Expert Recommendations »Recommendation

What are teaching reflection strategies and how can I use them in my classroom?

posted March 11, 2025 and revised April 1, 2025
by Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado Boulder

This Expert Recommendation provides a quick overview of reflection strategies from the Faculty Teaching Institute. Teaching reflection involves considering your teaching experiences, learning from the outcome, and planning how to better approach similar situations in the future. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Constellation of Teaching Reflection Strategies

  • Write brief memos after each class
  • Take notes in lecture notes or slides
  • Journal about your teaching
  • Write an annual reflection in a standard template
  • Use reflection prompts to guide periodic reflection
  • Discuss with critical friends and colleagues
  • Use paired teaching.
  • Times to self-reflect:
    • Before a class session
    • After a class session
    • Before a course starts
    • After a course finishes
    • Once/year
    • At promotion and tenure review

Reflection prompts for Instructors 

  • How did I feel during this activity/class?
  • What went well, and what didn’t go well in today’s activity/class? How do I know?
  • How might I gather feedback from others about today’s activity/class?
  • How was the pace of this class?
  • What felt surprising to me?
  • What challenges did I face (in teaching methods, class management, etc.)?
  • What aspects would I like to pay attention to next time?
  • Who might be left behind as a result of each of my practices today? How can I invite those students in?
  • How did I create multiple ways for students to grow and demonstrate their understanding?
  • Which of the Principles of Teaching and Learning were in this lesson? Which weren’t?
  • What actions might I take next class? Next week? Next semester?
  • What resources do I need to support those actions?

Teaching reflection strategies (not in alphabetical order)

Write brief memos after each class

Take ~5-10 minutes after class to write quick notes to yourself, to look at before you teach the next class or course. These can be quick thoughts of whatever comes to you, and/or responses to some of the given reflection prompts. You may want to write memos after grading assignments, writing exam questions, etc., as well.

Take notes in lecture notes/slides

A great place to keep your brief memos is in your lecture notes or the “notes” part of your slides; that way you can point to exactly which line or slide your reflection is referring to. You can note the results of student assessments (e.g., clicker questions) here too.

Journal about your teaching

You can keep a physical or electronic journal about your teaching (like your FTI teaching journal) and spend time at a specific time each week free-writing and/or responding to reflection prompts.

Use reflection prompts to guide periodic reflection

Use reflection prompts (previous page) in written reflections. Consider writing in the third person (e.g., “Jasmine’s main teaching strength is ____”) to achieve some emotional distance.

Write an annual reflection in a standard template

 

It can be valuable to use a consistent formal for an annual teaching reflection, especially if this will be submitted to administrators. UGA Project DeLTA uses the following prompts: What teaching challenge did you consider this year? What evidence did you collect to understand this challenge more deeply? What did you learn by examining this evidence? What teaching decisions will you make next year?

Discuss with critical friends and colleagues

Find a colleague or two whose opinions about teaching you value and whom you trust. Set aside time for regular discussions about your teaching and explain what you want that critical friend to do (e.g., ask questions, give advice, observe your class).

Paired teaching

Two instructors teach a semester-long course together, jointly responsible for all aspects of the course. Paired teaching can be done between a novice and an experienced instructor (to provide teaching development for the new instructor) or between two experienced teachers.

This Expert Recommendation is based in part on W. McKeachie & M. Svinicki,  McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (Cengage Learning, 2014), L. Strubbe et al., Faculty adoption of active learning strategies via paired teaching, Journal of College Science Teaching 49, (2019), L. Strubbe, Reflecting on our teaching with gratitude and compassion (Teaching Made Visible, 2023), and UGA DeLTA Guide to Self Reflection for Faculty (University of Georgia Project DeLTA).

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants DUE-2141678, 2141745, 2141769, 2141795, and 2142045.  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.