Starting Reflections

How to Get Started Reflecting

Source: http://www.hollyclark.org/2017/06/04/5-ways-to-kick-start-reflection-in-your-classroom/

As educators, our job is to help students make meaning of concepts and ideas. We want our students to construct knowledge, to be creators of their learning, not just consumers that parrot information. In the end, we want the experiences in our classroom to inspire curiosity and a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

A reflective practice, is an important shift that should be a top goal in a learner–centered classroom. It is not an easy process, so it often gets overlooked as teachers rush to cover content in an already overcrowded curriculum. The truth is, this step is probably left out for two reasons. First, it is not easy to get students who have never been asked to reflect on their learning, to do it well. Second, most teachers have not been taught to academically reflect and thus don’t know where to begin teaching the process with to their own students.

We have all been there, unsure of how to start a new teaching strategy correctly, but this is what makes if fun! It’s a new skill and it will take some learning, but think of it as an educational adventure because when you see how much this helps your students understand the content, who they are as learners, and how they can apply that knowledge to future learning – you will be hooked.

We have to teach students how to reflect. They need to understand that there is a specific time in all learning, where we stop and look back at the journey and how we arrived at true academic knowledge. This happens when students comment on, connect with and reassess the process. This is assessment AS learning, and it is often as important to student learning and growth as the content itself.

What is the evidence of your learning? Not the evidence of your completing project.

No matter where you begin or how you develop a rich reflective program it is a very important step in any learning scenario. More importantly students should share these reflections with each other so that they can build a bigger repertoire and toolkit of reflective practices. This should be an ongoing process that becomes more detailed over time.