Take Five

The rhythms of the academic calendar give us frequent opportunities to begin anew. Fortunately, even the roughest semester eventually ends, and we can look forward to a fresh start next time. Effective teachers pause to reflect on their practice. The period between the ending of one semester and the beginning of the next is a good time to think about what we've done well and what we want to change and improve. Becoming a more reflective teacher does take an investment of time. But even five minutes a day can be a good start. The potential benefits for our students and us are well worth the effort.

End of Semester Reflection Activities

Student evaluations of our teaching provide one source of input for our reflections. But there are many other rich possibilities. Stephen Brookfield has suggested four "critical lenses" for reflection: 1) our own experiences as teachers and learners, 2) our students' input, 3) conversations with colleagues, and 4) interaction with the scholarship about teaching and learning. To borrow a copy of Brookfield's book, stop by the CIRT.

Some of Brookfield's strategies make good exercises for an end of the semester reflection.

Teacher Learning Audits. One way to track your development as a teacher is to conduct periodic "audits." Ask yourself a series of questions beginning with "Compared with this time last year, I am now able to. . ." Then ask yourself what led to your development (that is, to your learning). Ask the CIRT for more on this exercise.

Survival Advice Memos. Write a "survival advice memo" to a new colleague. Identify the most important piece of advice you have to offer, and consider how you know that it is good. What is the best example you can provide of its effectiveness? Meet with colleagues to conduct this exercise and discuss your findings. Contact the CIRT for details.

Self-assessment surveys. Identify an area of your teaching you want to work on, such as lecturing skills, presentational style, or planning and coordinating group work. Ask the CIRT for self-assessment survey forms to help you break down the related skill sets into more manageable components.

Reflection Activities for Next Semester

Because it can provide such useful and non-threatening feedback on your teaching, you may discover that on-going reflection during the course of a semester improves your comfort level in the classroom as well as your effectiveness with learners. What you discover can actually make you more efficient as well as more effective, since you will know where and how to best channel your energies.

Teaching Log. Brookfield suggests keeping a weekly record of the events in your classroom and your perceptions / insights about them. A series of questions about most and least comfortable or successful moments can guide your entries. Patterns will begin to emerge over the course of the semester. The CIRT can send you Brookfield's guiding questions.

Classroom Observation Program. Invite the CIRT to help you reflect on your teaching. Undergraduate honors students, who have been trained to collect constructive feedback, will meet with you and come into your classroom. Choose among three options: 1) the student observes merely records everything he or she observes during a session, 2) the student videotapes a session and you will receive the tape to analyze yourself, with a peer, or with a CIRT consultant, 3) you leave the classroom and the student spends 15 minutes interviewing your students and collecting data. Observations are strictly confidential. Contact the CIRT for more information.

Peer Observation. Engage a trusted colleague (preferably from a discipline other than your own) in a dialogue about teaching. Agree to visit each other’s class two or three times over the course of the semester and then to discuss your experiences and observations. For more on conducting productive peer visits, ask the CIRT for a short article by Barbara Frase and Michael McAsey.

A sense of closure is not only important for students, but also for teachers. Engaging consciously in reflection brings a sense of closure to the current semester and helps us focus on areas of concern for the next. Experienced and insightful teachers know that good teaching isn't just a matter of having a big "bag of tricks." They know that not all suggestions, strategies, or "teaching tips" can be directly and mechanically applied to all situations. Reflecting on their classroom experiences leads them to weigh choices and construct a more unified strategy, a solid pedagogy for their practice.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on December 7, 1998.