Teacher classroom reflections: tackling flawed metacognition and memory

Reflection on one’s own lessons is typically viewed as a key aspect of professional development. Teachers are exhorted to be reflective practitioners, and this – it is assumed – will make them better at their job, a principle often seen as an instrument of system-wide improvement (e.g. Donaldson, 2011). But how accurate are such reflections? Can we rely on a teacher’s ability to accurately judge learning, or even to correctly remember what happened in a lesson? To answer these questions, I will draw on two main areas of research: metacognition and cognitive psychology. My specific focus is on reflective discussions, such as those between a teacher and their mentor or departmental manager. But the points largely apply to independent reflections, too. Metacognition While we tend to focus on learners’ cognitive processes, we should also consider teacher metacognition. How closely does a teacher’s mental model of learning mirror reality? As Kornell and Bjork (2007) stated