EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT | REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: ANALYSIS

Educator Spotlight
Written By Josh Morales

Reflective Practice: Analyze What Happened

by Stephanie Clagnaz, Ed.D.



Reflective practice requires educators to look back on our experiences and to ask, “What happened? Why/how did it happen?” David Kolb’s Reflective Practice Cycle, pictured below, reveals the whole reflective cycle. After a period of time, educators proceed through this cycle to analyze our practices, which helps us to evaluate whether or not we met the goals and objectives we set for ourselves and for our students. Furthermore, as we reflect, we also come to a better understanding as to whether the goals we set for ourselves were even the right ones to concentrate on.

There are some simple strategies that can be used to look back on practice as we analyze how things went. If we tried to improve student performance, for example, we will need to review student learning data, student engagement and agency, and reflect on our actions to determine what actually worked and what didn’t. Recalling how things happened and why they happened are important pieces of information. Here are a few ways to engage in an analysis of what took place in our practice.

Journaling: Whether you write by hand or electronically, taking time to write about how your beginning-of-year goals have actually played out can help when reflecting. Have the journal accessible so that you can add things as you recall. Over time, you will be able to document how things played out in your classroom. Be sure to add sufficient amounts of student learning data to your reflections to ensure that your observations are accurately matching your beginning-of-year goals.

Action Research: Using this process for reflection, educators focus on a particular goal they set and detail the action they took to achieve that goal. Blend student performance data with the action that you took. Did you achieve your goal? What happened? What went well in progressing toward your goal? Which actions were harmful in achieving your goal? Look back at your practice and evaluate the actions you took to determine how things went.

Critical Friends: Engaging in analysis of our practice with a peer whose observations can help is another way to gain insight into our educational practice. Listening to the input of trusted others can assist in the process of determining what we did to achieve our goals, whether our actions were productive or not, and gaining additional awareness of the outcomes of our actions. A critical friend can honestly share both positive and detrimental aspects of our work. The peer serves as a mirror of sorts; reflecting through our own recollections and through those of well-intentioned colleagues.

Reflective practice involves several specific steps that begin with looking back at goals and objectives we set for ourselves at the beginning of a period of time. As we engage in reflection of the 2024-25 school year, think about what we set out to accomplish. What were our student learning goals? Goals for professional practice? Team building goals? The next step is to identify what happened. What were the actions we took to achieve the goals we set? Consider why things happened and how they occurred. As we move through the reflective cycle, we will also try to determine what happens next.

Have you begun the reflective process for this school year? LEDbetter experts can help coach and guide you as you begin your reflection. Contact us today for an immediate appointment to help individual teachers, leaders, or school-wide teams to identify beginning-of-year goals and to create your story depicting how it has been going this year, specific strategies you used to achieve your goals, and to prepare for the remaining parts of the reflective practice cycle.



To learn more about how we can support you, please email excelerator@led-better.org, or schedule a call with us.



Josh Morales
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