Developing And Supporting Critically Reflective Teachers

This collection centres the diverse narrative experiences of six early-career US teachers who identify as critically reflective practitioners. The contributors cogently demonstrate how teachers with critically reflective mindsets take active steps to ensure that they are cognizant of how their intersecting social identities impact how they arrive at making different types of decisions (big and small), interact with students from varied backgrounds, and negotiate competing demands and expectations in and out of their classrooms. The contributors have carefully thought about how learning and teaching are complex processes that involve significant ethical, moral, and social responsibilities. While they do not offer easy answers to the complex challenges that teachers negotiate on a daily basis, their willingness to share their concerns, experiences, and lesson learned offer timely perspectives about the possibilities and promise of using critical reflection as a means to challenge and close persistent academic, equity, and opportunity gaps that disproportionately and persistently impact students from underserved populations. The editors offer strategies for developing and supporting critically reflective teachers with a focus on transforming PK-12 and teacher education through an equity-centric lens. They contend that aspiring and earlier-career teachers greatly benefit from employing critical reflection in their daily lives to not only survive but to also thrive in an increasingly complex sociopolitical climate. Additional resources and guiding questions are included with specific foci on teacher educators and other major decision-makers in PK-12 education who are directly involved with the education, professional development, and socialization of early-career teachers.

A practical guide to the essential practice that builds better teachers. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher is the landmark guide to critical reflection, providing expert insight and practical tools to facilitate a journey of constructive self-critique. Stephen Brookfield shows how you can uncover and assess your assumptions about practice by viewing them through the lens of your students' eyes, your colleagues' perceptions, relevant theory and research, and your own personal experience. Practicing critical reflection will help you… Align your teaching with desired student outcomes See your practice from new perspectives Engage learners via multiple teaching formats Understand and manage classroom power dynamics Model critical thinking for your students Manage the complex rhythms of diverse classrooms This fully revised second edition features a wealth of new material, including new chapters on critical reflection in the context of social media, teaching race and racism, leadership in a critically reflective key, and team teaching as critical reflection. In addition, all chapters have been thoroughly updated and expanded to align with today's classrooms, whether online or face-to-face, in large lecture formats or small groups. In his own personal voice Stephen Brookfield draws from over 45 years of experience to illustrate the clear benefits of critical reflection. Assumptions guide practice and only when we base our actions on accurate assumptions will we achieve the results we want. Educators with the courage to challenge their own assumptions in an effort to improve learning are the invaluable role models our students need. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher provides the foundational information and practical tools that help teachers reach their true potential.

A practical guide to the essential practice that builds better teachers. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher is the landmark guide to critical reflection, providing expert insight and practical tools to facilitate a journey of constructive self-critique. Stephen Brookfield shows how you can uncover and assess your assumptions about practice by viewing them through the lens of your students' eyes, your colleagues' perceptions, relevant theory and research, and your own personal experience. Practicing critical reflection will help you... Align your teaching with desired student outcomes See your practice from new perspectives Engage learners via multiple teaching formats Understand and manage classroom power dynamics Model critical thinking for your students Manage the complex rhythms of diverse classrooms This fully revised second edition features a wealth of new material, including new chapters on critical reflection in the context of social media, teaching race and racism, leadership in a critically reflective key, and team teaching as critical reflection. In addition, all chapters have been thoroughly updated and expanded to align with today's classrooms, whether online or face-to-face, in large lecture formats or small groups. In his own personal voice Stephen Brookfield draws from over 45 years of experience to illustrate the clear benefits of critical reflection. Assumptions guide practice and only when we base our actions on accurate assumptions will we achieve the results we want. Educators with the courage to challenge their own assumptions in an effort to improve learning are the invaluable role models our students need. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher provides the foundational information and practical tools that help teachers reach their true potential.

An essential guide to incorporating critical research into higher education scholarship. Winner of the Outstanding Publication Award of the Post-secondary Education Division of the American Educational Research Association Critical theory has much to teach us about higher education. By linking critical models, methods, and research tools with an advocacy-driven vision of the central challenges facing postsecondary researchers and staff, Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education makes a significant—and long overdue—contribution to the development of the field. The contributors argue that, far from being overly abstract, critical tools and methods are central to contemporary scholarship and can have practical policy implications when brought to the study of higher education. They argue that critical research design and critical theories help scholars see beyond the normative models and frameworks that have long limited our understanding of students, faculty, institutions, the organization and governance of higher education, and the policies that shape the postsecondary arena. A rigorous and invaluable guide for researchers seeking innovative approaches to higher education and the morass of traditionally functionalist, rational, and neoliberal thinking that mars the field, this book is also essential for instructors who wish to incorporate the lessons of critical scholarship into their course development, curriculum, and pedagogy.

This book provides a research-based guide to using ePortfolios to develop critically reflective teachers capable of transformative learning for educational equity. It begins with a conceptualization of critical reflection in teacher education, then analyzes the social discourse of prospective teachers' teaching practice through their ePortfolio reflections, triangulated by classroom teaching observations and interviews. The results of the research show that prospective teachers’ reflections are performative and do not typically trigger transformative learning, in large part because of discrepancies in the structures of the ePortfolio, the goals of the teacher education program, and the mentoring and supervisory practices. With this analysis in hand, the book turns to practical questions, providing a transformative framework along with examples and tips for teacher educators to use the author’s methods to understand and analyze prospective teachers’ reflection and support their transformative learning.

This student friendly practical guide helps you get to grips with reflective practice in teaching, through bite-sized sections that are informative and quickly digestible. The book clearly explains some of the best-known theories on reflective practice and then shows how reflection on and in practice can have a positive impact on classroom performance. The very real problems faced by beginning teachers are brought to life through the use of rich case studies as well as extracts drawn from the reflective journals of those starting their teaching career. The illustrative case studies consider how reflective practice can inform your teaching practice, including: Preparing for teaching Fitting into your school Designing lessons Managing behaviour Planning for creativity Assessing effectively Developing essential teaching techniques Working effectively with your mentor Extending your professional practice at Master’s level An additional feature of the book is the inclusion of a number of new suggestions for developing reflective practice based on the authors’ experience of training new teachers and supporting beginning teachers. Through reflective tasks based on the real problems that beginning teachers face you can actively develop your understanding and confidence in this area. This book is essential reading for trainees and newly qualified teachers as well as those supporting new entrants to the profession.

Just as successful athletes must identify strengths and weaknesses, set goals, and engage in focused practice to meet their goals, so must teachers. Learn how to combine a model of effective instruction with goal setting, focused practice, focused feedback, and observations to improve your instructional practices. Included are 280 strategies related to the 41 elements of effective teaching shown to enhance student achievement.

This guide explains the importance of developing the habit and skills of reflective practice in order to meet student needs and grow continuously as a professional teacher.