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Do you keep a reflective journal?
Reflection enables educators to critically examine their practices, understand their beliefs about teaching and learning, and make informed decisions for continuous improvement (Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning).
How do you currently reflect on your teaching? Do you keep a journal? 📝
Key Aspects of a Reflective Teaching Journal:
- Regular entries: Schedule time weekly or after each class.
- Honesty is key: Be truthful about successes and challenges.
- Actionable goals: Identify areas for improvement and set goals.
In short, keeping a reflective journal is a simple practice that can make a big difference in your teaching journey.
If you are interested in creating a reflective teaching journal, you may be interested in using the sample attached. We’ve included an in-depth rationale for your reference.
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3 Replies
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One of the best tools for DIY educational development is to keep a teaching journal. It can be structured and action-oriented, as you describe here. This is especially useful for instructors who are unsure of how to begin or simply prefer that kind of focus. But I suggest that it is perfectly fine to be less structured as well. We can think of keeping the teaching journal like exercise (and I probably should credit someone else for saying this first, but I don’t know who)–a little bit is good, more is better, and everything counts. Chances are, most faculty already engage in reflection after each class as we think about how things went, what didn’t go as planned, or what was successful. Writing down these thoughts or dictating them using a speech-to-text tool has all of the benefits Kelly described. If I could give advice to my past self, it would be to keep a log or journal to track my personal development as an educator.
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Definitely! It might take some time for someone to get into the habit, but it’s so valuable. We often don’t realize how far we’ve come when we’re “in the moment.”
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You are so right, Karen! A teaching journal is a good way to remember the good along with the bad and the ugly! As educators, we often focus on what didn’t work or that one student who gave us a less-than-stellar review, but with a journal, we can keep those moments in perspective.
And just think…maybe it’s the start of a beautiful book!
Thanks for sharing!
Laurie
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