Developing a Reflective Practice Workshop 2023

This workshop on Developing a Reflective Practice was offered in May 2023 for the MSU COLA Fellows. It was converted to this asynchronous format for those who weren’t able to attend.

Workshop Outline

This workshop consists of four main parts, with a reflection point separating each part. You may use the reflection prompt individually, or if you have a colleague, partner (or group of them) doing these activities together you may find it helpful to discuss and reflect together. To get the full benefit of working through these materials plan to spend about 45 minutes to watch through the videos, take the time for reflection, and to make any final notes.

Part 1 – What is Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice as defined by Donald Schon is “Thinking about one’s actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.” By engaging in an intentional reflective practice we are able to learn about ourselves and to make meaning from our experiences in ways that help us learn to do things differently, better, or otherwise in ways that are informed by our reflection. In this part of the workshop take some time to watch this short video and then consider the reflection/discussion prompt that follows

Watch video “What is Reflective Practice?” – 3 min 42 sec

Part 1 – Reflection/Discussion Prompt

This reflection/discussion topic is around your individual approaches to reflection and reflective practice. Take 5-7 minutes to think/write/discuss your thinking on the following:

• What are ways that you already practice reflection in your personal or professional life?
• What are the tools you use? Spaces you occupy? Time of day, etc.

Outcome from this activity: Find common methods of reflection/tools you use, and learn about other options from your discussion partners.

Part 2 – Starting Your Reflective Practice

Watch video “Starting Your Reflective Practice” – 3 min 32 sec

Part 2 – Reflection/Discussion Prompt

This reflection/discussion topic is about the approaches your discipline uses for reflection. Take 5-7 minutes to think/write/discuss your thinking on the following:

• What are the frameworks, approaches, or tools that your discipline uses for reflection?
• When does reflection occur in your discipline? Frequency?
• How might these be used by other disciplines outside of yours?
• If you have discussion partners, what are some of the ways their disciplines conduct reflective practice?

Outcome from this activity: Identify ways your discipline conducts reflective activities. Learn from other disciplines and identify other possible frameworks, approaches, or tools for reflecting.

Part 3 – Enacting Your Reflective Practice

Watch video “Enacting Your Reflective Practice” – 7 min 14 sec

Part 3 – Reflection/Discussion Prompt

This last reflection/discussion topic is about critically engaging in the activities of reflection and reflective practice. Take 5-7 minutes to think/write/discuss your thinking on the following:

• What do you see as advantages or disadvantages of the various ways of reflecting?
• What are the advantages or disadvantages/risks of
  • Reflecting in public spaces
  • Modalities (e.g. digital, paper, etc.)
  • Other considerations?
• What are the ways/modalities that you might feel comfortable reflecting?

Outcome from this activity: Consider the affordances and limitations of different ways of reflecting and where/how you might want to share your reflection or not.

Part 4 – Bringing it All Together

Take a few minutes to gather your notes and thoughts from the previous activities and then set your timer for another 5 minutes of self-reflection to set a plan up for developing/refining your reflective practice over the coming months.

If you are in the COLA Program you have to reflect at the end of the summer on all the work and thinking you are doing with the program, how might you develop and use an intentional reflective practice to document your work this summer? If you are not in the program think about how developing and implementing an intentional reflective practice might help you over the next couple of months.

How might you use the habits you form through reflective practice in these coming months to influence your teaching going forward? How might it help you in your next annual review or other reporting points, or how it might generally help you to become a better teacher, researcher, etc?

A Final Note

Remember that changing and developing habits is HARD WORK. You likely won’t develop a lasting practice overnight or in a short amount of time, a slow and steady pace is a great way to develop these habits that will last a long time.

Reflective practice is personal—the challenge is to figure out what works for you and supports your learning. Take some time to try out different things, see what works/doesn’t and what you connect with. Ask colleagues who are doing this work and learn from them.  

