Professional Reflection on Teaching

The role of reflection and articulated goals as a foundation for professional development and for evaluating teaching through a portfolio.

What are the ends of teaching? How does one's views on this shape one's teaching activities (broadly construed) and the methods or approaches that one uses in a classroom? Ulitmately, how can one know good teaching without knowing its intended purpose? Since teaching is a scholarly, professional activity, its backbone is thorough reflection on ends and means. Teaching, therefore, will be shaped by how an individual characterizes these three basic elements that govern practice:

  1. personal values and the goals of education (Teaching Philosophy);
  2. the scope of one's activities (Roles & Responsibilities Adopted); and
  3. the approaches that one adopts or develops towards those desired ends (Methods & Teaching Strategies).

Each of these elements is elaborated more fully elsewhere (links above). Here, one might pause to consider how they work together as elements of professional reflection. (In many discussions of teaching portfolios, these elements are combined under the single heading "Teaching Philosophy"; we prefer, by contrast, to highlight the differences between the whys, whats and hows.)

The foundation for any planning or assessment of teaching begins with a clear reflection on and a public statement of teaching philosophy. This does not define some theory of learning, but expresses the individual's personal values in a professional context. What is the goal of teaching? This is an important expression of academic freedom in teaching, tempered by discussion within the academic community, both at one's home institution and beyond. In a sense, all other aspects of teaching--and of the teaching portfolio--revolve around this hub. In particular, all evaluations must refer back to this form of personal reflection as a benchmark and implicit self-defined standard.

Having defined one's values and goals in teaching, one can then articulate the appropriate scope or type of one's teaching activities. How does one decide what courses to teach, how to balance classroom duties with mentoring or advising outside the classroom, or how much time to invest in other activities that support student learning, perhaps indirectly, such as garnering funding or developing instructional resources? What roles and responsibilities does one adopt? All these decisions are further expressions of professional choice (and academic freedom), though obviously made in a context of others in the same department and institution. This is an important perspective to contrast with many non-professional contexts, where a person's roles and responsibilities are dictated externally by the institution or employer.

Finally, the goals and the scope of one's activities frame a context for developing the means to fulfill them. In particular, what methodologies and teaching strategies does one learn, adopt and develop? Examples here may be collaborative learning, writing in class, carefully planned lectures punctuated by video clips, simulations, project assignments, computer tutorials, student debates, regular problem sets, guided rehearsals or studio work, etc. Many views of teaching equate these techniques or skills with the quality of teaching itself. But one must remember that they are skills or techniques only--tools for reaching some other, valued end. Indeed, they may very well be used expertly and effectively. And a person with a larger repertoire of skills may have more possibilities open to them. Still, sheer mastery does not ensure (in this case) that students learn, for example. Here, pedagogical knowledge and background on theories of learning or cognitive development can be further helpful tools. Ultimately, each teacher will find certain forms of teaching more suitable to his or her own goals, interactions with students, and personal dispositions. What may emerge from continued growth in this area, then, is a distincitve teaching style. That style will undoubtedly complement the instructor's specific teaching philosophy (as described above).

A teacher's methods and teaching strategies form a toolbox, of sorts. As an ensemble, they form a reservoir, a resource for productive teaching. Collectively, they are a form of capital (using the economic analogy). Hence, one may well refer to teaching capital. It is important to articulate this concept because one's repertoire of skills--one's teaching capital--will likely grow through the stages of one's career, and this may likely shape expectations in the context of an evaluation. Indeed, one might also expect the professional to continue accumulating teaching capital throughout one's life--another element that may shape evaluations.

The three elements of professional reflection, discussed above, are the foundation for the practice of teaching itself. First, they are the benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of one's teaching, in the broadest terms, and guide the reflective practitioner in collecting evidence (or getting feedback).

Second, in more subtle and indirect ways, teaching philosophy and other elements of reflection also guide an individual's professional development. For example, considerable professional develoment will likely be devoted to increasing teaching capital in the context of one's specific teaching goals. These two dimensions of teaching thus form the other major sections in a teaching portfolio.

See Also...

Bibliography

Donald A. Schön. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books (Harper Collins).

Stephen D. Brookfield. 1995. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Teaching Portfolios