Being more reflective in your teaching/supporting learning

Image: Gary Kaye

• Exploring the value of reflective practice• Reflective skills and habits• Deepening reflective activities (Moon, 1999)• The role of Peer Supported Review and other

reflective tools

Session outline:

Exploring what we don’t know

Academic identities

‘The future HE world requires people who have the capacity to reason intelligently about their beliefs, are able to detect flaws in their own and others argument and are prepared to take an informed stance on issues and develop personal commitment to them’ (Kreber, 2010)

Kreber, C. (2010) ‘Academic teacher identities: authenticity and pedagogy, Studies in Higher Education, 35 (2), 171-194

Personal and professional development

• What are the strengths and limitations of your current practice?

• What do you need in order to keep doing well?• What are the things you need to change?• What is the best way for you to move forward?• What are the ways that you will keep your

practice ‘topped up’?

The value of reflective practice

‘We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience..’ (John Dewey, 1932)

Benefits of reflection

• ‘..reflective processes involve creating meaning around practice. This is inherently collaborative. The resulting understanding provides a starting point for adapting practice

Conceptual expansion

Reflective skills and habits

Critical Reflection

Critical reflection• What were essential strengths of the lesson? • What, if anything, would you change about the lesson? • Do you think the lesson was successful? Why? • Which conditions were important to the outcome? • What, if any, unanticipated learning outcomes resulted from the

lesson? • Can you think of another way you might have taught this lesson? • Can you think of other alternative pedagogical approaches to

teaching this lesson that might improve the learning process? • Do you think the content covered was important to students? Why? • What moral or ethical concerns occurred as a result of the lesson?

What makes for good teaching?

• unconscious incompetence - in which we are unaware of what we can't do or don't know;

• conscious incompetence - in which we become aware of our develop- ment needs and start to do something about them;

• conscious competence - where we are using our new skills and knowledge, but watching and monitoring ourselves;

• unconscious competence - the skills become naturalised. This is like Reynolds's notion of 'second nature'.

The value of reflective practice

‘We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience..’ (John Dewey, 1932)

Tools for reflection

UCA Peer-Supported Review

Benefits of doing PSR

• Sharing good practice• Enhancing the quality of teaching/supporting

learning• Enhancing the student experience• Taking time to reflect on your practice• Plato ‘Know thyself’• Kolb’s experiential learning cycle

Being reviewed

Being a reviewer (‘Critical Friend’)

Art of Powerful Questions

Where to next?