Faculty Scholarship

What If Students Are A Reflection of Teachers?: The Good, The Bad, and The Indifferent

Dr. Taneisha L. Osborne

Teaching is a humbling gift that is strengthened and challenged through each encounter with students.  Bad and indifferent experiences with teachers, can affect students’ academic growth, educational goals, motivation for learning, and perceptions about the value of education.  However, good encounters can potentially overshadow the bad and indifferent experiences allowing for students to grow educationally, personally, and professionally, in positive ways.  Cultivating good educational experiences for students includes “self-assessment, peer-assessment, and critical examination of the efficacy of one's [educational] practice(s)” (Wise & Darling-Hammond, 1995, p. 42-43).  Effective teachers reflect on the totality of a student’s learning experience, communally, historically, individually, presently, and futuristically.   

In 1983, Schön introduced “two types of reflection called reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action,” and in 1991, Killion and Todnem suggested “a third type of reflection called reflection-for-action” (Moore-Russo and Wilsey, 2014, p.76).  “Reflection-in-action refers to the ability to reflect or think about what is occurring while it occurs” (Moore-Russo and Wilsey, 2014, p.76).  Considering what contributes to a student’s current perception of learning and current performance levels can be valuable to a teacher’s understanding and instructional preparation.  “Reflection-on-action refers to reflecting or thinking about what has already occurred” (Schön, 1983, p.55).  Once teachers understand students may have good, bad, or indifferent encounters with teachers, teachers can proactively provide resources before students express a need for help.  “Reflection-for-action is the process of reflecting on past actions and decisions as a means to guide future practices” (Killion and Todnem, 1991, p.14).  Awareness and understanding of past and present experiences inspire teachers to develop new instructional methods and strategies that can encourage students to engage in lifetime learning. 

Being cognizant of Schön , Killion, and Todnem’s reflections (in-action, on-action, and for-action) has inspired me to ask myself three fundamental questions before teaching a course:

1. What good, bad, and indifferent experiences did students express to me (spoken and unspoken), in my previous course(s), that can help me effectively teach my next course?
2. What positive adaptations have I consistently made to create a classroom that successful responds to and interacts with students?
3. What is one new thing that I can immediately change or improve to ensure optimal success for students, in my future courses?

Even though, “one cannot predict what will happen in the future, it is still beneficial to contemplate the various scenarios that might happen” (Wilson, 2008, p.178).  Hopefully, this article seeks to encourage instructional reflection that promotes positive interactions between students and teachers in current and future courses.

  

References

Killion, J. P., & Todnem, G. R. (1991). A process for personal theory building.

Educational Leadership, 48(6), 14-16.

Moore-Russo, D.A. & Wilsey, J.N. (2014). Delving into the meaning of productive reflection: A

study of future teachers' reflections on representations of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 37, 76 – 90.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New

York, NY: Basic Books, Inc.

Wilson, J. P. (2008). Reflecting-on-the-future: a chronological consideration of

reflective practice. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives,

9, 177-184.

Wise, A., & Darling-Hammond, L. (1995). What is good teaching? Teacher Magazine, 6(8),42-

43.