essay on reflective practice in teaching

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• CBE Life Sci Educ
• v.22(2); Summer 2023
• PMC10228263

Reflective Practices in Education: A Primer for Practitioners

Haleigh machost.

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903

Marilyne Stains

Associated data.

Reflective practices in education are widely advocated for and have become important components of professional reviews. The advantages of reflective practices are many; however, the literature often focuses on the benefits to students, rather than the benefits for the educators themselves. Additionally, the extant literature concerning reflective practices in education is laden with conflicting terminology and complex studies, which can inhibit educators’ understanding of reflective practices and prevent their adoption. As such, this Essay serves as a primer for educators beginning reflective practices. It briefly describes the benefits to educators and different classifications and modalities of reflection and examines some of the challenges that educators may encounter.

INTRODUCTION

“Reflection” has become a buzzword in academia and has vast array of implications across fields, disciplines, and subdisciplines. When considering reflection about teaching practices, John Dewey, a psychologist and philosopher who was heavily influential in educational reform, provides a relevant description: reflection is ‘‘the active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” ( Dewey, 1933 , p. 9). The act of reflection in this context is meant to indicate a process , with Dewey highlighting the necessity of active thinking when encountering obstacles and problems. In less philosophical phrasing, reflection entails considering past or present experiences, learning from the outcomes observed, and planning how to better approach similar situations in the future. Consequently, Dewey suggests that educators embark on a journey of continual improvement when engaging in reflective practices. This is in stark contrast to how reflection is used in higher education. For many educators, the only time they engage in reflection is when they are asked to write documents that are used to evaluate whether they should be promoted, receive a raise, or be granted tenure. Reflection, within an evaluation framework, can be counterproductive and prevent meaningful reflections due to perceptions of judgment ( Brookfield, 2017 ).

This gap may result from the particular adaptation of reflections by some academics. The origin of reflective practices lies not in the realm of academia, but rather in professional training. It is often traced back to Donald Schön’s instrumental 1983 work The Reflective Practitioner , which, while aimed at his target audience of nonacademic professionals, has become foundational for reflective practices in teaching ( Munby and Russell, 1989 ).

In the varied topography of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground where practitioners can make effective use of research-based theory and technique, and there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing “messes” incapable of technical solution. The difficulty is that the problems of the high ground, however great their technical interest, are often relatively unimportant to clients or to the larger society, while in the swamp are the problems of greatest human concern. ( Schön, 1983 , p. 42)

Schön’s work on the education of various professionals gained traction, as he diverged from common norms of the time. In particular, he disagreed with separating knowledge and research from practice, and methods from results ( Schön, 1983 ; Newman, 1999 ). In doing so, he advocated for practical as well as technical knowledge, enabling professionals to develop greater competency in the real-world situations they encounter. Research in the ensuing decades focused on both gaining evidence for the effectiveness of reflective practices ( Dervent, 2015 ; Zahid and Khanam, 2019 ) and understanding the obstacles that can prevent reflective practices from being adopted ( Davis, 2003 ; Sturtevant and Wheeler, 2019 ).

This Essay is not intended to provide a comprehensive review of this work for use by education researchers; rather, the goal of this Essay is to provide a guide, grounded in this literature, to inform beginning reflective practitioners about the benefits of reflections, the different types of reflections that one can engage in, practical advice for engaging in reflective practices, and the potential challenges and corresponding solutions when engaging in reflective practices. It is also intended as a resource for professional development facilitators who are interested in infusing reflective practice within their professional development programs.

WHY SHOULD I ENGAGE IN REFLECTIVE PRACTICES?

Perhaps the best place to begin when discussing reflective practices is with the question “Why do people do it?” It is common to conceptualize reflection about teaching situations as a way to help “fix” any problems or issues that present themselves ( Brookfield, 2017 ). However, this view is counterproductive to the overarching goal of reflective practices—to continually improve one’s own efficacy and abilities as an educator. Similar to how there is always a new, more efficient invention to be made, there is always room for improvement by even the most experienced and well-loved educators. People choose to be educators for any number of personal reasons, but often the grounding desire is to help inform, mentor, or guide the next generation. With such a far-reaching aim, educators face many obstacles, and reflective practices are one tool to help mitigate them.

Classrooms are an ever-changing environment. The students change, and with that comes new generational experiences and viewpoints. Updates to technology provide new opportunities for engaging with students and exploring their understanding. New curricula and pedagogical standards from professional organizations, institutions, or departments can fundamentally alter the modes of instruction and the concepts and skills being taught. As described by Brookfield, reflection can act as a “gyroscope,” helping educators stay balanced amid a changing environment ( 2017 , p. 81). Through the process of reflection, practitioners focus on what drives them to teach and their guiding principles, which define how they interact with both their students and their peers. Furthermore, reflective practitioners are deliberately cognizant of the reasoning behind their actions, enabling them to act with more confidence when faced with a sudden or difficult situation ( Brookfield, 2017 ). In this way, reflection can help guide educators through the challenging times they may experience in their careers.

One such obstacle is imposter syndrome, which is all too familiar for many educators ( Brems et al. , 1994 ; Parkman, 2016 ; Collins et al. , 2020 ). It is a sense that, despite all efforts put in—the knowledge gained, the relationships formed, and the lives changed—what one does is never enough and one does not belong. These feelings often lead to a fear of being “discovered as a fraud or non-deserving professional, despite their demonstrated talent and achievements” ( Chrousos and Mentis, 2020 , p. 749). A part of reflective practices that is often overlooked is the consideration of everything that goes well . While it is true that reflective practitioners are aware of areas for improvement in their teaching, it is also true that they acknowledge, celebrate, and learn from good things that happen in their classrooms and in their interactions with students and peers. As such, they are more consciously aware of their victories, even if those victories happen to be small ( Brookfield, 2017 ). That is not to say that reflective practices are a cure-all for those dealing with imposter syndrome, but reflections can be a reminder that their efforts are paying off and that someone, whether it be students, peers, or even the practitioner themselves, is benefiting from their actions. Furthermore, reflecting on difficult situations has the potential for individuals to realize the extent of their influence ( Brookfield, 2017 ).

In a similar vein, reflective practices can help educators realize when certain expectations or cultural norms are out of their direct ability to address. For example, educators cannot be expected to tackle systemic issues such as racism, sexism, and ableism alone. Institutions must complement educators’ efforts through, for example, establishment of support systems for students excluded because of their ethnicity or race and the implementation of data-driven systems, which can inform the institutions’ and educators’ practices. Thus, through reflections, educators can avoid “self-laceration” ( Brookfield, 2017 , p. 86) and feelings of failure when the problems experienced are multifaceted.

In addition to alleviating “self-laceration,” developing reflective practice and reflective practitioners has been identified as one of four dominant change strategies in the literature ( Henderson et al. , 2011 ). Specifically, developing reflective practitioners is identified as a strategy that empowers individual educators to enact change ( Henderson et al. , 2011 ). One avenue for such change comes with identifying practices that are harmful to students. Reflecting on teaching experiences and student interactions can allow educators to focus on things such as whether an explanatory metaphor is accessible to different types of students in the class (e.g., domestic and international students), if any particular group of students do not work well together, and whether the curriculum is accessible for students from varied educational and cultural backgrounds. Thus, through the process of reflection, educators grow in their ability to help their students on a course level, and they are better positioned to advocate on their students’ behalf when making curricular decisions on a departmental or institutional level.

An additional part of reflection is gathering feedback to enable a holistic view of one’s teaching practices. When feedback is given by a trusted peer, this invaluable information can guide chosen teaching methods and ways of explaining new information. When feedback is given by students and that feedback is then acted upon, it demonstrates to the students that their opinions and experiences are taken seriously and fosters a more trusting environment ( Brookfield, 2017 ). Furthermore, when discrepancies arise between the intention of the teacher and the interpretation of the students, reflection also aids practitioners in verbalizing their reasoning. Through reflection, educators would need to consider past experiences, prior knowledge, and beliefs that led to their actions. As such, reflective practitioners are able to have honest and informed discussions with their students who may be confused or unhappy with a particular decision. Explaining this to students not only models the practice of continuous inquiry and of considering one’s actions, but it also allows students to understand the rationale behind decisions they may not personally agree with, fostering a more productive student–teacher relationship ( Brookfield, 2017 ).

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF REFLECTION?

This section aims to summarize and clarify the different ways reflection has been conceptualized in the literature ( Table 1 ). Specifically, reflections have been described based on their timing, depth, and content. Notably, practitioners of reflective practices must utilize multiple types of reflection in order to more effectively improve different aspects of their teaching ( Griffiths and Tann, 1992 ).

The various conceptualizations and associated types of reflections along with examples of guiding questions

Time-Dependent

To understand the time-dependent conceptualization of reflection, we return to Schön (1983 ). He defines two particular concepts—“reflection-in-action” and “reflection-on-action”—which are delineated based on the time that the reflection takes place. Reflection-in-action is characterized as practitioners reflecting while simultaneously completing the relevant action. Reflection-on-action encompasses a practitioner reflecting on a past action, analyzing the different influences, and carefully considering the observed or potential outcomes. Reflection-in-action is perceived as more difficult due to the multiple factors that teachers have to consider at once while also ensuring that the lesson carries on.

Later work built on this initial description of time-dependent reflections. In particular, Loughran renamed the original two timings to make them more intuitive and added one time point ( Loughran, 2002a ). The three categories include: “anticipatory,” “contemporaneous,” and “retrospective,” wherein actions taken, or to be taken, are contemplated before, during, and after an educating experience, respectively. It should be noted that both Loughran’s and Schön’s models are able to function in tandem with the depth- or content-based understandings of reflections, which are described in the next sections.

Depth of Reflections

Conceptualizing reflection in terms of depth has a long history in the literature (see Section 5.1 in the Supplemental Material for a historical view of the depth-based model of reflections). Thankfully, Larrivee (2008a) designed a depth-classification system that encompasses an array of terminologies and explanations pre-existing in the literature. This classification includes a progression in reflective practices across four levels: “pre-reflection,” “surface,” “pedagogical,” and “critical reflection.”

During the pre-reflection stage, educators do not engage in reflections. They are functioning in “survival mode” ( Larrivee, 2008a , p. 350; Campoy, 2010 , p. 17), reacting automatically to situations without considering alternatives and the impacts on the students ( Larrivee, 2008a ; Campoy, 2010 ). At this stage, educators may feel little agency, consider themselves the victims of coincidental circumstances, or attribute the ownership of problems to others such as their students, rather than themselves ( Larrivee, 2008a ; Campoy, 2010 ). They are unlikely to question the status quo, thereby failing to consider and adapt to the needs of the various learners in their classrooms ( Larrivee, 2008a ; Campoy, 2010 ). While the description of educators at this level is non-ideal, educators at the pre-reflection level are not ill intended. However, the pre-reflective level is present among practitioners, as evidenced in a 2015 study investigating 140 English as a Foreign Language educators and a 2010 analysis of collected student reflections ( Campoy, 2010 ; Ansarin et al. , 2015 ). The presence of pre-reflective educators is also readily apparent in the authors’ ongoing research. As such, being aware of the pre-reflection stage is necessary for beginning practitioners, and this knowledge is perhaps most useful for designers of professional development programs.

The first true level of reflection is surface reflection. At this level, educators are concerned about achieving a specific goal, such as high scores on standardized tests. However, these goals are only approached through conforming to departmental norms, evidence from their own experiences, or otherwise well-established practices ( Larrivee, 2008a ). In other words, educators at this level question whether the specific pedagogical practices will achieve their goals, but they do not consider any new or nontraditional pedagogical practices or question the current educational policies ( Campoy, 2010 ). Educators’ reflections are grounded in personal assumptions and influenced by individuals’ unexamined beliefs and unconscious biases.

At the pedagogical level, educators “reflect on educational goals, the theories underlying approaches, and the connections between theoretical principles and practice.” ( Larrivee, 2008a , p. 343). At this level, educators also consider their own belief systems and how those systems relate to their practices and explore the problem from different perspectives. A representative scenario at this level includes: teachers contemplating their various teaching methods and considering their observed outcomes in student comprehension, alternative viewpoints, and also the current evidence-based research in education. Subsequently, they alter (or maintain) their previous teaching practices to benefit the students. In doing so, more consideration is given to possible factors than in surface reflection. This category is quite broad due to the various definitions present in the literature ( Larrivee, 2008a ). However, there is a common emphasis on the theory behind teaching practices, ensuring that practice matches theory, and the student outcomes of enacted teaching practices ( Larrivee, 2008a ).

The last level of reflection categorized by Larrivee is critical reflection, wherein educators consider the ethical, moral, and political ramifications of who they are and what they are teaching to their students ( Larrivee, 2008a ). An approachable way of thinking about critical reflection is that the practitioners are challenging their assumptions about what is taught and how students learn. In doing so, educators evaluate their own views, assertions, and assumptions about teaching, with attention paid to how such beliefs impact students both as learners and as individuals ( Larrivee, 2005 , 2008b ). Through practicing critical reflection, societal issues that affect teaching can be uncovered, personal views become evidence based rather than grounded in assumptions, and educators are better able to help a diverse student population.

Larrivee used this classification to create a tool for measuring the reflectivity of teachers (see Section 4.1 of the Supplemental Material).

Content of Reflections

The third type of reflection is one in which what is being reflected on is the defining feature. One such example is Valli’s five types of reflection ( 1997 ): “technical reflection,” “reflection-in and on-action,” “deliberative reflection,” “personalistic reflection,” and “critical reflection.” Note that Valli’s conceptions of the two types of reflection—reflection-in and on-action, and critical reflection—are congruent with the descriptions provided in the Time-Dependent and Depth sections of this Essay , respectively, and will thus not be detailed in this section.

In a technical reflection, educators evaluate their instructional practices in light of the findings from the research on teaching and learning ( Valli, 1997 ). The quality of this type of reflection is based on the educators’ knowledge of this body of work and the extent to which their teaching practices adhere to it. For example, educators would consider whether they are providing enough opportunities for their students to explain their reasoning to one another during class. This type of reflection does not focus on broader topics such as the structure and content of the curriculum or issues of equity.

Deliberative reflection encompasses “a whole range of teaching concerns, including students, the curriculum, instructional strategies, the rules and organization of the classroom” ( Valli, 1997 , p. 75). In this case, “deliberative” comes from the practitioners having to debate various external viewpoints and perspectives or research that maybe be in opposition. As such, they have an internal deliberation when deciding on the best actions for their specific teaching situations. The quality of the reflection is based on the educators’ ability to evaluate the various perspectives and provide sound reasoning for their decisions.

Personalistic reflection involves educators’ personal growth as well as the individual relationships they have with their students. Educators engaged in this type of reflection thoughtfully explore the relationships between their personal and professional goals and consider the various facets of students’ lives with the overarching aim of providing the best experience. The quality of the reflection is based on an educator’s ability to empathize.

To manage the limitations of each type of reflections, Valli recommended that reflective practitioners not focus solely on a specific type of reflection, but rather engage with multiple types of reflections, as each addresses different questions. It is important to note that some types of reflections may be prerequisite to others and that some may be more important than others; for example, Valli stated that critical reflections are more valuable than technical reflections, as they address the important issues of justice. The order of Valli’s types of reflection provided in Table 1 reflects her judgment on the importance of the questions that each type of reflection addresses.

HOW CAN I ENGAGE IN REFLECTION?

Larrivee suggested that there is not a prescribed strategy to becoming a reflective practitioner but that there are three practices that are necessary: 1) carving time out for reflection, 2) constantly problem solving, and 3) questioning the status quo ( Larrivee, 2000 ). This section of the Essay provides a buffet of topics for consideration and methods of organization that support these three practices. This section is intended to assist educators in identifying their preferred mode of reflection and to provide ideas for professional development facilitators to explicitly infuse reflective practices in their programs.

For educators who are new to reflective practices, it is useful to view the methods presented as “transforming what we are already doing, first and foremost by becoming more aware of ourselves, others, and the world within which we live” ( Rodgers and Laboskey, 2016 , p. 101) rather than as a complete reformation of current methods.

Focus of the Reflection: Critical Incident

When practicing reflection, a critical incident may be identified or presented in order to ignite the initial reflection or to foster deeper thought by practitioners ( Tripp, 2011 ). Critical incidents are particular situations that become the focus of reflections. Farrell described critical incidents in education as unplanned events that hold the potential to highlight misconceptions and foster greater and newer understanding about teaching and learning ( 2008 ). These can be situations ranging from students not understanding a foundational concept from a previous course to considering how to navigate the analysis of a data set that includes cultural background and socioeconomic status.

Critical incidents are used, because meaningful reflection is often a result of educators experiencing a problem or some form of cognitive dissonance concerning teaching practices and approaches to their students ( Lee, 2005 ). Therefore, it is most effective to combine techniques, which are outlined later in this section, with a critical incident to force practitioners into a new and difficult positions relating to education. Larrivee details that a sense of “uncertainty, dissonance, dilemma, problem, or conflict” is extremely valuable to personal reflection and growth ( 2008b , p. 93). Thus, unsettling experiences encourage changes to action far more than reflecting on typical teaching/learning interactions. This is an inherently uncomfortable experience for the practitioner, as feelings of self-doubt, uncertainty, anger, and self- or peer-rejection can come to the surface ( Larrivee, 2008b ). Yet, it is when educators are in an uncomfortable position that they are best able to challenge their learned assertions about what they are teaching and how they are supporting their students’ learning. This requires a conscious effort on the part of the educator. Humans tend to function automatically based on their past experiences and ingrained beliefs. This results in certain aspects of events being ignored while others become the driving force behind reactions. In a sense, humans have a “filter system” that can unconsciously eliminate the most effective course of action; this results in humans functioning in a cycle in which current, unquestioned beliefs determine which data and experiences are given attention ( Larrivee, 2000 , p. 295).

Critical incidents highlight any dissonance present in one’s actions, enabling practitioners to tackle social, ethical, political, and pedagogical issues that may be systemic to their departments, their fields, or their cultures. Critical incidents foster critical reflection (under the depth- and content-based models) even in novice teachers ( Pultorak, 1996 ; Griffin, 2003 ). It is because of the difficulty and uncertainty posed by critical incidents that they are widely promoted as an invaluable aspect of reflective practices in education. Therefore, the analysis of critical incidents, whether they are case studies or theoretical examples, has been used in educating both pre-service ( Griffin, 2003 ; Harrison and Lee, 2011 ) and current educators ( Benoit, 2013 ).

Scaffoldings Promoting Reflections

Once a critical incident has been identified, the next step is structuring the reflection itself. Several scaffolding models exist in the literature and are described in Section 3 of the Supplemental Material. As reflections are inherently personal, educators should use the scaffolding that works best for them. Two scaffoldings that have been found to be useful in developing reflective practices are Bain’s 5R and Gibbs’s reflective cycle.

Bain et al. (2002) created the 5R framework to support the development of pre-service teachers into reflective practitioners. The framework includes the following five steps ( Bain et al. , 2002 ):

• Reporting involves considering a particular experience and the contextual factors that surround it.
• Responding is when the individual practitioners verbalize their feelings, thoughts, and other reactions that they had in response to the situation.
• Relating is defined as teachers making connections between what occurred recently and their previously obtained knowledge and skill base.
• Reasoning then encourages the practitioners to consider the foundational concepts and theories, as well as other factors that they believe to be significant, in an effort to understand why a certain outcome was achieved or observed.
• Finally, reconstructing is when the teachers take their explanations and uses them to guide future teaching methods, either to encourage a similar result or to foster a different outcome.

This framework facilitates an understanding of what is meant by and required for reflective practices. For a full explanation of Bain’s scaffolding and associated resources, see Sections 1.2 and 3.3 in the Supplemental Material.

A popular scaffolding for promoting reflective practices is the reflective learning cycle described by Gibbs (1988) . This cycle for reflection has been extensively applied in teacher preparation programs and training of health professionals ( Husebø et al. , 2015 ; Ardian et al. , 2019 ; Markkanen et al. , 2020 ). The cycle consists of six stages:

• Description: The practitioner first describes the situation to be reflected on in detail.
• Feelings: The practitioner then explores their feelings and thoughts processes during the situation.
• Evaluation: The practitioner identifies what went well and what went wrong.
• Analysis: The practitioner makes sense of the situation by exploring why certain things went well while others did not.
• Conclusions: The practitioner summarizes what they learned from their analysis of the situation.
• Personal action plans: The practitioner develops a plan for what they would do in a similar situation in the future and what other steps they need to take based on what they learn (e.g., gain some new skills or knowledge).

For a full explanation of Gibbs’s scaffolding and associated resources, see Sections 1.3 and 3.4 in the Supplemental Material.

We see these two models as complementary and have formulated a proposed scaffolding for reflection by combining the two models. In Table 2 , we provide a short description of each step and examples of reflective statements. The full scaffolding is provided in Section 3.6 of the Supplemental Material.

Proposed scaffolds for engaging in reflective practices a

a An expanded version is provided in Section 3.6 of the Supplemental Material.

Even with the many benefits of these scaffolds, educators must keep in mind the different aspects and levels of reflection that should be considered. Especially when striving for higher levels of reflection, the cultural, historical, and political contexts must be considered in conjunction with teaching practices for such complex topics to affect change ( Campoy, 2010 ). For instance, if equity and effectiveness of methods are not contemplated, there is no direct thought about how to then improve those aspects of practice.

Modalities for Reflections

The different scaffolds can be implemented in a wide variety of practices ( Table 3 ). Of all the various methods of reflection, reflective writing is perhaps the most often taught method, and evidence has shown that it is a deeply personal practice ( Greiman and Covington, 2007 ). Unfortunately, many do not continue with reflective writing after a seminar or course has concluded ( Jindal‐Snape and Holmes, 2009 ). This may be due to the concern of time required for the physical act of writing. In fact, one of the essential practices for engaging in effective reflections is creating a space and time for personal, solitary reflection ( Larrivee, 2000 ); this is partially due to the involvement of “feelings of frustration, insecurity, and rejection” as “taking solitary time helps teachers come to accept that such feelings are a natural part of the change process” while being in a safe environment ( Larrivee, 2000 , p. 297). It is important to note that reflective writing is not limited to physically writing in a journal or typing into a private document; placing such a limitation may contribute to the practice being dropped, whereas a push for different forms of reflection will keep educators in practice ( Dyment and O'Connell, 2014 ). Reflective writings can include documents such as case notes ( Jindal‐Snape and Holmes, 2009 ), reviewing detailed lesson plans ( Posthuma, 2012 ), and even blogging ( Alirio Insuasty and Zambrano Castillo, 2010 ; van Wyk, 2013 ; Garza and Smith, 2015 ).

Common methods to engage in reflective practices

The creation of a blog or other online medium can help foster reflection. In addition to fostering reflection via the act of writing on an individual level, this online form of reflective writing has several advantages. One such benefit is the readily facilitated communication and collaboration between peers, either through directly commenting on a blog post or through blog group discussions ( Alirio Insuasty and Zambrano Castillo, 2010 ; van Wyk, 2013 ; Garza and Smith, 2015 ). “The challenge and support gained through the collaborative process is important for helping clarify beliefs and in gaining the courage to pursue beliefs” ( Larrivee, 2008b , p. 95). By allowing other teachers to comment on published journal entries, a mediator role can be filled by someone who has the desired expertise but may be geographically distant. By this same logic, blogs have the great potential to aid teachers who themselves are geographically isolated.

Verbal reflections through video journaling (vlogs) follows the same general methods as writing. This method has the potential to be less time intensive ( Clarke, 2009 ), which may lower one of the barriers facing practitioners. Greiman and Covington (2007) identified verbal reflection as one of the three preferred modalities of reflection by student teachers. By recording their verbal contemplations and reflections, practitioners can review their old thoughts about different course materials, enabling them to adjust their actions based on reflections made when observations were fresh in their mind. Students learning reflective practices also noted that recorded videos convey people’s emotions and body language—reaching a complexity that is not achievable with plain text or audio ( Clarke, 2009 ).

If writing or video journaling is not appealing, another method to facilitate reflective practices is that of making video recordings of teaching experiences in vivo. This differs from vlogs, which are recorded after the teaching experiences. A small longitudinal qualitative study indicated that the video recordings allowed participants to be less self-critical and to identify effective strategies they were employing ( Jindal‐Snape and Holmes, 2009 ). Additionally, beginning teachers found the most value in videotaping their teaching as compared with electronic portfolios and online discussions ( Romano and Schwartz, 2005 ). By recording their teaching practices, practitioners can use a number of clearly outlined self- and peer-assessments, as detailed in Section 4 of the Supplemental Material. However, it should be noted that all three technology-driven methods used in the study by Romano and Schwartz (2005) were helpful for the participants, and as reflective practices are inherently personal, many methods should be considered by practitioners new to purposeful reflection.

Group efforts, such as group discussions or community meetings, can foster reflective thinking, thereby encouraging reflective practices. “The checks and balances of peers’ and critical friends’ perspectives can help developing teachers recognize when they may be devaluing information or using self-confirming reasoning, weighing evidence with a predisposition to confirm a belief or theory, rather than considering alternative theories that are equally plausible” ( Larrivee, 2008b , p. 94). These benefits are essential to help educators reach the higher levels of reflection (i.e., pedagogical reflection and critical reflection), as it can be difficult to think of completely new viewpoints on one’s own, especially when educators are considering the needs of diverse students yet only have their own experiences to draw upon. Henderson et. al . (2011) review of the literature found that successful reports of developing reflective practitioners as a strategy for change had two commonalities. One of these was the presence of either a community where experiences are shared ( Gess-Newsome et al. , 2003 ; Henderson et al. , 2011 ) or of an additional participant providing feedback to the educator ( Penny and Coe, 2004 ; McShannon and Hynes, 2005 ; Henderson et al. , 2011 ). The second commonality was the presence of support by a change agent ( Hubball et al. , 2005 ; Henderson et al. , 2011 ), which is far more context reliant.

Even in the absence of change agent support, peer observation can be implemented as a tool for establishing sound reflective practices. This can be accomplished through informal observations followed by an honest discussion. It is vital for the correct mindset to be adopted during such a mediation session, as the point of reflection is in assessing the extent to which practitioners’ methods allow them to achieve their goals for student learning. This cannot be done in an environment where constructive feedback is seen as a personal critique. For example, it was found that peers who simply accepted one another’s practices out of fear of damaging their relationships did not benefit from peer observation and feedback ( Manouchehri, 2001 ); however, an initially resistant observer was able to provide valuable feedback after being prompted by the other participant ( Manouchehri, 2001 ). One approach to ensure the feedback promotes reflections is for the observer and participant to meet beforehand and have a conversation about areas on which to focus feedback. The follow-up conversation focuses first on these areas and can be expanded afterward to other aspects of the teaching that the observer noticed. Observation protocols (provided in Section 4.2 in the Supplemental Material) can also be employed in these settings to facilitate the focus of the reflection.

For those interested in assessing their own or another’s reflection, Section 4 in the Supplemental Material will be helpful, as it highlights different tools that have been shown to be effective and are adaptable to different situations.

WHAT BARRIERS MIGHT I FACE?

It is typical for educators who are introducing new practices in their teaching to experience challenges both at the personal and contextual levels ( Sturtevant and Wheeler, 2019 ). In this section, we address the personal and contextual barriers that one may encounter when engaging in reflective practices and provide advice and recommendations to help address these barriers. We also aim to highlight that the difficulties faced are commonly shared by practitioners embarking on the complex journey of becoming reflective educators.

Personal Barriers

Professional development facilitators who are interested in supporting their participants’ growth as reflective practitioners will need to consider: 1) the misunderstandings that practitioners may have about reflections and 2) the need to clearly articulate the purpose and nature of reflective practices. Simply asking practitioners to reflect will not lead to desirable results ( Loughran, 2002b ). Even if the rationale and intent is communicated, there is also the pitfall of oversimplification. Practitioners may stop before the high levels of reflection (e.g., critical reflection) are reached due to a lack of in-depth understanding of reflective practices ( Thompson and Pascal, 2012 ). Even if the goals are understood and practitioners intend to evaluate their teaching practices on the critical level, there can still be confusion about what reflective practices require from practitioners. The theory of reflective practices may be grasped, but it is not adequately integrated into how practitioners approach teaching ( Thompson and Pascal, 2012 ). We hope that this Essay and associated Supplemental Material provide a meaningful resource to help alleviate this challenge.

A concern often raised is that the level of critical reflection is not being reached ( Ostorga, 2006 ; Larrivee, 2008a ). Considering the impacts that student–teacher interactions have on students beyond the classroom is always a crucial part of being an educator. In terms of practicality, situations being considered may not be conducive to this type of reflection. Consider an educator who, after a formative assessment, realizes that students, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, or gender, did not grasp a foundational topic that is required for the rest of the course. In such a case, it is prudent to consider how the information was taught and to change instructional methods to adhere to research-based educational practices. If the information was presented in a lecture-only setting, implementing aspects of engagement, exploration, and elaboration on the subject by the students can increase understanding ( Eisenkraft, 2003 ). If the only interactions were student–teacher based and all work was completed individually, the incorporation of student groups could result in a deeper understanding of the material by having students act as teachers or by presenting students with alternative way of approaching problems (e.g., Michaelsen et al. , 1996 ). Both of these instructional changes are examples that can result from pedagogical reflection and are likely to have a positive impact on the students. As such, educators who practice any level of reflection should be applauded. The perseverance and dedication of practitioners cannot be undervalued, even if their circumstances lead to fewer instances of critical reflection. We suggest that communities of practice such as faculty learning communities, scholarship of teaching and learning organizations, or professional development programs are excellent avenues to support educators ( Baker et al. , 2014 ; Bathgate et al. , 2019 ; Yik et al. , 2022a , b ), including in the development of knowledge and skills required to reach critical reflections. For example, facilitators of these communities and programs can intentionally develop scaffolding and exercises wherein participants consider whether the deadlines and nature of assignments are equitable to all students in their courses. Professional development facilitators are strongly encouraged to be explicit about the benefits to individual practitioners concomitantly with the benefits to students (see Section 2 in the Supplemental Material), as benefits to practitioners are too often ignored yet comprise a large portion of the reasoning behind reflective practices.

At a practitioner’s level, the time requirement for participating in reflective practices is viewed as a major obstacle, and it would be disingenuous to discount this extensive barrier ( Greiman and Covington, 2007 ). Reflective practices do take time, especially when done well and with depth. However, we argue that engagement in reflective practice early on can help educators become more effective with the limited time they do have ( Brookfield, 2017 ). As educators engage in reflective practices, they become more aware of their reasoning, their teaching practices, the effectiveness of said practices, and whether their actions are providing them with the outcomes they desire ( Thompson and Pascal, 2012 ). Therefore, they are able to quickly and effectively troubleshoot challenges they encounter, increasing the learning experiences for their students. Finally, we argue that the consistent engagement in reflective practices can significantly facilitate and expedite the writing of documents necessary for annual evaluations and promotions. These documents often require a statement in which educators must evaluate their instructional strategies and their impact on students. A reflective practitioner would have a trail of documents that can easily be leveraged to write such statement.

Contextual Factors

Environmental influences have the potential to bring reflective practices to a grinding halt. A paradigm shift that must occur to foster reflective teacher: that of changing the teacher’s role from a knowledge expert to a “pedagogic expert” ( Day, 1993 ). As with any change of this magnitude, support is necessary across all levels of implementation and practitioners to facilitate positive change. Cole (1997) made two observations that encapsulate how institutions can prevent the implementation of reflective practices: first, many educators who engage in reflective practices do so secretly. Second, reflections are not valued in academic communities despite surface-level promotions for such teaching practices; institutions promote evidence-based teaching practices, including reflection, yet instructors’ abilities as educators do not largely factor into promotions, raises, and tenure ( Brownell and Tanner, 2012 ; Johnson et al. , 2018 ). The desire for educators to focus on their teaching can become superficial, with grants and publications mattering more than the results of student–teacher interactions ( Cole, 1997 ; Michael, 2007 ).

Even when teaching itself is valued, the act of changing teaching methods can be resisted and have consequences. Larrivee’s (2000) statement exemplifies this persistent issue:

Critically reflective teachers also need to develop measures of tactical astuteness that will enable them to take a contrary stand and not have their voices dismissed. One way to keep from committing cultural suicide is to build prior alliances both within and outside the institution by taking on tasks that demonstrate school loyalty and build a reputation of commitment. Against a history of organizational contributions, a teacher is better positioned to challenge current practices and is less readily discounted. (p. 298)

The notion that damage control must be a part of practicing reflective teaching is indicative of a system that is historically opposed to the implementation of critical reflection ( Larrivee, 2000 ). We view this as disheartening, as the goal of teaching should be to best educate one’s students. Even as reflective practices in teaching are slowly becoming more mainstream, contextual and on-site influences still have a profound impact on how teachers approach their profession ( Smagorinsky, 2015 ). There must be a widespread, internal push for change within departments and institutions for reflective practices to be easily and readily adopted.

The adoption of reflective practices must be done in a way that does not negate its benefits. For example, Galea (2012) highlights the negative effects of routinizing or systematizing this extremely individual and circumstance-based method (e.g., identification of specific areas to focus on, standardized timing and frequency of reflections). In doing so, the systems that purportedly support teachers using reflection remove their ability to think of creative solutions, limit their ability to develop as teachers, and can prevent an adequate response to how the students are functioning in the learning environment ( Tan, 2008 ). Effective reflection can be stifled when reflections are part of educators’ evaluations for contract renewal, funding opportunities, and promotions and tenure. Reflective practices are inherently vulnerable, as they involve both being critical of oneself and taking responsibility for personal actions ( Larrivee, 2008b ). Being open about areas for improvement is extremely difficult when it has such potential negative impacts on one’s career. However, embarking on honest reflection privately, or with trusted peers and mentors, can be done separately from what is presented for evaluation. We argue that reflections can support the writing of documents to be considered for evaluation, as these documents often request the educators to describe the evolution of their teaching and its impact on students. Throughout course terms, reflections conducted privately can provide concreate ideas for how to frame an evaluation document. We argue that administrators, department chairs, and members of tenure committees should be explicit with their educators about the advantages of reflective practices in preparing evaluative documents focused on teaching.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Reflective practices are widely advocated for in academic circles, and many teaching courses and seminars include information regarding different methods of reflection. This short introduction intends to provide interested educators with a platform to begin reflective practices. Common methods presented may appeal to an array of educators, and various self- and peer-assessment tools are highlighted in Section 4 in the Supplemental Material. Reflective practices are a process and a time- and energy-intensive, but extremely valuable tool for educators when implemented with fidelity. Therefore, reflection is vital for efficacy as an educator and a requirement for educators to advance their lifelong journeys as learners.

To conclude, we thought the simple metaphor provided by Thomas Farrell best encapsulates our thoughts on reflective practices within the context of teaching: Reflective practices are “a compass of sorts to guide teachers when they may be seeking direction as to what they are doing in their classrooms. The metaphor of reflection as a compass enables teachers to stop, look, and discover where they are at that moment and then decide where they want to go (professionally) in the future” ( Farrell, 2012 , p. 7).

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

We would like to thank Annika Kraft, Jherian Mitchell-Jones, Emily Kable, Dr. Emily Atieh, Dr. Brandon Yik, Dr. Ying Wang, and Dr. Lu Shi for their constructive feedback on previous versions of this article. This material is based upon work supported by NSF 2142045. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

• Alirio Insuasty, E., Zambrano Castillo, L. C. (2010). Exploring reflective teaching through informed journal keeping and blog group discussion in the teaching practicum . Profile Issues in Teachers Professional Development , 12 ( 2 ), 87–105. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ansarin, A. A., Farrokhi, F., Rahmani, M. (2015). Iranian EFL teachers’ reflection levels: The role of gender, experience, and qualifications . Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics , 2 ( 2 ), 140–155. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ardian, P., Hariyati, R. T. S., Afifah, E. (2019). Correlation between implementation case reflection discussion based on the Graham Gibbs Cycle and nurses’ critical thinking skills . Enfermeria Clinica , 29 , 588–593. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bain, J., Ballantyne, R., Mills, C., Lester, N. (2002). Reflecting on practice: Student teachers’ perspectives . Flaxton, QLD, Australia: Post Pressed. [ Google Scholar ]
• Baker, L. A., Chakraverty, D., Columbus, L., Feig, A. L., Jenks, W. S., Pilarz, M., Wesemann, J. L. (2014). Cottrell Scholars Collaborative New Faculty Workshop: Professional development for new chemistry faculty and initial assessment of its efficacy . Journal of Chemical Education , 91 ( 11 ), 1874–1881. [ Google Scholar ]
• Bathgate, M. E., Aragón, O. R., Cavanagh, A. J., Frederick, J., Graham, M. J. (2019). Supports: A key factor in faculty implementation of evidence-based teaching . CBE—Life Sciences Education , 18 ( 2 ), ar22. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Benoit, A. (2013). Learning from the inside out: A narrative study of college teacher development [Doctoral Dissertation, Lesley University] . Graduate School of Education. https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/education_dissertations/29
• Brems, C., Baldwin, M. R., Davis, L., Namyniuk, L. (1994). The imposter syndrome as related to teaching evaluations and advising relationships of university faculty members . Journal of Higher Education , 65 ( 2 ), 183–193. [ Google Scholar ]
• Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [ Google Scholar ]
• Brownell, S. E., Tanner, K. D. (2012). Barriers to faculty pedagogical change: Lack of training, time, incentives, and … tensions with professional identity? CBE—Life Sciences Education , 11 ( 4 ), 339–346. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Campoy, R. (2010). Reflective thinking and educational solutions: Clarifying what teacher educators are attempting to accomplish . SRATE Journal , 19 ( 2 ), 15–22. [ Google Scholar ]
• Chrousos, G. P., Mentis, A.-F. A. (2020). Imposter syndrome threatens diversity . Science , 367 ( 6479 ), 749–750. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Clarke, L. (2009). Video reflections in initial teacher education . British Journal of Educational Technology , 40 ( 5 ), 959–961. [ Google Scholar ]
• Cole, A. L. (1997). Impediments to reflective practice: Toward a new agenda for research on teaching . Teachers and Teaching , 3 ( 1 ), 7–27. [ Google Scholar ]
• Collins, K. H., Price, E. F., Hanson, L., Neaves, D. (2020). Consequences of stereotype threat and imposter syndrome: The personal journey from Stem-practitioner to Stem-educator for four women of color . Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education , 19 ( 4 ), 10. [ Google Scholar ]
• Davis, M. (2003). Barriers to reflective practice: The changing nature of higher education . Active Learning in Higher Education , 4 ( 3 ), 243–255. [ Google Scholar ]
• Day, C. (1993). Reflection: A necessary but not sufficient condition for professional development . British Educational Research Journal , 19 ( 1 ), 83–93. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dervent, F. (2015). The effect of reflective thinking on the teaching practices of preservice physical education teachers . Issues in Educational Research , 25 ( 3 ), 260–275. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dewey, J. (1933). How we think . Chelmsford, MA: Courier Corporation. [ Google Scholar ]
• Dyment, J. E., O'Connell, T. S. (2014). When the ink runs dry: Implications for theory and practice when educators stop keeping reflective journals . Innovative Higher Education , 39 ( 5 ), 417–429. [ Google Scholar ]
• Eisenkraft, A. (2003). Expanding the 5 E model: A purposed 7 E model emphasizes “transfer of learning” and the importance of eliciting prior understanding . Science Teacher , 70 ( 6 ), 56–59. [ Google Scholar ]
• Farrell, T. S. (2008). Critical incidents in ELT initial teacher training . ELT Journal , 62 ( 1 ), 3–10. [ Google Scholar ]
• Farrell, T. S. (2012). Reflecting on reflective practice: (Re) visiting Dewey and Schon . TESOL Journal , 3 ( 1 ), 7–16. [ Google Scholar ]
• Galea, S. (2012). Reflecting reflective practice . Educational Philosophy and Theory , 44 ( 3 ), 245–258. [ Google Scholar ]
• Garza, R., Smith, S. F. (2015). Pre-service teachers’ blog reflections: Illuminating their growth and development . Cogent Education , 2 ( 1 ), 1066550. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gess-Newsome, J., Southerland, S. A., Johnston, A., Woodbury, S. (2003). Educational reform, personal practical theories, and dissatisfaction: The anatomy of change in college science teaching . American Educational Research Journal , 40 ( 3 ), 731–767. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods . London, England: Further Education Unit. [ Google Scholar ]
• Greiman, B., Covington, H. (2007). Reflective thinking and journal writing: Examining student teachers; perceptions of preferred reflective modality, journal writing outcomes, and journal structure . Career and Technical Education Research , 32 ( 2 ), 115–139. [ Google Scholar ]
• Griffin, M. L. (2003). Using critical incidents to promote and assess reflective thinking in preservice teachers . Reflective Practice , 4 ( 2 ), 207–220. [ Google Scholar ]
• Griffiths, M., Tann, S. (1992). Using reflective practice to link personal and public theories . Journal of Education for Teaching , 18 ( 1 ), 69–84. [ Google Scholar ]
• Harrison, J. K., Lee, R. (2011). Exploring the use of critical incident analysis and the professional learning conversation in an initial teacher education programme . Journal of Education for Teaching , 37 ( 2 ), 199–217. [ Google Scholar ]
• Henderson, C., Beach, A., Finkelstein, N. (2011). Facilitating change in undergraduate STEM instructional practices: An analytic review of the literature . Journal of Research in Science Teaching , 48 ( 8 ), 952–984. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hubball, H., Collins, J., Pratt, D. (2005). Enhancing reflective teaching practices: Implications for faculty development programs . Canadian Journal of Higher Education , 35 ( 3 ), 57–81. [ Google Scholar ]
• Husebø, S. E., O'Regan, S., Nestel, D. (2015). Reflective practice and its role in simulation . Clinical Simulation in Nursing , 11 ( 8 ), 368–375. [ Google Scholar ]
• Jindal-Snape, D., Holmes, E. A. (2009). A longitudinal study exploring perspectives of participants regarding reflective practice during their transition from higher education to professional practice . Reflective Practice , 10 ( 2 ), 219–232. [ Google Scholar ]
• Johnson, E., Keller, R., Fukawa-Connelly, T. (2018). Results from a survey of abstract algebra instructors across the United States: Understanding the choice to (not) lecture . International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education , 4 , 254–285. [ Google Scholar ]
• Larrivee, B. (2000). Transforming teaching practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher . Reflective Practice , 1 ( 3 ), 293–306. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1080/14623940020025561 [ Google Scholar ]
• Larrivee, B. (2005). Authentic classroom management: Creating a learning community and building reflective practice . Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. [ Google Scholar ]
• Larrivee, B. (2008a). Development of a tool to assess teachers’ level of reflective practice . Reflective Practice , 9 ( 3 ), 341–360.  10.1080/14623940802207451 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Larrivee, B. (2008b). Meeting the challenge of preparing reflective practitioners . New Educator , 4 ( 2 ), 87–106. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lee, H.-J. (2005). Understanding and assessing preservice teachers’ reflective thinking . Teaching and Teacher Education , 21 ( 6 ), 699–715. [ Google Scholar ]
• Loughran, J. J. (2002a). Developing reflective practice: Learning about teaching and learning through modelling . London, UK: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Loughran, J. J. (2002b). Effective reflective practice: In search of meaning in learning about teaching . Journal of Teacher Education , 53 ( 1 ), 33–43. [ Google Scholar ]
• Manouchehri, A. (2001). Collegial interaction and reflective practice . Action in Teacher Education , 22 ( 4 ), 86–97. [ Google Scholar ]
• Markkanen, P., Välimäki, M., Anttila, M., Kuuskorpi, M. (2020). A reflective cycle: Understanding challenging situations in a school setting . Educational Research , 62 ( 1 ), 46–62. [ Google Scholar ]
• McShannon, J., Hynes, P. (2005). Student achievement and retention: Can professional development programs help faculty GRASP it? Journal of Faculty Development , 20 ( 2 ), 87–93. [ Google Scholar ]
• Michael, J. (2007). Faculty perceptions about barriers to active learning . College Teaching , 55 ( 2 ), 42–47. [ Google Scholar ]
• Michaelsen, L. K., Fink, L. D., Black, R. H. (1996). What every faculty developer needs to know about learning groups . To Improve the Academy , 15 ( 1 ), 31–57. [ Google Scholar ]
• Munby, H., Russell, T. (1989). Educating the reflective teacher: An essay review of two books by Donald Schon . Journal of Curriculum Studies , 21 ( 1 ), 71–80. [ Google Scholar ]
• Newman, S. (1999). Constructing and critiquing reflective practice . Educational Action Research , 7 ( 1 ), 145–163. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ostorga, A. N. (2006). Developing teachers who are reflective practitioners: A complex process . Issues in Teacher Education , 15 ( 2 ), 5–20. [ Google Scholar ]
• Parkman, A. (2016). The imposter phenomenon in higher education: Incidence and impact . Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice , 16 ( 1 ), 51. [ Google Scholar ]
• Penny, A. R., Coe, R. (2004). Effectiveness of consultation on student ratings feedback: A meta-analysis . Review of Educational Research , 74 ( 2 ), 215–253. [ Google Scholar ]
• Posthuma, B. (2012). Mathematics teachers’ reflective practice within the context of adapted lesson study . Pythagoras , 33 ( 3 ), 1–9. [ Google Scholar ]
• Pultorak, E. G. (1996). Following the developmental process of reflection in novice teachers: Three years of investigation . Journal of Teacher Education , 47 ( 4 ), 283–291. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rodgers, C., Laboskey, V. K. (2016). Reflective practice . International Handbook of Teacher Education , 2 , 71–104. [ Google Scholar ]
• Romano, M., Schwartz, J. (2005). Exploring technology as a tool for eliciting and encouraging beginning teacher reflection . Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education , 5 ( 2 ), 149–168. [ Google Scholar ]
• Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . New York, NY: Basic Books. [ Google Scholar ]
• Smagorinsky, P. (2015). The role of reflection in developing eupraxis in learning to teach English . Pedagogies: An International Journal , 10 ( 4 ), 285–308. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sturtevant, H., Wheeler, L. (2019). The STEM Faculty Instructional Barriers and Identity Survey (FIBIS): Development and exploratory results . International Journal of STEM Education , 6 ( 1 ), 1–22. [ Google Scholar ]
• Tan, C. (2008). Improving schools through reflection for teachers: Lessons from Singapore . School Effectiveness and School Improvement , 19 ( 2 ), 225–238. [ Google Scholar ]
• Thompson, N., Pascal, J. (2012). Developing critically reflective practice . Reflective Practice , 13 ( 2 ), 311–325.  10.1080/14623943.2012.657795 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Tripp, D. (2011). Critical incidents in teaching (classic edition): Developing professional judgement . London, England: Routledge. [ Google Scholar ]
• Valli, L. (1997). Listening to other voices: A description of teacher reflection in the United States . Peabody Journal of Education , 72 ( 1 ), 67–88. [ Google Scholar ]
• van Wyk, M. M. (2013). Using blogs as a means of enhancing reflective teaching practice in open distance learning ecologies . Africa Education Review , 10 ( Suppl 1 ), S47–S62. [ Google Scholar ]
• Yik, B. J., Raker, J. R., Apkarian, N., Stains, M., Henderson, C., Dancy, M. H., Johnson, E. (2022a). Association of malleable factors with adoption of research-based instructional strategies in introductory chemistry, mathematics, and physics . Frontiers in Education , 7 , 1016415. [ Google Scholar ]
• Yik, B. J., Raker, J. R., Apkarian, N., Stains, M., Henderson, C., Dancy, M. H., Johnson, E. (2022b). Evaluating the impact of malleable factors on percent time lecturing in gateway chemistry, mathematics, and physics courses . International Journal of STEM Education , 9 ( 1 ), 1–23. [ Google Scholar ]
• Zahid, M., Khanam, A. (2019). Effect of Reflective Teaching Practices on the Performance of Prospective Teachers . Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology—TOJET , 18 ( 1 ), 32–43. [ Google Scholar ]

• Faculty & Staff

Developing a reflective teaching practice

Our university is built on a commitment to using the power of discovery, creativity, and analytical thinking to solve challenges, including those we encounter in the process of teaching. While consulting the scholarship of teaching and learning is a good way to identify effective teaching strategies, the most important dimension of an effective teaching practice is reflection.

What is “reflective” teaching?

The American philosopher and educational reformer, John Dewey, considered reflection crucial to learning. As Dewey scholar, Carol Rodgers, notes, Dewey framed reflection as “a systematic, rigorous, disciplined way of thinking” that led to intellectual growth.

Because our students are so diverse and there’s so much variety in instructional contexts, good teaching requires instructors to observe, reflect upon, and adapt their teaching practice . In addition to identifying areas for improvement in your teaching, reflection is also core to an inclusive teaching practice.

Reflective practices

There are lots of ways to be thoughtful about your teaching, but here are a few for each point in the quarter.

Before the beginning of the quarter:

• Reflect on your course goals. What do you want students to be able to do by the time they leave your course?
• Reflect on your own mix of identities. How has privilege or oppression shaped your perspectives?
• Reflect on how your discipline creates knowledge and decides what knowledge is valuable. How has this constrained what and how you teach?

During the quarter:

• Keep a journal to briefly jot down your observations of student interactions and experiences in the classroom. Note things that are working and things you might want to change.
• Get an outside perspective. Ask a colleague to come observe a class and your interactions with students and/or course materials.
• Conduct a mid-quarter evaluation to gather information on how the course is going. Ask yourself what you can do to relieve the pain points that students identified in the evaluation.

At the end of the quarter:

• Reflect on your course data. What do your gradebook and course evaluations indicate about what worked well and what didn’t work so well? What can you do to improve students’ performance?
• Connect with a consultant to brainstorm ways to redesign assignments or improve your teaching practice.
• Dig into the scholarship of teaching and learning to find ideas for how others have improved their teaching practice in a certain area.

Reflecting on your identities and position

Your teaching emerges from your educational background and training, as well as from your personal history and experience. Reflecting on how who you are and what you have experienced shapes your teaching can help you identify ways to better connect with your students.

Positionality and intersectionality

Positionality refers to the social, cultural, and political contexts – including systems of power and oppression – that shape our identities. Our positionalities influence how we approach course design, choose content, teach, and assess student work. Recognizing how your own positionality impacts your teaching can help you create a more inclusive classroom.

On one level, intersectionality refers to the ways that the multiple dimensions of our identity intersect to shape our experience. Black feminist scholars have stressed how social systems based on things such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability combine to create an interlocking system that privileges some and oppresses others.

Reflecting on your own positionality and the intersectional nature of your identity can help you think more intentionally about your content choices, the materials you assign to your students, and even how the different aspects of your students’ identities may affect their experience in your class.

Empowering students

The relationships that define learning environments are, unavoidably, imbued with power. As an instructor, you hold a position of authority, and a level of implicit institutional power – you determine the content of your course, create assignments, and grade those assignments. But when students have agency in their courses, they are more likely to be engaged and invested in their own learning . Reflecting on the power structures that define your classrooms may help you find ways to recalibrate or redistribute power so that students become more active agents in the creation of disciplinary knowledge, as well as in their own learning.

As you reflect, you might consider adopting one or more of following strategies for empowering your students:

• Take on the role of a guide. Rather than aspiring to transmit information through lecture, consider ways to make students active participants and contributors in their learning. Develop student-driven activities and discussions that create constructive, cooperative learning environments that encourage students to learn together.
• Consider flipping your classroom . Devote the time you spend with students to interaction and collaboration. Create videos focused on your lecture material that students can watch (and rewatch) as a homework activity.
• Work with students to articulate community values and expectations. Consider building community agreements with students. Openly discuss how you will assess students’ work and allow students to ask questions and offer their own ideas for grading. A great way to get students involved in thinking about their own assessment is to co-create assessment rubrics.
• Encourage students to share their own knowledge and expertise. Ask students to think about what they already know about a course topic and how your course can help them build upon that knowledge. Challenge students to think critically about why and how course material is relevant to their own lives.
• Practice inclusive course design. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles can help make your teaching more inclusive and offer students more opportunities to engage and express their knowledge.

Online Teaching Hub

Online and Blended Teaching Hub

Reflecting on teaching practice.

Reflection is an integral part of the teaching process. School activities in and outside the classroom create a natural environment for reflective teaching. Professional experience, healthy self-awareness, and genuine care for students and colleagues help teachers to reflect effectively. Reflective practices consist of in-the-moment reflection for immediate action, after-the-moment reflection for future action, and outside reflection for exchange of reflective experience among a teacher’s colleagues and professional learning networks. Reflection promotes evidence-based changes in the classroom to advance teaching practices and is one of the cornerstones of a teacher’s professional development and supports the quality of education in today’s ever-changing world.

Questions to Consider

Why is reflection essential to my growth as a teacher?

How do I receive feedback about my teaching and lesson content?

How does reflection impact my next steps towards continued growth as a blended or online teacher?

At-a-Glance Video

• Topic Summary
• Infographic: Reflective Questioning and Strategies
• Infographic: The Continuous Reflection Cycle
• Infographic: Benefits of Reflective Teaching

Web Resources

Reflection resources.

• Ways to be a More Reflective Teacher
• Benefits of Reflective Teaching and Learning 
• How To Apply Reflective Practice when Teaching Online
• How to Encourage Reflective Teaching in Your School
• Self-Reflection: Are You a Reflective Teacher?
• Questions to Tackle When Reflecting on Teaching
• Fun Ways to Reflect on Your Teaching
• Reflective Teaching: 5 Minute Definitions for Teachers in a Hurry
• Reflect on Teaching Practice

Related Online and Blended Teaching Hub Topics

• Building a Professional Learning Network
• Building Effective Relationships
• Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Work-Life Balance

Online and Blended Teaching Hub Tool Pages

• Assessment: Edulastic , Google Forms , Microsoft Forms
• Polling: Mentimeter , Poll Everywhere , Slido

Search form

• About Faculty Development and Support
• Programs and Funding Opportunities

Consultations, Observations, and Services

• Strategic Resources & Digital Publications
• Canvas @ Yale Support
• Learning Environments @ Yale
• Teaching Workshops
• Teaching Consultations and Classroom Observations
• Teaching Programs
• Spring Teaching Forum
• Written and Oral Communication Workshops and Panels
• Writing Resources & Tutorials
• About the Graduate Writing Laboratory
• Writing and Public Speaking Consultations
• Writing Workshops and Panels
• Writing Peer-Review Groups
• Writing Retreats and All Writes
• Online Writing Resources for Graduate Students
• About Teaching Development for Graduate and Professional School Students
• Teaching Programs and Grants
• Teaching Forums
• Resources for Graduate Student Teachers
• About Undergraduate Writing and Tutoring
• Academic Strategies Program
• The Writing Center
• STEM Tutoring & Programs
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Center for Language Study
• Online Course Catalog
• Antiracist Pedagogy
• NECQL 2019: NorthEast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy XXII Meeting
• STEMinar Series
• Teaching in Context: Troubling Times
• Helmsley Postdoctoral Teaching Scholars
• Pedagogical Partners
• Instructional Materials
• Evaluation & Research
• STEM Education Job Opportunities
• AI Guidance for Faculty and Students
• Yale Connect
• Online Education Legal Statements

You are here

Reflective teaching.

When instructors engage in reflective teaching, they are dedicating time to evaluate their own teaching practice, examine their curricular choices, consider student feedback, and make revisions to improve student belonging and learning. This process requires information gathering, data interpretation, and planning for the future. Reflective teaching involves examining one’s underlying beliefs about teaching and learning and one’s alignment with actual classroom practice before, during and after a course is taught.

When teaching reflectively, instructors think critically about their teaching and look for evidence of effective teaching. This critical analysis can draw on a variety of sources: Brookfield (2017) lays out four crucial sources: “students’ eyes, colleagues’ perceptions, personal experience, and theory and research.” Instructors can use various tools and methods to learn from these sources and reflect on their teaching, ranging from low-key to formal and personal to inter-collegial. For example, reflective teaching may include self-assessment, classroom observations , consideration of student evaluations , or exploration of educational research . Because each semester’s students and their needs are different, reflective teaching is a continual practice that supports effective and student-centered teaching.

Examples of Self-Assessment

Reflection Journals: Instructors might consider capturing a few details of their teaching in a journal to create an ongoing narrative of their teaching across terms and years. Scheduling a dedicated time during the 5 or so minutes after class to write their entries will ensure continual engagement, rather than hoping to find a moment throughout the day. The instructor writes general thoughts about the day’s lesson and might reflect on the following questions: What went well today? What could I have done differently? How will I modify my instruction in the future?

Teaching Inventories: A number of inventories , like the Teaching Practices Inventory (Wieman and Gilbert, 2014), have been developed to help instructors assess and think more broadly about their teaching approaches. Inventories are typically designed to assess the extent to which particular pedagogies are employed (e.g. student- versus teacher-centered practices). 

Video-Recorded Teaching Practices: Instructors may request the Poorvu Center to video record their lessons while conducting a classroom observation, or instructors can video record themselves while teaching and use a classroom observation protocol to self-assess their own practices. Some Yale classrooms have video cameras installed for lecture capture , which instructors can then use for their self assessment. 

Teaching Portfolio: A more time-intensive practice, the teaching portfolio invites instructors to integrate the various components of their teaching into a cohesive whole, typically starting with a teaching philosophy or statement, moving through sample syllabi and assignments, and ending with evaluations from colleagues and students.Though less focused on classroom practices, a portfolio is an opportunity to reflect on teaching overall. The Poorvu Center offers an opportunity for faculty new to Yale to complete a teaching intensive and reflective program, the Faculty Teaching Academy , which includes a culminating portfolio. Faculty who complete the program will receive a contribution to their research or professional development budgets.  The University of Washington CTL offers best practices for creating a teaching portfolio . 

Examples of External Assessment

Student Evaluations (Midterm and End-of-Term): In many courses, instructors obtain feedback from students in the form of mid-semester feedback and/or end-of-term student evaluations . Because of potential bias, instructors should consider student evaluations as one data source in their instruction and take note of any prevailing themes (Basow, 1995; Watchel, 1998; Huston, 2005; Reid, L. (2010); Basow, S.A. & Martin, J.L. (2012) ). They can seek out other ways to assess their practices to accompany student evaluation data before taking steps to modify instruction. The Poorvu Center offers consultations regarding mid-semester feedback data collected. They will also conduct small group feedback sessions with an instructor’s students to provide non-evaluative, anonymous conversation notes from students in addition to the traditional survey format. If instructors are interested in sustained feedback over time from a student perspective, then they can also participate in the Pedagogical Partners program.

Peer Review of Teaching: Instructors can ask a trusted colleague to observe their classroom and give them feedback on their teaching. Colleagues can agree on an observation protocol or a list of effective teaching principles to focus on from a teaching practices inventory.

Classroom Observations: Any instructor at Yale may request an observation with feedback from a member of the Poorvu Center staff. Observations are meant to be non-evaluative and promote reflection.  They begin with a discussion in which the instructor describes course goals and format as well as any issues or teaching practices that are of primary concern. This initial discussion provides useful context for the observation and the post-observation conversation.

Basow, S.A. (1995). Student evaluations of college professors: When gender matters. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4): 656-665.

Basow, S.A. & Martin, J.L. (2012). Bias in student evaluations. In M.E. Kite (Ed.), Effective evaluation of teaching: A guide for faculty and administrators. Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Huston, T. (2005).  Report: Empirical Research on the Impact of Race and Gender in the Evaluation of Teaching.  Retrieved 3/10/17 from Seattle University, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning website.  

Reid, L. (2010). The Role of Perceived Race and Gender in the Evaluation of College Teaching on RateMyProfessors.com. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 3 (3): 137–152.

Wachtel, H.K. (1998). Student Evaluation of College Teaching Effectiveness: A Brief Review. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 23(2): 191-212.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning routinely supports members of the Yale community with individual instructional consultations and classroom observations.

Instructional Enhancement Fund

The Instructional Enhancement Fund (IEF) awards grants of up to $500 to support the timely integration of new learning activities into an existing undergraduate or graduate course. All Yale instructors of record, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical instructional faculty, lecturers, lectors, and part-time acting instructors (PTAIs), are eligible to apply. Award decisions are typically provided within two weeks to help instructors implement ideas for the current semester.

Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

12 Reflective Teaching Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

Reflective teaching is a process where teachers reflect on their own teaching practices and learn from their own experiences.

This type of reflection allows teachers to see what works well in their classrooms and what needs improvement. Reflective teaching also helps teachers to understand the impact that their teaching has on students.

Examples of reflective teaching include observing other teachers, taking notes on your own teaching practice, reading about how to improve yourself, and asking for feedback from your students to achieve self-improvement.

Reflective Teaching Examples

1. reflection-in-practice.

Reflection in practice is a concept by David Schon which involves small moments of reflection throughout your day.

Instead of pausing at the end of your activities and reflecting upon what you did, Schon argues that good practitioners reflect in the moment and make tiny changes from moment-to-moment. This is the difference between reflection on practice and reflection in practice. “Reflection on” occurs once the lesson is over. Reflection in occurs during the lesson.

For example, as you’re doing a question-and-answer session with your class, you might realize that the students are tuning out and getting bored. In order to resolve this problem, you might choose to get the students all to stand up and play heads or tails for questions you ask them. This might get the kinesthetic learners re-engaged in the lesson and salvage it from its impending implosion.

Related Article: 15 Action Research Examples

2. Conducting Classroom Observations

Another way to do reflective teaching is to start a classroom observation routine. Create a template for your observations (e.g. listing each student’s name down the side, with notes beside it) and take notes on students’ work.

You could, for example, choose to observe how well students responded to a new classroom intervention. These written observations can form the basis for changes that you can make to your work as you progress.

Similarly, you could make observations about students’ interactions after changing the classroom layout. This can help you edit and refine your chosen layout in order to maximize student learning and figure out the best location for each student.

3. Pivoting based on Formative Feedback

Reflective teachers also try to obtain formative feedback from students in order to gather data that can form the basis of their reflection.

An example of formative feedback is a pre-test a month before the exams.

This pre-test can help the teacher understand the general areas of weakness for their students, and acts as the basis for a pivot in their teaching practices. The teacher may, for example, identify a specific math challenge that the majority of the students had trouble with. They can then put extra focus on that challenge for the next few weeks so the students can ace that challenge in the end-of-term test.

In this way, formative feedback is a core tool for teachers in their formative feedback toolkit.

4. Keeping a Teaching Diary

A personal teaching diary can help teachers to identify trends in their behaviors (and the behaviors of their students) that can help teachers to improve.

For example, in my teaching diary, I will often take notes about how I reacted to certain events. I’ll note my reaction as well as things I did well, ways I effectively self-regulated , and things I did poorly. If I’m taking notes on an answer to a student’s question, I might note that something I did well was “give a clear answer” but an area for improvement might be “I failed to follow-up later in the day to check my student’s comprehension”.

Incidentally, teaching diaries can be extremely useful for self-performance reviews . Bring your teaching diary into the performance review and go over it with your line manager. They will be super impressed with your reflective practice!

5. Receiving Student Evaluations

Despite how much we may despise student evaluations, they can contain important tidbits of information for us.

I often like to compare my evaluations from one to the next to see if there are changes in the student trend. I’ll also work really hard on one aspect of my teaching and see if I can get students to take notice and leave a comment in the evaluation.

For example, one semester, I decided to implement a tech intervention (I let students use an educational app in class). The students used the app, and it turns out – they didn’t like it!

Without the student evaluation, I wouldn’t have been able to identify this problem and work on solving it. You can read all about that study here, which I published in an academic journal.

6. Debriefing with a Mentor

Having a mentor has been invaluable for me in my career. By sitting down with a mentor, I learn a lot about my strengths and weaknesses.

Mentors tend to bring out reflectiveness in all of us. After all, they’re teachers who want us to improve ourselves.

Your mentor may ask you open-ended questions to get you to reflect, or discuss some new points and concepts that you haven’t thought about before. In this process, you’re being prompted to reflect on your on teaching practice and compare what you do to the new ideas that have been presented. You may ask yourself questions like “do I do that?” or “do I need to improve in that area?”

7. Using Self-Reflection Worksheets

Self-reflection worksheets are a good ‘cheat’ for figuring out how to do self-reflection for people who struggle.

You can find these worksheets online through services like Teachers Pay Teachers. They often involve daily activities like:

• Write down one thing you struggled with today.
• Write down one big win.
• Write down one thing you will actively try to work on tomorrow.

These worksheets are simple prompts (that don’t need to take up too much time!) that help you to bring to the front of your consciousness all those thoughts that have been brewing in your mind, so you can think about ways to act upon them tomorrow.

See Also: Self-Reflection Examples

8. Changing Lesson Plans Based on Previous Experiences

At the end of each unit of work, teachers need to look at their lesson plans and self-assess what changes are required.

Everyone is aware of that teacher who’s had the same lesson plan since 2015. They seem lazy for failing to modernize and innovate in their practice.

By contrast, the reflective practitioner spends a moment at the end of the lesson or unit and thinks about what changes might need to be made for next time the lesson is taught.

They might make changes if the information or knowledge about the topic changes (especially important in classes that engage with current events!). Similarly, you might make changes if you feel that there was a particular point in the lesson where there was a lull and you lost the students’ attention.

9. Professional Development Days

Professional development days are a perfect opportunity for reflective teaching.

In fact, the leader of the professional development day is likely to bake reflectiveness into the event. They may prepare speeches or provide activities specifically designed for teachers to take a step back and reflect.

For example, I remember several moments in my career where we had a guest speaker attend our PD day and gave an inspiring speech about the importance of teachers for student development. These events made me think about what I was doing and the “bigger picture” and made me redouble my efforts to be an excellent teacher.

10. Implementing 2-Minute Feedback

The 2-minute feedback concept is excellent for reflective practice. For this method, you simply spend the last 2 minutes of the class trying to get feedback from your students.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to give students a post-it note at the end of the lesson. Have them write on one side something they liked about the lesson and on the other something they didn’t like. Then, you can read the feedback to reflect on how to improve.

With younger students, you can do ‘hands up’ for students and ask them how confident they are with the topic.

For online lessons, I’ve put a thermometer up on the screen and asked students to draw on the thermometer how confident that are (line at the top means very confident, line at the bottom means not confident at all).

11. Reading Books

Books are excellent for helping us to reflect and contemplate. There is a wide range of books for teachers, from philosophical ones like Pedagogy of the Oppressed to very practical workbooks.

Through reading, we encounter new ideas that challenge our current ideas. As we pick up new ideas and information, we interrogate our current thoughts and find ways to assimilate them into our new thinking. Sometimes, that requires us to change our own current opinions or thoughts, and challenge us to consistently improve.

In this way, reading books about teaching is an inherently reflective practice. It makes us better practitioners and more thoughtful people.

12. Listening to Podcasts

Like books, podcasts enable us to consume information that can help us pause and reflect.

I personally love podcasts because I find them easier to consume than books. The conversations and dialogue in podcasts help me to feel immersed in a conversation with close friends. Good podcasts hosts make you feel like they’re grappling with the exact same concerns and emotions as you are – and it’s a motivating experience.

Good podcasts for teachers include The Cult of Pedagogy and Teachers on Fire. These podcasts help me to reflect on my own teaching practice and continue to learn new things that I can compare to my own approaches and integrate when I feel they offer new insights that are valuable.

There are many ways to incorporate reflective practice into your teaching. By taking the time to reflect on your teaching, you can identify areas where you can improve and make changes to your practice. This will help you to become a more effective teacher and better meet the needs of your students. Through reflective practice, you can also develop a stronger sense of who you are as a teacher and what your personal teaching philosophy is.

Drew, C. & Mann, A. (2018). Unfitting, uncomfortable, unacademic: a sociological critique of interactive mobile phone apps in lectures. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0125-y

Lousberg, L., Rooij, R., Jansen, S. et al. Reflection in design education. Int J Technol Des Educ. 30, 885–897 (2020). doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-019-09532-6

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 15 Green Flags in a Relationship
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 15 Signs you're Burnt Out, Not Lazy
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 15 Toxic Things Parents Say to their Children

2 thoughts on “12 Reflective Teaching Examples”

Dr Chris Drew, this article is useful for teachers like me. I really appreciate your hard work. Thank you for being a helpful professor. Sandy

Dr, Chris Drew. First of all Congratulations. This article is handy for me as I am doing my teacher training course. You did a good job, explaining in a simple manner so, anyone can understand easily. Thank you so much. Alka

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Explore More

Join our global ELT community of 90,000+ subscribers!

Stay connected with industry news, resources for English teachers and job seekers, Bridge updates, and more.

Explore Topics

• Global Elt News
• Job Resources
• Industry Insights
• Teaching English Online
• Classroom Games / Activities
• Teaching English Abroad
• Professional Development

Popular Articles

• 5 Popular ESL Teaching Methods Every Teacher Should Know
• 10 Fun Ways to Use Realia in Your ESL Classroom
• How to Teach ESL Vocabulary: Top Methods for Introducing New Words
• Advice From an Expert: TEFL Interview Questions & How to Answer Them
• What Is TESOL? What Is TEFL? Which Certificate Is Better – TEFL or TESOL?

What Is Reflective Teaching and Why Is It Important?

Gerald smith.

• June 11, 2022

If you feel that your teaching is becoming a bit stale or you’re unsure of a lesson’s effectiveness, reflective teaching is the best way to regain your confidence and interest in ESL education. Let’s take a closer look at what reflective teaching entails, why it’s important, and how you can implement reflective practices in your career.

Reflective teaching is covered in detail in the IDELTOnline™ course, Bridge’s most advanced professional TEFL certification, which can be used as a pathway to an MA TESOL at more than 1,600 universities.

What is Reflective Teaching?

Reflective teaching is a teacher’s practice of thinking, writing, and/or speaking about their lessons and their teaching methods and approaches.

It’s easy for teachers to get into a rut while teaching, where it feels like they’re delivering lessons on autopilot. Reflective teaching is a way to break out of that rut and become the best teacher you can be.

In his essay, “Reflective Practice for Language Teachers,” Thomas Farrell writes, “Reflective practice occurs, then, when teachers consciously take on the role of reflective practitioner and subject their own beliefs about teaching and learning to critical analysis, take full responsibility for their actions in the classroom, and continue to improve their teaching practice.”

Want to read the entire essay and get a more in-depth look at reflective teaching? Take the graduate-level IDELTOnline™ course.

Why is Reflective Teaching Important?

“Teachers who engage in reflective practice can develop a deeper understanding of their teaching, assess their professional growth, develop informed decision-making skills, and become proactive and confident in their teaching.” -Farrell

It improves your lesson plans

One of the main benefits of reflective teaching is that it helps you to become a better teacher who engages their students more and consistently improves their lesson plans .

By analyzing different aspects of lessons like teacher talking time or student collaboration, you can measure your success.

For example, if you remember that students weren’t engaged during an activity, you can analyze the reasons why. Maybe you didn’t set a clear context or you overexplained and slowed down student discovery. Or, maybe it didn’t have anything to do with your planning, and the students simply partied the previous night and didn’t want to discuss the differences between the present perfect and past simple.

Whatever the reason, reflective teaching can help you think of a solution.

It can help you break out of a teaching rut

The more you teach, the easier it is to get into a teaching rut. You reuse the same tried and tested activities, you tell the same old anecdotes, and you recycle the same tired grammar explanations.

While reusing activities is great, you need to make sure you’re not doing something that feels boring to you. When you’re not having fun, you can’t expect your students to have fun.

Farrell writes, “If teachers engage in reflective practice they can avoid such burnout because they take the time to stop and think about what is happening in their practice to make sense of it so that they can learn from their experiences rather than mindlessly repeat them year after year.”

Reflective teaching gets you to think about how to modify activities and lesson plans so they’re fresh and interesting for both you and your students.

It inspires you to try new things

When materials like ELT course book activities start to get boring, it’s time to try something new.

Online, there are tons of resources for up-to-date lesson plans. Personal favorites are Onestopenglish and TeachThis.com , but there are hundreds more, some free and some paid.

Another great way to try new things is to collaborate with a fellow teacher. This is easy when working at a language school, but you can also do this online through Facebook groups and Linkedin. Teachers even share lesson plans through Twitter.

It’s part of continuing professional development

Continuing professional development comes in many forms, such as Specialized TEFL/TESOL courses or Micro-credentials that offer targeted training. Reflective teaching is also an effective way to continue developing and expanding your teaching skills throughout your career.

While reflecting on your teaching, you can also think back to training from TEFL courses you’ve already taken and see if you’re fully utilizing what you studied in your online TEFL certification lessons.

Learn more about professional development for EFL teachers.

It provides opportunities to share your experience

Posting your teaching reflections in Facebook groups or on Linkedin helps start conversations around best teaching practices .

You’ll be surprised to see how many teachers have had the same experiences as you or will have suggestions on how to teach in new ways.

This not only allows you to offer and receive great feedback but also builds your network or community of teachers .

See the ways that the IDELTOnline™ sets you apart as a teacher.

What are the characteristics of reflective teaching?

Although reflective teaching can take many forms, there are a few characteristics that appear throughout all types of reflective practices:

• Reflective teaching notes what happens in the classroom, why it happens, and how it can be improved.
• If you are practicing reflective teaching, it’s rare that you will teach the same lesson again in the exact same way because reflective teaching challenges you. You’ll need to critique yourself and your go-to lesson plans.
• Although many teachers write their reflections down, not all reflective teaching needs to be written. Many teachers, instead, choose to speak about their lessons with a colleague or mentor, or what Farrell calls a “Critical Friend.”
• Reflective teaching is collaborative, often involving a head teacher or a colleague.
• Reflecting on and speaking about how your lessons go often leads to helpful insights.

What are some examples of reflective teaching?

Some ways of practicing reflective teaching include:

• Teaching journals: Write down classroom reflections in a journal.
• Classroom observations: Be observed either by a mentor or by recording the lesson and rewatching it yourself.
• Critical friends: Speak about your classes with a friend who can offer constructive criticism.
• Action research: Research something you struggle with, and maybe even take a course to improve specific teaching skills .
• Online groups: Teachers actively post online about reflective teaching in teacher development groups like the Bridge Teaching English Online Facebook Group . Posting online helps teachers get more recognition in the industry as well as organize their reflections.
• Blogs: Many teachers choose to share their reflections by creating their own EFL blogs . For example, Rachel Tsateri, an EL teacher and writer, published a reflective post on her teacher talking time (TTT) on her website, The TEFL Zone . Because Rachel read a lot of the literature around TTT, she was also engaging in action research, a rather academic but effective approach to reflective teaching.
• Teacher beliefs: Continue to develop and verbalize your own beliefs about what makes good teaching. Not sure where to start with your teaching beliefs? Learn about crafting an ESL philosophy of teaching statement.

Try different methods to find the right one for you. Journaling is an easy first step, but if you’re a more social teacher, you might prefer working with a critical friend or a teacher development group.

Teaching, a lot like learning, is a journey. No one becomes a great teacher overnight, so don’t be too hard on yourself when a lesson doesn’t go well. Instead, think critically about how you teach so you can continue to improve your students’ learning experiences and grow in your profession.

Want to learn more about reflective teaching and other best TEFL practices covered in the IDELTOnline™ course? Take a look at what this certification entails and whether it’s right for you.

Gerald Smith is an EL teacher, journalist and occasional poet. Originally from Texas, he now lives on a houseboat in Glasgow, Scotland with his partner and their two kittens.

Reflective Practice in the Professions: Teaching

• First Online: 01 January 2009

Cite this chapter

• Cheryl J. Craig 2  

9188 Accesses

9 Citations

When Donald Schön published his landmark book, The Reflective Practitioner , he set off a cottage industry in the professions. This chapter examines the growth and development of reflective practice specifically in the field of education. It begins with Dewey, includes Lawrence Stenhouse and the teacher as researcher movement in the UK, touches on the German Didactik tradition and examines Joseph Schwab’s contributions through his groundbreaking essays on “the practical” in the US. Along the way, related research undertaken at the interface of curriculum and teaching is reviewed. Also, a narrative exemplar illuminating how reflective practice has played out within the context of school reform over the past decade in the US is featured. Lastly, three issues specific to reflective practice in the teaching profession are highlighted.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Reflective Practice

Toward Transformative Reflective Practice in Teacher Education

Problematising the Reflective Practice Paradigm

Achinstein, B. (2002). Conflict amid community: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration. Teachers College Record, 104 (3), 421-455.

Article   Google Scholar  

Admiraal, W., & Wubbels, T. (2005). Multiple voices, multiple voices, what Truth? Student teachers’ learning to reflect in different paradigms. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 11 (3), 315-325.

Google Scholar  

Akin, R. (2001). On my knees again. Teacher Education Quarterly, 28 (3), 7-10.

Alerby, E., & Elidottir, J. (2003). The sounds of silence: Some remarks on the value of silence in the process of reflection in relation to teaching and learning. Reflective Practice, 4 (1), 41-51.

Altrichter, H., Posch, P., & Somekh, B. (1993). Teachers investigate their own work: An introduction to the methods of action research . New York: Routledge.

Ayers, W. (1995). To become a teacher: Making a difference in children’s lives . New York: Teachers College Press.

Bain, J. D., Ballantyne, R., Packer, J., & Mills, C. (1999). Using journal writing to enhance student teachers’ reflectivity during field experience placements. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 5 (1), 51-73.

Ball, D. (1993). With an eye on the mathematical horizon: Dilemmas of teaching elementary school mathematics. The Elementary School Journal, 93 (4), 373-397.

Ball, D., & Wilson, S. (1996). Integrity in teaching: Recognizing the fusion of the moral and intellectual. American Education Research Journal, 33 (1), 155-192.

Barone, T. (2001). Touching eternity: The enduring outcomes of teaching . New York: Teachers College Press.

Bean, T. W., & Stevens, L. P. (2002). Scaffolding reflection for preservice and in-service teachers. Reflective Practice, 3 (2), 205-218.

Beattie, M. (1997). Fostering reflective practice in teacher education inquiry as a framework for the construction of a professional knowing in teaching. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 25 , 111-128.

Beck, C., & Kosnik, C. (2000). Associate teachers in pre-service education: Clarifying and enhancing their role. Journal of Education for Teaching, 26 (3), 207-24.

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 (2), 107-128.

Ben-Peretz, M., & Ladro-Pardo, G. (2008). Teachers’ thoughts about joys and rewards of teaching: A neglected component in teacher education programs. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education (pp. 80-97). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Ben-Peretz, M., & Schonmann, S. (2000). Behind closed doors: Teachers and the role of the teachers’ lounge . New York: State University of New York Press.

Blacker, D. J. (1997). Dying to teach: The educators’ search for immortality . New York: Teachers College Press.

Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33 (8), 3-15.

Brinton, D., Holten, C., & Goodwin, J. (1993). Responding to dialogue journals in teacher education: What’s effective? TESOL Journal, 2 (4), 15-19.

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, P., Castle, K., Rogers, K., Feuerhelm, C., & Chimblo, S. (2007). The nature of primary teaching: Body, time, space, and relationships. Early Childhood Teacher Education, 28 (2), 3-16.

Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories: Law, literature, life . New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Buchmann, M. (1991). Making new or making do: An inconclusive argument about teaching. American Journal of Education, 99 , 279-297.

Bullough, R. (1989). First-year teacher: A case study . New York: Teachers College Press.

Bullough, R., & Baughman, K. (1997). First-year teacher eight years later: An inquiry into teacher development . New York: Teachers College Press.

Bullough, R., & Pinnegar, S. (2001). Guidelines for quality in autobiographical forms of self-study research. Educational Researcher, 30 (3), 13-21.

Burchell, H., & Westmoreland, S. (1999). Relationship between competence-based education and student reflection on practice: A U.K. case study of initial teacher training. In-Service Journal of Training and Development, 3 (2), 156-166.

Burchell, H., Dyson, J., & Rees, M. (2002). Making a difference: A study of the impact of continuing professional development on professional practice. Journal of In-Service Education, 28 (2), 219-229.

Carger, C. (1996). Of borders and dreams: A Mexican-American experience of urban education . New York: Teachers College Press.

Chan, E. (2003). Ethnic identity in transition: Chinese New Year through the years. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35 (4), 409-423.

Chan, E. (2006). Teacher experiences of culture in the curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38 (2), 161-176.

Chang, P. J., & Rosiek, J. (2003). Anti-colonialist antinomies in a biology lesson: A sonata-form case study of cultural conflict in a science classroom. Curriculum Inquiry, 33 (3), 251-290.

Christiansen, H., Goulet, L., Krentz, C., & Maeers, M. (eds). (1997). Recreating relationships: Collaboration and educational reform . New York: SUNY Press.

Clandinin, D. J. (1986). Classroom practice: Teacher images in action . Philadelphia: Falmer Press.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1986). Rhythms in teaching: The narrative study of teachers’ personal practical knowledge of classrooms. Teaching & Teacher Education, 2 (4), 377-387.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1995). Teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes . New York: Teachers College Press.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, M. F. (1996). Teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes: Teacher stories - stories of teachers - school stories - stories of schools. Educational Researcher, 25 (3), 24-30.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1998). Stories to live by: Narrative understandings of school reform. Curriculum Inquiry, 28 (2), 149-164.

Clandinin, D. J., Davies, A., Hogan, P., & Kennard, B. (1993). Learning to teach, teaching to learn: Stories of collaboration in teacher education . New York: Teachers College Press.

Clandinin, D. J., Huber, J., Huber, M., Murphy, S., Murray Orr, A., Pearce, M. (2006). Composing diverse identities: Narrative inquiries into the interwoven lives of children and teachers . New York: Routledge.

Clandinin, D. J., Pushor, D., & Orr, A. M. (2008). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58 (1), 21-35.

Clark, C. M. (2001). Talking shop: Authentic conversation and teacher learning . New York: Teachers College Press.

Clarke, A. (1998). Born of incidents but thematic in nature: A critique of a prevalent conception of knowledge construction in practicum settings. Canadian Journal of Education, 23 (1), 47-62.

Clarke, A., & Erickson, G. (2003). Teacher inquiry: Living the research in everyday practice . New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Clift, R., Houston, W., & Pugach, M. (1990). Encouraging reflective practice in education, an analysis of issues and programs . New York: Teachers College Press.

Clift, R. T. (2004). Self-study research in the context of teacher education programs. In J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. LaBoskey & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of research of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 1333-1366). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Cochran-Smith, M. (2000). The future of teacher education: Framing the questions that matter. Teaching Education, 11 (1), 13-24.

Cochran-Smith, M. (2006a). Policy, practice and politics in teacher education . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Cochran-Smith, M. (2006b). The unforgiving complexity of teaching: Avoiding simplicity in the age of accountability. Policy, practice and politics in teacher education (pp. 70-74). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1998). Teacher research: The question that persists. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1 (1), 19-36.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. (eds). (2005). Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education . Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Cole, R., Raffier, L. M., Rogan, P., & Schleicher, L. (1998). Interactive group journals: Learning as a dialogue among learners. TESOL Quarterly, 32 (3), 556-568.

Coles, R. (1989). The call of stories: Teaching and the moral imagination . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Conle, C. (1997). Between fact and fiction: Dialogue within encounters of difference. Educational Theory, 47 (2), 181-201.

Conle, C. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Research tool and medium for professional development. European Journal of Teacher Education, 23 (1), 49-63.

Conle, C. (2003). Anatomy of narrative curricula. Educational Researcher, 32 (3), 3-15.

Conle, C., Li, X., & Tan, J. (2002). Connecting vicarious experience to practice. Curriculum Inquiry, 32 (4), 429-452.

Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1999). Shaping a professional identity: Stories of educational practice . New York: Teachers College Press.

Connelly, F. M., Phillion, J., & He, M. (2003). An exploration of narrative inquiry into multiculturalism in education: Reflecting on two decades of research in an inner-city Canadian community school. Curriculum Inquiry, 33 (4), 363-384.

Copeland, W., Birmingham, C., De La Cruz, E., & Lewin, B. (1993). The reflective practitioner in teaching: Toward a research agenda. Teaching and Teacher Education, 9 (4), 347-359.

Craig, C. (1995). Dilemmas in crossing the boundaries on the professional knowledge landscape. In D. J. Clandinin & F. M. Connelly (Eds.), Teachers professional knowledge landscapes (pp. 16-24). New York: Teachers College Press.

Craig, C. (2001). The relationships between and among teacher knowledge, communities of knowing, and top down school reform: A case of “The Monkey’s Paw”. Curriculum Inquiry, 31 (3), 303-331.

Craig, C. (2003). Narrative inquiries of school reform: Storied lives, storied landscapes, storied metaphors . Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Craig, C. (2006). Why is dissemination of knowledge so difficult? The nature of teacher knowledge and the spread of curriculum reform. American Educational Research Journal, 43 (2), 257-293.

Craig, C. (2007). Illuminating qualities of knowledge communities in a portfolio-making context. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 13 (6), 617-636.

Craig, C., & Huber, J. (2006). Relational reverberations: Shaping and reshaping narrative inquiries in the midst of storied lives and contexts. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 251-279). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Craig, C., & Ross, V. (2008). Cultivating teachers as curriculum makers. In F. M. Connelly (Ed.), Sage handbook of curriculum and instruction . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Day, C. (1993). Reflection: A necessary but not sufficient condition for professional development. British Educational Research Journal, 19 (1), 83-93.

Day, C., Kington, A., & Smees, R. (2008). Variations in teachers’ work, lives and their effects on pupils: Interim report for the VITAE Project , DFES.

De Mulder, E., & Rigsby, L. (2003). Teachers’ voices on reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 4 (3), 267-290.

Dewey, J. (1908). The practical character of reality. In J. McDermot (Ed.) The philosophy of John Dewey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the education process. Boston, MA: Heath.

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education . New York: Macmillan.

Diamond, C. T. P., & Mullen, C. A. (1999). The postmodern educator: Arts-based inquiries and teacher development . New York: Peter Lang.

Dinkelman, T. (2000). An inquiry into the development of critical reflection in secondary student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16 (2), 195-222.

Ducharme, E. R., & Ducharme, M. K. (1996). The case for formal research and practical inquiry in teacher education. In F. B. Murray (Ed.), The teacher educator’s handbook: Building a knowledge base for the preparation of teachers (pp. 715-738). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Eisner, E. (1988). The primacy of experience and the politics of method. Educational Researcher, 17(5), 15-20.

Egan, K. (1995). Narrative and learning: A voyage of implications. In H. McEwan & K. Egan (Eds.), Narrative in teaching, learning, and research . New York: Teachers College Press.

Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (1991). Research on teacher’s knowledge: The evolution of a discourse. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23(1), 1-19.

Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (2004). Immigrant teachers: Stories of self and place. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17 (3), 387-414.

Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (2005). Teachers’ voices: Storytelling & possibilities . Greenwich, CT: Information Age.

Elbaz-Luwisch, F. (2006). Studying teachers’ lives and experiences: Narrative inquiry in K-12 teaching. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry (pp. 357-382). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Elliott, J. (1976-1977). Developing hypotheses about classrooms from teachers’ practical constructs: An account of the work of the Ford Teaching Project. Interchange , 7 (2), 2-22

Elliott, J. (1985). Education action research. In J. Nisbet, J. Megarry & S. Nisbet (Eds.), World yearbook of education (pp. 231-250). New York: Nichols.

Eraut, M. (1995). Schön shock: A case for reframing reflection-in-action. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 1 (1), 9-22.

Erickson, G. L., & MacKinnon, A. M. (1991). Seeing classrooms in new ways: On becoming a science teacher. In D. Schön (Ed.), The reflective turn: Case studies in professional practice (pp. 15-36). New York: Teachers College Press.

Estola, E., & Syrjälä, L. (2002). Love, body and change: A teacher’s narrative reflections. Reflective Practice, 3 (1), 53-69.

Farr Darling, L. (2000). Communities, cohorts and contradictions: Some unanswered questions in teacher education. Journal of Professional Studies, 7 (2), 18-27.

Fendler, L. (2003). Teacher reflection in a hall of mirrors: Historical influences and political reverberations. Educational Researcher, 32 (3), 16-25.

Fenstermacher, G. (1994). The knower and the known: The nature of knowledge in research on teaching. Review of Research on Teaching, 20 , 3-56.

Feuerverger, G. (2001). Oasis of dreams: Teaching and learning peace in a Jewish-Palestinian village in Israel . Routledge: New York.

Florio-Ruane, S. (2002). More light: An argument for complexity in studies of teaching and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (3), 205-215.

Fong Lee, S., & Loughran, J. (2000). Facilitating pre-service teachers’ reflection through a school-based teaching programme. Reflective Practice, 1 (1), 69-89.

Freese, A. R. (1999). The role of reflection on preservice teachers’ development in the context of a professional development school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15 (8), 895-909.

Freidus, H. (2008). Small steps: Moving toward a renaissance in teacher education. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education (pp. 314-327). Ladham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Garmon, A. (1998). Using dialogue journals to promote student learning in a multicultural teacher education course. Remedial & Special Education , 19 (1), 14, 32

Ghaye, T. (2005). Reflection as a catalyst of change. Reflective Practice, 6 (2), 177-189.

Glazer, C., Abbott, L., & Harris, J. (2004). A teacher-developed process for collaborative professional reflection. Reflective Practice, 5 (1), 33-46.

Goodfellow, J. (2000). Knowing from the inside: Reflective conversation with and through the narrative of one cooperating teacher. Reflective Practice, 1 (1), 25-42.

Goodson, I. (1992). Studying teachers’ lives . London: Routledge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Gore, J., & Gitlin, A. (2004). [Re] Visioning the academic-teacher divide: Power and knowledge in educational community. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 10 (1), 35-58.

Gore, J., & Morrison, K. (2001). The perpetuation of a (semi-) profession: Challenges in the governance of teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17 (5), 567-582.

Gray, J., & Campbell-Evans, G. (2002). Beginning teachers as teacher researchers . Australian Journal of Teacher Education , 27 (1) Retrieved April 14, 2008 from http://ajte.education.ecu.edu.au/

Greene, M. (1988). The dialectic of freedom . New York: Teachers College Press.

Grimmett, P., & Erickson, G. (eds). (1988). Reflection in teacher education . New York: Teachers College Press and Pacific Educational Press.

Grossman, P., Wineberg, S., & Woolworth, S. (2001). Toward a theory of teacher community. Teachers College Record, 103 (6), 942-1012.

Grumet, M. (1988). Bitter milk: Women and teaching . Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

Gudmundsdottir, S. (1991). Story-maker, story-teller: Narrative structures in curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23 (3), 207-218.

Hamlin, K. D. (2004). Beginning the journey: Supporting reflection in early field experiences. Reflective Practice, 5 (2), 167-179.

Harland, T. (2005). Developing a portfolio to promote authentic enquiry in teacher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 10 (3), 327-337.

Harré, R. (1981). The positivist-empiricist approach and its alternatives. In P. Reason & J. Rowan (Eds.), Human inquiry (pp. 3-17). London: Wiley.

Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11 (6), 33-49.

He, M. F. (2003). A river forever flowing: Cross-cultural lives and identities in the multicultural landscape . Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Hermes, M. (2005). Journey toward social justice: Curriculum change and educational equity in a Navajo community. In J. Phillion, M. F. He & F. M. Connelly (Eds.), Narrative & experience in multicultural education (pp. 95-115). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hillocks, G., Jr. (1995). Teaching writing as reflective practice . New York: Teachers College Press.

Hindon, A., Morocco, C., Mott, E., & Aguilar, C. (2007). More than just a group: Teacher collaboration and learning in the workplace. Teaching and Teaching: Theory and Practice., 13 (4), 349-376.

Hoban, G. F. (ed). (2005). The missing link for teacher education design: Developing a muli-linked conceptual framework . Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Hollingsworth, S. (1994). Teacher research and urban literacy reform: Lessons and conversations in a feminist key . New York: Teachers College Press.

Hopmann, S., & Riquarts, K. (2000). Starting a dialogue: A beginning conversation between Didaktik and the curriculum traditions. In I. Westbury (Ed.), Studies in curriculum theory. Teaching as a reflective practice. The German Didaktik tradition (pp. 3-11). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Huber, J., & Clandinin, D. J. (2002). Ethical dilemmas in relational narrative inquiry with children. Qualitative Inquiry, 8 (6), 181-198.

Huber, J., Huber, M., & Clandinin, D. J. (2004). Moments of tension: Resistance as expressions of narrative coherence in stories to live by. Reflective Practice, 5 (2), 181-198.

Huber, J., Murphy, M. S., & Clandinin, D. J. (2003). Creating communities of cultural imagination: Negotiating a curriculum of diversity. Curriculum Inquiry, 33 (4), 342-362.

Husu, J., & Tirri, K. (2003). A case study approach to study one teacher’s moral reflection. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19 (3), 345-357.

Jackson, P. W. (1995). On the place of narrative in teaching. In H. McEwan & K. Egan (Eds.), Narrative in teaching, learning, and research (pp. 3-23). New York: Teachers College Press.

Jackson, P. W., Boostrom, R., & Hansen, D. (1993). The moral life of school . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jay, J. K., & Johnson, K. L. (2002). Capturing complexity: A typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18 (1), 73-85.

Kelchertermans, G. (2005). Teacher emotions in educational reform: Self-understanding, vulnerability, commitment, and micropolitical literacy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21 (8), 995-1006.

Kelley, M., Gray, P., Reid, D., & Craig, C. (2008). Mapping the journey of collaborative reflective practices through traveling journals. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY

Kooy, M. (2006). Telling stories in book clubs: Women teachers and professional development . New York: Springer.

Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22 (8), 1020-1041.

Kosnik, C., & Beck, C. (2003). The contribution of faculty to community building in a teacher education program: A student teacher perspective. Teacher Education Quarterly, 30 (3), 99-114.

Kuhn, T. (1962/1996). The structure of the scientific revolution (3rd edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press

LaBoskey, V. (1994). Development of reflective practice: Study of preservice teachers . New York: Teachers College Press.

LaBoskey, V., & Richert, A. (2002). Identifying good student placements: A programmatic perspective. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29 (2), 7-34.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lally, C. G., & Veleba, K. (2000). Language teacher observation and reflective diaries: An alternative perspective. Education, 21 (1), 106-114.

Lampert, M. (2001). Teaching problems and the problems of teaching . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Lampert, M., & Ball, D. (1998). Teaching, multimedia and mathematics: Investigations of real practice . New York: Teacher’s College Press.

Larrivee, B. (2000). Transforming teaching practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1 (3), 293-307.

Latta, M. M. (2008). Encountering relational complexity: On “the arts of the practical” in learning to teach. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education (pp. 271-286). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Latta, M. M., & Field, J. (2005). The flight from experience to representation: Seeing relational complexity in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21 , 649-660.

Latta, M. M., Buck, G., Leslie-Pelecky, D., & Carpenter, L. (2007). Terms of inquiry. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (1), 21-42.

Lieberman, A. (2000). Networks as learning communities: Shaping the future of teacher development. Journal of Teacher Education, 51 , 221-227.

Loughran, J. (1996). Developing reflective practice: Learning about teaching and learning through modeling . London: Falmer.

Loughran, J. (2002). Effective reflective practice: In search of meaning in learning about teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (1), 22-43.

Loughran, J., Hamilton, M. L., LaBoskey, V., & Russell, T. (eds). (2004). International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices . Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

Loughran, J., Mitchell, I., & Mitchell, J. (2002). Learning from teacher research . Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Lyons, N. (1990). Dilemmas of knowing: Ethical and epistemological dimensions of teachers’ work and development. Harvard Educational Review, 60 (2), 159-180.

Lyons, N. (ed). (1998a). With portfolio in hand: Validating the new teacher professionalism . New York: Teachers College Press.

Lyons, M. (1998b). Reflection in teaching: Can it be developmental? A portfolio perspective. Teacher Education Quarterly, 25 (1), 115-127.

Lyons, N. (2008). Educating for inquiry through a reflective portfolio process: What are the imperatives for teachers or students to think well in context? In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Lyons, N., & LaBoskey, V. (eds). (2002). Narrative inquiry in practice: Advancing the knowledge of teaching . New York: Teachers College Press.

Mansvelder-Longayroux, D., Beijarrd, D., & Verloop, N. (2007). The portfolio as a tool for stimulating reflection by student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education., 23 (1), 47-62.

McEwan, H., & Egan, K. (1995). Narrative in teaching, learning and research . NY: Teachers College Press.

Meirink, J., Meiher, P., & Verloop, N. (2007). A close look at teachers’ individual learning in collaborative settings. Teaching and Teacher Education, 31 (2), 145-164.

Morgan-Fleming, B., Kendrik-Mercer, M., Myers, S., & Anderson, C. W. (2008). The wisdom of fifth graders: A voice in the renaissance. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education (pp. 118-130). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Morris, J., & Stew, G. (2007). Collaborative reflection: How far do 2:1 models of learning in the practice setting promote peer reflection? Reflective Practice, 8 (3), 419-432.

Murray Orr, A., & Olson, M. (2007). Transforming narrative encounters. Canadian Journal of Education, 30 (3), 819-838.

Nias, J. (1993). Changing times, changing identities: Grieving for a lost self. In R. Burgess (Ed.), Educational Research and Evaluation (pp. 139-156). London: Falmer.

Nieto, S. (1999a). Culturally relevant teaching with cases: A personal reflection and implications for pedagogy. In M. A. Lundeberg, B. B. Levin & H. L. Harrington (Eds.), Who learns what from cases and how? The research base for teaching and learning with cases (pp. 179-196). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Nieto, S. (1999b). The light in their eyes . New York: Teachers College Press.

O’Connor, K. E. (2007). Reflection, interpretation and scholarly roletaking: Affirming the self in educational research. Reflective Practice, 8 (2), 255-268.

Olson, M. (2000). Curriculum as a multi-storied process. Canadian Journal of Education, 25 (3), 169-187.

Olson, M. (2008). Valuing narrative authority, collaboration and diversity in revitalizing a teacher education program. In C. Craig & L. Deretchin (Eds.), Imagining a renaissance in teacher education (pp. 377-394). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Olson, M., & Craig, C. (2001). Opportunities and challenges in the development of teachers’ knowledge: The development of narrative authority through knowledge communities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17 (6), 667-684.

Orland-Barak, L. (2005a). Lost in translation: Mentors learning to participate in competing discourses of practice. Journal of Teacher Education, 56 (4), 355-366.

Orland-Barak, L. (2005b). Portfolio as evidence of reflective practice: What remains ‘untold’. Educational Research, 47 (1), 25-44.

Orland-Barak, L., & Yinon, H. (2005). Sometimes a novice and sometimes an expert: Mentors’ professional expertise as revealed through their stories of critical incidents. Oxford Review of Education, 31 (4), 557-78.

Oyler, C. (1996). Making room for students: Sharing teacher authority in room 104 . New York: Teachers College Press.

Oyler, C. (2006). Learning to teach inclusively: Student teachers’ classroom inquiries . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Phillion, J. (2002). Narrative multiculturalism. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 34 (3), 265-279.

Pinnegar, S., Dulude Lay, C., Bigham, S., & Dulude, C. (2005). Teaching as highlighted by mothering: A narrative inquiry. Studying Teacher Education, 1 (1), 55-67.

Putnam, R., & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 21 (1), 4-15.

Raelin, J. (2002). I don’t have time to think! (vs. The art of reflective practice). Reflections: The SoL Journal on Knowledge, Learning, and Change, 4 (1), 66-79.

Raider-Roth, M. (2004). Taking time to think: A portrait of reflection. Teaching and Learning: A Journal of Natural Inquiry and Reflective Practice, 18 (3), 79-97.

Raider-Roth, M. (2005). Trusting what you know: Negotiating the relational context of classroom life. Teachers College Record, 107 (4), 587-628.

Reason, P., & Rowan, J. (1981). Introduction. In P. Reason & J. Rowan (Eds.), Human inquiry (pp. xi-xxiv). London: Wiley.

Richert, A. E. (2007). Inquiring about practice: Using web-based materials to develop teacher inquiry. Teacher Education, 16 (4), 297-310.

Ritchie, S. M., & Rigano, D. L. (2007). Writing together metaphorically and bodily side-by-side: An inquiry into collaborative academic writing. Reflective Practice, 8 (1), 123-135.

Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey through reflective thinking. Teachers College Record, 104 (4), 842-866.

Ross, V. (2003). Walking around the curriculum tree: An analysis of a third/fourth-grade mathematics lesson. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35 (5), 567-584.

Rowan, J. (1981). A dialectical paradigm for research. In P. Reason & J. Rowan (Eds.), Human inquiry (pp. 93-111). Chichester: Wiley.

Russell, T. (2005). Can reflective practice be taught? Reflective Practice, 6 (2), 199-204.

Russell, T., & Munby, H. (eds). (1992). Teachers and teaching: From classroom to reflection . London: Falmer.

Rust, F., & Freidus, H. (2001). Guiding school change: The role and work of change agents . New York: Teachers College Press.

Rust, F., & Myer, E. (2006). The bright side: Teacher research in the context of educational reform and policy-making. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12 (1), 69-86.

Ryken, A. E. (2004). A spider and a fly in a web: Seeing myself in the details of praxis. Reflective Practice, 5 (1), 111-123.

Sabbe, E., & Aelterman, A. (2007). Gender in teaching: A literature review. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice., 13 (5), 521-538.

Sack, J. (2008). Commonplace intersection within a high school mathematics leadership institute. Journal of Teacher Education, 59 (2), 189-1999.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . New York: Basic Books.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner . London: Jossey-Bass.

Schön, D. A. (1991). The reflective turn. Case studies in and on educational practice . New York: Teachers College Press.

Schultz, B., & Oyler, C. (2006). We make this road as we walk together: Sharing teacher authority in a social action curriculum project. Curriculum Inquiry, 36(4), 423-451.

Schwab, J. (1959/1978). The “impossible” role of the teacher in Progressive education. In I. Westbury & N. J. Wilkof (Eds.), Science, curriculum, and liberal education (pp. 167-183). Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Schwab, J. J. (1969). The practical: A language for curriculum. School Review, 78 (1), 1-23.

Seidel, S., Walters, J., Kirby, E., Olff, N., Powell, K., Scripp, L., et al. (1997). Portfolio practices: Thinking through the assessment of children’s work . Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Shulman, L. (2004). The wisdom of practice: Essays on teaching, learning, and learning to teach . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sockett, H. (1987). Has Shulman got the strategy right? Harvard Educational Review, 57 (2), 208-219.

Soto, L. D. (2005). Teachers as transformative healers: Struggles with the complexities of the democratic sphere. In J. Phillion, M. F. He & F. M. Connelly (Eds.), Narrative & experience in multicultural education (pp. 143-156). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Sugrue, C. (1997). Complexities of teaching: Child-centered perspectives . London: Falmer.

Stefanakis, E. (2002). Multiple intelligences and portfolios: A window into the learner’s mind . Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Stiler, G. M., & Philleo, T. (2003). Blogging and blogspots: An alternative format for encouraging reflective practice among preservice teachers. Education, 123 (4), 789-97.

Thornton, A. (2005). The artist teacher as reflective practitioner. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 24 (2), 166-174.

