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Reflecting on your teaching can be a powerful way to strengthen your course over time. Even brief, intentional moments of reflection can reveal patterns, note successes, and inform meaningful improvements.

During the Semester

While teaching the course, it can be helpful to jot down notes about individual class sessions. For example, when were students most interested and engaged? Were there any unexpected gaps in their prior knowledge or common misconceptions? Do you need to allocate more or less time for the same lecture or activity next time you teach that lesson? 

Even just a small handful of notes can pay off in future semesters. Your notes are most likely to be useful if recorded somewhere you will be sure to see them the next time you prepare to teach that class. For instance, consider embedding them into your written lesson plan. 

End of the Semester

Once the flurry of grading and stress has calmed down, but ideally before reviewing Final Course Evaluations*, you can set aside time for reflection on your course as a whole. You might find some of the following questions useful to walk though, either individually or with a colleague at the Eberly Center:

• How did teaching this subject feel this semester? 
• Which readings, activities, and topics went well? Which didn’t go the way you hoped? (If you took notes at the end of each class session, review these here.)
• How did your classroom and grading policies work this semester? Do you want to make any adjustments?
• Thinking about the major assignments and assessments of the course, where did students struggle most? Where did they surprise and impress you? 
• Which component skills do you think students struggled with most? 
• What resources did you offer to students outside of class? What did they seem to make use of? 
• How much feedback were you able to give your students? Was it given in time for students to use it to improve, and did they seem to use it?
• Consider the students who struggled the most in your class: What happened to them? Did any of them catch back up? Why do you think that was? 
• What aspect of teaching the course took you the most time and effort, but didn’t feel worthwhile? 
• Did you try anything new that you want to make sure you continue or expand? Did you learn about any new approaches or practices during the semester, perhaps from a colleague or Eberly Center workshop, that you are interested in exploring in the future?
• If you had a TA or TAs:  How was the division of labor? How often did your teaching team meet or communicate? Did it feel as though you were on the same page about how to communicate with students? If you asked your TA(s) to complete an Eberly Center seminar to increase their feedback skills, how did their feedback improve?

Look back at your answers. Where do you think you might want to make changes? Do you know what you want to try? Remember, you do not need to make every change at once! This is a long-term, iterative process. Pick a small number of things that feel doable to try the next time you teach this course.

*Receiving feedback from students often brings up a lot of strong emotions, which can make it hard to sort through which suggestions could be worth acting on and which would be counterproductive for learning. Any time you receive feedback from students, either informally during the semester or in FCEs, you are welcome to meet with an Eberly Center consultant to process it. Eberly Center colleagues can also help you collect other more formative sources of data and feedback to inform your teaching. Schedule a consultation to discuss student feedback!