Learning from Yourself, Learning from Others - Part 2

This blog is Part 2 of 4.

You can access the other parts here:

Effective Self-Reflection

Within everything we have said so far, there has been an implicit recognition that effective self-reflection is an inherent aspect of excelling in your teacher training.

This has been couched in terms of:

Identifying and learning from mistakes
Using trial and error
Setting and then implementing relevant targets
Putting time aside to think critically about the teaching you do and the lessons you plan
Using the information you receive from learners to make your lessons more successful

Here, we will focus briefly on some of the things you can do to ensure your self-reflection is as effective as possible.

I have three techniques to share with you.

The Habit of Self-Reflection

The first involves the development of a habit. That habit involves asking yourself three questions, twice a day.

Once before you start work, and once when you end.

The questions are these:

Start of the day

What do I hope to improve today?
How do I hope to improve it?
Why do I want to improve it?

End of the day

What did I improve today?
How did I improve it?
Was I right in wanting to improve it?

The most difficult thing here is to get yourself into the habit of asking the questions.

Once you have done this, effective reflection will be relatively easy.

You will notice the questions serve to keep your mind trained on the idea of continuous improvement.

Asking the first three at the start of every day helps you begin your day’s work with the notion of improvement – clearly specified – at the front of your mind.

The end of the day questions let you look at what you have done during the day in relation to what you set out to do when the day began.

It does not matter so much whether or not you did make the improvements you wanted.

Rather, the emphasis is on ensuring that you reflect with purpose on what you have been through.

Using this technique ensures every day of your training involves you paying attention to your wider aims and targets and doing so in a manner that is critical and reflective.

Keeping a Diary

Our second technique involves keeping a diary.

This works well for some but is a turn-off for others.

You should decide whether you think it will be to your benefit or not.

Of course, during your training time is likely to be at a premium.

Therefore, you need a way you can simplify your diary keeping.

I would suggest the following.

In your diary, write your target at the start of the week and then, on each subsequent day, make a brief note summarising what you have done during the day to achieve that target and indicating what you need to do the following day to build on this.

At the end of the week, sit down for ten minutes and read through your entries.

This gives you a sense of how far you have gone towards meeting your target and whether or not any significant patterns or trends have developed (for example, you might notice that, unintentionally, you have focussed all week on the things you are already good at, rather than the weaker areas you would like to develop).

A Technique for the Medium-Term

Our third and final reflection technique is medium-term in its focus (as opposed to the two outlined above, both of which are short-term).

Take a copy of the success criteria for your course – that is, the information stating what you need to do to achieve the best outcome – in the first few weeks of your training.

Read through these and highlight anything that you know you are already capable of achieving.

During the first few weeks, there may be little to highlight – perhaps even nothing.

Return to the success criteria every couple of weeks and start to highlight those areas in which you are now confident.

To increase the sense of progression, you might choose to define a certain level of thickness for your highlighting, to indicate the varying security of your confidence.

For example:

Thin line = Mildly confident
Medium line = Confident
Thick line = Highly confident

Two points follow.

First, you will become familiar with the success criteria for your training.

Second, you will be able to visualise your own progress and, by extension, see those areas on which you need to focus.

The technique provides a means through which to maintain a highly reflective attitude throughout your training, with this being tied to those things against which you will be judged when your training draws to a conclusion.