What is Reflective Teaching?

'Reflective teaching conceptualises teaching as a complex and highly skilled activity, which, above all, requires classroom teachers to exercise judgement in deciding how to act.  High-quality teaching, and thus pupil learning, is dependent on the existence of such professional expertise.

The process of reflective teaching supports the development and maintenance of professional expertise.  We can conceptualise successive levels of expertise in teaching – those that student-teachers may attain at the beginning, middle and end of their courses; those of the new teacher after their induction to full-time school life; and those of the experienced, expert teacher.  Given the nature of teaching, professional development and learning should never stop.

Reflective teaching should be personally fulfilling for teachers, but also lead to a steady increase in the quality of the education provided for children.  Indeed, because it is evidence-based, reflective practice supports initial training students, newly qualified teachers, teaching assistants and experienced professionals in satisfying performance standards and competences.  Additionally, as we shall see, the concept of reflective teaching draws particular attention to the aims, values and social consequences of education.