Some teachers seem to be natural
reflectors; their minds automatically review and evaluate their teaching
experiences – sometimes it happens even when they wish they could turn it
off! But for others, reflection requires
more deliberate planning. Coaches can
provide time and space for teachers to consider their students and their own
daily work, to think about the content and process of teaching. Professional
learning experiences are effective when they encourage teachers to reflect on
and discuss their students’ thinking and learning.
Reflection is the act of
recapturing one’s experience, mulling it over and evaluating it in order to
learn about one’s practice. Reflection
on practice is a critical step for improved instruction. It helps teachers move
toward a more reasoned (less intuitive) stance, weighing evidence and
clarifying goals.
As you support reflection, you help
teachers think through the learning process and deconstruct the instructional
moves that made an impact. Together, you will recognize areas that need
strengthening, consider alternatives, and re-vision instruction.
Reflecting soon after a lesson helps
us synthesize ideas and capture fleeting thoughts while they are still
fresh. As we reflect with teachers, we
think about what we have just seen and sometimes challenge our judgments and
draw new conclusions.
Be sure to encourage teachers to think
about what went right in the teaching – strategies they want to use again.
Often, teachers’ inclination is to reflect only on things they would change.
While that is important, much can be learned from thinking about what went
well. As we temporarily set aside negative judgments, we’ll gain insight about
effective instruction.
Teachers who take time for mindful
reflection are more likely to self-correct their own teaching skills. Reflection gives teachers the chance to
consider recent teaching in relation to past experiences, opening opportunities
for you and your colleague to thinking deeply together. Whether a teacher is a
natural reflector or one who needs a nudge to turn on the power of reflection,
having a coach as a reflecting buddy can strengthen the process!
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Teacher reflection is something I’m passionate about! You can read more about it in my book, Collaborative Lesson Study,
which launched yesterday! It’s available here (20% discount code is TCP2019).
If you’d like to join the Facebook book group for the book, click here. Discussion begins Sept. 27 with
Chapter 1!
This
week, you might want to take a look at:
Using
books to help students reflect:
Tips
to help coaches get pumped for the school year:
This
video describes new research supporting the positive effects of growth mindset:
Ideas
for making anchor charts more student-centered:
Short
writing assignments to help students become better thinkers (in all
disciplines):
That’s
it for this week. Happy Coaching!
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