Considering how to support teachers to meaningfully reflect on professional development

Susie Fraser is Director of Manchester Communication Research School, English teacher at Manchester Communication Academy and Programme Lead for Designing Effective Professional Development with EEF.

As educators, the act of reflecting is prevalent in our practice. We ask our pupils to reflect on their work, on their approach to a task, on what they have learnt. There may be times when we encourage pupils to reflect on their behaviour or their attendance. As teachers, we are continually reflecting on our practice; did the lesson go to plan? Did the pupils learn what I intended? What feedback is necessary to move learning forward?

However, how often do we intentionally reflect on our professional development (PD) in a way that can contribute to the change or development of practice? It is important here to make the difference between reflection and evaluation. In this context, when we are evaluating PD, we are usually providing feedback to the facilitator on our perceptions of the quality of the training. On the other hand, when we meaningfully reflect, we are considering what we have learnt, how we have engaged with that knowledge and what this could mean for our practice and ultimately, our pupils.