Tirri, K., & Husu, J. (2000). Care and responsibility in ‘the best interest of the child’: Relational voices of ethical dilemmas in teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 8 (1), 65-80.

Tom, A. (1984). Teaching as a moral craft . New York: Longman.

Tom, A. (1997). Re-designing teacher education . New York: Teachers College Press.

Tillema, H., & Smith, K. (2000). Learning from portfolios: Differential feedback in portfolio construction. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 26 (3), 193-210.

Upitis, R., & Russell, T. (1998). Building a teacher education community: Combining electronic mail with face-to-face interactions. In M. L. Hamilton (Ed.), Reconceptualizing teaching practice: Self-study in teacher education (pp. 77-104). Briston, PA: Falmer.

van Manen, M. (1991). The tact of teaching: The meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness . Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

van Manen, M. (1994). On the epistemology of reflective practice. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 1 (1), 33-50.

Vermunt, J. D., & Verloop, N. (1999). Congruence and friction between learning and teaching. Learning and Instruction, 9 (3), 257-280.

Walsh, D., Baturka, N. L., Smith, M. E., & Colter, N. (1991). Changing one’s mind - Maintaining one’s identity: A first-grade teacher’s story. Teachers College Record, 93 , 73-86.

Walters, J., Seidel, S., & Gardner, H. (1994). Children as reflective practitioners: Bringing metacognition to the classroom. In N. Mangieri & C. Block (Eds.), Creating powerful thinking in teachers and students: Diverse perspectives (pp. 289-303). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College.

Wasser, J. D., & Bresler, L. (1996). Working in the interpretive zone: Conceptualizing collaboration in qualitative research teams. Educational Researcher, 25 , 5-15.

Weinbaum, A., Allen, D., Blythe, T., Simon, K., Seidel, S., & Rubin, C. (2004). Teaching as inquiry: Asking hard questions to improve practice and student achievement . New York: Teachers College Press.

Westbury, I. (2000). Teaching as reflective practice: What might Didaktik teach curriculum. In I. Westbury, S. Hopmann & K. Riquarts (Eds.), Teaching as a reflective practice: The German Didaktik tradition (pp. 15-40). Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Whipp, J. (2003). Scaffolding critical reflection in online discussions: Helping prospective teachers think deeply about field experiences in urban schools. Journal of Teacher Education, 54 (4), 321-333.

Whitehead, J. (2000). How do I improve my practice? Creating and legitimating an epistemology of practice. Reflective Practice, 1 (1), 91-104.

Winsor, P. J. T., Butt, R. L., & Reeves, H. (1999). Portraying professional development in preservice teacher education: Can portfolios do the job? Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 5 (1), 9-31.

Witherell, C., & Noddings, N. (1991). Stories lives tell: Narrative and dialogue in education . NY: Teachers College Press.

Zeichner, K. M. (1987). Preparing reflective teachers: An overview of instructional strategies which have been employed in preservice teacher education. International Journal of Educational Research, 11 (5), 565-75.

Zeichner, K., & Wray, S. (2001). The teaching portfolio in U.S. teacher education programs: What we know and what we need to know. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17 (5), 613-621.

Zembylas, M. (2003). Interrogating “teacher identity”: Emotion, resistance, and self-formation. Educational Theory, 53 , 107-127.

Zwart, R., Wubbels, T., Bergen, M., & Bolhuis, S. (2007). Experienced teacher learning within the context of reciprocal peer coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (2), 165-188.

Zyngier, D. (2007). Listening to teachers - listening to students: Substantive conversations about resistance, empowerment and engagement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13 (4), 327-349.

Download references

Acknowledgment

The author recognizes the centrality of Daryl Wilson’s and other teachers’ teaching and is appreciative of his and other local teachers’ sustained participation in her research program. She also thanks Yung-Chen Chung, Julie Cote, Xiao Han, and Jacob Neumann for their help as research assistants and Lily Orland-Barak of Haifa University, Israel and Helen Burchell of University of Hertfordshire, U.K. for sharing their important insights as chapter reviewers. Special gratitude is extended to T. P. Yaeger Middle School, other local campuses, and the reform movement for ongoing interest and financial support of the work described in this essay.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

Cheryl J. Craig

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheryl J. Craig .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Dept. Education, University College Cork, Donovan's Road, Cork, Ireland

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Craig, C.J. (2010). Reflective Practice in the Professions: Teaching. In: Lyons, N. (eds) Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85744-2_10

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85744-2_10

Published : 03 November 2009

Publisher Name : Springer, Boston, MA

Print ISBN : 978-0-387-85743-5

Online ISBN : 978-0-387-85744-2

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Philosophy and Religion (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Reflective Essay on Different Aspects of Teaching Practice

There are numerous areas of teaching which I need to improve upon, yet I have chosen to focus this essay on some of the fundamental factors to becoming a successful teacher: behaviour management and acting on feedback.

Behaviour Management

On placement I had to be careful to ensure that I had the correct level of formality in my relationships with pupils. This seems to be particularly apt in Mathematics where a significant amount of concentration and effort are needed. Haggerty (2002) suggests that a mathematics teacher needs to be relatively formal, in part due to the subject’s complex properties.

Being overfamiliar with pupils can diminish a teacher’s authority. Initially, in the first few weeks of the placement I was too informal with pupils and failed to progress from a teaching assistant-pupil to a teacher-pupil relationship adequately which requires a formal rather than informal, consultative register (Joos, 1972). However, my good relationship with pupils allowed me to contribute to their learning informally such as regularly helping pupils with maths homework outside of lessons and doing intervention and group work. Pupils seemed to thrive on the support I gave them. The informal, incidental learning (Marsick and Watkins, 1990) that took place clearly supplemented their formal lessons well.

Pupils gained a relational understanding (Skemp, 1977) of the topics they were learning due to my detailed explanations of how and why the maths worked. A great example of this was a colleague informing me of a Y11 student’s progress I had been working closely with: she was now achieving a C in Maths having only being at a grade D/E before, thus making her a candidate to sit the GCSE Higher Maths paper.

However, the rapport I had with pupils sometimes negatively impacted on my experiences in the classroom: particularly in my Year 9 class, where pupils misbehaved as they saw me as more of a student than a proper teacher. After consulting with the regular class teacher, I tried to remedy this by being stricter and tolerating disruption less. Capel and Gervis (2005) suggest that teachers who have high expectations of behaviour from their class tend to get their students to behave well. I found this to be true.

I tried to model the standard of behaviour I expected from the pupils, always being smart and punctual. I greeted pupils at the door at the beginning of the lesson and treated them fairly in the hope they would see me as a role model and copy my behaviour and thought processes (Bandura, 1977). This technique only partially solved the problem. My Year 7 and 8 classes behaved quite well but my Year 9 class was still disruptive, though they behaved better than at the start of my placement. I was teaching more lessons by my third week on placement and this naturally helped me gain some authority as pupils became more used to me as a teacher.

To try and improve the behaviour of my Year 9 group, I tried an alternative approach with them. I raised the volume of my voice, had zero-tolerance on misbehaviour and enforced heavy sanctions such as after-school detentions towards those who did misbehave. Interestingly, this worked on some students and not on others. This is perhaps explained by a University of New Hampshire report (2012) which stated that although some students who have a dearth of discipline at home will respond to this method, pupils who have controlling parents are less likely to respond to this strategy well. This is validated by my own experiences. I become more authoritarian instead of my intended authoritative manner (Ferlazzo, 2012) and damaged the rapport I had with students, creating conflict. Kearney et al. (1991) explain that students who dislike their teacher do not perform to their full potential in lessons, which was certainly true in my Year 9 class.

One approach that I did observe in an NQT’s lesson was to use formal register at the start of the lesson in teacher exposition before gradually using more informal language to assist students through activities and build a rapport with pupils. I found this to be successful in lessons when I trialled this approach. I also noticed that I was a lot more informal and relaxed when working with smaller groups of students as a teaching assistant. Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) explain that small group sizes are effective when a teacher has a large amount of interaction with students and motivates them which is something I always tried to do in my practice.

Gates (2001) highlights a lack of relevance to real life in Mathematics lessons as being a factor in misbehaviour in students. To try and engage students more, I provided more situations where pupils could see the content in a real-life context. Examples included having interesting facts at the start of the lesson such as why there are 360 degrees in a circle and having worded, practical questions on worksheets. As well as establishing strong cross-curricular links with Literacy, this allowed pupils to see the practical uses of mathematics which could motivate them more (Chambers, 2008) and add authenticity to their learning. Cockcroft (1982) suggests that it is hard to implement situations like this in every maths lesson. This is one of the limitations of this method. For example, algebraic topics are harder to link to real life than richer geometry modules. One target I got from my tutor was to have more purpose and meaning in my lessons, which I tried to achieve by chunking lessons into fast-paced activities with links to the real world. This worked for some pupils, but not all: less confident pupils preferred a slower-paced lesson where they had time to understand concepts.

Overall, I was quite a confident and recognisable figure to pupils, which had advantages and disadvantages. Ollerton (2004) argues that an informal teacher-pupil relationship can stimulate negative and disrespectful behaviour from students. This was partially true, particularly in my Year 9 class. This was because many pupils viewed me as a visitor or substitute, a common problem for student teachers on placement (Pope and Shivlock, 2008). However, after increased interaction with students in and out the classroom, they started to respect me more which is crucial to successful learning (Comer, 1995). It seems that the correct balance of being formal, yet approachable is required to be a successful teacher.

Acting on Feedback

Throughout placement I constantly reflected on my practice. I acted on and listened to feedback from experienced teachers. I did so as then they could give me the benefit of their expertise, thus increasing my Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) by getting closer to their level of teaching capability.

Constant reflection is something that is needed to be an effective teacher. Ofsted (2012) established that the most successful mathematics teachers constantly strived to develop their practice. I kept a daily diary but this was not a sophisticated enough tool to use in my reflections. Schon (1991) states that, in order to become a reflective practitioner, you have to critically analyse your own strengths and weaknesses. My own interpretation of this was to relate theory to practice. From studying feedback given to me, I concluded that my biggest shortfall was in behaviour management. In order to try and overcome this barrier, I applied Honey and Mumford’s (2006) model of learning to a particular scenario involving my Year 9 class who often misbehaved in my lessons:

• Activist-  The initial experience/stimuli of misbehaviour that happened in a Year 9 class I was teaching. Although not malicious in any way, students were loud and off task.
• Reflector-  This is where I reviewed the experience and sought to understand why they were behaving like that by considering the internal/external conditions which affected their behaviour. I concluded that it was partially because of my teaching style, not having a clear and consistent routine and the school’s weak behaviour policy. It was also due to external factors like it being the last period on a Friday, meaning the students were desperate to get home and not in the mood to listen to me.
• Theorist-  When contemplating the situation, I realised that it was not actually all my fault and that there were other factors causing their misbehaviour such as the time of day and the day of the week.
• Pragmatist-  When I thought about how I was going to change this, I addressed each set of factors in turn. In terms of the internal factors, I set out clear expectations of behaviour of my class as well as a fixed classroom routine which calmed them down. For the external factors, I made it clear to the class that it was irrelevant that my lesson was last period on a Friday.

Going through this cycle of reflection enabled me to enhance my practice and learn experientially (Kolb, 1976) by reflecting on what I had made mistakes on and how to correct it. In this situation, I did note that the class started to behave better though I need to improve more in this area. However, there are limitations to this style of reflection. Davies (2012) states that it is quite elaborate and may distract from teaching practice. In addition, Price (2004) states that this model of reflection doesn’t really address any major issues. The amount of time spent reflecting on the problem did hinder me in my teaching practice.

To improve further, I needed to look at alternative models of reflection and learning through enactment and getting more voluntary experience in schools. Whilst on placement, I only taught lower school pupils and I need to gain experience teaching KS4 pupils. Observing and assisting experienced teachers will only increase my learning of the teaching profession. I will observe how to manage different classes to improve my performance and consistency in the classroom (Collinson, 1994; Bobek, 2004).

The placement I undertook really developed me as a teacher. I feel a lot more confident leading a class and have more of a teacher presence, particularly when dealing with younger students. I have started to control classes better and feel comfortable dealing with misbehaviour in the lower school. Conversely, I feel I need more practice at handling older students. Future actions I will take to improve my practice is to teach more challenging classes and older year groups in my summer placement to try and become more confident at leading a class.

I feel I have established a solid and reliable model of reflection which allowed me to change my practice and respond well to challenging incidents (see earlier example with my Year 9 class) and establish a plan of action. However, I do need to make sure that I continually reflect and amend my teaching style to suit different types of classes. I have always got on well with pupils and my varied abilities allow me to contribute a lot more to a school than just being a maths teacher.

Ofsted (2008) identify ‘subject expertise’, pedagogical knowledge and strong classroom management as the triumvirate of attributes needed to be a successful mathematics teacher. I feel I can demonstrate these skills well at an individual or group level. If I am comfortable displaying these skills at a whole class level I feel I will become a successful teacher.

Reference List

Bandura, A. (1977)  Social Learning Theory.  New York: General Learning Press.

Bobek, B. L. (2002) ‘Teacher Longevity- A key to career longevity’,  The Clearing House,  75 (4), pp. 202-205.

Capel, S. and Gervis, M. (2005) ‘Motivating pupils’ in Capel, S., Leask, M. and Turner, T. (eds.)  Learning to Teach in the Secondary School: A companion to school experience.  4 th  edn.

Carroll, H. (1950) ‘A scale of measuring teacher-pupil attributes and teacher-pupil rapport’,  Psychological Monographs- General and Applied,  64 (6), pp. 24-27.

Chambers, P. (2008)  Teaching Mathematics: Developing as a Reflective Secondary Teacher.  London: Sage.

Cockcroft, W. (1982)  The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of Mathematics in Schools.

Collinson, V. (1994)  Teachers as Learners: Exemplary teachers’ perceptions of personal and professional renewal.  Bethesda, MD: Austin and Winfield.

Comer, J. (1995) Lecture given at Education Service Center, Houston.

Davies, S. (2012) ‘Embracing reflective practice’,  Education for Primary Care,  23, pp. 9-12.

Ferlazzo, L. (2012) ‘Students who challenge us: Eight things skilled teachers think, say and do.’,  Educational Leadership , 70 (2), pp. 100-105.

Gates, P. (2001)  Issues in the Teaching of Mathematics.  London: Routledge.

Great Britain. Ofsted (2008)  Mathematics: Understanding the Score.  London: Department for Education.

Great Britain. DfE (2012)  Standards for Meeting Qualified Teacher Status.  London: Department for Education.

Great Britain. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2009)  The White Paper: Learning Revolution.  London: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Honey, P. and Mumford, A. (2006)  The Learning Styles Questionnaire, 80-item version.  Maidenhead: Peter Honey Publications.

Joos, M. (1972)  Language and cultural diversity in American Education.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kearney, P., Plax, T. G., Hayes, E. R. and Ivey, M. J. (1991) ‘College teacher misbehaviours: what students don’t like about what teachers say and do.’,  Communication Quarterly,  39 (4), pp. 325-340.

Kolb, D. A. (1976)  The Learning Style Inventory: Technical Manual.  Boston: McBer.

Ollerton, M. (2004)  Getting the Buggers to Add Up.  London: Continuum.

Pascarella, E. and Terenzini, P. (1991)  How College affects students.  San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Pope, M. and Shivlock, K. (2008)  Successful Teaching Placements in Secondary Schools.  Learning Matters: Exeter.

Price, A. (2004) ‘Encouraging reflection and critical thinking in practice’,  Nursing Standard,  18 (47), pp. 123-129.

Schon, D. A. (1991)  The Reflective Turn: Case Studies In and On Educational Practice.  New York: Teachers Press, Columbia University.

Skemp, R. (1977), ‘Relational Understanding and Instrumental Understanding’,  Mathematics Teaching,  77, pp. 20-26.

University of New Hampshire (2012)  Controlling parents more likely to have delinquent children.  Massachusetts: Science Daily.

Watkins, K. and Marsick, V. (1990)  Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace.  London.

Vygostky, L. S. (1978)  Mind in Society: the development of higher psychological processes.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cite this page

Similar essay samples.

• Essay on Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission
• “The rich get richer and the poor get prison”. Discuss how...
• Essay on Reparations
• Critical Analysis of Exeter Visitor/Tourism Strategy 2007-2010
• Essay on Tuan’s Artifact
• Essay on Disorganization at Semco: Human Resources Practices as a Stra...

• Our Mission

Making Time for Reflective Practice

Jotting down short notes after every lesson helps teachers contemplate what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve their skills.

Deep, thoughtful reflection is at the heart of the practice for many educators. John Dewey connected learning to the reflection of experience—not just having experience. Despite its importance, classroom teachers struggle to find time for quiet reflection in the whirlwind of the school year. After teaching a full day, grading assignments, providing feedback to students and families, meeting with advisees and colleagues, and then preparing for the next day, it can be a challenge to find the time or head space for reflection. That’s especially true as a new school year gets underway.

But for teachers who create their own project-based learning (PBL) curriculum, as we do here at Science Leadership Academy, a public magnet high school in Philadelphia, iteration and improvement on evolving units and lesson plans is critical.

Capture the Data

Capturing as much data as possible during the school day can provide a basis for deeper reflection once the school year ends. I use the summer months to really dig into what worked and what didn’t during the previous year. Key data critical to summer planning include:

• Learning: What do the data say about what students learned?
• Student experience: What did students think and feel about their experience and what they learned? What do they think could be changed?
• Improvement: What curriculum and supporting approaches need to be improved?
• Timing: How did the timing of a lesson, project, or unit compare with the plan?

Make It Easy

To make this work, data capture must become a simple and seamless routine in each day, week, and unit. Setting too high a standard for the quality and completeness of this process during the school day can lead to frustration and ultimately to failure. To be successful, develop habits that can be followed in the transitions of the day or in brief, evening sessions.

Capture quick notes from each class:

• What parts of the daily plan were met or delayed?
• Where should the class pick up next time?
• Which students need special support?
• What activities went well or poorly?
• How did you feel about the experience of your students?

Tools could include a note-taking app like Evernote or OneNote, which are especially good at keeping logs organized. Even a paper journal with every day or class separated can work. Brevity here will lead to consistency.

Weekly Planners

A paper printout of each week’s roster provides a place to quickly lay out planned timing and then update as the week progresses. A small stack of these for the coming four to six weeks allows for quick planning or replanning and note taking in a way that an online calendar alone can’t match.

Voice Memos

In the quest to not lose information, time is not a teacher’s friend. Clarity about what just happened during a day or unit, what went well, what needs improvement, and individual observations of student performance quickly degrades with every hour that passes. To preserve this fidelity, leverage the power of the smartphone’s memo recorder, and get into the habit of creating quick summaries of the outcomes of every project and unit. These recordings can then serve as an accurate time capsule as curriculum is reviewed and replanned each summer.

Student Surveys

Use a Google Form at the end of each unit and quarter to provide voice to students. Ask the direct questions that will lead to better learning:

• How did this unit go for you?
• What did you learn?
• What was taught that you feel you didn’t learn?
• How could I improve this unit in the future? What should go slower or faster? What could I drop or add?
• What advice would you have for future students?

At the end of each unit, read through all these surveys and make a list of a dozen key takeaways that will be reviewed during deeper reflection time. When a teacher models a process of openness, vulnerability, and a desire to improve, students see another way for them to develop.

Two-Way Peer Observation

Peer or mentor observation is another critical component to reflection. Implement a program where teachers can pair up for two-way observations. A teacher can request that a partner deeply observe and reflect on one or two specific areas of their practice. Use observation protocols that allow for both detailed observations, such as “at 10:05, J. raised her hand but then dropped it quickly,” and thought-provoking queries, such as “I wonder what differences existed in how you and your students perceived the application of the reading.”

These types of observational notes at varied levels of detail provide a rich data source that can help inform later deep thought.

Reflection Phase

In my practice, I pull all this information together, first alone and then with my partner teacher in multiple sessions over the summer, to review each unit, project, and lesson. This allows us to rethink our curriculum and modify our learning objectives, assessments, projects, and lesson plans for the coming year.

The high-fidelity data we review and the processes that support their capture have allowed me to be in the moment with my students while still gathering the data I will use to improve as an educator in the coming year.

Reflective Practice In Teaching. Why Is It Important?

By Teach Educator

Published on: January 8, 2024

Reflective Practice In Teaching Review

Reflective Practice is an essential aspect of teaching that involves reflecting on one’s teaching practices, analyzing the effectiveness of those practices, and making necessary changes to improve student learning outcomes. It is a process that teachers use to critically analyze their teaching experiences and identify areas of strength and areas that require improvement. Reflective practice in teaching is a cyclical process that involves four main stages: planning, teaching, evaluating, and reflecting.

