Teacher Reflection Protocol

by Diana Stein

Strategies for facilitating engagement of faculty and staff in ongoing reflection and self-assessment may include a wide variety of media and instructional programming that may be included alongside mentoring, coaching, observation, and feedback to promote effective teaching and improve performance for all faculty and staff.  Thereafter, effective use of data from these may be utilized to:

•  assess and diagnose instructional needs,

• define staff goals for continuous improvement, and

• collaboratively design differentiated professional development to meet students’
   needs and achieve academic goals. 

Additionally, strategies for building staff capacity through systems of support and development, integrating opportunities for continuous learning into the educational environment, and engaging faculty and staff in ongoing reflection, self-assessment, and self-directed change and improvement strive to aid in removing discriminatory practices and remove instructional bias. Ultimately, the goal is for faculty to take responsibility for their practices as dynamic and continual process.

The purpose of this blog posting is to propose strategies for building staff capacity for ongoing self-reflection through on-going self-directed change and improvement.  Included herein you will find the reflection process for:

• lesson components
            • formative assessment
            • classroom management strategies, and
            • summative assessment

The Reflection Process

Reflection generating activities have been shown to be useful in cultivating teacher reflection. These activities can include reading case studies, writing journal entries, conducting self-studies, and audio or video recording and analyzing of lessons (Jaeger, 2013).  Administrators may encourage teacher reflection by including time and opportunities for teachers to reflect on how their efforts are tied to student needs and growth plans.  The reflection process may include a wide variety of media (e.g., video and/or audio recording, photographs, Skyping with fellow teachers, blogging, etc.) and instructional programming (e.g., webinars, professional journals, self-tutorials, online and in seat coursework, book clubs, etc.). These methods may be included alongside mentoring, coaching, observation, and feedback to promote effective teaching and improve performance for all faculty and staff. Providing time and place for reflection, and opportunities to observe other teachers and share ideas afterward, debrief, reflect and make connections to their own practices positively effects student learning results.

The Lesson

            Teachers, as well as students, need to know exactly what is expected of them within their own learning. Teachers connect with the planning and how it’s connected to the standards, as well as to the students’ own understandings of the outcomes. The teachers’ learning goals mirror those of the students in that they contribute to their learning development through practices of analyzing outcomes, and assessing by criteria that has been predefined at the start of the lesson and/or unit of study. Teachers need to closely examine:

•           What the needs of the students are 
•       How to help students make meaning of the material
•       How to design and facilitate authentic learning experiences
•           How to facilitate learning through inquiry to encourage higher-ordered critical thinking
•       How to effectively problem solve to strengthen weaker areas of concept understanding and promote concept transference, moving toward mastery

What we do as a staff is directly tied to what the learning goals and expected student outcomes are. Through collaboration and self-reflection teachers are able to determine what next steps for lesson revisions and forward momentum are.  Assessment drives the next steps for instruction. Reflection builds understanding of the symbiotic relationships with ability, content, and context.

Formative Assessment

Summative assessment is currently fixated on results from high stakes testing given near the end of any given school year. While this data may indeed be useful, teachers collect all sorts of intermediate (formative) and valuable information about students that informs how we teach, as well as where and what we review, re-adjust, and reteach (Alber, 2011).  Reflection-generating activities have been shown to be useful in cultivating teacher reflection. These activities may include reading case studies, writing journal entries, conducting self-studies, and audio or video recording and analysis of lessons (Jaeger, 2013; Jordan B. Smith, Jr., personal communication, January 3, 2017).

Professional development meetings may be utilized to plan time for teachers to collaborate on self-reflection techniques. For example, the instructional coach or administrator may model the plan, teach, reflect, apply model and then flip the staff development meeting to allow time for teachers to practice new strategies. This encourages transference of the material being taught at the professional development meetings to be applied within the classroom in a timely manner.  Coming away from professional development meetings with additional “tools in the tool belt” helps to make these meetings meaningful. Plus, many of these formative assessment strategies may be simple to implement. For example exit slips, online/interactive quizzes/polls, and “thumbs up/thumbs down” are quick ways to gather information on where students are and where they need to go next (Alber, 2011).

Observational data gathered as the students are working allows us to adjust the pacing for the whole class, or scaffold for struggling learners. A constructivist approach taken within a student-directed classroom tells the students that they are free to take risks, knowing that the teacher’s role is that of “guide on the side.” This sort of practice provides opportunities for students to take ownership of their learning, while by-design allows time for the teacher to collect formative progress. When critical thinking is explicit and intentionally modeled collaboration is positively promoted within the classroom.

It is important that teacher leaders encourage others to try out new strategies, take chances, and talk about student outcomes with each other. This type of professional exchange not only builds staff teaching capacity, but also helps to build camaraderie.

Classroom Management

Instructional practices are designed around pedagogy with the end goal to help each student connect to the content and the concepts to the very best of his or her ability daily.  Through personalizing and/or modifying online and classroom curriculum and instruction teachers are able to level each lesson as appropriate for each learner, which helps to create a positive learning climate. 

