Structuring Teacher Self Reflection for a successful experience
Dr. Barbara Bishop of West Georgia RESA joined us for a short conversation about her experience using Sibme to support teachers across the region served by the RESA. Teacher self reflection is a powerful strategy for anyone interested in helping teachers grow. By allowing teachers time to reflect on their own instruction before coaching takes place, West Georgia RESA found that the quality of coaching conversations improved.
Dr. Bishop and her team investigated two strategies for self-reflection with the teachers they supported. With one group, they provided a structured reflection protocol, using frameworks and guiding questions. With a second group, teachers were left to review the video on their own and make observations without a structured protocol. Dr. Bishop explains the difference between these two strategies in the video below.
The West Georgia RESA team also categorized comments and explored the frequency of each category to see if they could identify trends. This information helped them hone in on the specific topics that teachers and coaches were most apt to explore, and will help them correlate teacher self reflection categories with growth in teacher and student outcomes.
This short video is jam-packed with outstanding insight from the West Georgia RESA team and includes helpful resources that you can use to begin setting up teacher self-reflection protocols for yourself and your team. This is a great way to begin using video for professional learning at any level. Self-reflection eliminates the fear that some teachers experience when asked to share video of themselves with a coach or appraiser. Beginning with self-reflection helps teachers build the psychological safety they need before sharing video with someone else. Additionally, it gives teachers the time to overcome some of the awkwardness experienced by watching yourself on video for the first time. Lastly, it’s a great way to support teachers with small or dispersed teams who need to scale instructional coaching, but may not have the resources to do it easily.
About West Georgia RESA
The WGRESA 21st Century Teaching and Learning Team is an innovative, forward-thinking and knowledgeable partner for its member school systems. We leverage our internal and external networks, utilize our unique perspective at the regional level and employ dynamic, passionate educators with recent and related school experience. We do this work in order to assist our members in operationalizing their system and school improvement plans and to streamline the successful implementation of multiple mandates to further student achievement.
Dr. Barbara Bishop, Director of Teaching and Learning, has served Georgia students, teachers ,and administrators for the past twenty years. Initially, Dr. Bishop began her career as a high school English and theatre teacher where she developed an interest in curriculum design. This interest led to a position at the Georgia Department of Education where she served as an Instructional Technology Specialist, School Improvement Specialist, and Leadership Facilitator Supervisor. Dr. Bishop holds a BA in Theatre Management and Education, a Masters in Education, a Specialist in Educational Leadership, and a Doctorate in School Improvement. At West Georgia RESA, she currently leads the work of the Teaching and Learning Team, oversees the Endorsements Program, and provides our systems and schools professional learning and support for ELA.