Some ideas to get started and/or support your practice: 

• For those wanting some guidance, this website gives 30 Daily prompts for developing a reflective teaching practice.
• Block a few minutes a day in your calendar to write, draw, talk aloud, or do whatever activities you find helpful for reflection.
• Take a walk every day at a certain time, use this time to think through ideas or to give yourself space to think and explore.
• Start a journal or a running Google doc to jot down ideas in, revisit these ideas regularly to iterate on them or connect them

This workshop was recorded on May 25, 2023 as part of the MSU COLA Fellows workshop series.

Planning for a Blended Approach to Teaching Post-Crisis at MSU

Returning to campus after the events of Feb 13 we find ourselves in a space of continuing to process our own feelings and emotions, caring for others, and providing opportunities and space for all of us to return to our teaching and learning routines. MSU has provided guidance to our community suggesting that we use the coming weeks to be flexible and accommodating, and to plan for the remainder of the semester.

Looking back, last week was a week of shock where the work we were doing was to try to understand what happened and to get ourselves situated. This week has been one of reconnecting with our students, colleagues, and routines.

As we move into next week we need to begin to plan for what our courses will look like for the remainder of the semester once we return from Spring Break. Spring Break will be a time for rest, relaxation, and restorative activities to help us be ready to finish the semester. However, we must remember that there may be tough times or things we simply aren’t able to do that we had intended. This is OK, and we can plan for flexibility to lessen the impact it will have on our classes and work when it does happen.

Generally, as you think about adopting a blended model in your course it’s a process of reimagining when and where the labor of teaching and learning takes place. Take the opportunity to think about what the needs of you and your students are in this moment, and consider what makes the most sense to use your in-person or synchronous class time for, versus what might be best done as homework or asynchronously.

We Are Not “Returning to Normal”

Returning to a routine after an event like this is not “returning to normal,” in fact it is impossible to return to a normal state that existed prior to any event as the disruption itself has fundamentally changed the context and our understanding of it. Instead of looking for, or longing for a return to normal, it can be helpful to lean into the changes the disruption has caused, and to look for opportunities these changes provide for strengthening your teaching and professional work. 

In the context of teaching, this can mean looking at opportunities this offers you to make changes to your courses to accommodate while maintaining the connections and community you have built in your course. There are countless tools and techniques we have to make the best learning environments possible for students while still providing flexibility. Below are a few resources and ideas to help you get started. Note: If you are still working on welcoming students back to the classroom the document titled Dealing with the Aftermath of Tragedy in the Classroom is helpful for giving some ideas and language for addressing your class.

Clear Communication about Returning to Class

Your students are likely in many different places with respect to their comfort in returning to the classroom and this may continue for some time. As you welcome students back to the classroom keep in mind that clearly communicating what you are doing in class that day and why it’s important for students to be there is helpful. Some faculty have found that this extra “nudge” can be the difference between a student attending class and not. Consider how you might build in this communication before each class session in the coming weeks, perhaps even using the scheduled send feature in your email to automatically send these updates to your students.

How Can a Resilient Pedagogy Approach Help You?

Adopting some of the principles of a Resilient Pedagogy, in particular focusing on the following core principles can help your course absorb some of the shock of the change and make it easier to complete the semester for both you and your students.

Learning Objectives

Return to your learning objectives as a first step. Review them and consider what you have covered already during the semester. 

• What do you still need to cover? 
• Can you reduce the number of objectives, or reduce the components in a particular one? 
• This is not an exercise in which objectives are less important than others in general, but rather an opportunity to think about given the current situation what is most important now.

Interaction

Interaction is the heart of a college classroom. Interaction facilitates engagement, where students connect and become invested in content and move from a passive learner to an active learner. When we talk about interaction we often think about student-student, or student-instructor interaction (e.g. class discussion) but interaction extends to other types of interactions as well, including student-course content interaction, student-technology interaction, and student-world interaction. 

