By Linda Schaak Distad, Betsy Chase, Richard Germundsen, and Joan Cady Brownstein

Journal of Staff Development, Fall 2000 (Vol. 21, No. 4)

Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2000. All rights reserved.

The theme of teacher reflection frequently appears in teacher improvement literature as a link to effectiveness. Although good teachers have always reviewed their teaching and adjusted their practices, reflection was often a solitary process. Sharing professional issues and teaching dilemmas with other teachers can improve teacher effectiveness, student learning, and professional satisfaction.

In 1995, the Minnesota Board of Teaching challenged school districts to partner with higher education to write research and development site proposals for beginning teacher induction. The Chaska Area School district and the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (Augsburg College, The College of St. Catherine, Macalester College, and the University of St. Thomas) responded to this challenge. As a grant recipient, we designed a collaborative, reflective process that was implemented for three years throughout the school district and has continued beyond grant funding. One component of the induction process was to place all new teachers into Reflective Practice Groups (RPGs).

Reflective Practice Groups are a systematic way to process classroom events in a supportive environment focused on professional growth. RPGs try to accomplish two primary goals. The first is to reveal the challenges all teachers face. A second goal is to examine and clarify the basis of one’s own practice by asking:

Reflective Practice Groups include beginning teachers and their mentors, experienced teachers, district administrators, and college faculty. When possible, the group crosses grade levels, content areas, and buildings for a broad instructional perspective. Participants are asked to keep student names and building issues discussed in their groups confidential.

RPG members meet monthly after school with the same group for one year. All participants take turns facilitating. The RPG 10-step process can be completed in 11/2 to 2 hours.

When teachers reflect on their practice, they improve their effectiveness with students, parents, and colleagues, leading to increased student performance. In RPGs, some of the barriers usually associated with seeking advice from colleagues are eliminated. The group’s discussions are confidential. Group members get candid feedback without fear of reprisal or fear that the information might be included in a performance review. Using the combined experience of group members for problem solving leads to a rich learning community for all members. Over time, the group’s interdisciplinary structure produces a greater understanding of shared purpose among educators and a more aligned focus on students and curriculum throughout.

In an end-of-the-year questionnaire, all of the new teachers and 95% of experienced teachers said the RPGs helped them gain insights from their colleagues. Seventy-three percent of new teachers and 63% of experienced teachers said RPGs helped them improve as teachers. They said the RPG process helped change their teaching in four specific areas that benefit student learning: classroom management, getting students organized, an expanded teaching repertoire, and professional reflection (Cady, Distad & Germundsen, 1998).

For new teachers, in particular, classroom management and student behavior present special challenges. Teachers said RPGs gave them ideas for new strategies and approaches. As one stated, "I’ve learned to hold students accountable for their actions as well as [to] create clearer expectations and consequences, not rules and punishments." Others said the RPGs helped them develop clarity, leading to better classroom organization.

Teachers also spoke of the learning that occurred from peers. "It is easier for me to make my points because I am prepared for possible actions by my students. I have learned through the RPG to raise student achievement."

Finally, teachers talked about becoming more reflective. In the words of one, "I have taken time to ‘step back’ and look at what I am doing as an educator and make some positive adjustments in my classroom."

Bolstered by a clearly identified support system, teachers are more likely to accept challenges as a normal part of professional practice. Their confidence is affirmed by an increase in their repertoire of teaching skills and their ability to manage a productive classroom environment. Systematic, collaborative reflection helps teachers identify the links to success in the classroom which, in turn, leads to professional satisfaction.

As one teacher commented, "When a person is happy and feeling positive about (the) job and colleagues (support, warmth), they (sic) are able to really concentrate on their (sic) job and students.

"We can be open and thrive in a safe, supportive and structured environment, [which is also what] students need . . . to be successful and happy at school."

Cady, J.M., Distad, L.S., & Germundsen, R. (1998). Reflective practice groups in teacher induction: Building professional community via experiential knowledge. Education, 118(3): 459-470.

Smyth, J. (1988, Winter). The reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Basic Books.

Vera, G. R. (1988). Methodologias de investigacion docente: La investigacion protagonica. Santiago, Chile: Programs Interdisciplinario de Investigacion en Education.

The RPG-trained college representatives facilitate the first meeting, building community, modeling procedures, stressing confidentiality, and establishing meeting dates, treats, and time schedules. Subsequently, others take turns facilitating.

• Describe individual situations. Each participant writes out and takes two to three minutes to share a personal situation in the classroom or school setting in which the individual was unsure of the best course of action.

• Select a case study. The group chooses one episode for an in-depth discussion. The originator retells the episode in detail. The person tells the objective facts, as well as the emotions associated with the episode. Sometimes, the case study addresses a theme that emerges from the shared situations.

• Define the issues involved. When the person finishes, the other participants ask for further detail and define issues embedded in the case.

• Identify the hypotheses/underlying factors. The participants take five minutes to think and write hypotheses behind the teller’s action. The hypotheses are concise statements that may include psychological, pedagogical, or institutional factors. The statements might begin, "A teacher in such a situation might feel frustrated because ..."

• Share hypotheses. The participants share the hypotheses, which begins to suggest the teaching theory behind the episode.

• Determine links to theory. The episode teller responds to the hypotheses and tries to relate them to his or her experience. The teller begins to uncover some of the internalized knowledge, practice, and self-awareness associated with the episode.

• Consider the impact on others. The group begins a discussion about how a teacher in such an episode affects students and others. The group asks, "What did the students (or others) feel in this situation?" "What did the students (or others) learn from this situation?"

• Identify alternatives. The group discusses other ways of handling the situation. What benefits would result from an alternative approach? Why do I do the things I do?

* Bring closure. The group summarizes and debriefs the discussion. The subsequent meeting begins with an update on this RPG episode.

• Becoming a critically reflective teacher, by Stephen D. Brookfield. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1995).

• Clarifying the notion of reflection, by J. Weiss and W. Louden. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 1989.

• Critical reflection, by S. Kemessis. In Staff development for school improvement, edited by Marvin Wideen and Ian Andrews. (Philadelphia: Falmer Press, 1987).

• Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions, by Donald Schon. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1987).

• Reflection on reflective teaching, by B. Robert Tabachnick and Ken Zeichner. In Issues and practices in inquiry-oriented teacher education, edited by B. Robert Tabachnick and Ken Zeichner. (Philadelphia: Falmer Press, 1991).

• "Sharing professional experience: Its impact on professional development," by John A. Ross and Ellen M. Regan in Teaching and Teacher Education, 9(1): 91-106 (1993).

• The evolution of reflective practices in teaching and teacher education, by Peter Grimmet, Allan M. Mackinnon, Gaalen L. Erickson, and Theodore J. Riecken. In Encountering reflective practice in education, edited by Raymond Clift, W. Robert Houston, and Marleen C. Pugach. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1991).

• "The reflective educator,’’ Educational Leadership, 48(6) (1991, March).

About the authors

Linda Schaak Distad is associate dean and associate professor at the College of St. Catherine department of education. She can be contacted at 2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105, (651) 690-6798, fax (651) 690-8651, e-mail: Lsdistad@stkate.edu.

Betsy Chase is director of planning and organizational improvement for Chaska Area Schools. She can be contacted at 11 Peavey Road, Chaska, MN 55318, (952) 556-6241, fax (952) 556-6189, e-mail: chaseb@chaska.k12.mn.us.

Richard Germundsen is director of staff development for Bloomington Public Schools. He can be contacted at 8900 Portland Ave., Bloomington, MN 55420, (612) 885-8637, fax (612) 885-8549, e-mail: Rgermund@bloomington.k12.mn.us.

Joan Cady Brownstein is associate professor at the University of St. Thomas school of education. She can be contacted at 1000 LaSalle, MOH 217, Minneapolis, MN 55403-2009, (651) 962-4423, fax (651) 962-4169, e-mail: jmcady@stthomas.edu.

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