By LISA VOTODIAN
The daily reality of teaching is layered and often contradictory: A student who struggled all semester suddenly demonstrates mastery; a carefully planned lesson falls flat in execution; a small act of flexibility like an extended deadline turns out to matter more to students than anticipated. These moments, both the affirming and the disquieting ones, are something worth examining more deeply. The habit of turning toward that information, rather than reacting and moving past it, is the foundation of reflective practice.
Teaching is one of the few professions that generates continuous real-time feedback. Every class, every interaction, every assignment return is data. But data only becomes knowledge through examination and reflection (Kolajo, 2025). Reflection is a structured, intentional and formal act of examining experience to understand it better and move forward with greater purpose. Reflective practice turns teaching experience into pedagogical knowledge.
This knowledge informs both short- and long-term planning. In the short term, reflection might mean revisiting a concept that students aren’t grasping by returning to it, reframing an explanation or adding an example before the next class. Over time, it might mean examining why a concept consistently challenges students and deciding whether a more fundamental redesign of the lesson is warranted.
Why reflection matters
Sometimes it’s better to sit with the “what” before reaching for solutions. In an era of information overload, that’s harder than it sounds. Our instinct is to react, to fix, to move on, but reflection asks us to pause and look more closely first. It asks us to question our assumptions, examine our biases, consider perspectives we may have overlooked and search for patterns that a single event might obscure. Examining data over time can reshape entire approaches and lead to deeper learning, stronger decision-making, and greater creativity and innovation (Machost & Stains, 2023).
When you understand why something worked or didn't, you begin to make purposeful choices. Building reflection into your practice helps you see things more clearly and determine whether immediate change is necessary or longer examination and deeper thought are best. Done well, reflection builds confidence in deciding. A “next semester fixes” list can lower your stress and lets you “acknowledge a problem without turning it into an emergency” (Szawranskyj, 2026).
But who has time? How can you justify making time to reflect when faced with professional and personal commitments, days where every hour on your calendar is booked and a never-ending “to-do” list? Time to reflect is not a luxury; it’s critical for growth, improvement and mapping out a more rewarding future for you and your students. Reflective practice supports overall well-being and emotional regulation in ways that merely reacting rarely does (Cervellione, et al., 2025).
How to build reflection into your practice
Building a reflective practice requires intention. Create a system that works for you. Capturing the event soon after it happens can be jotting it down or doing a voice recording. Then, schedule a recurring time, weekly with more depth, at natural pause points in the semester, or as a more sustained practice at the end of a term.
During these expanded sessions, begin to examine the event in more detail.
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Review your record – Look underneath the surface. What went right? What didn't? Do distance and perspective provide a better lens to examine the event? Artificial intelligence tools can also serve as a low-stakes thinking partner. They work best as a starting point, a space to think out loud, test ideas, and generate questions, rather than a substitute for genuine reflection.
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Expand — Widen the frame. What alternatives exist that you haven't considered? What might a student, a colleague or someone from a different background see that you don't? Is there evidence from your own experience or from research that points toward a different interpretation? The Center for Teaching and Learning's pedagogy experts can help at this stage. Consultants with diverse backgrounds and expertise can help examine the data objectively; grounding observations in your learning goals, surfacing patterns you might miss and offering alternative pedagogical perspectives that expand your frame of analysis.
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Act Purposefully— Move toward a plan. What will you do differently or more intentionally going forward? What support from peers, from professional development or from institutional resources do you need to help make that change real? Teaching Center consultants can help you develop a plan, too.
Student feedback is a natural source of material to reflect on. Feedback collected throughout the term can uncover opportunities for short-term adjustments and provide data for long-term reflection. Student responses on a midterm course survey may reveal that additional course materials are necessary or that something in the syllabus needs clarification. Some changes, like replacing a core text, can't be implemented immediately, but student feedback gathered throughout the term can inform more deliberate revisions during a course redesign.
It’s equally as important to share your reflections with students. Discuss their feedback with them; point out changes you made or why a requested change isn't possible. Listening and responding to students’ feedback increases their sense of belonging and shared ownership of the learning environment. Modeling reflective behavior reinforces for students the purpose and value of feedback itself.
Resources
Lisa Votodian is the Survey Assessment Manager for the Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching (OMET) with the University Center for Teaching and Learning. You can reach her at lav14@pitt.edu
REFERENCES:
Cervellione, B., Lombardo, E. M. C., & Iacolino, C. (2025). Psychological resources and interventions for teachers' emotional competence and well-being: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1640968. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1640968
Simonson, S. R.,
Frary, M., & Earl, B. (2024, February 21).
Teaching excellence through mindful reflection. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/teaching-excellence-through-mindful-reflection/
