Reflective practice questions
Teachers can use the following reflective practice questions when reflecting on their teaching practice.
Useful questions for reflective practice:
- What is happening? What can I do to re-engage students in this lesson?
- Why am I reacting in this way?
- How can I reword the instructions?
- What worked in this lesson? How do I know?
- Why did things happen that way?
- What were my intentions when I did that?
- What triggered such a response from me?
- What would I do the same or differently if I could reteach this lesson? Why?
- What root cause might be prompting or perpetuating this student behaviour?
- What do I believe about how students learn?
- How does this belief influence my instruction?
- What data do I need to make an informed decision about this problem?
- Is this the most efficient way to accomplish this task?
- Where did I succeed as a teacher in the past?
- What is my top teaching goal for the coming year?
- What can I do to make my teaching more fun while adding to my students' learning and enjoyment?
- What can I do to be more proactive in my professional development?
- What do I need to resolve in order to move forward more optimistically and with a fresh mind?
- What types of students do I need to spend more time focusing on?
- Which lessons or units am I only continuing to perform out of habit or laziness?
- Are there any aspects of the profession that I am ignoring due to lack of knowledge or fear of change (for example technology)?
- How can I increase valuable parental involvement?
- Have I done enough to foster a productive relationship with my supervisor?
- Do I still enjoy teaching? If not, what can I do to increase my enjoyment in my chosen profession?
- Do I bring additional stress upon myself? If so, how can I decrease or eliminate it?
- How have my beliefs about learning and pedagogy changed?
- What minor and/or major changes can I make to my academic program in order to directly increase my students' learning?
The Edunator site (opens in a new window) also provides a list of questions to assist teachers and support teacher reflection.