It is important that the teacher is skilled in orchestrating student pairs, small groups, and whole group instruction for maximum learning to occur. Effective classroom management includes articulating what the essential learning outcomes are, and then provide structure and support to ensure that these goals are met. Students must understand where they are headed within the lesson (or unit of study) in order to commit to the same vision.

Once students have a clear understanding of why the classroom is orchestrated a particular way, their attitudes help direct the quality of the learning experience for all. Attitudes are directly correlated with behavior. Positive reinforcement and partnering with the students encourages learners to pursue behaviors that will make their community respectful and caring– for them and for everyone else (Hunt, 2011).

“Positive Behavior Support (PBS) also helps create meaningful relationships between teachers and students. Students need to feel that teachers are concerned and have a vested interest in their future. Teenagers, in particular, want to be independent and make their own decisions, but they need a clear, defined structure within which to make those decisions (Klem & Connell, 2004). They need to know what teachers expect in terms of conduct--and that adults will hand out consistent, predictable, fair consequences when students don’t meet those expectations” (“Blue Tickets and Big Smiles,” 2011).

Ultimately, students need to know that teachers and administrators care about them if they are to buy-in to any sort of program. They need to know why it is necessary for them to behave. Positive behavior modification (PBS) focuses on the positive behaviors, rather than seeking means to punish or suspend students (or staff) for misbehaving. Knowing how to recognize where conflict may arise, and then knowing how to proactively avoid it, takes practice within a safe environment. Instruction through discussion, role-playing, and modeling trains students as well as staff how to handle difficult situations and may be built into a schoolwide positive behavior support plan such as PBIS.

Summative Assessment

             Summative assessments, such as a literary analysis essay or an end of unit subject specific exam, allow teachers to measure individual and whole-group learning. If a large proportion of the class doesn’t measure up on high-stakes testing, it is imperative to reflect on teaching practices and make necessary adjustments. 

            Cumulative files house important data on individual students that will inform next steps for teaching and reaching each child. Personal circumstances which may hinder learning progress may include homelessness, inaccurate placement within a class or sub-group, psychological diagnoses, specialized instruction needs, and visionary deficits to name only a few. At the beginning of the term teachers need to collect data on each student in order to know what each child’s particular needs are. Accurate information aids in removing discriminatory practices and removes instructional bias. Sometimes a pattern may be clearly visible on the cumulative records that may otherwise go undetected. When a teacher knows what the “pieces of the puzzle are”, shows that he or she cares, and has opportunities to provide empathy and acknowledge student hardship, bonds may then be formed that encourage the student to buy-in with learning and behavior expectations. Clearly defined and explicit goals will help the child to improve academically, as well as emotionally.

            Lastly, reviewing the results of state standardized test scores from previous years, along with other data (e.g. class assignments, observations, etc.), will help to guide instructional decisions.  These results may be shared with students individually (privately) to set obtainable and reasonable learning goals. The information from these tests may also be utilized to determine small group instruction (e.g., below, at, or above proficiency levels indicate where support is needed as well as who will need additional challenges).  The teacher must keep in mind that these decisions for groupings are fluid and dynamic and are based on ongoing formative and summative assessment. Test taking anxiety must never be ruled out as a possible factor in summative results.

Conclusion

As John Dewey once stated, “Every experience affects for better or worse the attitudes which help decide the quality of further experiences” (p. 37). He believed that teachers must be aware of the “possibilities inherent in ordinary experience” (p. 89), that the “business of the educator [is] to see in what direction an experience is heading” (p. 38). (Jordan B. Smith, Jr., personal communication, January 7, 2017).

In conclusion, strategies for building staff capacity through systems of support and development, integrating opportunities for continuous learning into the educational environment, and engaging faculty and staff in ongoing reflection, self-assessment, and self-directed change and improvement strive to aid in removing discriminatory practices as well as aid to remove instructional bias. 

Through ongoing reflection staff gradually increases problem-solving abilities while analyzing student performance, as well as professional development based on clearly defined benchmarks and performance goals. Ultimately, the goal is for faculty to take responsibility for their learning as a dynamic and continual process to improve students’ learning results; while continually checking and balancing what direction each learning experience is heading.  Through reflection of multiple data sources, informal as well as formal, teachers are able to set clear and accurate learning goals to maximize learning results for all learners while building positive learning communities for all.

References

Alber, R. (2011). 3 Ways Student Data Can Inform Your Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-student-data-inform-teaching-rebecca-alber

Blue tickets and big smiles. (2011, September). Educational leadership/promoting respectful schools, 69(1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept11/vol69/num01/Blue-Tickets-and-Big-Smiles.aspx

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

Hunt, A. (2011). Blue tickets and big smiles. Educational leadership, 69(1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept11/vol69/num01/Blue-Tickets-and-Big-Smiles.aspx

Jaeger, E. L. (2013). Teacher reflection: Supports, barriers, and results. Issues in Teacher Education, 22(1), 89.