Benefits of reflective practice: a reflective assessment will help you celebrate your accomplishments, evaluate your skills, use your strengths more efficiently and continue to set and attain goals.

Reflective practice--buzzwords that we hear a lot today. Becoming self-reflective infiltrates not only our professional lives, but our personal lives as well. We can buy self-help books that teach us to reflect on every aspect of our lives. Yet, what does it really mean to be a reflective educator? What difference will it make to be reflective about our practices, anyway?

As a classroom teacher pursuing National Board Certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, I became very aware of the power of self-reflection. Every event in the portfolio work requires self-reflection. Through the process of reflection, teachers identify the strengths as well as the weaknesses in their instructional practices.

I often say that becoming a National Board Certified Teacher was the best professional development I ever engaged in because the self-reflective practice enabled me to identify the exemplars of my practice and plan the next steps in my professional development. I became a confident practitioner--able to ponder and adjust my practice to better meet the diverse learning needs of my students.

A few years have passed since that experience, and as I began my third year as an administrator I realized that I felt different from the previous two years. I noted that I now work with more confidence and I have a vision; a new direction for the work I do. I have begun to ask myself reflective questions, such as, "What do I already know and do well? What additional skills do I need? How can I be more effective and make the work I do have more impact on student learning and teacher practice? Where am I headed in my career?"

In order to answer these questions, I devoted time to reflect and evaluate my skills and practice, celebrate my success and create a professional development plan. I knew I needed data from more sources than just my own reflections in order to make a valid professional assessment.

As a classroom teacher, I had completed what is known as a "360[degrees] Evaluation." It is a process of getting input from colleagues, students, parents and administrators about your instructional practice. Analyzing and reflecting upon all the collected data helped me learn where I was in my development as an effective instructor and create a professional development plan to take me further.

I decided this is the process I would use to be reflective about my administrative practice and find where I stand in my development as a professional leader and administrator. From all the data I would collect, I hoped to learn what I now know, identify what I still need to learn, and create a professional development plan for myself. So I embarked on a reflective journey.

Collecting and analyzing data

To begin, I collected data from three sources: one was a self-assessment based on the California Professional Standards for Educational Leaders and the other two were groups of people I work with--peers (other administrators) and office staff and teachers. The self-assessment document was created and distributed to my Tier II cohort by Linda C. Orozco, a professor at California State University, Fullerton. By thoughtfully and honestly completing it, I learned of my developmental progress with each of the six professional standards for school leaders.

Next, I interviewed many of the other administrators I work with, mostly principals because I work closely with them and their teachers to implement intervention programs for students and professional development for teachers. I designed and asked questions that required their perspectives about my strengths, areas for continued refinement and development, challenges I face as an administrator, and administrative opportunities inside and outside the school district.

Finally, I distributed an evaluation to office staff and teachers to gain their perspectives about my skills and knowledge in five different areas: customer service, teamwork, organization and individual skills, professional knowledge and management resources. In each section, the evaluators responded by checking a blank under excellent, good, average, fair or poor. Their responses were reactions to statements about my skills and interactions with them.

Celebrating success and creating the professional development plan

I knew I was taking a risk engaging in this type of reflective assessment. I had to be open and willing to hear the negative as well as the positive about my work and myself. Yet, often times this type of engagement is the only way an administrator hears about the positive impact his work has on the groups of people he serves. Some administrators are so busy chastising themselves about their inadequacies and planning what they must do to improve that they can't see the accomplishments produced from their efforts.

It is for this very reason that I engaged in the process of self-reflection. The analysis of and reflection upon all of the data forced me to create a synthesis of my role as an administrator. This synthesis allows me to see and celebrate the accomplishments of my first two years as an administrator, acknowledge what I have learned, and plan my next steps for continued professional development. Sifting and sorting data from several different sources uncovers commonalities, and from these commonalities worthy and attainable professional goals are created. For example, each of my different assessments showed "communication" as an area for continued development. Further scrutiny of the assessment items regarding "communication" brought forth the following goals:

* Improve communication skills so as to deliver clear, concise and relevant information to all personnel.

* Expand communication with the community by speaking to service clubs about the benefits of inquiry science and eliciting their support.

* Communicate and implement the shared vision for professional development through site-based professional learning communities.

In order to attain these goals, I must develop vocabulary that helps me say exactly what I intend to say, learn and practice public speaking skills that engage audiences and keep their interest throughout the presentation, and motivate others to achieve desired results, such as improved student achievement.

Consequences of a reflective leader

"So what!" you may say. "Who and what benefits from a reflective practice?" First, a reflective practice is data-driven, making it a more valid way to evaluate our knowledge and skills. In order to reflect, one has to collect information and data from multiple sources. Reviewing data from sources other than just our own self-assessment will produce more accurate and valid pictures of our developed skills and abilities while illuminating the areas for continued growth.

Let's face it--each of us is our own worst critic and more often than not, we understate our successes and growth. We need outside and more objective input to help us develop an accurate assessment of where we are in becoming an effective administrator and leader.

Second, a reflective practice leads to an individual, specific, well-defined professional development plan. When we only rely on goal-setting with our immediate supervisor, we often end up with ill-defined goals or ones that really aren't the next steps needed in our growth. Becoming a skillful and effective leader is just as developmental as spelling development or abstract thinking, and without a reflective practice we sometimes jump over some vitally important skill--and knowledge-building stages.

Third, a reflective practice influences the improvement of student achievement through the identification of truly authentic areas of strengths. When we are cognizant of our skill and knowledge strengths, we use them most efficiently.

For example, a principal who is strong in instructional leadership will make observations and coaching a priority in his practice. Teachers who are supported and coached and see improvement in student achievement as well as their instructional practice will want to stay under that strong leadership. A stable teaching population benefits the students of that school through consistency of instruction and loyalty to students, parents and the entire school community that builds with continuous tenure at a site.

New goals, innovative practices

Finally, a reflective practice leads to innovative practices through the continuous process of setting and attaining goals. New challenges prohibit a stagnating practice or maintaining the status quo. One can't stand still if one is always striving to attain goals. New goals mean innovative practices, because the reflective administrator seeks out practices that will continue to move her practice forward.

So, who benefits from a reflective practice? The answer is, "We all do!" From each one of us to our students, parents, colleagues and community members as well as the school district as a whole--we all benefit from a practice that is constantly revitalized through self-reflection and refinement. I wonder what would happen to education if all administrators, veterans as well as novices, implement a routine of self-reflection at least once every two years?

Kathi Wagner is program improvement coordinator for the Centralia School District.