Reflect on your teaching and learning journey
REFLECT is a visual tool that helps post-secondary educators to reflect on, and assess, their teaching and learning practice. The dimensions of the tool present aspects of teaching and learning that educators in today’s contexts may want to consider.
About the project
REFLECT stands for Reflective Exploration Framework for Learning and Engagement in Critical Teaching.
REFLECT is a visual tool that helps post-secondary educators to reflect on, and assess, their teaching and learning practice. The dimensions of the tool present aspects of teaching and learning that educators in today’s contexts may want to consider.
The reflective questions have been developed to help the individual to consider what dimensions are most relevant to them, what actions they are currently taking with respect to each domain, and whether there are (or aren’t) other areas they might like to delve further into. We encourage people to approach this tool with the idea that there is no “right” answer to the questions but rather only an honest self-reflection at one point in time.
Dimensions of teaching and learning
The 3M REFLECT Design Team arrived at 8 dimensions which we feel university instructors may wish to explore. We want to emphasize that the reflective process of using this tool is more important that the output image. It may be helpful to use this tool at different points in time to gauge growth and progress. The tool may assist instructors in developing a narrative for their teaching dossier. We caution that this tool is not to be used as a simple metric to judge teaching in tenure and promotion decision.
Note: the dimensions outlined below are not mutually exclusive and may of course overlap in your teaching and learning practice. The dimensions include the examples outlined below, but of course are not limited to the examples given.
Classroom Practices
Learning outcomes, discussion strategies, appropriate challenge, content knowledge development and evidence-informed learning strategies such as active learning.
Assessment of Learning
Implementing varied assessment approaches that are suitable for diverse representations of student learning. Assessment may involve scaffolding, effective timing of interventions and feedback, and alignment with learning outcomes and discipline-specific practices.
Assessment of Teaching
The externally and internally motivated evaluation of one’s teaching practices. Students’ perspectives of learning and peer observations/commentary may factor into how educators explore effective methods of teaching and learning.
Achievement and
Well-being
Being aware of, and providing support for, student well-being. Instructors may seek to enact relationship-based teaching to foster a sense of care and compassion in their teaching approaches while teaching reflective strategies for self-regulation and self-determination.
Decolonization and Indigenization
Understanding Indigenous Knowledges and Ways of Knowing in relation to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, UNDRIP, and post-secondary Indigenization efforts; decolonization of pedagogical approaches and content.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Incorporating practices that imbue justice, respect, and acknowledgement of the range of diversities (gender and sexual orientation, 2SLGBTTQIAA+, race, language, culture, religion, neurodivergence, and more); addressing bias in content, pedagogy, and assessment.
Educational Leadership
Demonstrating innovation in teaching practices and supporting others in post-secondary through mentorship and collaboration. Helping to create a community of educators who seek to enhance teaching, learning, and assessment methods across disciplines and professional fields.
Global Context
Awareness of the realities and impacts of global events on societies and different cultural groups, and inclusion of pedagogical mechanisms to signal care, empathy, and commitment to short and long-term planetary health.
Who should use this tool?
This tool was designed for post-secondary faculty who teach, and who wish to critically reflect upon their approach to teaching. The questions have been developed to help you to consider what dimensions are most relevant to you in your teaching context, and what actions you are currently taking with respect to each domain. There is NO “right” answer to the questions. This tool is meant to capture your honest thoughts at this point it time and you may choose to use the tool more than once over time to track changes in your responses.
We hope that this tool will also help faculty develop a narrative to articulate their journey as a faculty member, and to identify personal goals that have been met and personal goals for the future. This may be helpful for personal reflections that go into a teaching dossier for formative purposes.
This tool is NOT intended for students or administrators (unless they wish to critically reflect on their own teaching practice), and the output should NOT be used for making summative decisions on faculty teaching effectiveness.
Time commitment
Completing the self-assessment may take anywhere from 15 – 60 minutes, depending on how much reflection the user engages in. We recognize that faculty are busy, and we’ve designed the tool so that the reflective prompts are optional.
Data collection
Your data are your own. At no point do you enter any identifying information on this site. We will collect data on times of use and anonymous entries.