How tutors understand and engage with reflective practices

Abstract

Interviews with six tutors revealed the ways in which they thought about reflection, and what forms of reflective practice were part of their teaching. The tutors saw a variety of benefits of reflection, including improving their teaching. There was a focus on reflecting before and after teaching, but few examples of reflection while teaching. Reflection was triggered by negative events and by positive feedback. Reflection on teaching was mainly an individual process; however some tutors engaged in proximal, informal discussions about their teaching. Implications for practice, such as how to support reflection-in-action, are considered.

Keywords:

• reflection-in-action
• reflection-on-action
• reflection-for-action
• novice teachers
• sessional staff
• academic development

Acknowledgements

We thank the tutors who participated in the interviews, our colleague Reuben Segara, who was involved in the early stages of the research, and the anonymous reviewer who provided several helpful suggestions.