Reflective Practice for Teachers: Quick, Honest and Useful

Most teachers reflect all the time without calling it that. You replay a lesson on the drive home, wince at the moment you lost the class, and decide to change the seating plan. That is reflection. The trouble is that it often stays as a vague feeling, gets crowded out by marking, and is forgotten by the next time you teach the same topic.

Trainee teachers are often asked to write long reflective accounts, and some come away thinking reflection means paperwork. It can be much lighter than that. A few well-known models help, as long as you use them as tools rather than templates.

Schön: reflecting in action and on action

Donald Schön’s 1983 book “The Reflective Practitioner” looked at how professionals think in the course of their work. He drew a distinction that fits teaching closely.

Reflection-in-action happens while you are teaching. You notice that the class has not understood an explanation, so you reach for a different example on the spot. Experienced teachers do this all the time, sometimes so quickly they could not describe it afterwards.

Reflection-on-action happens later. You look back at what happened, why, and what you might do differently.

Both matter. Reflection-on-action is what improves your in-the-moment judgement over time, because the alternatives you think through afterwards become the options you can reach for next time.

Gibbs’ reflective cycle

Gibbs set out a six-stage reflective cycle in his 1988 book “Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods”. It is used in teacher training, in nursing and in many other professions.

The six stages are:

1. Description: what happened?
2. Feelings: what were you thinking and feeling?
3. Evaluation: what went well, and what did not?
4. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation?
5. Conclusion: what have you learned, and what else could you have done?
6. Action plan: what will you do next time?

Gibbs is useful for an event that stuck with you, good or bad. The feelings stage is easy to skip, but it often explains a lot. If you felt flustered when a confident pupil challenged you, that feeling probably shaped your response more than any plan did.

A short example, written in a few lines rather than a page:

• Description: Year 9 lost focus during my explanation of loops. Several pupils started chatting.
• Feelings: I felt rushed because we started late, and frustrated.
• Evaluation: The worked example was clear. The explanation before it was too long.
• Analysis: I talked for about ten minutes without asking anyone anything.
• Conclusion: Shorter explanation, then check understanding sooner.
• Action plan: Next lesson, explain for three minutes, then a quick mini-whiteboard question before the example.

Brookfield’s four lenses

Stephen Brookfield’s book “Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher” (first published in 1995, second edition 2017) adds something the other models can miss: other people’s perspectives. Reflection on your own can confirm what you already believe. Brookfield suggests looking at your teaching through four lenses.

Your own experience

Your autobiography as a learner and teacher. How were you taught this topic? What do you assume about how pupils learn because of your own schooling?

Your students’ eyes

What do pupils experience in your lessons? This might come from a quick anonymous exit question (“What was the most confusing part of today?”), from listening to pupil talk, or from looking closely at their work.

Colleagues’ perceptions

What do other adults see? A TA, a mentor or a colleague who drops in can notice things you cannot see from the front. Ask them about one specific thing, such as which pupils were left waiting longest for help, rather than for general comments.

Theory and research

What does the wider literature say? Reading about cognitive load, feedback or behaviour can explain why something happened and suggest what to try next. Research gives you a language for what you see.

Using more than one lens guards against blind spots. You might believe a lesson went well. Pupils’ exit tickets might show they left confused.

Making reflection quick and useful

Reflection only helps if you do it. Some ways to fit it into a real working week:

Use a two-minute end-of-lesson note

Keep a sticky note or a line in your planner for each lesson. Write one thing that worked and one thing to change. Look at it next time you teach that class or that topic.

Pick one focus for a few weeks

Trying to reflect on everything at once leads nowhere. Choose one area, such as questioning, transitions or how you use your TA, and reflect on just that for a half term.

Ask one good question

Instead of “How did it go?”, ask something sharper:

• Which pupil learned least today, and why?
• Where did I talk when pupils could have been thinking?
• What surprised me?

Reflect with someone else

A five-minute conversation with a colleague often goes further than a written journal. Trainees and early career teachers have mentors for this reason. Experienced teachers benefit too, and so do TAs, who see lessons from a different angle.

Close the loop

Reflection that ends with “next time I will…” needs a next time. Put the change into your plan for the next lesson. Then reflect on whether it worked.

Be kind as well as critical

Honest reflection can tip into harsh self-criticism, especially after a difficult lesson. Look for what went well as carefully as for what went wrong, and treat a bad lesson as information. Every teacher has them.

Further reading

• Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (First edition 1995.)
• Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.
• Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith.