BECOMING A CRITICALLY
REFLECTIVE TEACHER
STEPHEN BROOKFIELD
UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS
MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL
www.stephenbrookfield.com
Best Teaching is Critically Reflective
• Identifying & checking the
assumptions that inform how we
practice – how we assess learning,
sequence curriculum, deal with
specific classroom problems, decide
how best to teach complex ideas &
skills
Types of Assumptions
Causal – if I use this teaching approach it will
engage students I learning / illustrate complex
reasoning (e.g. Modeling critical thinking helps
students learn to think critically
Prescriptive – what a good teacher or class should
involve (e.g. a good teacher uses a mixture of
teaching approaches)
Paradigmatic – structuring, framing assumptions
we take for granted regarding the nature of
teaching (e.g. teaching is a trajectory of
improvement)
How Do We Uncover & Check
Assumptions
• STUDENTS’ EYES
• COLLEAGUES’ PERCEPTIONS
• OUR AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AS
LEARNERS
• THEORY & RESEARCH
Using the 4 lenses
• Students’ Eyes – Classroom Assessment
Approaches (CIQ, 1 Minute paper, Muddiest
Point, learning Audit)
• Colleagues’ Perceptions – team teaching,
reciprocal peer evaluation, talking teaching
groups
• Autobiography as a Learner – learning
something new / professional development
• Theory/Research – cognitive development,
racial & cultural traditions, building trust
Most Important Knowledge We Need
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CRITICAL INCIDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
Moment most engaged as a learner
Moment most distanced as a learner
Action anyone took that was most
helpful
• Action anyone took that was most
puzzling
• What surprised you most
How the CIQ is Administered
• Last 5 minutes of last class of week
• Main themes reported out at start of 1st class of
the following week
• Talk about how data influence how you teach
• ADVANTAGES
• Illustrates learning diversity for students
• Models critical thinking
• Early warning device
• NEGOTIATION NOT CAPITULATION
What We Find – Different Worlds in
the Same Classroom
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Speechless Discussion
Chalk Talk – Teacher writes a question in the
center of the board
Students come to board & post responses
simultaneously
Students draw lines to connect comments
Teacher & students code clusters & questions
Take photos, post online, springboard
What We Find – Power is A Permanent
Presence & Dynamic
• How power moves around the classroom
• When teacher power is abused or used
ethically & responsibly
• Assumptions of How Power Works:
• Teacher as fly on the wall
• Journals & mandated confessionals
• Visiting groups
What We Find - Hegemonic
Assumptions
• Ones we willingly embrace as being
in our best interest – when in fact
they are harming us ‘killing us softly’
Examples of Hegemonic Assumptions:
• The Perfect 10
• Teaching as Vocation
What We Find - Modeling
• In Modeling Critical Reflection We Teach
Critical Thinking
• The Most Frequently Mentioned Aid to
Thinking Critically is Seeing it Modeled
Publicly & Explicitly By a Teacher
• We Need to Earn the Right to Ask Students to
Think Critically by First Taking the Risk to Think
Critically Ourselves in Front of Them
Some Modeling Ideas …
• Speaking in Tongues
• Structured Devil’s Advocacy
• Ending Lectures & Discussions With
Questions
• Teacher Point-Counterpoint in Team
Teaching
• Assumptions Inventories
• What Do YOU Think Professor?
Consequences & Risks
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Informed Actions as Teachers
Improved Student Centered Teaching
Broadened Teaching Repertoire
Healthier Perspective – Ups & Downs
Impostorship – I REALLY don’t know
what I’m doing so I better keep quiet
• Lost Innocence – I’ll never get it ‘right’
so I better keep it quiet
RESOURCES
• www.stephenbrookfield.com (Please Steal!)
• BECOMING A CRITICALLY REFLECTIVE
TEACHER 1995
• THE SKILLFUL TEACHER (2nd. Ed) 2006
• DISCUSSION AS A WAY OF TEACHING (2nd. Ed)
2005
• TEACHING FOR CRITICAL THINKING 2012
• All published by Jossey-Bass (San Francisco)