To paraphrase what philosopher Edmund Burke once said, learning without reflection is like eating without digestion. In either case you can feed as much as you want to a person but that person won’t leave nourished; it might be as though they haven’t eaten at all. With reflection, on the other hand, critical faculties become engaged, the learner’s understanding of the learning process deepens, and information becomes meaningful knowledge, connected to other knowledge, the learner’s life, and the larger world. (Full text here)

What is the value of transparent teacher reflection?

Before you answer that question, take a look at just a few examples of educators engaging with reflection (from this week alone!):

Melanie thinking about the role of her personal politics in the context of teaching IBDP Global Politics, click here to read her post.

Nicola considering groupthink, our mission, diversity and so much more in part 1 of her 4-part thinking available here.

Uzay reflects on the ways to broaden her repertoire teaching poetry annotation skills, click here to hear her thoughts. She continues to use her portfolio as a way to reflect and advocate for Focus on Food, read all about that here.

Pat and Niki look back at University night and kick off a brand new podcast, set aside 11 minutes and enjoy what they have to share by clicking here.

Louisa, Kristin, and Agi all put aside time to reflect together after a professional learning experience, click here to listen in on their musings.

Louie takes a few moments to make connections between self-awareness, service and poetry in this post.

Kirstie makes us wonder about the greater gifts of confusion in this eloquent post.

Nick thinks about Computer Science and gender equality on his blog available here.

Ellie offers advice for staying organized: useful to those new to the college, or those who have been here since day one, click here to see her approach to keeping on top of it all.