Having read the various reflective cycles given by Kolb, Gibbs, Terry Borton, Brookfield and Schon, I have come to an understanding that each of these share the same thought of standing back from the event and objectively evaluate the what, who, how, why and what next in a cyclic pattern and also that reflection is a skill that one can develop gradually with practice.
While researching to design the Programme Plan for our centre IN462, as a Programme leader for Cambridge International Diploma in Teaching & Learning, I came across self-assessment ideas and the one that caught my attention was #SELFIE strategy (Renard, 2023) that can be used to remind students to evaluate themselves or reflect on their work before handing it in. Inspired by this idea I used the SELFIE acronym to create guidelines for my teacher students to reflect on their Unit 2 lesson in Module 1, which are:
Scrutinize the lesson based on your mentors feedback, learner’s feedback and self-reflection.
Evaluate 3 aspects of the lesson that helped to engage and motivate your students to learn supported by relevant theories.
Learning objectives of the lesson achieved by all students/no. If ‘yes’, what is the evidence? If ‘no’, what will you do to address it, in future?
Find 3 aspects of the lesson that requires further development.
Indicate how effectively the learning associated with LO-E, F& G were evidenced in the lesson.
Evaluate the teaching method or learning activity you wanted to develop in the lesson that was ‘new’ to your practice and its impact of students learning.
I believe that your teaching is a reflection of who you are. Hence if you are creative and passionate towards your self-development , you will strive to instil the same in your learners. According to me, innovation is the most important ingredient to make the dish of education appealing. Hence, my advice to my teacher students is to avoid ‘copy & paste’ and instead ‘copy and edit’ ideas/strategies to suit their and their learners needs, which is exactly what I did with the #SELFIE strategy. The positive comment received in the Examiner feedback for our centre, “SELFIE evaluation process was very effective in informing future practice (Oct 2020)”, has motivated me to keep trying new strategies during the guided learning sessions.
A zest to explore and apply innovative ideas in my teaching practice has helped me create curious teacher students, wanting to tryout the same and more in their classrooms. This is helping to increase student participation intellectually as well as socially and making them longing for more collaborative, creative and challenging activities.
“Leaders are those who empower others”, and seeing the change in the teaching practice of my teacher students, I feel a sense of satisfaction along with being motivated to continue contributing positively in the change that is welcomed by the students.
By Leena Mehta
