Challenges of Reflective Practice in Teaching and How to Overcome Challenges in Teaching 

Back to: Learning and Teaching – Unit 4

Reflective teaching is a process where teachers look back at their teaching practices and find ways how their teaching methods can be improved or changed for the better learning of students. They could find out by looking at how well students are answering in class and the results of the tests. A teacher reflects on their teaching process to learn about their practice and think if it’s working for the students’ learning process. By self-observation and self-evaluation, teachers can improve their teaching techniques. Through reflecting on one’s teaching style, teachers will be good at their job and provide an effective learning experience for the students.

Challenges of Reflective Practice in Teaching

The challenges a teacher might face while practicing reflective teaching are:

1. Not all educators will have an understanding of how to follow the reflective process.
2. It may be an uncomfortable feeling to analyze and evaluate one’s practice.
3. Reflective teaching is a time-consuming process. The teacher needs to manage time for reflecting on his/her teaching techniques.
4. The teachers may not understand which aspects to reflect upon.
5. A lot of thinking and reasoning is needed to follow reflective teaching.
6. The teacher may not be able to recall the class lessons later while reflecting on the teaching methods.

How to Overcome Challenges in Teaching

A teacher may follow the following methods to overcome challenges in teaching:

Peer observations

Peer observations can be a helpful way for understanding one’s teaching techniques. With the help of peer observation, the teacher can understand in which aspects he/she shall improve for effective teaching in the classroom. The teacher may also request student feedback.

Record class lessons

Recording class lessons can be an effective way of analyzing one’s class lessons. The teacher can record his/her class lessons to observe it later rather than relying on memory. The teachers can notice things that they were not aware of. This can be a helpful way of understanding one’s way of teaching.

Making notes

The teacher can make notes after every class to understand how the lessons were taught and how the students responded. This way the teacher will understand his/her strengths and weaknesses and can improve the teaching techniques.

Conclusion

Even though reflective teaching will require a lot of thinking and can be time-consuming, it ensures great benefits in return. It can help a teacher largely in the way he/she functions in the classroom. Reflective teaching allows us to know what works best for the interest of the students. Following this process will be helpful for both the teachers and students as it will lead to effective teaching as well as a learning experience.