🔍 Critical Reflection

📋 Module Overview

Reflection is one of those words used so frequently in teacher education that it has almost lost meaning. Every practicum report requires it, every portfolio needs it — but much of what passes as "reflection" is actually description or self-justification dressed in reflective language.

Genuine critical reflection is uncomfortable. It requires sitting with uncertainty, questioning practices we're proud of, and following the evidence even when it points in inconvenient directions. This module explores what real professional inquiry looks like — and why it is the single most powerful lever for teacher growth.

🪞 Schön's Reflective Practitioner

Donald Schön's The Reflective Practitioner (1983) remains the foundational text on professional reflection. Schön distinguished between two kinds of reflection practised by experts:

🌀 Timperley's Spiral of Inquiry

Helen Timperley, Kaye Halfpenny, and Fiona Ell's Spiral of Inquiry (described in Realizing the Power of Professional Learning, 2014) operationalises what genuine teaching inquiry looks like. It is specifically designed to prevent the trap of busy reflection that changes nothing.

1. Scanning — What's going on for our ākonga?

   Gather broad evidence about students' current experience and wellbeing. Not just achievement data — include voice, engagement, and cultural responsiveness signals. What you notice here determines everything that follows.

2. Focusing — What's most important for our ākonga right now?

   Narrow from the full scan to one or two priority areas with the greatest potential impact. The key discipline: choose based on evidence of student need, not teacher preference or convenience.

3. Developing a Hunch — What's contributing to this?

   Form a hypothesis about what in your practice (not the students' circumstances) is contributing to the identified gap. This is where critical reflection gets uncomfortable and genuine.

4. Learning — What do I need to learn and do?

   Deliberately build new knowledge and skills in response to your hunch. Engage with research, mentors, colleagues. Do not skip straight to action — learning comes first.

5. Taking Action & Checking — Did it work?

   Implement changed practice and gather systematic evidence about impact on student learning. Not "did students seem to enjoy it?" but "did their understanding actually improve?"

🎯 Routine vs Adaptive Expertise

Timperley distinguishes between two kinds of teacher expertise often confused in schools:

The goal is not to abandon routine expertise — it provides vital stability. The goal is to know when to apply it flexibly rather than automatically. Nuthall's research suggests most teachers teach to the middle of the class, using routines that work for that middle. Adaptive expertise requires noticing who is not being served by those routines and deliberately innovating.

⚠️ The Traps of Shallow Reflection

Most teacher reflection never reaches the level of genuine critical inquiry. Research on pre-service and early career teachers identifies several consistent traps:

• Description masquerading as reflection. "The students seemed engaged and the lesson went well." This tells us what happened — not why, not what it means, not what to do next. Description + interpretation + implication = reflection.
• Explaining problems with student characteristics. "They were tired" / "It's a difficult class" — attributing unsuccessful lessons to student factors protects your practice from scrutiny. The reflective question is always: what might I do differently?
• Selecting confirming evidence. Remembering the moments that validated your approach and forgetting the moments that challenged it. Systematic evidence (exit tickets, assessment data) prevents this.
• Reflecting without changing. The purpose of reflection is action. A reflection journal that produces no change in practice is diary-writing, not professional inquiry.
• Avoiding the equity lens. Not asking: "How did this lesson land for my Māori students specifically? For my students with learning support needs? For the quiet students at the back?"

🏫 Building a Reflective Practice

• Keep a focused inquiry journal. One question per week, followed persistently across multiple lessons. "How does my questioning practice differ across different student groups?" is more powerful than general "how did today go?" reflection.
• Use your data deliberately. After every assessment, ask: who scored below expectation? What patterns do I see? What does this tell me about my teaching — not about those students?
• Seek disconfirmation. Actively look for evidence that challenges your current beliefs about your teaching. This is uncomfortable and essential.
• Find a reflective partner. Peer observation with structured debrief is more powerful than solo journaling. Use a protocol: what did you see? what questions does it raise? what might you try next?
• Connect reflection to action and then to evidence again. The spiral, not the journal entry, is the unit of improvement.

🔗 Connected Resources

Key Readings:

Other Modules: