Student-led reflection cycles to support faculty instructional improvement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v10i1.6827Keywords:
faculty professional development, mathematics faculty, faculty reflection, student-led professional developmentAbstract
We report on a student-faculty partnership in which trained student-researchers guide faculty toward instructional improvement through a professional development format known as reflection cycles. Reflection cycles are guided by a student-developed, literature-informed tool to support faculty in goal setting and reflecting on equity-minded active learning in mathematics. Faculty participants reported benefiting from guided reflection, specialized student knowledge, accountability, support with new strategies, and non-evaluative observation. They also noted room for improvement through additional challenge, more feedback, more follow-up, and additional support with strategies. Our research reveals that faculty are willing to learn from students and that students have valuable perspectives to offer to faculty. We suggest that reflection cycles can allow all instructors, regardless of prior knowledge, confidence, or experience, to work gradually and continuously to improve their instruction at a sustainable pace. Through student-guided reflection, faculty can work towards a more equity-minded active classroom and address longstanding opportunity gaps in mathematics.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Alison Marzocchi, Amelia Stone-Johnstone, Kristin Kurianski, Roberto Soto
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