Reflection: Considering the planning, process and impact of interdisciplinary inquiry

What is the purpose of teacher reflection? What constitutes an excellent reflection?

"The “Reflection” section of the MYP unit planner provides teachers with an invitation to record their reflection at important periods in the unit’s development and implementation.

This section of the planner prompts critical reflection throughout the process of planning, teaching and reviewing the impact of interdisciplinary units. Throughout the unit, teachers should explicitly teach, model and provide meaningful feedback on the process of reflection." - Evaluating MYP interdisciplinary unit plans

As in all MYP units, reflection is a vital element in the planning and teaching of IDUs. In-depth reflection can spur personal and professional growth, and prompt responsive further development in the collaborative process of unit planning and implementation.

Details to remember

• The audience for reflection notes is you, the teacher. The audience may also be any future teachers who inherit the unit or use the unit as guidance for developing a new unit.

• This means that the reflection should provide meaningful and practical insights about the planning, process and impact of the unit.

• MYP: From principles into practice and ManageBac provide prompt questions that can inspire meaningful reflection. However, just providing brief answers that do not offer insights that could impact further development of a unit and/or your teaching practice is not worthwhile. So if the provided prompt questions do not inspire significant, purposeful reflection, other aspects of the strengths and challenges of planning and implementing each unit can be considered.

Example

In this guide, a language and literature and sciences interdisciplinary unit is used to illustrate one example of what each unit plan section could look like using the provided guidance. Below is the reflection section of that unit.

Check the reflection through the descriptors (shown below) from the IB publication Evaluating MYP interdisciplinary unit plans.

It is not 'required' that all topics noted in the 'sharing' level column above be present for a reflection to demonstrate 'sharing' level thoroughness and insight. However, it can be helpful to keep the topics (and the questions below) in mind in order to expand the areas of reflection that are considered.

• Is thorough, meaningful reflection provided at all three stages of the teaching process?

• Are connections made to components of the IB's philosophy of education?

• Are details provided that indicate areas of potential future development based on information about student achievement?

• Is specific information about students' intrinsic motivation and ownership of their own learning provided?

• Is there reflective consideration of the impact and future development of the interdisciplinary planning process, teacher collaboration and the logistics of interdisciplinary learning?