3 amazing benefits of reflective practice for teachers

A teacher’s pathway to empathy isn’t easy, but it can be as clear-cut as 1–2–3

Social and emotional learning in practice promotes an inner journey by the professionals who are integrating SEL into their schools and classrooms. The late Donald Schon, an organizational learning theorist, professor, and author, in his work posited that a healthy learning organization is the outgrowth of reflective practice. He defines reflective practice as “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning”. The focus on continuous learning is key because it represents the challenge of doing things differently if current practices are not working as well as they could be.

A reflective practitioner steps back mindfully; seeking unique responses to every day challenges and learns from this reflective mindset.

Reflective practice is the foundation of an emotionally safe school; be it in the classroom with students, team room with committee members, or faculty room with colleagues, reflective practice will enhance the quality of the school experience, making it more positive, efficient, and effective.

1) Change Your Response

What do kids do that drive you crazy?

This question is framed in this way because there are times when a student’s behavior is confusing, frustrating and emotionally draining. It is in these times when it is critical to analyze what responses are not working. In 1987, long before the best selling book Chicken Soup for the Soul was created, I heard Jack Canfield, one of its editors, speak at an educational conference in Vermont. In his talk, he presented the equation:

E + R = O
The event plus your response equals the outcome

Since first hearing it, I have shared this little equation with many teachers with great impact in workshops and training experiences. The critical practice is to focus your energies on the R of the equation. The only thing that will happen if you try to change the event or blame the event for what is happening is to feel frustration and eventually burnout. It is far more empowering and less stressful to articulate what you have control over in your life.

In the life of an educator, if you can determine what you do have influence over, and focus your emotions there, you will be more effective and happier.

E + R = O symbolizes the work we do every day: we can make a difference in the lives of our students. What derails us at times is when we take the behaviors of our students personally. Once this happens, our effectiveness wanes and our energy for the work is lessened.

2) Understand Your Emotional Imprints

So, let’s return to the question: What do kids do that drive you crazy?

Driving you crazy is another way of saying that you react emotionally rather than rationally. Emotional reactions to the behaviors that push your buttons can be traced back to some of the personal values that direct our lives.

One’s personal values are learned at a very young age from the people and events that surround us. These experiences are known as emotional imprinting and they lay the architecture for the emotional structure of our lives. An imprint, like a tattoo, is a forever phenomenon. Imprints are nonnegotiable, and are most profound when they take root in the first 15 years of life. They weave themselves into our value statements and family mores and belief systems. Through the years, our imprints are embedded on our psyche and we are often unaware that they even exist.

An example of an imprint is punctuality. If it was instilled into you that you better be home for dinner on time or you would be in trouble, the imprinted value is that being on time is important and a message that punctuality is a sign of respect. A second imprint from this example is that it is important to eat dinner together as a family. Many years later, this trait of punctuality is a good thing. People know they can count on you as someone who will always be on time. Additionally, if you have a family, you most likely hold the belief that it is important to have dinner together when you can. You place a high value on this. However, this value can cause conflict with people who have different emotional imprints. When a student arrives late to class or hands a paper in late, you might react from an emotional place that does not make sense to them and damage the relationship in the process. It is not about being right or wrong or letting go of the things important to you. More so, it is about knowing not only what is important to you but also why you value this so much –and why others might have different values.

It’s important to identify what your buttons or trigger points are. In other words, what do your students do that drives you crazy and makes you react in irrational or destructive ways? This same reflection can be applied to all of your professional relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and parents. If your imprints unconsciously drive you, you might not get the desired outcome from your professional relationships. Again, it is not so much to change your imprints but to make yourself aware of them. Even if upon reflection you reject certain imprints or belief systems from your childhood, in times of stress you often will return to what is most familiar, not necessarily what makes the most sense.

3) Put Emotional Intelligence to Work

Emotional intelligence or emotional quotient (EQ) references how a person manages his or her emotions under pressure. To develop your EQ and enhance your own success and happiness, you must first develop self-awareness of how you respond toward others in stressful situations. When people feel connected within (understanding how they feel and why), and then seek to create empathic and compassionate connections with others, success and achievement will flourish because motivation will be high. EQ in practice helps people have what Dr. William Glasser, author of The Quality School, calls a “needs satisfying experience,” one in which a person’s emotional needs are being met.

Often, when people think of measuring a person’s abilities and performance, IQ (intelligence quotient) is initially what comes to mind. IQ, which on some level is a part of the paradigm of standardization and high stakes testing, lives at the surface of what is often considered to be the hard path towards gaining a competitive advantage: how smart you are. EQ, which is sometimes referred to as how you are smart, lies beneath the surface, along what many consider to be the soft path. But EQ skills are not soft at all — they are ultimately necessary, not only as a measurement of success but also as an entry point to meaningful school, work, and life experience.

Bio: David A. Levine’s work on teaching empathy as a social culture building strategy has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, and ABC News. After teaching elementary and middle school, David became the chief trainer for the U.S. Department of Education’s Northeast Regional Center for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. It was during that time that he created a framework for social culture building he calls “A School of Belonging.” This systems change process, is highlighted in his books, “Teaching Empathy” and “The School of Belonging Plan Book.” He is currently on the Design and Development team for Turnaround for Children in NYC, is the founding director of The Teaching Empathy Learning Institute, and serves as an adviser to Ashoka’s Start Empathy Initiative. This blog was originally published on the Ashoka Start Empathy blog.