• How is interaction facilitated in your classroom and what might be impacted?
• You likely started the semester with certain interaction types in mind (E.g. in-person lectures or online discussions), are there opportunities to “flip” your class model to focus on allowing students opportunities to use in-class time to interact with each other and to watch lectures or do other tasks as homework?
• If a student does miss a class session what are their options for interacting with other students, you, or the course content?

Access

Maintaining access for students is important. This is both from a digital accessibility perspective (Eg. Captions, etc.) but also access in terms of students being able to get to the course content for review or if they need to miss a class session. 

• If you are giving lectures in the classroom are you able to record them and provide them to students? Have they been made easy to find in D2L or other learning management system you are using?
• For group work is there an opportunity for a student to join their group remotely or in non-class session periods? 
• Consider ways that you can be flexible and accommodating for those who may need additional time with course content, but also be honest with yourself about what you are able to do, it’s OK to put limitations on what you offer.

What Might You Do With Your Syllabus?

The syllabus is often thought of as a contract with your students. Typically the syllabus would only have minor changes during the course, but in times of crisis, there are opportunities and reasons to make changes to benefit the faculty, students, and course in general. As you consider what changes you might make to the syllabus keep in mind:

• Changes should result in streamlining course requirements, reducing workload, or shifting due dates or times. 
• Mid-Semester changes to the syllabus should never result in additional work, or confusion about the changes. 
• Ensure you are clearly communicating any changes to your students, keeping in mind that many of them have several courses that are being modified at the same time.

How Could You Use a Class Survey?

You may also want to survey your students to understand where they are at and to inform your work doing any modifications you need to do. Some ideas for this might be:

• Present students with course objectives and ask them to assess which ones they feel comfortable saying what they have learned 
• Give students a couple of possible paths forward and ask for feedback on what they might prefer (then make a decision to do one path for the whole course or allow students opportunities to choose pathways) 
• Look at the Learning that’s happened and will happen versus the outcomes you had initially set

The Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative team came up with a sample survey template you can copy and modify/use.

Communication is Key

As you make changes to the course please ensure you are clearly communicating with your students about what you are doing and why. Some ideas for this might be to cover

• Review for students how the course was structured, and how/why you are going to restructure it.
• If you are dropping activities or course goals, changing due dates, etc. clearly communicate the what and why
•  Discuss with your class what their needs are, and be clear that you will try to accommodate them as best as possible, but also note that sometimes there aren’t alternatives or accommodations that are possible.
• Make sure students have access to the most up-to-date grades you have for them so they can make informed decisions about their own academic progress outside of your class. 
• Let students know how you are going to be communicating with them so they know to look for your messages. Consider starting all emails with your course code and number (EG. “AL883: MESSAGE TITLE”) or some other way for students to easily see your message among all the others.

All of the ideas and suggestions above should be able to be implemented in your course without a shift of modality from in-person to remote or online. However, if you feel that your course or students would be better served please reach out to your Chair or Program Director to discuss options that may be available. If you need further help or ideas there are resources available on campus, please contact your local educational technology staff to discuss.

Note for readers not at Michigan State University. This post was initially intended for educators at MSU as they start our second full week of classes after the Feb 13, 2023 mass shooting. While the context and timing are specific to MSU, there are elements of this approach that may be useful at other institutions and at other times and in different situations.

Identifying Process Artifacts in our Work: Part of the Surfacing Our Work series

My colleague Shannon Kelly and I recently started a series of posts on the process of “surfacing our work.” The series focuses on the ways that, as educational technology professionals, we can work toward sharing more of our work that is in process and publishing work that has not traditionally had a publication outlet. The first post in the series is about identifying “Process Artifacts,” those artifacts that come out of the process of doing our work such as graphs, presentations, reflections, etc. Read the piece on the EDLI Website at the link below.

Surfacing Our Work: Identifying Process Artifacts (1)