Pause and Reflect

Just following midterm is a good time for teachers to assess how well students are progressing. What ideas have been communicated well? What concepts seem particularly difficult for students? How do students feel about their success? How well is the class working together? Taking time to reflect on how your course is going can help you make effective midpoint corrections that will add up to greater learning success.

This tip offers suggestions about how to gauge the progress being made in your course as well as some recommendations on reflective activities you might try.

What's Happening?

There is a great deal of information teachers might find useful. A good starting point, therefore, is to reflect carefully on what information you might want. Follow your gut-level instinct in deciding whether to analyze content, academic skill, attitudinal, or social information.

Academic Patterns. As you grade midterm assignments, look for patterns that indicate where students' understanding is notably weak or strong. Are there clusters of students who seemed to be uncertain about specific topics?

Academic Review. Ask students to describe what they feel are the content areas about which they feel strongest and/or weakest. They can write ideas on index cards.

Skills Inventory. List some academic skills (see Teaching Tips: “The Hidden Curriculum” and “Teaching Learning”) that you feel students should be using. Have students take an inventory by checking a response next to each that indicate whether they have a) used the skill, b) not needed it, c) don't know about it, and d) would like to know more about it.

Attitude Check. Ask students how they feel about their learning. Are they more confident on the subject? Do they feel comfortable in the learning environment? Do they feel like the course is meeting their needs? These questions could serve as a basis for a class discussion or given as a written survey.

Quality Improvement. Ask groups, especially if you have developed them as teams, to discuss several suggestions that might make their work together more effective. Have teams write these down. You can collect the lists and respond or leave time for groups to share their insights.

The above suggestions aim to illustrate a range of possible ways to collect information. Most of these methods may be adapted to uncover information in each of the other areas.

What Next?

Finding out what is going on in your courses is only the first step. Before deciding what to do, however, take some time over the break to reflect. What approach offers the most promise?

Quick Readings. The CIRT has a collection of essays and chapters around issues common to all teachers. Our Quick Readings file contains short essays that summarize scholarship and tips on these issues. Let us know your area of interest and we will send you some easy reading for your enjoyment.

Conversations. Share the information you have collected with some trusted colleagues. Is this similar to their findings? What ideas have they tried? Even if ideas are not readily at hand, encourage everyone to discuss different ways of understanding the problem.

Research. Spend some time in the library reviewing your professional journals for articles on pedagogy (most disciplines now support this kind of publication). Look for ideas in the journals of related disciplines.

Surf the Net. As teachers around the world place their courses on the Internet, you may find some of the teaching tricks that they have developed. Try the World Lecture Hall's listing of courses by discipline.

Find Resources. Use the break to look at instructional materials that students might use to supplement their learning. Review a video. Look for some CD software, especially for survey type courses. The local library is developing a collection of CDs in their video section that are available for loan.

Write. Reflective writing can often be a great help in sorting through ideas. Take some time to stop and write down your observations and ideas.

Final Comments

One final tip: find some time to relax. It is, sometimes, in these restful moments that the inspiration we need can find a way to reach us.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on October 13, 1997.