Why reflective writing is important in teaching?

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works, a process of self-observation and self-evaluation. By reflecting on lessons, it will help a teacher to notice, develop and improve their teaching ability and performance. Reid (1993) states reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice. Similar view by Jarvis (1992) who describes self-reflection as a form of practice that seeks to problematise many situations of professional performance so that they can become potential learning situations and so the practitioners can continue to learn, grow and develop in and through practice.

As a teacher, reflecting on your own performance is an integral part in teaching. Teachers need to reflect and analyse their teaching so they know what they have done well and why it has gone well and also what has gone wrong and why it has gone wrong. The only way teachers can improve their performance is to reflect and evaluate their lessons and to recognise and understand what the positives were and what the negatives were, and then try and to turn the negatives into positives. Muller (2005) believes if we don't reflect, then we are teaching in the dark without knowing if we are effective and if we should modify our teaching. Lightbrown and Spada (1999) state reflective practitioners not only ask questions routinely and deliberately, but they also use the answers to these questions to guide and change their instructional practices so they can be more effective.

Edwards et al., (2000) recognises 4 methods of reflection:

·         Video record yourself

·         Written logs

·         Oral reflection

·         Letting another teacher observe you

By collecting information about what goes on in the classroom, and by analysing and evaluating each situation, as teachers we can identify and explore our own practices, beliefs and theories. Johnson (1998) states it is natural for change to continually occur, whether you expect it or not, change could surprise you only if you didn’t expect it and weren’t looking for it.

In conclusion every single teacher should reflect on their own practise as it is one of the most important methods in teaching on how to improve yourself as a teacher. Without reflecting, you will not be able to improve and educate yourself further as a teacher. Reflecting on your own performance plays a massive part on improving as a teacher and an educator and every single teacher should reflect effectively on their teaching methods.

Reference list


Edwards, C., Shortall, T., Willis, D., Quinn, A. and Leeke, P. (2000) Language Teaching Methodology.  Birmingham: Centre for English Language Studies.

Jarvis P (1992) Reflective practice and nursing. Nurse Education Today, 12, 174-181.

Johnson, S. (1998) Who Moved My Cheese? London: Vermilion

Lightbrown, P. M. and Spada, N. (1999) How Languages are Learned (Second Edition).  Oxford: Oxford University Press

Muller, T. J. (2005) “Making a small-class atmosphere in big university classes”.  Presentation at Yokohama JALT.  14 May 2006.  Yokohama.

Reid B (1993) ‘But We’re Doing it Already!’ Exploring a Response to the Concept of Reflective Practice in Order to Improve its Facilitation, Nurse Education Today, 13: 305309.