What is reflection?

This section provides a broad overview of how reflecting on teaching can lead to development and to improvement of teaching practice. The literature on reflection is extensive. However, one of the best-known theories of reflection - Donald Schön's -states that there is a difference between "reflecting in action" and "reflecting on action".

Reflecting in action is the act of reflecting on what we know as revealed by what we do. Reflection in action is in the moment and directed towards what is known in the moment. An example of reflecting in action would be reflecting on an aspect of a particular teaching activity - e.g. a tutorial discussion - during the discussion. Schön suggests that this sort of reflection is caused by surprise at something that has happened. The surprise might be caused by the fact that a particular strategy is working very well or by the fact that the strategy seems to be failing. Reflection might include asking the question, "Why is this happening?" or "What has caused this?"

Reflecting on action occurs after the event and involves a conscious reflection on your reflections in action. This is an important point. When reflecting on action the way in which you reflect on the event itself is not by simply thinking about what happened, but also by exploring your initial 'in the moment' reflections in action, thinking about why things happened and what actions might be taken to address identified issues. Reflection in action is, according to Schön, is a process that uses the medium of words. Reflecting on action could therefore involve talking with others, writing a reflective commentary or simply thinking through the reflection in action.

According to Schön, reflection in and on action leads to new practice knowledge which can be applied to future teaching situations. This might be knowledge of how to do things better, or it might be the knowledge that something has worked well and can be tried again. We might describe this sort of knowledge as an "actionable theory" (knowledge in use) that can be tried and tested in a new teaching situation. Further reflection in and on action will again lead to new practice knowledge or to new actionable theory. The skills of reflection are part of the toolkit of the reflective practitioner. In Schön's theory of reflection, concrete experience leads to reflection, which in turn leads to actionable theory. The teacher tries something new, having thought about a particular teaching situation that provided a challenge or an opportunity. Experience, reflection and action can be understood in terms of David Kolb's experiential learning cycle.

Kolb stated that a learner can begin the learning cycle at any one of the four modes but that it should be carried on as a continuous spiral. As a result, knowledge is constructed through creative tension among the four modes, and learners will be exposed to all aspects of learning: experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting.

Abstract conceptualization is the stage at which the learner comes up with a way to do things differently. The new way of approaching teaching might result from the process of reflection. For example, reflecting on a particular tutorial might lead to the conclusion that students were not engaged with the content and that students need to be taught in a way that demonstrates the relevance of the concept in the real world.

However, reflection may not always be sufficient to suggest alternative approaches to teaching. When this is the case, the teacher might turn to peers or to the teaching literature. When literature is consulted, the teacher is taking a scholarly approach to teaching, which may lead the teacher to engage in the scholarship of teaching. Whether you are reflecting, being scholarly or engaging in the scholarship of teaching, the point of what you are doing is to improve your teaching to benefit student learning. This means that you must be systematic in what you do and that you must have a way to gauge whether the changes that you make ultimately benefit the students.

Scholarly Teaching

One of the distinguishing features of tertiary education is the strong link between research and the educational experience. University teachers are usually academics who are required to combine research, teaching and service activities. Teaching and learning are typically structured around subject disciplines, and the body of knowledge that underpins the learning is largely developed through research activities: research projects, publications and involvement in a research community. In short, good teaching is informed by subject discipline research.

In addition to being informed by subject discipline research, teaching can be informed by research into teaching and learning. When this happens, teaching practice becomes scholarly.

Richlin (2001) has provided a very clear and concise explanation of scholarly teaching. His explanation also makes a clear and useful distinction between scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching. Richlin describes the scholarly process as follows:

Identify the problem or opportunity: The scholarly process begins with the identification of a problem the teacher would like to solve or with the identification of an opportunity that can be realised. For example, the teacher might notice that students seem to be consistently struggling with a particular concept, or the teacher might see a new technology as providing a way to do things in a different way.
Establish a baseline of activity: Stage two in the scholarly process consists of establishing a baseline of activity. For example, are students failing to achieve particular learning outcomes? Are students consistently scoring badly on a particular assessment? The success or otherwise of the intervention will be judged against this baseline.
Review existing practice: The next stage is to look at what others have done. This stage involves consulting the relevant literature to see what has been done to solve the problem or to realise the opportunity that is being considered. For example, a teacher might decide to take a case-based approach to teaching a particular concept. The teacher would then consult the literature on case-based learning.
Select an appropriate intervention: The next step in scholarly teaching is to select an appropriate intervention and to justify the selection with reference to the literature.
Intervene, monitor and document: The next stage consists of implementation, observation, recording of evidence and evaluation of evidence. The details of this process will differ according to the nature of the intervention. For example, the implementation, observation, recording and evaluation of case-based learning will differ from the implementation, observation, recording and evaluation of an online discussion forum. However, no matter what the intervention, the process of observation, recording and evaluation must be systematic and rigorous.
Evaluate: The final stage is to consider the success (or otherwise) of the intervention by comparing the results to the baseline.

Listen to Professor Helen Sword talk about scholarly teaching.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

According to Richlin (2001), the scholarship of teaching goes beyond scholarly teaching. Scholarship involves the preparation of a manuscript that reports on the scholarly investigation and the results of that investigation.

The scholarship of teaching must evidence the same standards that we expect from discipline research.
1. The problem or opportunity must be clearly defined.
2. The problem or opportunity must be put into context through an adequate review of the literature.
3. The solution/intervention must be clearly explained and justified with reference to the literature.
4. The criteria for evaluating the intervention must be clearly explicated with reference to a baseline.
5. The manuscript must meet the accepted review criteria for scholarship, e.g. quality of written English, clarity of presentation, significance of results, and evidence of wider applicability.
The completed manuscript might be submitted to a peer-reviewed conference or to a journal. Some discipline journals will accept educational scholarship. For example, the British Medical Journal and the British Journal of Hospital Medicine accept educational pieces.
There are also specialist educational journals for particular disciplines. For example, Medical Teacher. Discipline scholars who decide to publish in specialist educational journals may benefit from consulting with educational specialists to get advice on the range of educational journals. For example, there are educational journals specialising in the scholarship of teaching, assessment theory and practice, and the use of educational technologies.

Practice Point - Evidencing Scholarly Contributions

Contribution of Scholarship, Research and Professional Activities may be evidenced by showing an awareness of the body of knowledge and literature in the field of teaching and learning and by relating the literature to your own teaching. This falls under the activity of scholarly teaching. Core capabilities in the TeachWell@UoA Framework could be evidenced by maintaining a record of influential articles (from any source) you have read about learning and teaching in higher education generally or in your particular subject area. A brief note of 1-2 key points from the article and how you might use (or have used) these to adjust your teaching approach provides good evidence of a scholarly approach. (Hint: identify 1-2 key teaching and learning journals in your area and set up an online alert to them).
Extended Capabilities in the Teachwell@UoA Framework could be evidenced by presenting at professional conferences or contributing to journal articles on teaching in your discipline. Record your contributions to these sorts of endeavours or your work with others who are doing this work.

Further Resources

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Brew, A., & Ginns, P. (2008). The Relationship between Engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Students' Course Experiences. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(5), 535 - 545.
Kolb, D. and Fry, R. 1975, "Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential Learning", in C. Cooper (ed.) Theory of Group Processes, John Wiley and Sons Inc, New York.
Richlin, L. (2001). Scholarly Teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching. In L. Richlin (Ed.), New Directions for Teaching and Learning (Vol. 86, pp. 57-68). Brisbane, Australia: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Schön, D. A. (1995). Knowing-in-Action: The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology. Change, 27(6), 26-34