Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher
This is a valuable resource for critically thinking about your teaching and why you do what you do. Brookfield encourages us to reflect deeply on the historical, social, and political aspects related to our teaching so we can investigate thoroughly the decisions we make when we teach. The author recommends looking through four lenses to enhance one’s teaching: self, colleagues, students, and professional literature. By utilizing these four lenses, you are able to triangulate your evidence, which enhances the credibility and validity of your statements about your teaching effectiveness.
Critically reflective teaching happens when we identify and scrutinize the assumptions that shape our practice. The way we become aware of these is by seeing our actions through four complementary lenses. The first of these lenses is the lens of students’ eyes, most often represented by classroom research and classroom‐assessment activities that give us reliable information on how students experience our classrooms. The second is colleagues’ perceptions, most commonly present when we team teach but also available in support and reflection groups. Third is the lens of theory, comprising research, philosophy, and narrative descriptions of teaching in higher education. This literature can open up entirely new ways of thinking about familiar problems and dilemmas. And finally the lens of personal experience provides a rich vein of material for us to probe. Reflecting on good and bad experiences as learners gives us a very different perspective on power dynamics and the responsible exercise of authority.