Learning Innovation Unit

Teaching Enhancement Cycle

Reflective practice

Reflection is an informative way of gaining insights to your teaching. It can help inform your thinking about how you deliver a module or specific aspects of a module. It can also help you to evaluate the development of a new method of teaching or assessment, or any area related to your teaching practice.

“a reflection in a mirror is an exact replica of what is in front of it. Reflection in professional practice, however, gives back not what it is, but what might be, an improvement on the original”
(1999 p6). Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Open University.

The following resources explain reflective practice in teaching:

Reflective practice tools

Post lecture reflection template

This reflection template will help you to reflect after a single teaching session or lecture. Alternatively, it can be used after each lecture in a series if you wanted to capture how a particular element is developing over time.

Reflective Journals

If the purpose of your evaluation is to evaluate your overall practice rather than a specific element, then you may prefer to use a reflective journal. There is no set method of keeping a journal as this will depend on your own preferred approach: in a notebook that you make reflective notes in regularly or at the end of teaching sessions; in a word document or in an online blog. Whichever method you choose, the important thing is to include elements or layers of reflection that lead to learning and intended action see Introduction to Reflection (ppt format).