On Reflective Teaching

Abstract：Reflective teaching helps teachers to make improvement in their teaching. Some valuable and practical measures to apply the theory are provided in this paper together with a case study.

Key words：reflective teaching practical measures professional development

1. Introduction

Reflective teaching can be traced back to the 1930s. It was mentioned in the book—How We Think： A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process， which was written by a famous American educationalist， John Dewey. Reflection， as defined by Dewey， is “turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious and consecutive consideration”， and it enables us “to act in a deliberate and intentional fashion” （ Dewey， 1933）.

Xiong Chuanwu （熊川武）， a professor of Eastern China Normal University， critically analyzes some concepts of reflective teaching， and he pointes out that reflective teaching is the process that the teacher （as a teaching subject）， with the help of action research， keeps on inquiring and solving his/her own problems of the teaching goals and of teaching instruments， connects “learning to teach” with “learning to learn”， tries to improve rationality of teaching， and makes himself/herself a teacher and a scholar as well （熊川武， 1999：3）.

To be brief， this approach often starts with the instructors themselves and the actual teaching processes， and tries to gain a better understanding of these processes by exploring what the teachers do and why they do it. The approach is often teacher？鄄initiated and teacher？鄄directed because it involves instructors in observing themselves， collecting data about their own classrooms and their roles within them， and using data as a base for self？鄄evaluation， for change， and hence for professional development （梁文華， 2001：115-116）.

Many researches of reflective teaching have been made since last century， however， most of them just rest on the theory itself， and few of them tell teachers where to begin and how to implement the approach. It is this fact that lends significance to this paper. This paper tells readers where to begin reflective teaching. Some valuable and practical measures to apply the theory are provided together with a case study.

2. Incorporating reflection into practice

2.1 keeping teaching journals

This is the easiest way to begin a process of reflection since it is purely personal. After each lesson you write in a notebook about what happened. You may also describe your own reactions and feelings and those you observed on the part of the students.

As you review your journals， ask yourself questions like these：

What do I do as a teacher？

What principles and beliefs inform my teaching？

Why do I teach the way I do？

Should I teach differently？

Keeping a journal can also be beneficial when one or more colleagues share their journals and meet regularly to discuss them.

2.2 Carrying out surveys and questionnaires

Some aspects of teaching and learning can be investigated through carrying out a survey or administering a questionnaire. For example， a teacher may wish to investigate students’ attitudes toward group work. A questionnaire is administered to the class which asks students to indicate how useful they find group work activities， what they think they learn from them， for what content areas or skills they think group work is most appropriate， and what is the limitation of group work. Surveys and questionnaires are useful ways of gathering information about effective dimensions of teaching and learning， such as beliefs， attitudes， motivation， and preferences， and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly.

2.3 Recording your lessons

The advantage of the preceding approaches is that they are relatively easy to carry out. However， a disadvantage is that they obtain subjective impressions of teaching and by their nature can capture only recollections and interpretations of events and not the actual events themselves. Hence other approaches are also necessary. We obtain the fullest account of a lesson from an actual recording of it， using an audio cassette or video recorder. With the help of such instruments， much of what happened in a lesson can be recorded.

Audio recordings can be useful for considering aspects of teacher talk. For example： How much do you talk？ How much time do you allocate to student talk？

Video recordings can be useful in showing you aspects of your own behavior. For example： Where do you stand？ Who do you speak to？

2.4 Peer observing

Peer observation gives teachers an opportunity to learn from each other in a non？鄄threatening environment where there is no judgmental outcome. There is an atmosphere of trust between the participants， and it is to be hoped that teachers will share ideas and suggestions openly and constructively to their mutual professional benefit.

Until now some valuable and practical measures to apply the theory are provided， and you may adopt suitable ones to investigate your class in terms of your different purposes and then use some critical thinking skills such as categorizing， analyzing， inferring and synthesizing to process the information gathered， and here you are incorporating reflection into practice.

3. A case of reflective teaching

In order to give a clearer idea about reflective teaching a case study is provided here.

