4.A.1: Reflective Practice
About the Element
The teacher candidate needs to regularly reflect on each lesson and unit's effectiveness, and the teacher candidate should evaluate their interactions with students. These reflections should be individual and with colleagues, to use the gained insights to make adjustments to practice and improve student learning.
Reflection is key to assessing the teacher, assignments, and assessments' impacts on student learning. Reflective practice allows for learning to be adjusted to better fit the needs of the students. It is important in evaluating what works and what needs to be changed.
My Reflective Practice
After every lesson I delivered, I collaborated with my Supervising Practitioner on what worked well in the lesson and what could potentially be altered for next classes. This was important, as once the discussed reflections were implemented, there was clear improvement in the efficiency of the lesson for following classes. Additionally, while designing the lesson in preparation, my Supervising Practitioner and I would schedule meetings to run through the flow of the lesson for any final changes before launching the lesson for the first time. This helped me to take different considerations in mind in preparing for and teaching the lesson. Also, it helped to make me more comfortable and confident in leading a strong, well-structured lesson.
Reflecting on Assessments
Every Friday, the asynchronous day, students were asked to complete an assessment check, such as the sample in "Instructional Materials," that served as our summative assessment. These were automatic Google Forms quizzes with 10-20 questions of focus on new topics, with additional cumulative review from our classes. Students who scored an 80 or higher on the weekly assessment checks were considered to have high student learning gains. Those scoring between the range of 55 to 80 were identified to have had moderate learning gains, and those who scored below a 55 were considered to have low learning gains for a specific topic. The scores on these assessment checks gave a good understanding of the levels of understanding for our students in terms of accuracy. Those who completed the homework tended to score higher on the assessment checks and there was a direct correlation between homework completion and assessment check grades. In analysis, the Green class typically had the highest percentage of students who completed homework, and that was the class with the highest assessment check grades as a whole. However, in other classes, there was clear distinction between students who tried the practice examples on the homework and those who had not, as students tended to score in the high range or low range more than the moderate one. Those scoring in the high range had completed most or all of the homework, and those scoring in the low range, typically had not completed a single homework assignment, solely relying on their skills from the few examples tried in class. Occasionally, students who had completed all or most homework would score poorly on the weekly assessment check, which indicated that more practice was needed in specific areas or that the assessment check may have not completely aligned with what was practiced.
Reflecting on Student Feedback
About halfway into my student teaching experience, I administered the CAP survey (see "Instructional Materials") to all my classes. The results were generally positive and in agreement across classes. The statements that students disagreed with the most, were the ones that involved having other students review each other's work. This was expected as we did not have many individual group activities built in, as was the disadvantage on remote learning. Below, I have also included the additional written feedback from individual classes and my reflections on each.
[Below}: The full results of my CAP survey given to all classes.
Additional written feedback from the Blue class:
The feedback from Blue class indicated that I needed to slow my transitions between slides to allow students to have the chance to make the changes I was asking for. Additionally, I aimed to make it clearer that it was okay to not have finished an example, if we needed to move onto the next, and I began emphasizing the importance of checking your own work on the following worked out example slides.
Additional written feedback from the Red class:
The feedback from Red class re-affirmed that I should continue my pacing and calm, patient demeanor while teaching. I continued to use positive comments when seeing good student work, such as saying, "Outstanding!" or "Nicely done!" if a student completed an example correctly. If they were incorrect, I coached them through changes and waited as they tried the new steps.
Also, from one of the student's comments, it seemed that they had wanted revisions for the actual survey they were being given, as it had not been completely adjusted for the remote classroom setting.
Additional written feedback from the Yellow class:
The feedback from Yellow class also reinforced that my patience was an asset to my teaching. I continued using this throughout my student teaching experience, allowing students to finish their thoughts and using this to help create a safe-learning environment, in which students were comfortable and able to ask any questions.
Additional written feedback from the Purple class:
The feedback from Purple class was one of the most positive on the entire survey, and the additional comments warmed my heart. The extra written comments overall helped to let me know that I was making an impact even this early on in the year. I could see through this that students were still connecting with me even if we were not in an in-person learning environment.
Additional written feedback from the Green class:
The feedback from Green class also had some of the most positive results for the surveys. Green class who was quieter, usually only messaging through the Google Meet chat, showed through the survey that they also appreciated the job I was doing.
Anna Eng
WPI Teacher Preparation Program
aeeng@wpi.edu