Models and Frameworks for Reflective Teaching Practice
There are many models of reflection that you can use to build your reflective teaching practice. This is because you may need a different approach to reflection depending on your goal. Just like any good, scaffolded practice, there may be times when you don’t need any model and want to approach reflection in a free-form manner. Consider what your needs are to determine which approach best fits your current context.
- Framework for organizing your reflection based on Borton’s (1970) original model of “What? So what? Now what?”
- Commonly used as it is a simple and practical framework to pull out in any context, formal or informal (e.g. after an activity, a teaching session, a course).
What? |
So What? |
Now What? |
| Describe what happened. | Its impact on you and your analysis of the experience | Now where do you apply this? Where do you take this learning? |
| What was your experience?
What happened, looking at the situation objectively? What did you particularly notice? What worked well and what didn’t? What did you observe to make these conclusions? |
How did you feel when it happened?
Was this situation part of a broader pattern or set of observations? What might have caused this situation? Why might have other people acted the way they did? What other insights or hypotheses might be drawn from the experience and data? |
What lessons can you take forward in similar and other contexts?
What would you do differently if a similar situation arose? How might you better prepare and resource yourself for a similar situation? How might you test out your understanding or hypotheses through tests or experiments? |
- Another simple and practical framework is Boud’s Triangular Representation: Experience → Reflection → Learning.
- This model emphasizes the cyclical relationship between experience, reflective thinking, and learning, and focuses on the transformation of experience into learning through reflection. Its simplicity offers educators a less prescriptive model to reflection.
- Two other similar models, with a few added components are Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (Experience → Reflective Observation → Abstract Conceptualization → Active Experimentation)
- Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (Experience → Feelings → Evaluation → Analysis → Conclusion → Action Plan)
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- Gibbs approached reflection with more structure, and an emphasis on reflecting on one’s feelings throughout the process. This may be important in contexts where emotions may arise, such as a contentious or difficult teaching topic or in-class activity.
- It also orients educators towards defining an action plan, with practical takeaways.
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- Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (Experience → Reflective Observation → Abstract Conceptualization → Active Experimentation)
- Developed with experiential learning in mind, this cyclical model allows educators to explicitly reflect and abstract the practical experience more theoretically, considering how the practical experience relates to larger thematic ideas and considerations.
- Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (Experience → Reflective Observation → Abstract Conceptualization → Active Experimentation)
All four of these models (Borton, Boud, Gibbs, and Kolb) emphasize the importance of reflection in and on experience and create simple cyclical models to demonstrate how you can easily use these models to structure a reflection. Two other frameworks worth exploring are Bain’s 5R Framework and Stephen Brookfield’s work on Critically Reflective Teaching.
- Bain et al. (2002) created the 5R framework to support the development of pre-service educators into reflective practitioners.
- Reporting involves considering a particular experience and the contextual factors that surround it.
- Responding is when the individual practitioners verbalize their feelings, thoughts, and other reactions that they had in response to the situation.
- Relating is defined as educators making connections between what occurred recently and their previously obtained knowledge and skill base.
- Reasoning then encourages the practitioners to consider the foundational concepts and theories, as well as other factors that they believe to be significant, in an effort to understand why a certain outcome was achieved or observed.
- Reconstructing is when the educators take their explanations and use them to guide future teaching methods, either to encourage a similar result or to foster a different outcome.
- Stephen Brookfield – Critically Reflective Teacher
- Brookfield describes critical reflection as not just evaluating what happened, but identifying and checking assumptions (e.g. about how students learn, how teaching works).
- He proposes four lenses through which you can view your teaching:
- The autobiographical lens (examining one’s own experiences, own learning)
- The students’ eyes (how students perceive your teaching)
- The colleagues’ experiences (peer observation, discussion)
- Theoretical literature (educational research, theory)
- Brookfield describes critical reflection as not just evaluating what happened, but identifying and checking assumptions (e.g. about how students learn, how teaching works).
Expandable List
Maya is convinced! She decides she would like to find a way to approach reflection that would effectively help her capture her experiences, thoughts and actionable steps. She explores a few different models and frameworks and ultimately decides that a more structured approach like Boud’s Triangular Representation would work for after each class as an easy way to log her progress.
A few weeks into the semester, this model was working well! She set aside time to keep a log after each class and found it helpful to consider what worked well, things she could do differently and new ideas she had for class activities. That being said, she did run into a few specific incidents that led her to want to reflect a bit more deeply. For example, she facilitated an activity in her seminar style class that she felt really went poorly and she could tell students were confused. She found using Bain’s 5R framework or Brookfield’s four lenses more functional since they allowed her to delve deeper into the situation.
Lastly, she decided for her tenure and promotion portfolio to do some free-form narrative writing on some topics such as her views on student accessibility in the classroom, since she wanted to share her own opinions and how they’ve developed over time as a new faculty member. What’s great is that she has her structured reflections to come back to for specific examples!
Information Box Group
Questions for your reflection:
What approach to reflection might work best for you? Are there various contexts, similar to Maya, where certain approaches might work better?
References
Bain, J. D., Mills, C., Ballantyne, R., & Packer, J. (2002). Developing reflection on practice through journal writing: Impacts of variations in the focus and level of feedback. Teachers and Teaching, 8(2), 171–196.
Borton, T. (1970). Reach Touch and Teach: Student Concerns and Process Education. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Boud, D., Keogh, R., Walker, D. (1996). Promoting reflection in learning: a model. Boundaries of adult learning. 1, 32-56.
Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit.
Kolb, D.A., Boyatzis, R.E., Mainemelis, C. (1999). Experiential Learning Theory: Previous Research and New Directions. Case Western Reserve University.