The planning stage involves setting learning objectives, designing lesson plans, and identifying teaching strategies that align with the student’s learning needs. During the teaching stage, teachers use various methods to deliver the lesson, such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations. They also use technology and other instructional aids to enhance student learning.

The evaluation stage involves assessing the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and learning outcomes. Teachers use various assessment methods, such as tests, quizzes, and assignments, to measure student understanding of the lesson. They also use formative assessments, such as class discussions and feedback, to gather information about students’ learning needs.

Finally, in the reflection stage, teachers reflect on their teaching practices and evaluate their effectiveness in meeting the learning objectives. They identify areas of strength and areas that require improvement and make necessary changes to their teaching practices to improve student learning outcomes.

It Helps Teachers

Reflective practice in teaching has several benefits. It helps teachers to develop a deeper understanding of their teaching practices and how they affect student learning outcomes. It also helps them to identify areas that require improvement and make necessary changes to improve student learning. Additionally, reflective practice helps teachers to stay up-to-date with the latest teaching methods and instructional technologies.

In conclusion, reflective practice in teaching is an essential aspect of teaching that helps teachers to improve their teaching practices and enhance student learning outcomes. It is a cyclical process that involves planning, teaching, evaluating, and reflecting. Through reflective practice, teachers can develop a deeper understanding of their teaching practices and identify areas that require improvement.

Why Is It Important?

Reflective practice is essential in teaching for several reasons. Here are some of the most important ones:

• Improving Teaching Practice: Reflective practice helps teachers to identify what works well in their teaching practice and what doesn’t. It allows them to analyze their experiences and develop new teaching strategies that are more effective in meeting the needs of their students. Teachers can use reflective practice to fine-tune their teaching approaches so that they can continually improve the quality of their instruction.
• Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes: Reflective practice can help teachers to identify gaps in their teaching, which may be hindering their students’ learning. By analyzing their practice, teachers can modify their instruction to better meet the needs of their students. This can lead to improved student learning outcomes and greater academic achievement.
• Personal and Professional Growth: Reflective practice allows teachers to reflect on their personal and professional growth. By analyzing their experiences and reflecting on their practice, teachers can identify their strengths and weaknesses, and take steps to develop their skills and knowledge. This can lead to personal and professional growth, which can benefit both teachers and their students.
• Continuing Professional Development: Reflective practice is an important part of continuing professional development. It allows teachers to stay up-to-date with the latest teaching strategies and instructional technologies. By reflecting on their practice, teachers can identify areas where they need to develop their skills and knowledge and take steps to do so.

In conclusion, reflective practice is essential in teaching because it helps teachers to improve their teaching practice, enhance student learning outcomes, develop personally and professionally, and continue their professional development. It is an ongoing process that requires a commitment to self-reflection, analysis, and growth.

What is a reflective practice in teaching?

Reflective practice in teaching is the process of analyzing and evaluating one’s own teaching practice in order to improve it. It involves critically examining the effectiveness of teaching strategies, lesson plans, and learning outcomes in order to identify areas of strength and areas that need improvement. Reflective practice is an ongoing process that involves four main stages: planning, teaching, evaluating, and reflecting.

During the planning stage, teachers set learning objectives, design lesson plans, and identify teaching strategies that align with the student’s learning needs. During the teaching stage, teachers use various methods to deliver the lesson, such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations, and they use technology and other instructional aids to enhance student learning.

Reflective practice in teaching helps teachers to develop a deeper understanding of their teaching practices and how they affect student learning outcomes. It also helps them to identify areas that require improvement and make necessary changes to their teaching practices to improve student learning outcomes. Additionally, reflective practice helps teachers to stay up-to-date with the latest teaching methods and instructional technologies.

What are the benefits of reflective practice?

Reflective practice in teaching has many benefits, some of which include:

• Professional development: Reflective practice allows teachers to identify areas where they need to develop their skills and knowledge. By reflecting on their practice, teachers can take steps to develop their skills and knowledge and stay up-to-date with the latest teaching strategies and instructional technologies.
• Improved teaching practice: Reflective practice helps teachers to identify what works well in their teaching practice and what doesn’t. It allows them to analyze their experiences and develop new teaching strategies that are more effective in meeting the needs of their students. Teachers can use reflective practice to fine-tune their teaching approaches so that they can continually improve the quality of their instruction.
• Enhanced student learning outcomes: Reflective practice can help teachers to identify gaps in their teaching, which may be hindering their students’ learning. By analyzing their practice, teachers can modify their instruction to better meet the needs of their students. This can lead to improved student learning outcomes and greater academic achievement.
• Personal growth: Reflective practice allows teachers to reflect on their personal growth. By analyzing their experiences and reflecting on their practice, teachers can identify their strengths and weaknesses, and take steps to develop their skills and knowledge. This can lead to personal growth, which can benefit both teachers and their students.
• Improved job satisfaction: Reflective practice can help teachers to feel more satisfied with their job. By reflecting on their practice and making improvements, teachers can feel more confident in their teaching abilities and more fulfilled in their roles as educators.

In conclusion, reflective practice in teaching is an essential process that helps teachers to continually improve their teaching practice, enhance student learning outcomes, develop personally and professionally, and feel more satisfied with their job.

What are the main types of reflective practice?

There are several main types of reflective practice in teaching, including:

• Self-reflection: This type of reflective practice involves teachers reflecting on their own teaching practices and evaluating their effectiveness. This can involve keeping a reflective journal, reviewing video recordings of their teaching, or simply taking time to think about their teaching experiences and how they can improve.
• Peer observation: Peer observation involves teachers observing each other’s teaching practices and providing feedback. This can be a valuable way to gain insights into other teaching styles and techniques, as well as receive constructive feedback on one’s own teaching.
• Feedback from students: Students can also provide valuable feedback to teachers about their teaching practices. This can involve asking students for feedback through surveys, focus groups, or individual conversations. Teachers can then use this feedback to identify areas where they can improve their teaching practices.
• Collaborative reflection: Collaborative reflection involves teachers reflecting on their teaching practices together, often in the context of professional learning communities or other professional development activities. This can be a valuable way to share experiences and ideas, and to learn from one another’s successes and challenges.
• Action research: Action research is a systematic and reflective approach to improving teaching and learning practices. It involves teachers conducting research on their own teaching practices and analyzing the results to identify areas where they can make improvements.

Each type of reflective practice has its own strengths and benefits, and teachers may use one or more of these approaches to continually improve their teaching practices.

How can I instigate reflective practice in my teaching?

Instigating reflective practice in your teaching involves creating a culture of continuous improvement and encouraging yourself and your colleagues to reflect on their teaching practices. Here are some steps you can take to instigate reflective practice in your teaching:

• Model reflective practice: Start by modeling reflective practice yourself. Share your own reflections on your teaching practices with colleagues, and encourage them to do the same. You can use various tools, such as reflective journals, blogs, or discussion forums, to share your reflections.
• Provide opportunities for feedback: Create opportunities for students to provide feedback on your teaching practices. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or individual conversations. Be sure to use this feedback to improve your teaching practices and share what you learn with your colleagues.
• Collaborate with colleagues: Collaborate with colleagues to reflect on your teaching practices together. You can create a professional learning community or join existing groups that meet regularly to discuss teaching practices and share experiences. You can also participate in peer observation activities to learn from each other.
• Use technology: Use technology to support reflective practice. You can use digital tools, such as video recording software or online discussion forums, to reflect on your teaching practices and share your reflections with colleagues. You can also use data analytics tools to analyze student performance and identify areas where you can improve your teaching practices.
• Attend professional development activities: Attend professional development activities that focus on reflective practice in teaching. This can include workshops, conferences, or courses. You can also read books or research articles on reflective practice to learn more about this approach and how to implement it in your teaching.
• Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and implementation. Teaching and teacher education, 11(1), 33-49.
• Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass.
• Van Manen, M. (1991). The tact of teaching: The meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness. State University of New York Press.
• Zeichner, K. M., & Liston, D. P. (2013). Reflective teaching: An introduction. Routledge.
• Farrelly, R. (2017). Developing reflective practice in the ELT classroom. ELT Journal, 71(2), 227-237.
• Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Jossey-Bass.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (2013). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. Routledge.

In conclusion, reflective practice is an essential process for teachers to continually improve their teaching practices and enhance student learning outcomes. There are different types of reflective practice, including self-reflection, peer observation, feedback from students, collaborative reflection, and action research. By instigating reflective practice in their teaching.

Teachers can create a culture of continuous improvement, share experiences, and ideas, and learn from one another’s successes and challenges. It requires commitment and effort, but the benefits are well worth it. By continually reflecting on their teaching practices and seeking feedback, teachers can become more effective educators and help their students achieve greater success.

Related Post

Examples of idealism in education – latest 2024.

Idealism In Education Review Examples Of Idealism In Education – Latest 2024. Idealism is a philosophical tradition that emphasizes the belief in human progress and the role of ...

How Does Politics Influences Education System? / 2024

Politics Influence Education System Review How Does Politics Influence the Education System? / 2024. Politics can have a profound impact on the education system in several ways. Politicians ...

Literacy Rates Of Country In 2023- How To Increase Literacy In a Country?

What Is Country Literacy Population? Literacy Rates Of a Country refer to the percentage of individuals in a specific country. Who can read and write at a basic ...

What Is Existentialism and Curriculum?

Existentialism and Curriculum Existentialism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes individual freedom and choice, and the search for meaning and purpose in life. When it comes to curriculum, ...

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Latest Post

What are the advantages & disadvantages of montessori education, why important of test characteristics of a good test, teach educator.

"Teach Educator aims to empower learners and educators alike through its comprehensive services. Dedicated to bridging educational gaps, it offers a range of resources designed to enhance teaching methodologies, provide updated curriculum insights, and foster professional development. With a commitment to accessibility, Teach Educator ensures that educational tools and information are readily available to all, promoting inclusivity in learning.

© Teach Educator 2021 - 2024 | All Rights Reserved

Privacy policy

• Open access
• Published: 20 August 2024

Impact of a game-based interprofessional education program on medical students’ perceptions: a text network analysis using essays

• Young Gyu Kwon 1 ,
• Myeong Namgung 2 ,
• Song Hee Park 3 ,
• Mi Kyung Kim 3 , 4 ,
• Sun Jung Myung 5 ,
• Eun Kyung Eo 6 &
• Chan Woong Kim 1 , 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  898 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

130 Accesses

Metrics details

The increasing complexity of the healthcare environment and the necessity of multidisciplinary teamwork have highlighted the importance of interprofessional education (IPE). IPE aims to enhance the quality of patient care through collaborative education involving various healthcare professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. This study sought to analyze how game-based IPE activities influence students’ perceptions and reflective thinking. It also aimed to identify the shifts in perception and effectiveness caused by this educational approach.

The study is based on a game-based IPE program conducted at University A, involving medical and nursing students in structured learning and team-based activities. Data were collected using essays written by the students after they had participated in IPE activities. Text network analysis was conducted by extracting key terms, performing centrality analysis, and visualizing topic modeling to identify changes in students’ perceptions and reflective thinking.

Keywords such as “patient,” “thought,” “group,” “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication” played a crucial role in the network, indicating that students prioritized enhancing their communication and problem-solving skills within the educational environment. The topic modeling results identified three main topics, each demonstrating the positive influence of game-based collaborative activities, interprofessional perspectives, and interdisciplinary educational experiences on students. Topic 3 (interdisciplinary educational experience) acted as a significant mediator connecting Topic 1 (game-based collaborative activity experience) and Topic 2 (interprofessional perspectives).

This study demonstrates that game-based IPE activities are an effective educational approach for enhancing students’ team building skills, particularly communication and interprofessional perspectives. Based on these findings, future IPE programs should focus on creating collaborative learning environments, strengthening communication skills, and promoting interdisciplinary education. The findings provide essential insights for educational designers and medical educators to enhance the effectiveness of IPE programs. Future research should assess the long-term impacts of game-based IPE on clinical practice, patient outcomes, and participants’ professional development.

Peer Review reports

With rapid changes in the healthcare environment and the advancement of systems, effective collaboration among various healthcare professionals is crucial to meet patients’ high expectations [ 1 ]. This underscores the growing importance of interprofessional education (IPE), which aims to develop the ability to collaborate efficiently as multidisciplinary teams [ 2 , 3 ]. IPE involves students from two or more healthcare professions learning about, from, and with each other through collaborative education. The primary objective of IPE is to assist healthcare professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, in developing the competence to collaborate more effectively in multidisciplinary teams to enhance patient care [ 4 ]. Its history began in the early twentieth century and has evolved to include numerous healthcare professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, and dentists [ 5 ]. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that IPE provides highly collaborative teamwork experiences that improve job satisfaction and enhance access to and safety in patient care [ 6 ]. Recent studies have also shown that IPE is pivotal not only in promoting professional autonomy, understanding of professional roles, teamwork, and collaboration, but also in providing essential knowledge and skills for improving healthcare services [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].

One innovative approach to enhancing IPE involves game-based learning, which integrates educational content with interactive gaming elements to create engaging and effective learning experiences. Game-based learning has been shown to enhance students’ motivation, participation, and retention of knowledge by providing a dynamic and immersive learning environment [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In the context of IPE, these activities can simulate real-life clinical scenarios that require collaboration, communication, and problem-solving among diverse healthcare professionals [ 17 ]. This method allows students to practice and develop these critical skills in a safe and controlled setting, thereby preparing them for actual clinical practice [ 18 ].

Previous IPE studies involving students primarily used surveys, interviews, and participant observations to assess changes in students’ knowledge acquisition, collaboration, teamwork skills, and attitudes [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. While these approaches have provided valuable information for evaluating the effectiveness of IPE programs, they have limitations in terms of exploring students’ direct expressions and deep thinking. Recent research has started exploring game-based learning in IPE, emphasizing its potential to enhance collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills among healthcare students [ 24 , 25 ]. Game-based learning activities, such as serious games and simulations, offer engaging experiences that promote interprofessional collaboration and reflective thinking [ 17 ]. However, there is still a scarcity of research on students’ personal experiences, changing perceptions, and in-depth understanding of interprofessional collaboration through game-based learning. Addressing this gap can provide better relevance and context to the study of IPE.

Medical education literature has highlighted the importance of various educational strategies in enhancing reflective thinking skills [ 26 , 27 ]. Dewey defines reflective thinking as conscious thought in the problem-solving process, which can be considered as the active utilization of knowledge gained through experience [ 28 ]. Narrative materials, such as essays, are useful tools for gaining an in-depth understanding of students’ experiences and perceptions. Thus, analyzing reflective thinking through essays can help students better understand their learning experiences and improve their problem-solving abilities through effective collaboration across different disciplines [ 29 , 30 ].

This study aimed to analyze students’ perceptions of collaboration by examining essays they wrote after participating in game-based IPE activities, thereby providing evidence for the effectiveness of such education. The results of this study are expected to serve as foundational data to help design and implement more effective collaborative learning strategies for IPE programs.

Course design

The IPE program at a South Korean university targeted fifth-year medical and fourth-year nursing students to prepare them for clinical training. The course was divided into two phases: a six-day shadowing period and a four-day IPE activity period.

During the shadowing period, students observed various healthcare professionals in different clinical settings, including emergency rooms (ERs), ambulatory care, critical care, and outpatient environments. This phase emphasized understanding interprofessional roles and the importance of collaborative practice skills.

In the subsequent IPE activity period, students were grouped into teams of five or six, consisting of both medical and nursing students, to engage in team building exercises. These activities aimed to promote students’ collaboration, communication skills, mutual understanding in clinical settings. The activities during this phase were meticulously designed to develop essential soft skills through structured game-based exercises. These included the Marshmallow Challenge, which aimed to enhance understanding of team building dynamics; the Puzzle Game, which focused on defining roles and fostering teamwork to achieve a common objective; and the Message Game, which underscored the importance of clear and effective communication. Additional activities, such as the Drawing Shapes Game and the Drawing the Story Game, were designed to improve skills in accurate verbal description and to enhance understanding of the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) communication protocol, respectively. Finally, the Board Game was specifically developed to reinforce systems thinking and to illustrate the need for interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex issues in a hospital. Table 1 outlines the key activities included in this period.

This study aimed to analyze essays written by students after participating in the IPE activities to assess their reflections and learning outcomes.

Research procedure

The fundamental premise of text network analysis is to extract keywords representing the core content from the literature [ 31 ]. This study focused on understanding students’ thoughts and perceptions by analyzing their essays. The research process comprised (1) data collection, (2) keyword selection and data processing, (3) core keyword extraction and network construction, (4) network connectivity and centrality analysis, and (5) topic modeling. This approach facilitated a nuanced understanding of the conceptual relationships within the text, yielding deeper insights into students’ reflective thinking and experiences with interprofessional collaboration, thereby aligning with the objectives of this study.

Data collection

Data were collected in 2021 after the IPE program. Of the 82 medical students who participated in the program, 77 voluntarily submitted essays, representing a 93.9% response rate from the entire cohort enrolled in the IPE program. The essays were collected after the completion of the entire program, capturing students’ reflections and feelings about the course. These essays were not intended for assessment or evaluation purposes but were written freely by students to express their thoughts and experiences regarding the program. The primary aim was to gather qualitative insights into how students perceived and internalized the IPE activities, which aligns with the study’s objective to understand the impact of game-based learning on developing interprofessional collaboration, communication, and team building skills. We focused on medical students’ essays to explore their specific perspectives and experiences within the IPE program, as these students often play crucial roles in multidisciplinary teams. Therefore, understanding their views can provide valuable insights for improving IPE programs and enhancing interprofessional collaboration in clinical practice [ 32 ].

Keyword selection and data pre-processing

The student essays were collected using MS Office Excel. Pre-processing involved an initial review using Excel’s Spell Check, followed by manual corrections to fix typographical errors. Morphological analysis was performed using Netminer 4.5.1.c (CYRAM), which automatically removed pronouns and adverbs, leaving only nouns. To extract the words, 25 designated words, 40 synonyms, and 321 excluded words were pre-registered. Designated words are terms that convey specific meanings when grouped [ 33 ]. In this study, terms such as “interprofessional education” and “Friday Night at the ER” were classified as such. Synonyms, a group of words that have similar meanings, were processed as a single term that can represent the common meaning of those words [ 34 ]. For instance, “Friday night ER,” “FNER,” and “Friday night in the ER” were extracted as “Friday Night at ER.” Words considered irrelevant to the current research focus or general words that did not contribute to meaningful analysis were excluded (e.g., “and,” “or,” “front,” “inside,” “during”). Three professors specializing in emergency medicine and one medical educator handled word extraction and refinement, and the final selection was reviewed by the entire research team.

The data analysis utilized was qualitative content analysis, focusing on both the identification and contextual usage of keywords. This approach involved the descriptive counting of keywords as well as an in-depth analysis of their usage within the essays. This rigorous process ensured that the keywords selected were relevant to the study’s focus on IPE and collaboration, providing both quantitative and qualitative insights into the students’ reflections and experiences.

Extraction of core keywords and network construction

Core keyword extraction was based on the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) method. The frequency of word occurrences is expressed as “term frequency (TF),” which indicates how often a word appears within a document [ 35 ]. By contrast, “inverse document frequency (IDF)” is calculated using the logarithmic value of the inverse of document frequency [ 36 ]. The TF-IDF value is computed by multiplying TF by IDF. A high value indicates that a word is important in a specific document but rarely appears in others [ 37 ]. This method allows the assessment of the importance of words in documents. For network analysis, the 2-mode word-document network was converted into a 1-mode word-word network. The co-occurrence frequency was set to occur at least twice, and the word proximity (window size) was set to two, following previous studies on text network analysis [ 38 ].

Network connectivity and centrality analysis

Network size and density, as well as the average degree and distance at the node level, were identified to understand the overall characteristics of the network. Network size denotes the total number of nodes (keywords). Density measures the ratio of actual connections to possible connections, indicating network cohesion. The average degree reflects the average number of connections per node, while the average distance shows the typical number of steps between nodes, revealing the network’s connectivity and compactness [ 35 , 38 ]. Centrality analysis included degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality, whereas closeness centrality was excluded due to poor performance in lengthy texts [ 39 ]. Degree centrality measures how well a node is connected within a network, helping to identify keywords that play a central role in the network [ 40 ]. Betweenness centrality measures how frequently a node appears on the shortest path between other nodes, indicating how well it acts as an intermediary between two nodes [ 41 ]. Eigenvector centrality assesses the influence of a node by considering the importance of its neighboring nodes beyond the degree of connection [ 42 ]. This study extracted the top 30 words for each degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality. Finally, a spring map was used to visualize the keywords and their connection structures in the network.

Text network analysis was chosen because it provides a detailed understanding of relationships between concepts, unlike traditional methods that focus on theme frequency. It visualizes keyword interactions, highlighting central themes and their connections, offering insights into students’ reflections on IPE and their thought patterns.