This semester I had a new class. One month went past and I wanted to know how my students think about my class， so I carried out a survey to collect students’ opinion. A couple of questions were set for students to answer. I printed those questions and delivered copies to students. The followings were my questions：

（1）What do you think the rate of progress？ Too fast or too slow？

（2）Can you catch what I said when I speak English？ Should I speak English faster or more slowly？

（3）Do you think the homework is too much or too little？ Or just OK？

（4）How do you like my class and my teaching？ Is there anything that I should improve？

（5）Could you give some advice on my teaching？

The next day， I collected their answers. Categorizing and analyzing their answers I noticed what was going on in my class.

（1）As to the rate of teaching progress， 5 of the students （the total number is 32） thought we moved quickly， and 24 students thought we moved at the right pace. 3 students recommended we should go faster. Synthesizing the information I could draw a conclusion： most of the students thought we move at the right pace. Now I know what I could do： I would keep this pace. But I have to balance it. I would encourage those 5 students to spend more time on English， and I would help them to improve it at the same time. I would encourage them to catch up with the majority.

（2）With regard to my spoken English， 10 students said it was OK. And 2 students said they couldn’t hear me clearly， and suggested I speak louder. 20 of the students thought I spoke too fast， and sometimes they couldn’t get what I said. What I could infer was that most of the students thought I spoke too fast. So I know I should slow down and try to use easier English words， and that would be helpful.

（3）As to my teaching methods， 10 of them told me they liked to learn by pictures， films and video. The rest made no comments. Giving a careful review on my English teaching， I had to say it was a little pedestrian and stodgy. Yes， I could make it more interesting and more colorful， and I could learn from other colleagues.

（4）Considering the homework of English， 20 of them thought they had too much， and 12 of them thought it was just OK.

（5）Some of information was about my body language. 2 students told me that they didn’t like me to snap my fingers when I wanted to have their attention. One student said I was always wearing black clothes， and she didn’t like black colour. Those things seemed just trifles， but as a teacher， I knew these things could influence my teaching. As psychological research showed that if the students didn’t like some of the teacher’s characteristics， he or she might not like the teacher or even the teacher’s lecture. And this could eventually cause students to lose interesting in the subject taught by the teacher. Reflecting upon those matters， I decided to give up snapping my fingers in class and change the color of my clothes for the sake of teaching.

I also noticed some things that I was previously unaware of. For example， one of students told me I was always standing at the left side of teacher’s desk， and suggested I walk about.

The survey helped me reflect on my teaching practice and through reflection on my teaching practice I already had ideas for change.

I did make some changes in my teaching. Before class I tried to make a good preparation， and in class I would start a new lesson with some interesting background information about the text. And sometimes I would present beautiful pictures or paintings relevant to the text. Those made my class more lively and interesting. When I spoke， I tried to use easier English words and I spoke clearly and loudly. And I reduced the amount of homework. I would walk about in class， not just standing by the teacher’s desk. I had bought some new clothes， but the colour wasn’t black. And I did give up snapping my fingers in class.

Two weeks later， I wanted to know how my “reform” was going on. I invited some of the students to my office， and we communicated a lot. I asked them to comment on my class…

The feedback showed that most of them thought everything went well. It seemed I had made much progress！

I took their new suggestions and once again I made some changes in my teaching in order to make further progress.

I know the reflective teaching practice brings me a lot.

4. Conclusion

We see that the primary benefit of reflective practice for teachers is improving teaching and professional development of a teacher. So it is really necessary for us to carry out reflective teaching practice.

As a growing teacher， one of his/her goals is to improve the quality of his/her teaching. He may ask some relevant questions， hypothesize some possible answers or solutions， put the solutions to a practical tryout in the classroom， look for certain results， and weigh those results in some manner to determine whether his hypothesized answer help or not. That is the research of reflective teaching. So it is possible for a teacher to carry out the reflective approach to teaching.

Thinking？鄄beyond？鄄the？鄄doing challenges teachers at all levels to learn from a more deliberate wakefulness about how and why we teach as we do and then to use what we discover about ourselves to benefit the students whom we teach.

References：

1.Dewey， J. How We Think： A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Lexington， MA： D.C. Health，1933.

2.Richards， J. C. Lockhart. Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. 北京：人民教育出版社，2000： 3-42.

3.梁文華. “On reflective teaching.” 樓荷英主編：大學外語教學與研究. 上海： 復旦大學出版社， 2001：115-116.

4.熊川武. 反思性教學[M]. 上海： 華東師范大學出版社， 1999：3-46.