Creative Arts Circles
Reimagining Arts Education Through Creative Collaboration
Reflection as a Tool for Learning Moving beyond “What did we do today?”
Using Reflection in your Lesson Planning
Reflection is one of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, elements of teaching and learning.
It gives students an opportunity to pause and consider what they learned, how they learned it, what challenged them and what they might do differently next time.
Importantly, reflection does not need to be something we squeeze into the final two minutes of a lesson. When it is embedded throughout learning, it can support deeper understanding, self-regulation and metacognition.
Reflection shifts the focus from simply completing a learning experience to understanding the learning that took place.
Effective reflection helps students make connections between their learning experiences and curriculum outcomes. It encourages them to recognise progress, identify challenges and develop strategies for improvement.
For teachers, reflection is equally valuable. It provides insight into student understanding and helps inform future planning, assessment and differentiation.
What is reflection and why is it important?
Reflection as a Tool for Learning
Reflection is the process of thoughtfully examining experiences, decisions, and outcomes to deepen understanding and improve future practice. In teaching, reflection helps educators evaluate what worked well, identify areas for growth, and respond more effectively to student needs.
By regularly reflecting on classroom experiences, teachers become more intentional, adaptive, and responsive in their practice. Reflection also supports professional learning by encouraging critical thinking, continuous improvement, and informed decision-making. When embedded as a teaching strategy, it fosters meaningful learning and helps create a more engaging and effective learning environment for all students.
When planning a lesson, we often think about:
| Planning element | A reflective question |
| Outcomes | What did students actually learn? |
| Content | What ideas or concepts did students understand? |
| Teaching strategies | What helped students learn? |
| Assessment | How do I know learning occurred? |
| Next steps | What should I change or build upon next time? |
Teacher tip:
Reflection therefore isn’t an “extra” added to a lesson. It can become part of the relationship between planning, teaching, assessment and future learning.
Three powerful questions for teachers:
- What did students learn?
- How do I know they learned it?
- What would I change next time?
Questions like these can help us critically examine both student learning and our own professional practice.
Making Reflection Meaningful
One of the easiest traps is asking students: “Did you enjoy the lesson?”
There is nothing wrong with asking about enjoyment or engagement, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us much about learning. Instead, use targeted questions that encourage students to think about their thinking.
Try asking:
- What new knowledge or skills did you gain?
- What challenged you?
- How did you overcome that challenge?
- What strategy helped you learn?
- How does today’s learning connect with something you already knew?
How Can I Use It in My Teaching?
Reflection doesn’t have to involve lengthy written responses. A few carefully chosen prompts can give students valuable opportunities to stop, think, and make their learning visible. Here are four teaching strategies:
| Strategy | How students might reflect |
| Exit Ticket |
|
| Think-Pair-Share |
|
| Traffic Light Reflection |
🟢 I understand this well. 🟠 I need more practice. 🔴 I need help understanding. |
| Learning Journal |
|
Teacher Tips
- Reflection doesn’t have to involve lengthy written responses.
- A few carefully chosen prompts can give students valuable opportunities to stop, think, and make their learning visible.
- Don’t feel that you need to use every strategy.
- A short, purposeful reflection connected directly to the learning intention can often tell us more than a long, generic reflection completed simply because “reflection” appears on the lesson plan.
Reflection Isn’t Only for Students
Teachers need opportunities to reflect too. After a lesson, consider:
- Learning: Were the intended learning outcomes achieved?
- Teaching: Did the learning activities support the intended learning?
- Learner needs: Which students required additional support or extension?
- Assessment: How effective were my assessment strategies?
- Next steps: What adjustments should I make before teaching this again?
Visual Arts
Students might consider:
-
- Why did I select particular colours, materials or techniques?
- How does my artwork communicate meaning?
- What would I modify if I created the work again?
Teacher tip:
Provide sentence starters. Sentence starters can make reflective thinking more accessible for diverse learners.
“My original plan was to use warm colours, but I changed to cool colours because I wanted the painting to feel calm.”
Notice what happens here. The student isn’t merely describing what they made. They are explaining a choice, a change and the reasoning behind it.
Drama
Students might reflect on:
- How effectively did I communicate a character or emotion?
- Which performance techniques strengthened my presentation?
- How did audience feedback influence my thinking?
Teacher Tip:
Model reflective language for students. After a performance or rehearsal, share your own reflection aloud by explaining not just what happened, but what helped you improve. For example:
“I used a louder voice during the performance because I realised the audience could not hear my character clearly.”
The reflection makes the student’s decision-making visible and connects feedback with an adjustment to their performance.
Music
Reflection in Music might involve:
- evaluating performance accuracy and expression
- identifying rehearsal strategies that improved an outcome
- setting goals for future performances.
Teacher Tip
Model reflective language for students. After a performance or rehearsal, share your own reflection aloud by explaining not just what happened, but what helped you improve. For example:
“I noticed the class stayed together more successfully today because we practised the rhythm slowly before playing it at full tempo.”
By hearing reflection modelled, students learn to focus on the strategies that led to success rather than simply describing what they did. This helps develop deeper musical understanding and encourages a growth mindset.
From “What did you do?” to “What did you learn?”
Perhaps this is the most useful shift we can make.
| Instead of… | Try… |
| What did you do today? | What did you learn today? |
| Did you enjoy it? | What helped you learn? |
| Was it difficult? | What challenged you and what did you do about it? |
| Did you finish? | How did your thinking or work change? |
| Are you happy with it? | What are you proud of and what would you improve? |
The difference is subtle but important. The questions on the right encourage students to examine learning, thinking, decision-making and improvement.
💡 A final question for your own practice
What is one reflective question you could introduce into your next lesson that would help students tell you not what they did, but what they learned?
Reflection Makes Learning Visible
Reflection in the arts can help students recognise that creativity is not simply about producing a finished product. It is a process of learning, experimenting, adapting and growing.
When students regularly analyse their choices, evaluate their work and identify future goals, they have opportunities to become more thoughtful and independent learners.
And when teachers make reflection an intentional part of everyday classroom practice, we create space for something particularly valuable:
- Pause. Notice. Think. Adapt. Learn.
- Reflection doesn’t have to wait until the end.
- It can become part of how we learn.
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