter to gather ideas. • Try the Suggestions out in your teaching. • Use the Journal Entries from each chapter to help guide observation notes of yourself and your students. • Analyze the observation notes for strengths and weaknesses. • After each teaching episode, think about and/or write down an assessment of how you did.  See Online Video Case “Teaching as a Profession: What Defines Effective Teaching?”

11. Using Technology for Reflection • Discussion forums and chat rooms • Multimedia case-based instruction