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Being a reflective teacher is essential in helping you and your learners flourish in the classroom. Analyzing the learners’ learning and your teaching effectiveness will encourage you in your strengths and will inspire you to try new methods and strategies. By critically evaluating your teaching, you will be able to grow in the following areas (Brookfield, 1995):
- Take informed actions
- Develop a rationale for your practice
- Avoid self-deprecation and/or boastfulness
- Create a classroom environment in which critical inquiry is modeled and accepted
Your honesty and candor as you complete reflections using the guiding questions in the Post-Instructional sections benefits you whether or not your lesson was a complete success or a colossal failure. This part of the Lesson Planning Assignments gives your professor, your cooperating teacher and your university supervisor a way to see what you’re thinking about your ENACTED TEACHING, not just your efforts at planning. You might have the best laid plans, but due to something in the “live theatre” of teaching, things go awry, so in this “safe space” to reflect, you’re not graded on the teaching – you’re graded on the efforts you put into the reflection. Maybe your plans could have been written to more accurately represent what DID happen because those were the right choices in the moment. Think backwards and forwards as you reflect. It is especially helpful to be thorough in this section so that your professor is able to have an inside view of what took place while you were teaching.
Remember – every expert was once a beginner. Your mentors and teaching faculty were once in your shoes!