Reflecting on the Reflections Driving Variations in Heat Transfer Teaching

Reflecting on teaching is a powerful habit of mind that can improve one’s own teaching practice. Reflective practitioners make changes in the moment of teaching (reflection-in-action) and also look back on past teaching experiences (reflection-on-action) to inform planning of future instruction (Schön, 1983). This paper describes an engineering professor’s journey through the Reflective Cycle of Course Development, and how his reflections-in-action and reflections-onaction caused him to implement instructional variations within a senior level heat transfer course over three semesters. Looking back, the authors reflect on the reflections driving course variation and discuss considerations for future reflective course development.