Professional Development Reflection
Overview
The Professional Development Reflection is an opportunity within your Teaching Portfolio creation process to construct a reflective narrative based on the pedagogical professional development opportunities you have attended and how they have impacted your teaching practice. Professional development opportunities include any event, workshop, tutorial, etc. you have attended that present information on teaching and learning and/or opportunities to reflect on and improve teaching and learning.
Reflections based on the questions provided below are meant to help you emphasize your dedication to teaching through consistent inquiry into innovative, inclusive, and accessible teaching practices and emerging pedagogies. We define pedagogy as the theory and practice of teaching as influenced by the theories about learning and responsive to the learner’s development and background knowledge.
Instructions
The Guiding Questions for Professional Development Reflection below are meant to be prompts that can help you review the various activities, workshops, and other opportunities that you have pursued and that have affected your teaching. Reflection is a critical aspect of teaching since it helps you to investigate your experiences and think deeply about your role. This Professional Development Reflection opportunity will help you to check in with yourself regarding your teaching goals, what you have done throughout your recent career to support your own professional development, what you have learned, and how your ideas about teaching and learning have changed. As you reflect on individual professional development experiences, think about your goals or needs going into that training, what you ultimately learned, and whether your goals or needs were met.
To format this component of your Teaching Portfolio, first list your professional development activities, categorizing them if the list is longer than a few items (categories might include Workshops Attended, Workshops Presented, Conferences Attended, Online Modules Completed, etc., or they might be organized by topic). Write a reflection (one to three paragraphs) on each item in your list individually, on your full list of professional development activities as a comprehensive experience, or both.
Guiding Questions for Professional Development Reflection
Use the list of questions below to guide your reflection. Read through the list first and choose questions that resonate with your values and experiences. There is no expectation that you will answer every question on this list. As with your writing throughout your Teaching Portfolio, incorporate specific, colorful examples to illustrate your points.
Describing experiences and goals
- What professional development opportunities have you attended, and who facilitated them?
- What professional development goals have you worked towards in the past? How did specific professional development opportunities help you achieve these goals?
- What are your current short- and long-term professional development goals? How have specific professional development opportunities helped you begin to achieve these goals?
Addressing Challenges
- What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your teaching? How have your professional development experiences helped you address these challenges?
- What have been the biggest challenges you have faced in incorporating new strategies into your teaching? How have you overcome these challenges?
Addressing Change
- How has your teaching changed as a result of your participation in various professional development opportunities?
- Did the various professional development opportunities change how you thought about teaching or about student learning?
- What were some key points or strategies that that you adopted as a result of these professional development opportunities?
- In what areas could you still improve, and what opportunities will you seek to address these areas?
Peer Professional Development
- How have you supported your colleagues in their own professional development using what you have learned?
Inclusive and Equitable Teaching
- What strategies have you incorporated into your teaching to make your courses more inclusive?
- What strategies have you incorporated into your teaching to make your courses more accessible?
Values and Principles about Teaching & Learning
- Has a professional development opportunity reinvigorated how you feel about your teaching?
- How have professional development opportunities changed your principles regarding teaching and learning?
