THE ACT OF TEACHING

BY; Donald R. Chruickshank, Deborah Jenkins, Kim K. Metcalf

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Reflective Skills of Effective Teachers

Characteristics of Reflective Practioners

Reflection is a habit in which effective teachers appreciate, apply and

synthesize aspects of good teaching by examining them from different angles
(Jay, 1990).
Reflective practioners routinely and purposefully deliberate or reflect on
teaching.
They are open minded (Dewey, 1997b) and willing to question their own
views of reactions to their teaching practices.
They take responsibility by considering and accepting the consequences of
their decisions and the changes they make in teaching styles.
They are sincere as they closely investigate their teaching (Dewey, 1997b)
thus take reflection serious.
Reflective practice is also referred as inquiry- oriented teaching (Wellington,
1991).
Analyze and inquire into their own teaching behavior and the teaching of
others.

Benefits of Reflecting on Teaching

It holds both immediate and long- term benefits for you as a teacher.
Enhance your learning about teaching
Increase your ability to analyze classroom events.
Improve your classroom life
Enables you to monitor yourself, personal and professional growth
Enhances your learning about teaching (this is very important).
Four things needed to learn how to reflect on teaching.
Have a concrete learning experience such as grading, home work papers for
your co-operating teacher.
Have an opportunity to reflect on the experience by recapturing and
evaluating it.
Integrate your reflections with what you already know and believe about
learning hence recognizing new way of doing it.

Developing Reflective Thinking

The reflective thinking process; descriptive, comparative and evaluative (Jay, 1999;
Jay&Johnson, 2002).
Descriptive- involves describing what happened. Comparative involves exploring
alternative perspectives or interpretations that help you understand why the event
happened that way. Evaluative involves moving beyond describing and
understanding an event and seeing it from another point of view to making a
judgment about how best to proceed with making changes.
Becoming a reflective teachers

Discussion- give meaning to your teacher preparation experiences focused and

purposive rather than random.
Dialogue Journals- describe, compare and evaluate your classroom experiences.

Portfolio- provides a structural opportunity for you to document and describe your
teaching and learning.

Action research- process of conducting classroom research to answer questions

or solve problems about teaching and learning involves a specific group of students
in a particular setting (Mckay, 1992).