Topic modeling

Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a statistical text-processing technique that clusters keywords based on their probabilities and distributions to infer topics [ 43 ]. In this study, keywords extracted from essays were compiled into a matrix for LDA. To determine the optimal number of topics, combinations of α = 0.01–0.03, β = 0.01–0.03, topic model = 3–8, and 1,000 iterations were tested. The optimal model was selected based on the coherence score (c_v), with the highest coherence score ensuring the validity and reliability of the inferred topics [ 44 , 45 , 46 ].

Key keywords

Table 2 presents the keywords derived from analyzing medical students’ essays selected through the TF and TF-IDF analyses. In the TF analysis, “thought” appeared most frequently (365 times), followed by “group” 359 times, “class” 322 times, and “game” 278 times. The top 20 keywords in TF-IDF included “patient,” “game,” “group,” and “person.” Keywords that appeared in both TF and TF-IDF analyses included “nursing school,” “nurse,” “game,” “hospital,” “person,” “mutual,” “communication,” “time,” “group,” “important,” “progress,” “puzzle,” “patient,” and “activity.” Comparing the keywords between TF and TF-IDF, new terms that emerged in TF-IDF included “IPE,” “room,” and “clinical practice.”

• Text network analysis

Network structure

In this study, a network was constructed based on a co-occurrence frequency of at least two words with word proximity (window size) set to two words. The resulting network comprised 1,218 nodes and 627 links. The network density was 0.012, with an average degree and distance of 3.919 and 3.447, respectively.

Centrality analysis

Table 3 lists the top 30 keywords according to degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centralities, providing insight into the overall network characteristics. The top three keywords across all three centrality analyses included “patient,” “thought,” “group,” “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication.” The ranking and composition of the keywords were similar in both degree and betweenness centrality analyses. In the eigenvector results, “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication” were ranked highest. When comparing the top 30 keywords from eigenvector centrality with those from degree and betweenness centrality, new terms such as “future,” “society,” and “need” emerged. These findings are presented in Fig.  1 , which illustrates the spring network map of centrality.

Spring network map of centrality. a  Degree centrality. b  Betweenness centrality. c  Eigenvector centrality

Topic modeling: selection of the number of topics

To determine the optimal number of topics, 54 combinations of options were tested, including α = 0.01–0.03, β = 0.01–0.03, topic models = 3–8, and 1,000 iterations. Three topics were identified.

In the topic modeling process, after reviewing the keywords and contents of the assigned original documents, the research team convened and named each topic to reflect the trend of the subject matter, as shown in Fig.  2 . Following prior research, the final topic model was visualized using a topic-keyword map displaying the top eight to thirteen words [ 44 ]. Topic 1, accounting for 17% of the total topics, includes keywords such as “group,” “game,” “puzzle,” “delivery,” and “activity.” This reflects the inclusion of group-based, game-centric activities in the IPE classes; hence, it was named “game-based collaborative activity experience.” Topic 2 comprises 23% of the topics centered around the thoughts of doctors and nurses about patients in clinical settings, with keywords including “doctor,” “thought,” “patient,” “hospital,” and “nurse.” It was thus named “interprofessional perspectives.” Topic 3, with the largest share at 60%, incorporates keywords such as “class,” “nursing school,” “thought,” “activity,” and “student.” It primarily addresses class activities involving nursing students, thus the term “interdisciplinary educational experience.” Visually examining the entire network of topic modeling indicates that Topic 1, “game-based collaborative activity experience,” and Topic 3, “interdisciplinary educational experience,” are connected through the keywords “person” and “activity.” Topic 2, “Interprofessional Perspectives,” and Topic 3, are linked by “thought” and “class.” In the network, Topic 3 plays a vital role in connecting Topics 1 and 2, as illustrated in Fig.  2 .

Semantic keywords of topic modeling

This study is the first attempt to demonstrate the educational impact of game-based IPE activities on fostering an interprofessional perspective, communication skills, and team building skills among healthcare professionals through a text network analysis of student essays. This distinguishes this study from previous studies. This approach can help students develop collaborative skills, thereby effectively addressing various challenges in clinical settings. The primary findings and implications of this study are as follows:

First, the keywords with the highest degree of centrality were “patient,” “thought,” and “group.” High-degree-centrality keywords play a central role in the entire network, suggesting that the overall program should be designed around these keywords. The keywords with high betweenness centrality were also “patient,” “thought,” and “group.” These keywords act as necessary connectors within the network, indicating that they are crucial for establishing communication channels between different professions and ensuring a smooth flow of information in medical education. Keywords with high eigenvector centrality included “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication.” The prominence of keywords such as “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication” in centrality measures signifies their strong connections to other important terms in the network. This highlights the pivotal role of doctors and nurses in collaborative practices and underscores the importance of communication skills in IPE programs. The central positioning of these keywords within the network emphasizes the need to prioritize interprofessional roles and communication competencies to enhance collaborative practices in clinical settings. These results align with previous findings emphasizing the importance of education in promoting effective collaboration and communication among healthcare professionals [ 47 ]. The centralities thus provide quantitative evidence supporting the critical roles and interactions that are essential for successful IPE.

The relevance of these keywords can be understood within the framework of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies, which emphasize patient-centered care, reflective thinking, and effective communication. The central keywords align with IPEC’s domains: values/ethics for interprofessional practice, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams/teamwork [ 4 , 48 ]. For instance, “patient” and “group” correspond to the emphasis on patient-centered care and teamwork, while “thought” and “communication” are essential for reflective practice and effective interprofessional communication. Integrating IPE into medical education strengthens transparent and efficient teamwork across different specialties, minimizes errors in clinical decision-making, and improves patient outcomes. Consequently, medical schools should develop curricula that provide students with ample opportunities to collaborate with team members from various specialties [ 49 ].

Second, the topic modeling analysis indicated that Topic 1 provides a collaborative experience through group-based gaming activities in an IPE course. This aligns with previous research, indicating that game-based learning can enhance participants’ socialization and communication skills. Thornton Bacon et al. [ 50 ] and Sanko et al. [ 51 ] reported that students who participated in the Friday Night at Emergency Room (FNER) game demonstrated a statistically significant increase in systems thinking scores. In addition, Fusco et al. [ 52 ] confirmed that gameplay positively affected students’ systematic thinking, effective collaboration, and socialization skills. This suggests that game-based learning is useful for developing collaborative problem-solving skills and can be effectively integrated into various educational designs of IPE programs. Topic 2 highlights the significant focus on the perspectives of healthcare professionals in clinical environments. According to Bridges et al. [ 53 ] and Prentice et al. [ 54 ], IPE provides opportunities to develop a better understanding of roles and improve communication among healthcare team members. In this process, improving knowledge about one’s own roles and responsibilities as well as those of other professions can enhance teamwork between professionals [ 55 ]. This finding suggests that IPE programs can improve the quality of healthcare delivery by fostering mutual respect and understanding among different healthcare professionals. Topic 3 primarily addressed class activities for nursing students and included interdisciplinary educational experiences. These results show that game-based IPE activities are an effective educational method for enhancing interprofessional perspectives and communication skills, going beyond traditional lectures that simply deliver knowledge to students.

Additionally, Bjerkvik and Hilli [ 56 ] stated that expressing thoughts through writing facilitates the understanding of personal experiences. This enables learners to explore their emotions and attitudes, ultimately leading them to deeper self-understanding and professional growth. Consequently, this study analyzed students’ reflective thinking through topic modeling and presented evidence that game-based IPE activities are crucial in promoting learners’ reflective thinking and professional growth.

This study has several limitations. First, a limited group of students from a specific university participated in this study, which may have restricted the generalizability of the findings. Additional research is required to verify the results of this study across multiple student groups from various backgrounds and environments. Second, the research methodology relied on text analysis of student essays, focusing only on students’ subjective experiences and perceptions. To address this limitation, we used a rigorous coding scheme, inter-rater reliability checks, and TF-IDF for keyword extraction. Our methodology included keyword selection, data pre-processing, network construction, and LDA-based topic modeling, optimized with the coherence score (c_v). These steps ensured that the data analysis was both robust and reliable. Additionally, incorporating multiple methods for data analysis allowed us to cross-verify the findings and enhance the overall rigor of the study. Future research should integrate a range of methods, including interviews and surveys, to achieve a more comprehensive evaluation. Third, the effects of IPE programs on students’ collaborative competencies in clinical practice and healthcare settings is limited. Future research should explore the long-term impacts of game-based IPE on clinical practice, patient outcomes, and students’ readiness for clinical environments. Additionally, tracking the career progression and professional development of participants will help assess the sustained benefits of these educational interventions.

Conclusions

This study is the first to explore changes in reflective thinking and perceptions among students who participated in IPE programs. This demonstrates the positive effects of IPE on professional healthcare students. Specifically, through the analysis of degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality, we identified keywords such as “patient,” “thought,” “group,” “doctor,” “nurse,” and “communication” as crucial to interprofessional perspectives and communication among healthcare professionals. Topic modeling further underscores the importance of game-based learning, interprofessional perspectives, and interdisciplinary educational experiences.

These findings emphasize the need for innovative teaching methods in medical education and reaffirm the importance of promoting effective inter-professional perspective, communication skills and team building skills. Medical schools should strive to improve the design and implementation of their IPE program by incorporating students’ experiences and reflective insights. This will ultimately improve the quality of medical education. This study can serve as valuable foundational data for future research. Future studies should investigate the long-term effects of game-based IPE on clinical practice and patient outcomes. Research should also explore the impact of game-based IPE on participants’ career progression and professional development to assess sustained benefits. Additionally, future research could examine how different game-based learning activities influence specific interprofessional competencies, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills, to identify the most effective approaches for IPE programs.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical constraints but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

• Interprofessional education

Friday night at emergency room

Latent Dirichlet allocation

Term frequency

Term frequency-inverse document frequency

Inverse document frequency

Fox A, Reeves S. Interprofessional collaborative patient-centred care: a critical exploration of two related discourses. J Interprof Care. 2015;29:113–8.

Article   Google Scholar  

Gilligan C, Outram S, Levett-Jones T. Recommendations from recent graduates in medicine, nursing and pharmacy on improving interprofessional education in university programs: A qualitative study. BMC Med Educ. 2014;14:52.

Haresaku S, Naito T, Aoki H, Miyoshi M, Monji M, Umezaki Y, et al. Development of interprofessional education programmes in nursing care and oral healthcare for dental and nursing students. BMC Med Educ. 2024;24:381.

Mohammed CA, Anand R, Saleena Ummer VS. Interprofessional education (IPE): A framework for introducing teamwork and collaboration in health professions curriculum. Med J Armed Forces India. 2021;77(Suppl 1):S16-21.

Schmitt MH, Gilbert JH, Brandt BF, Weinstein RS. The coming of age for interprofessional education and practice. Am J Med. 2013;126:284–8.

World Health Organization. Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010. p. 13–15.5.

Curran VR, Sharpe D, Flynn K, Button P. A longitudinal study of the effect of an interprofessional education curriculum on student satisfaction and attitudes towards interprofessional teamwork and education. J Interprof Care. 2010;24:41–52.

Reeves S, Goldman J, Burton A, Sawatzky-Girling B. Synthesis of systematic review evidence of interprofessional education. J Allied Health. 2010;39(Suppl 1):198–203.

Google Scholar  

Brock D, Abu-Rish E, Chiu CR, Hammer D, Wilson S, Vorvick L, et al. Interprofessional education in team communication: Working together to improve patient safety. Postgrad Med J. 2013;89:642–51.

Rogers O, Heck A, Kohnert L, Paode P, Harrell L. Occupational therapy’s role in an interprofessional student-run free clinic: Challenges and opportunities identified. Open J Occup Ther. 2017;5:7.

Peeters MJ, Sexton M, Metz AE, Hasbrouck CS. A team-based interprofessional education course for first-year health professions students. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2017;9:1099–110.

Imafuku R, Kataoka R, Ogura H, Suzuki H, Enokida M, Osakabe K. What did first-year students experience during their interprofessional education? A qualitative analysis of e-portfolios. J Interprof Care. 2018;32:358–66.

Alzamil H, Meo SA. Medical students’ readiness and perceptions about interprofessional education: a cross sectional study. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36:693–8.

Hu H, Xiao Y, Li H. The effectiveness of a serious game versus online lectures for improving medical students’ coronavirus disease 2019 knowledge. Games Health J. 2021;10:139–44.

Xu M, Luo Y, Zhang Y, Xia R, Qian H, Zou X. Game-based learning in medical education. Front Public Health. 2023;11:1113682.

Surapaneni KM. Livogena: The Ikteros curse—A jaundice narrative card and board game for medical students. MedEdPORTAL. 2024;20:11381.

Fusco NM, Jacobsen LJ, Klem N, Krzyzanowicz R, Ohtake PJ. A serious game employed to introduce principles of interprofessional collaboration to students of multiple health professions. Simul Gaming. 2022;53:253–64.

Umoren R, editor. Simulation and Game-Based Learning for the Health Professions. Hershey: IGI Global; 2022.

Thannhauser J, Russell-Mayhew S, Scott C. Measures of interprofessional education and collaboration. J Interprof Care. 2010;24:336–49.

Rosenfield D, Oandasan I, Reeves S. Perceptions versus reality: a qualitative study of students’ expectations and experiences of interprofessional education. Med Educ. 2011;45:471–7.

Darlow B, Donovan S, Coleman K, McKinlay E, Beckingsale L, Gallagher P, et al. What makes an interprofessional education programme meaningful to students? Findings from focus group interviews with students based in New Zealand. J Interprof Care. 2016;30:355–61.

Almoghirah H, Nazar H, Illing J. Assessment tools in pre-licensure interprofessional education: A systematic review, quality appraisal and narrative synthesis. Med Educ. 2021;55:795–807.

Gysin S, Huber M, Feusi E, Gerber-Grote A, Witt CM. Interprofessional education day 2019–A qualitative participant evaluation. GMS J Med Educ. 2022;39:Doc52.

Friedrich C, Teaford H, Taubenheim A, Boland P, Sick B. Escaping the professional silo: an escape room implemented in an interprofessional education curriculum. J Interprof Care. 2019;33:573–5.

Friedrich C, Teaford H, Taubenheim A, Sick B. Interprofessional health care escape room for advanced learners. J Nurs Educ. 2020;59:46–50.

Sandars J. The use of reflection in medical education: AMEE Guide No. 4. Med Teach. 2009;31:685–95.

Wald HS, Borkan JM, Taylor JS, Anthony D, Reis SP. Fostering and evaluating reflective capacity in medical education: Developing the REFLECT rubric for assessing reflective writing. Acad Med. 2012;87:41–50.

Rodgers C. Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. Teach Coll Rec. 2002;104:842–66.

Entwistle N. Frameworks for understanding as experienced in essay writing and in preparing for examination. Educ Psychol. 1995;30:47–54.

Lin CW, Lin MJ, Wen CC, Chu SY. A word-count approach to analyze linguistic patterns in the reflective writings of medical students. Med Educ Online. 2016;21:29522.

Yang L, Li K, Huang H. A new network model for extracting text keywords. Scientometrics. 2018;116:339–61.

Zechariah S, Ansa BE, Johnson SW, Gates AM, Leo GD. Interprofessional education and collaboration in healthcare: an exploratory study of the perspectives of medical students in the United States. Healthcare. 2019;7:117.

Lee SS. A content analysis of journal articles using the language network analysis methods. J Korean Soc Inf Manag. 2014;31:49–68.

Won J, Kim K, Sohng KY, Chang SO, Chaung SK, Choi MJ, et al. Trends in nursing research on infections: semantic network analysis and topic modeling. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18:6915.

Park ST, Liu C. A study on topic models using LDA and Word2Vec in travel route recommendation: Focus on convergence travel and tours reviews. Pers Ubiquitous Comput. 2022;26:429–45.

Robertson S. Understanding inverse document frequency: On theoretical arguments for IDF. J Doc. 2004;60:503–20.

Wang J, Dagvadorj A, Kim HS. Research trends of human resources management in hotel industry: Evidence from South Korea by semantic network analysis. Culinary Sci Hosp Res. 2021;27:68–78.

Park MY, Jeong SH, Kim HS, Lee EJ. Images of nurses appeared in media reports before and after outbreak of COVID-19: Text network analysis and topic modeling. J Korean Acad Nurs. 2022;52:291–307.

Boudin F. A comparison of centrality measures for graph-based keyphrase extraction. In: Proceedings of the sixth international joint conference on natural language processing. 2013. p. 834–8.

Valente TW, Coronges K, Lakon C, Costenbader E. How correlated are network centrality measures? Connect (Tor). 2008;28:16–26.

Ausiello G, Firmani D, Laura L. The (betweenness) centrality of critical nodes and network cores. In: 9th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2013. Sardinia: IEEE; 2013. p. 90–5.

Maharani W, Adiwijaya AA, Gozali AA. Degree centrality and eigenvector centrality in Twitter. In: 8th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems Services and Applications (TSSA), 2014. Bali: IEEE; 2014. p. 1–5.

Blei DM, Lafferty JD. Topic models. In: Text Mining. Boca Raton: Chapman and Hall/CRC; 2009. p. 101–24.

Lee JW, Kim Y, Han DH. LDA-based topic modeling for COVID-19-related sports research trends. Front Psychol. 2022;13:1033872.

Colla D, Delsanto M, Agosto M, Vitiello B, Radicioni DP. Semantic coherence markers: The contribution of perplexity metrics. Artif Intell Med. 2022;134: 102393.

Jang JH, Masatsuku N. A study of factors influencing happiness in Korea: Topic modelling and neural network analysis. Data and Metadata. 2024;3:238–238.

Buring SM, Bhushan A, Broeseker A, Conway S, Duncan-Hewitt W, Hansen L, et al. Interprofessional education: definitions, student competencies, and guidelines for implementation. Am J Pharm Educ. 2009;73:59.

Thistlethwaite JE, et al. Competencies and frameworks in interprofessional education: a comparative analysis. Acad Med. 2014;89:869–87.

Barnsteiner JH, Disch JM, Hall L, Mayer D, Moore SM. Promoting interprofessional education. Nurs Outlook. 2007;55:144–50.

Thornton Bacon C, Trent P, McCoy TP. Enhancing systems thinking for undergraduate nursing students using Friday Night at the ER. J Nurs Educ. 2018;57:687–9.

Sanko JS, Gattamorta K, Young J, Durham CF, Sherwood G, Dolansky M. A multisite study demonstrates positive impacts to systems thinking using a table-top simulation experience. Nurse Educ. 2021;46:29–33.

Fusco NM, Foltz-Ramos K, Ohtake PJ, Mann C. Interprofessional simulation learning game increases socialization and teamwork among students of health professions programs. Nurse Educ. 2024;49:E32–5.

Bridges D, Davidson RA, Soule Odegard P, Maki IV, Tomkowiak J. Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education. Med Educ Online. 2011;16(1):6035.

Prentice D, Engel J, Taplay K, Stobbe K. Interprofessional collaboration: The experience of nursing and medical students’ interprofessional education. Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2015;2:2333393614560566.

Wilhelmsson M, Pelling S, Uhlin L, Owe Dahlgren L, Faresjö T, Forslund K. How to think about interprofessional competence: A metacognitive model. J Interprof Care. 2012;26:85–91.

Bjerkvik LK, Hilli Y. Reflective writing in undergraduate clinical nursing education: A literature review. Nurse Educ Pract. 2019;35:32–41.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all those who have contributed to this work through their support, insights, and encouragement.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Center for Medical Education, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Young Gyu Kwon & Chan Woong Kim

Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Myeong Namgung & Chan Woong Kim

Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Song Hee Park & Mi Kyung Kim

Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Mi Kyung Kim

Office of Medical Education, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Jongno-Gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Sun Jung Myung

Department of Emergency Medicine, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, Republic of Korea

Eun Kyung Eo

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Study conception and design: YK, MN, CK. Data collection: YK, MN, CK. Data analysis and interpretation: YK, MN, SM, EE, CK. Drafting of the article: YK, MN, SP, MK. Critical revision of the article: YK, MN, SP, SM, EE, CK.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chan Woong Kim .

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval and consent to participate.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Chung-Ang University determined that this study meets the criteria for an exemption from IRB review, as it involves research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings and involves normal educational practices. Approval Number: 1041078–20240321-HR-051. Written informed consent was obtained from all participating students. All methods were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations, including the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Kwon, Y.G., Namgung, M., Park, S.H. et al. Impact of a game-based interprofessional education program on medical students’ perceptions: a text network analysis using essays. BMC Med Educ 24 , 898 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05893-2

Download citation

Received : 27 May 2024

Accepted : 12 August 2024

Published : 20 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05893-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Game-based learning
• Reflective thinking
• Collaborative learning

BMC Medical Education

ISSN: 1472-6920

• General enquiries: [email protected]