Welcome to the Tuesday Teaching Tip, an easy-to-implement tool that you can use immediately in your classroom teaching. 

TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Reflection

Asking students to reflect on their learning is good teaching practice. For faculty, engaging in reflection is equally important for continuous professional growth and improvement. By regularly reflecting on your teaching strategies, course materials, and interactions with students, you can identify areas of strength and pinpoint opportunities for refinement. Reflective practices allow you to adapt your teaching methods in response to student feedback, emerging educational research, and evolving classroom dynamics. This process of ongoing reflection ensures that your teaching remains dynamic, relevant, and effective, ultimately enhancing the overall learning experience for students. Future you will thank you!

This week, we challenge you to reflect on your teaching experience.

Here’s one way to do it 

• Self-Assessment: Regularly pause after class to evaluate your teaching methods and identify areas for growth. Write notes to yourself on how you’d modify your approach when you next teach this content.
• Inclusive Teaching: Reflect on your interactions with students. What did you do and how can you better create an inclusive and supportive classroom environment?
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Engage in a systematic review of research-based studies of teaching and learning to improve your pedagogical practices.
• Peer Observation: Invite colleagues to observe your classes and provide constructive feedback to offer new perspectives, highlight your strengths and areas for improvement. 

Engaging in reflection, both for students and faculty, contributes to creating a culture of continuous learning, where both parties are committed to growth and improvement. In this way, reflection serves as a cornerstone of effective teaching and learning, benefiting everyone involved. Read our tip for incorporating reflective practices for students.

DID YOU DO IT?

Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey. The survey is anonymous, but if you choose to enter your name, you’ll be entered in a drawing at the end of the quarter to win a new book from Faculty Development!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Join us for lunch in Varsi 222 TODAY at 12:15 for our Talking about Teaching: Narrating Teaching Improvement CAFE to hear how faculty meaningfully use strategies like reflection to demonstrate growth and development in their teaching. No need to sign up! 
• Join us next week for two advising basics workshops with Drahmann Advisor Diana Morlang, April 14 3:30 - 4:30 and April 15 2 - 3 PM in Varsi 222.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITY

Help us celebrate educational excellence! Nominate yourself or a colleague for the Brutocao Family Foundation Award for Curriculum Innovation—honoring faculty whose bold, creative approaches to teaching and curriculum have transformed learning for Santa Clara students. Submit your nomination by Monday, April 25th, 2025!

WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?

• Check out these DRT resources from SCU on Inclusive Teaching practices, pedagogical resources from Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and suggestions for collecting multiple forms of evidence in our own Evaluation of Teaching.

 

This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Amy Lueck and Patti Simone on behalf of the Faculty Collaborative.

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. Don’t forget to check out our Faculty Associates office hours here.

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development and Faculty Collaborative events.