Reflective Teaching
Effective teachers strive to be reflective practitioners who use feedback from a variety of sources (students, peers, Harte Center, department, self) to guide continuous improvement as teachers123. These teachers are willing to take risks and try new things in the service of improving their teaching, recognizing that not all experiments will be successful45.
| Recommended Elements of Effective Practice* |
|---|
| Frequently engages in professional development and clearly articulates how teaching practice improved. |
| Demonstrates a high level of self-awareness around teaching strengths and weaknesses, consistent with evidence of teaching practices. |
| Intentionally develops, implements, and updates goals for improved teaching, returning to goals iteratively over time. |
| Regularly implements changes to teaching based on reflection on multiple sources of feedback. |
| Innovates by experimenting with new pedagogical practices, tools, and/or content, and evaluating their success. |
| Engages in discussions with colleagues about teaching experiences to improve teaching practice. |
Possible sources of evidence:
- List of professional development activities
- Continuous improvement plan and reflection
- Mid-term assessments with personal responses
- Feedback from peer teaching observation
- End-of-semester course reflection
- FAR responses, or other reflections on feedback
- Self-assessment using this framework
- Teaching statements that describe the reflection process
References
1Brancato, V. C. Professional development in higher education. New Dir. Adult Contin. Educ. 2003, 59–66 (2003).
2King, H. Continuing professional development in higher education: what do academics do? Planet 13, 26–29 (2004).
3Fink, L. D. 1: Evaluating Teaching: A New Approach to an Old Problem. Improve Acad. 26, 3–21 (2008).
4Gibbons, R. E., Villafañe, S. M., Stains, M., Murphy, K. L. & Raker, J. R. Beliefs about learning and enacted instructional practices: An investigation in postsecondary chemistry education. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 55, 1111–1133 (2018).
5Stupnisky, R. H., BrckaLorenz, A., Yuhas, B. & Guay, F. Faculty members’ motivation for teaching and best practices: Testing a model based on self-determination theory across institution types. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 53, 15–26 (2018).