Pause, Reflect, Dialogue: AI as a Reflective Partner in GTA Teaching Practice

Abstract

This paper explores how structured, intentional reflection can help Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) navigate fragmented teaching roles and develop stronger professional identities. Drawing on Schön’s (1983) and Killion and Todnem’s (1991) models of reflection, I adapted the Five-Minute Reflection Rule— brief, focused reflections before and after teaching sessions—to build sustainable habits that foster agency, confidence, and pedagogical intentionality. Extending Brookfield’s (1995) four lenses, I incorporated generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and Grok as dialogic partners. Rather than producing content, these tools acted as reflective scaffolds, prompting new questions, surfacing blind spots, and reframing teaching dilemmas. Through examples from my GTA experience, I show how combining structured reflection with AI-mediated dialogue produced tangible classroom changes while exposing the limitations and risks of algorithmic input. I propose a sociotechnical lens as an extension to existing reflective frameworks, emphasizing how human reflection and technological mediation co-construct reflective processes. Ethical concerns—including bias, data privacy, and institutional responsibility for AI literacy—are also addressed. I argue that when approached critically and complementarily, AI can lower barriers to reflection and enrich professional learning without replacing the relational and dialogic dimensions of human reflection. For GTAs and early-career educators, even five minutes of disciplined, critically informed reflection can transform teaching practice and identity formation.