Reflective Teaching- Can it be a big game changer to improve learning outcomes?

sai pramod bathena
Nov 5 · 3 min read

Excellent learning is still a distant dream in many classes and schools and it calls for sweeping changes in the way we make students learn. While there could be many things we might have to do, there could be no disagreement in the argument that we need to improve the capacity and skills of our teachers. Reflective teaching is one such an approach to improve teachers capabilities.

Let me first give the context to what I am saying and why I am saying.

A few days ago I visited a few schools and observed teaching and learning in classrooms. One classroom observation particularly caught my attention.

We were observing a social teacher who wanted students to learn the four domains of the earth- Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere..

She was mostly using chalk and talk as the means. I noticed that a few students were able to repeat what she is saying and answer the questions she was asking. However, I was not sure if the students could visualise what a lithosphere is, how does it look, where can they see and similarly with the other three domains of the Earth.

As an observer, I was wondering what strategies would I have used and what would I have done as a teacher. So I took permission of teacher and jumped into action.

I took the students outside the classroom to make them see, feel and connect to the four domains of the Earth.

Wow, amazing strategy right! I took the students outside the classroom to conduct an activity. In this day and age, when activity based learning is talked about as a panacea for improving learning outcomes, any external observer who watched us would have felt what I did was amazing stuff.

But as a teacher, I asked a question to myself- Did all students learn? How much did they learn?

To check for the same, at the end of our activity I asked the students a few questions. Based on their responses I realised that about 40-50% students could visualise and recognise the parts of Earth but still my teaching activity didn't fit their imagination.

Key Learning:
Just doing an activity should not be the end but learning as a result of the activity is important. If the activity doesn’t help learning for all or most of the students, start thinking where the breakdown is happening and explore new strategies. Reflection is critical at the end of every class.

The challenge for a teacher while enabling students to learn such abstract ideas lies in making it visual, concrete and relatable.. not an easy task..

After I stepped out, I left thinking what other strategies could I have used. Couple of thoughts struck me.
1) Using a 3D animation video
2) Using a model and then connecting it to students imagination..

I don’t know which of these works best in isolation but a combination of all three may definitely enable mastery for more number of students. It would only be clear if I try them in the classroom again and reflect the impact of the same. This constant search for what’s working and what’s not and figuring out how to improve teaching and learning is what I call reflective learning.

Now comes the biggest question???
1) Are many teachers using chalk and talk as they don’t know other strategies??
2) If so, how do we enable teachers to learn and explore different strategies for an objective and see which of those is effective?

Assuming the answer to question 1 is yes, here are a few approaches that answer question 2.
1) Subject forums where teachers a group of teachers meet to discuss what are the different ways through which they can teach a particular concept. These forums could be utilised to brainstorm strategies to teach difficult concepts that students generally struggle. The teachers can then experiment in class and come back with their reflection. ( A group of schools can collaborate to encourage teachers of their schools to initiate subject forums. To ease logistics, these discussions can happen in online platforms)
2) Subject contests- where teachers can showcase different ways of effectively teaching concepts. (Inter school teachers challenge)
3) Action Research: Where teachers try different strategies or approaches that can enable better learning in classrooms? (School level action research projects)

All the above approaches requires teachers to be reflective either at an individual level or group level. Reflection involves teachers to constantly think of innovative ways and therefore I strongly feel Reflective teaching could be a potent tool in transforming learning outcomes of our students.