Individual and collegial approaches

The techniques outlined earlier began to put reflective teaching on a critical and scholarly footing and gave examples of ways of eliciting and analysing information to inform the wider perspectives (‘lenses’) we may want to take on our teaching. Reflection can be turned into action to improve our teaching.

However, if this cycle of reflection-action-reflection is to be fully grounded and more than just passing thoughts, or ‘hints and tips’ about teaching, it has to be systematic, structured and standards of scholarly practice must be applied to the work of analysis. Click on the links below for guidance on activities that will help you reflect critically and systematically about your teaching.

Individually you can do the following:

• Teaching portfolios
• Teacher learning audits
• Video and audio taping
• Belief exploration
• Critical incident analysis
• Learning (and teaching) journals and logs - reflections on your own learning experiences

Working with others, possibilities include:

• Action research
• Exploratory practice
• Action learning
• Co-operative development
• Observation of teaching
• Peer review