Strong teachers keep learning. A little reflection goes a long way. It helps you see what’s working, adjust what isn’t, and keep growing as a teacher. Reflection works best when it draws on more than your own impressions, including feedback from students, colleagues, and research.
Four Lenses for Reflection
Stephen Brookfield describes four lenses that help teachers see their practice more clearly (Brookfield, 2017):
| Lens | What it shows you | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Students’ eyes | How students experience your teaching | Mid-semester feedback, end-of-course evaluations, and quick classroom checks |
| Colleagues’ perceptions | What a peer notices that you might miss | Peer observation, the Teaching & Learning Showcase, and conversations about teaching |
| Your own experience | How your experiences as a learner and teacher shape your choices | Quick notes after class on what worked and what to change |
| Theory and research | What research says about how students learn | Teaching books, articles, and CEITL resources |
Gather Student Feedback
Mid-Semester Feedback
Asking for feedback halfway through the semester gives you time to make changes while students are still in your course.
- Ask a few short questions. Use an anonymous, ungraded Canvas survey with questions such as:
- What is helping you learn in this course?
- What is making it harder to learn?
- What is one change that would help you learn better?
- Look for patterns. Focus on comments that come up more than once.
- Close the loop. Tell students what you heard, what you will change, and what you will keep and why.
End-of-Course Evaluations
- Encourage responses. Explain how you use student feedback, and give class time to complete evaluations when you can.
- Read for patterns. Look for themes across comments and across semesters, not single comments.
- Pair with other evidence. Use evaluations alongside peer feedback, student work, and your own reflection.
Learn from Colleagues
The Citadel Teaching & Learning Showcase
During the Teaching & Learning Showcase, faculty open their classrooms so colleagues can drop in, observe, and exchange teaching ideas. Visits are short and informal, usually 10 to 15 minutes. It’s an easy way to see new strategies and technologies in action across disciplines.
- Visit. Observe a few classes and bring back one idea to try in your own course.
- Host. Open your classroom to share a strategy, activity, or tool that works for your students.
CEITL announces the Showcase by email. Contact CEITL if you’re interested in hosting.
Peer Observation
A trusted colleague can offer a fresh view of your teaching. Peer observation works best as a supportive, formative process.
- Meet before. Share your goals for the class and what you want the observer to focus on.
- Observe. The observer takes notes on what students and the instructor are doing.
- Meet after. Discuss what the observer noticed, what went well, and one or two things to try next.
For online courses, a colleague can review a module, discussion, or set of feedback in Canvas.
CEITL also offers confidential classroom observations for faculty who want feedback from someone outside their department. Contact CEITL to request one.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Ernest Boyer called for recognizing the scholarship of teaching as part of faculty work (Boyer, 1990). If reflection sparks a question about student learning in your course, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) offers a way to explore it. You gather evidence and share what you find with colleagues, at a conference, or in a publication.
Reflection and AI
Generative AI is changing how students complete work, which makes reflection especially valuable right now.
- Reflect on AI in your course. Notice how AI is affecting student work, and which assignments or expectations may need to change.
- Ask students about it. Add a question about AI to your mid-semester feedback, such as “How are you using AI tools in this course, and how is it affecting your learning?”
- Summarize feedback carefully. AI tools can help you find themes in open-ended comments. Use only tools The Citadel has approved, and remove names and identifying details first.
For more, see Teaching in the Age of AI.
Want to talk through feedback or your teaching goals? Schedule a course design and teaching consultation.
Sources
Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Have a question? Contact CEITL by phone, email, or in person in Bond Hall, Room 363.