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Deep Thoughts: Incorporating a Self-Reflection Prompt for Improved Instructional Practice
Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy
  • Malia Willey, James Madison University
  • Brian Sullivan, James Madison University
  • Liz Thompson, James Madison University
  • Alyssa Valcourt, James Madison University
Type of Presentation
Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Room 1005
Proposal

This interactive workshop introduces reflective practice through the use of self-reflection prompts by information literacy instructors. Activities will be interwoven throughout the workshop to allow participants to develop and document their own strategies. We will begin by providing an overview of the benefits of reflective teaching (5 minutes). The facilitators will briefly explain their institutional context and their participation in a departmental initiative to foster intentional teaching (5 minutes). To better understand the perspectives of the participants, the audience will engage in a poll indicating their type of institution and their role. Participants will take a moment to record the instructional context in which they plan to employ a self-reflection prompt (5 minutes). After summarizing various formats that instructors can utilize for self reflection, participants will identify a suitable format for them (5 minutes). The facilitators will then describe how they individually customized and integrated self-reflection prompts into their pedagogical routines to fit their needs across different instructional roles. The variety of self-reflection prompts will be illustrated through the diverse prompts used by the facilitators (15 minutes). Participants will then work in small groups to individually draft and collectively discuss their own self-reflection prompts. A facilitator will work with each small group to help guide this process (15 minutes). Finally, facilitators will share how information gathered through reflection informed changes to their instructional practices. Participants will then evaluate their draft approach and work to align the reflective technique to their instructional objectives (10 minutes). Each group will share one take-away they have observed during the workshop (5 minutes). We will conclude with questions and general discussion (10 minutes).

Short Description
Reflective instructional practice is a pedagogical technique to more deeply evaluate the effectiveness of information literacy instruction from the teacher's perspective. Facilitators will share their experiences of using reflection with individualized prompts, in various disciplines, and through different formats. During this interactive workshop, participants will develop a plan for reflective practice and design a reflective prompt for their own instructional context. We will discuss how this reflective practice informs our work with information literacy.
Session Goals

Create a self-reflection prompt to routinely evaluate instructional practice

Develop a strategy for using the insights gained through self-reflection to methodically inform future instruction

Describe successful applications of self-reflection prompts to illustrate how intentional reflective practice improves information literacy instruction through individual assessment

Presentation Year
2018
Keywords
  • information literacy instruction; self reflection; assessment
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Citation Information
Malia Willey, Brian Sullivan, Liz Thompson and Alyssa Valcourt. "Deep Thoughts: Incorporating a Self-Reflection Prompt for Improved Instructional Practice" (2018)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/liz-thompson/6/