They formalised the five components of a reflective approach through discussions and comparisons of their respective practices. In one of the book's first chapters, they define and explain the components, and offer methodological considerations. They also demonstrate how to analyse a teacher’s practice based on a classroom incident described by a participant:

 - Describe the situation: Present the event in clear terms so that it can be understood.
The students came into the classroom. After having returned an exam that 80% of students failed, the teacher was hit in the back by a pencil while they are writing on the board.  

- Identify the problem: What was at stake for the participants?
Was it an aggressive act, or simply typical adolescent behaviour?

- Analyse the situation: Try to understand what happened according to spontaneous theories or recognised scientific theories.
For example, looking at contextual factors such as relationships between students in the class, their connection to adolescent psychosocial development, etc.

- Theorise the action: What information should be retained to better understand and react to this kind of situation.
Some students might feel frustrated to find themselves lumped in with all the others, leading to aggressive behaviour on their part. Once the teacher has calmed down, they can revisit the situation, explain how it made them feel, and ask the students to explain their own interpretations to avoid future misunderstandings.

- Straight back into the action: Teachers can take action based on the theories they have developed according to their context and personal characteristics.
The next time there are exams to return, the teacher can start the class with a review of concepts that students didn't seem to understand, have students work in pairs to go back over those concepts, and then hand students back their exams with an opportunity to make corrections.

Each of these components is an important part of the reflective process, which is not linear: depending on the interaction, we can come back to the description of the situation, identification of the problem, etc. The first letter of each component is written on one side of a die; as each tool is presented, the reader is able to easily understand the approach in question.  

This conceptualisation of the reflective approach, which is the backbone of the guide, is another one of its unique aspects.

Asking open questions

One of the tools developed by the PERF Department at ULg is designed to help trainers conduct more effective performance improvement meetings. It was developed for future educational psychology professors to use when meeting with student teachers after observing them during a student teaching placement. "This meeting is designed to help future teachers maximise performance improvement, to make them think about certain aspects of their lesson plan", explains Jacqueline Beckers. “The goal is to understand how the future teacher interprets a situation, and then help them progress according to how they see things. After all, we are more likely to help them improve if they feel understood, rather than starting with comments that have nothing to do with what they're thinking about. Several rules and techniques can help professors do this. For example, we recommend asking open questions, and the first question is the most important one. If you ask the student teacher 'how do feel about your lesson?’, you're focusing on the emotional aspect. If you ask ‘what do you think about your lesson?’, they'll understand that you're expecting a self-evaluation”.