Reflection

I think reflection of one's own effectiveness as an educator is the single most important practice that can have a direct impact on student learning.

Listening to Dr. Derek Cabrera in his TED talk, How Thinking Works, helps to solidify this point.  As educators we can just follow the script, so to speak, and teach our content.  This allows us to "check the boxes" of our list of duties.  We teach all the content, we try to deliver content in ways that can be absorbed my learners of different types, we provide clear instructions for assignments and paths for success in the classroom.  Teachers that do all of the above can be considered pretty good teachers.  Dr. Cabrera did all that.

Dr. Cabrera noticed that his Harvard students could regurgitate content very well.  They understood the process of education and had mastered the skills required to get good grades.  On the surface, there seemed to be no problem, and he could have considered the job he was doing as "well done" and called it a day.  But what bothered him was that his students couldn't apply their knowledge, work through problems relating to the content, or make any connections between the content knowledge and other knowledge.  In other words, his students could memorize material, but they didn't understand what that material meant in the real world.  They had no critical thinkings skills.

As educators, we could just toss this off as a problem with contemporary students.  I have to agree with Dr. Cabrera that this isn't a problem with modern students, it is a problem with modern education.  How do we get students to be thinkers, to understand the content of courses as it is applied in the real world, and become problem solvers?  One answer is that we look at ourselves as educators.

Reflect!  Reflecting on our effectiveness as educators in providing a means for learners to not only grasp content knowledge, but give them practice at solving problems,  helps us to be constantly refining our methods and improving the learning environment.  Whether this is done via a journal, with reflective teaching partners, or even as a daily self-evaluation on the drive home from work, as long as the reflection leads to action and adjustment of the classroom environment in order to enhance learning, then it is valuable.  I am wondering if this single act of reflection is what separates the great teachers from the average ones.  Without reflection as to the educator's effectiveness, I think applying the theories of connected learning, personalization, collaboration, etc. are rendered practically useless, or at the very least superficial.

I'm a firm believer in self-reflection as an educator and will strive to be in a state of reflection, in many ways, about my ability to connect with learners, help them connect with the content in a way that is meaningful and connect with other learners to establish a learning environment that provides learners with the means to become strong problem solvers.