Watching Yourself Teach

Observing your own teaching, via a video recording, can be an awkward and humbling experience. It can be very uncomfortable to look at yourself as others see you. You won't simply observe your teaching style; you'll hear your voice, see your gestures and mannerisms, and scrutinize your appearance.

But watching yourself teach can also be a powerful tool for reflection and self-assessment. You have the opportunity to analyze your class from the students' perspective. You can see what you do well and less well. You can see which teaching techniques work, and which don't. And you can gauge your students' reactions.

As you view the recording, begin by asking some general questions:

• Did you hold the students' attention?
• Did your body language indicate that you are enthusiastic?
• Did you speak too quickly or slowly? Too softly or too loudly? Did you vary your tone, inflection, and pace of delivery?
• Was the class well-organized?

Then examine the recording more systematically:

1. How did you begin the class?

• Did you clearly spell out the class topic and your objectives?
• Did you help the students understand why this topic is significant?
• Did you outline the topics that you planned to cover?

2. If you are lecturing:

• Were you animated and engaging? Did you maintain eye contact with your students?
• Was your lecture's organization clear?
• Did you define terms and concepts clearly when they were introduced?
• Did you summarize the major points that you made?
• Did you break up the class every ten to fifteen minutes to ensure that the students could maintain their concentration?
• Did you invite questions?

3. If you are leading a discussion:

• Did you dominate the discussion?
• Did you encourage students to respond to each other's comments?
• What kinds of questions are you asking? Leading questions? Factual questions? Open ended questions?
• Did you form a genuine community in your classroom?
• Did you favor male or female students? Did you take steps to ensure that all students are participating in the discussion?