Reflexive Feedback
Center for Teaching & Learning

In addition to reflecting on the course from the perspective of student experiences and peer feedback, a comprehensive self-evaluation of teaching includes reflection and reflexivity. The purpose is to examine your thoughts and experiences to encourage creativity and innovation, and to clarify and set goals based on new understandings of yourself as an educator in the broader system of our campus. The idea of reflecting on one’s own practice is evident in mindful introspection, dialogues with peers about relevant and critical issues, as well as more systematic and rigorous evaluation of one’s teaching towards identifying and adapting as needed. However, reflection on its own does not necessarily guarantee practice that is informed by evidence and context.

Being reflexive means examining our own attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions toward greater awareness of what we bring to our teaching and interactions with students. Being open to these aspects that shape who we are in the learning space allows for increased awareness and understanding to help identify our own biases and blind spots. Awareness about who we are and how that influences our teaching practice allows us to avoid unintentionally creating roadblocks for students and engage in equity-minded teaching.

Self-evaluation and reflexive feedback should demonstrate continued evidence of growth toward one or more Dimensions of Effective Teaching. Reflexive teaching asks instructors to think critically about their teaching, looking for evidence of effective teaching, and areas for improvement. This critical analysis draws on a variety of sources, such as the following. The evidence you include should be explicitly linked to your teaching goal. 

• Your peer feedback on teaching or curricular materials can offer a powerful opportunity for colleagues to gain new insights into instructional practices and the experiences of learners while focusing on your teaching goal. They can shed light on blind spots, providing a valuable external perspective that complements your self-reflection efforts.
• Feedback from students can be gathered from the College’s end-of-course feedback surveys, but additional sources include facilitated discussion, student interviews, anonymous surveys, etc. The goal is to gather feedback throughout the term from a variety of methods.
• Scholarship of teaching and learning projects or other research efforts to assess student learning can promote growth toward teaching goals.
• Professional development efforts around teaching - such as attending workshops and seminars, consultations on teaching, asynchronous courses -
• Description of work on curriculum development or other aspects of the department’s educational mission.
• Improvement on classroom assessment average scores from semester to semester, especially on standardized exams, can demonstrate increased student learning as an outcome of targeted strategies.

For a reflexive teaching approach to be successful, reflexivity must be linked to action, especially toward a specific goal. Reflexive teaching may leverage self-assessment, classroom observations, consideration of student evaluations, or exploration of educational research in the advancement and improvement of an instructor's teaching practice. Because each semester’s students and their needs are different, reflexive teaching is a continual practice that supports effective and student-centered teaching. There are multiple ways to gather data and insight on one’s own teaching practice to engage in reflection and reflexivity:

Teaching Inventory

Examining your teaching practices inventory as well as an equity-focused strategy list can raise your awareness of teaching strategies that you are using and support exploration of new strategies to help meet your teaching goal. (Wieman and Gilbert, 2014)

Journaling

Commit to writing a 5-10 minute reflection periodically throughout a term capturing a few details about your teaching. What went well today? What could I have done differently? How will I modify my instruction next time?

Video recording

Video record a lesson and use the classroom observation protocol to self-assess your own practice, looking for evidence toward your teaching goal or areas for growth.

Positionality analysis

The purpose of creating a positionality statement is to examine how our own identities and assumptions can play a role in your teaching. In our position as educators, our reflexivity teaching statement refers to the layers of complexity that make up our social identity and create the lens for how we see and interact with the world around us (Jacob & Mustafa, 2019). A teaching statement is a short summary of your individual identity and what influences your approach to teaching. It helps us to consider the impact that our experiences, beliefs, and potential biases may have on our students. While some feel that sharing a teaching statement has lost meaning, others argue that this helps connect to students in ways that support their academic success. Whether you ultimately decide to share your statement with your students is up to you. Use the guiding questions in Harrington's (2022) article – Reflect on Your Positionality to Ensure Student Success – to draft your own teaching statement.

As you begin to write your 2-page reflexive narrative (self-evaluation of teaching), consider using the guiding questions below. These questions will help you engage in reflexive evaluation, specifically related to your identified teaching goal.

You as an educator

• How do your experiences, values and beliefs shape your identity as an educator, your teaching style, and your interactions with students?
• What assumptions about teaching and learning do you bring to the classroom?
• Given the power dynamics of faculty and students, along with the historical systems of power, what are some issues that you’ve had to address in your courses?
• In what ways do you create an inclusive learning environment that acknowledges diversity?

Your teaching goal

• What teaching goal were you working toward?
• How do your teaching goals reflect your core values and beliefs about education?
• What efforts did you make toward meeting that goal?
• What steps did you take to evaluate your presuppositions and assumptions about teaching and learning? How did this process influence your teaching?
• What evidence (see list above) demonstrates growth made toward your goal?

Future Actions in my Teaching

• How might this reflexive process, along with feedback from students or peer colleagues, enable you to engage in the process of equity with students?
• Have you identified any personal biases or blind spots in your teaching? How did you or can you address those?
• In what areas do you desire to grow professionally, and how will you go about seeking support and resources for that?