Dear Teachers and Teacher Trainees
I am interested in Language Teachers' Reflection on their profession. What do you think of this concept? Do you think rethinking on what you have taught, evaluation of what you have taught for the sake of improvement can help teachers grow professionally? Can you provide examples if you have experienced it.[/b]
Language Teachers' Reflection
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
If anybody having trouble with understanfing this concept just post a text. i will try to explain as far as I can.
It is basically about what you teach everyday and what would you like to improve in your teaching.
the issues about teaching methods, pedogogical aspects, classroom management are also in the scope of this topic. Or if you have issues, for instance, with assessment of students, dealing with parents, discipline and etc. it will also count.
i would appreciate if you could post such kind of problems you anticipated and the ways, tools, methods you deal with them. and were these methods, tools, ways effective or not?
It is basically about what you teach everyday and what would you like to improve in your teaching.
the issues about teaching methods, pedogogical aspects, classroom management are also in the scope of this topic. Or if you have issues, for instance, with assessment of students, dealing with parents, discipline and etc. it will also count.
i would appreciate if you could post such kind of problems you anticipated and the ways, tools, methods you deal with them. and were these methods, tools, ways effective or not?
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
You might want to read, "Teacher Cognition in Language Training" by Devon Woods.
Teachers have done this since there was teaching I'm sure. You couldn't go on teaching without reflecting on your teaching in all areas.
I have done this in every area that you mentioned. There is a lot of literature in this area - just type in Reflecting Teaching in Google. I think there is even a group.
I wrote a daily journal to help me sort out what I was doing across the page from my daily plan. I often reviewed the journal and it helped me see patterns of my behaviour or the student's behaviour or motives over the long term.
I had a mentor who would come into the classroom regularly, observe and then comment.
I video taped my classroom periodically with the camera just on me so I could reflect on what I was doing.
I attended as many conferences, courses, jam sessions with other teachers who were teaching the same subjects as I could and emailed experienced friends who were teaching the same things.
I read and read and read on topics relevant to teaching.
I always asked for comments by students either written or verbal. I developed a form for them to fill out like a report card but they could do it anyway they wanted - with art, poetry, photography.
The more you know yourself, the more effective you will be.
Teachers have done this since there was teaching I'm sure. You couldn't go on teaching without reflecting on your teaching in all areas.
I have done this in every area that you mentioned. There is a lot of literature in this area - just type in Reflecting Teaching in Google. I think there is even a group.
I wrote a daily journal to help me sort out what I was doing across the page from my daily plan. I often reviewed the journal and it helped me see patterns of my behaviour or the student's behaviour or motives over the long term.
I had a mentor who would come into the classroom regularly, observe and then comment.
I video taped my classroom periodically with the camera just on me so I could reflect on what I was doing.
I attended as many conferences, courses, jam sessions with other teachers who were teaching the same subjects as I could and emailed experienced friends who were teaching the same things.
I read and read and read on topics relevant to teaching.
I always asked for comments by students either written or verbal. I developed a form for them to fill out like a report card but they could do it anyway they wanted - with art, poetry, photography.
The more you know yourself, the more effective you will be.
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I see there is a Reflective Teachers blog and there is a plan to make a Reflective Teaching Group from the University of Illinois and there are many articles on it both on Google and Google Scholar. I haven't seen a Reflective Teachers Association yet. Maybe you could start a group - that would be great for your research to see how the teachers manage and if they find it important.
Emese Bukor also worked on this topic and did her doctorate thesis on a method to get teacher's to reflect. I think it was stellar work but I don't think she has published it yet. She worked with Devon Woods and did publish one book. She works at Carleton University in Ottawa so you might want to get in touch with her and ask her if you could read her thesis. She is under the German teachers in the list.
Here is one paper that should be very interesting as well:
http://jte.sagepub.com/content/40/2/49.abstract
Emese Bukor also worked on this topic and did her doctorate thesis on a method to get teacher's to reflect. I think it was stellar work but I don't think she has published it yet. She worked with Devon Woods and did publish one book. She works at Carleton University in Ottawa so you might want to get in touch with her and ask her if you could read her thesis. She is under the German teachers in the list.
Here is one paper that should be very interesting as well:
http://jte.sagepub.com/content/40/2/49.abstract
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I think it might be a bit overwhelming for a teacher to think of one incidence of their teaching and tell you. It would mean that something didn't work and they would have to publicity say that something didn't work, even if they did think of a way to fix it. We are not inclined to publish our mistakes. That takes great courage.
They do this much more in Anthropology and of course, it is a great help for those coming after. It would be wonderful if teachers could be more open about this and help future teachers. I encourage everyone to participate in this thread and break the tradition of silence but I understand why you don't. I am retired and nothing can influence my pension. It would be different if I were working for a school and my principal saw my mistakes or the parents.
This will be an extremely difficult area to get co-operation from teachers on unless you promise anonymity and you can't really do that on Dave's. Perhaps if you give them your email address they can send you messages if you promise never to use their names.
They do this much more in Anthropology and of course, it is a great help for those coming after. It would be wonderful if teachers could be more open about this and help future teachers. I encourage everyone to participate in this thread and break the tradition of silence but I understand why you don't. I am retired and nothing can influence my pension. It would be different if I were working for a school and my principal saw my mistakes or the parents.
This will be an extremely difficult area to get co-operation from teachers on unless you promise anonymity and you can't really do that on Dave's. Perhaps if you give them your email address they can send you messages if you promise never to use their names.
Dear Sally,
You are right about anonymity. I think I did not take into consideration this issue. That's very sad that our principles view as people who never do mistakes.
I can share with my own story. I do not possess a lot of experience in teaching English language. nevertheless I had student teacher practice in the college. For the sake of anonymity I will not reveal the name of the college.
In the beginning of the student teacher practice pre-service language teachers (including me as one of them) were gathered and told that we should never come against the will of the students. the college had many students who were from influential families or so and we, teachers, could not even insist on something strictly as we could have problems with their parents.
Probably dealing with classroom management because of this, and dealing with parents attitudes towards student teachers were one of the obstacles I faced during the second and third years of my Teacher Training Program in the university.
You are right about anonymity. I think I did not take into consideration this issue. That's very sad that our principles view as people who never do mistakes.
I can share with my own story. I do not possess a lot of experience in teaching English language. nevertheless I had student teacher practice in the college. For the sake of anonymity I will not reveal the name of the college.
In the beginning of the student teacher practice pre-service language teachers (including me as one of them) were gathered and told that we should never come against the will of the students. the college had many students who were from influential families or so and we, teachers, could not even insist on something strictly as we could have problems with their parents.
Probably dealing with classroom management because of this, and dealing with parents attitudes towards student teachers were one of the obstacles I faced during the second and third years of my Teacher Training Program in the university.
Sally,
It is very interesting. I looked at your profile. You have worked in so many countries. I am actually from Kazakhstan. I am telling this because you mentioned Mongolia in your profile. I just thought maybe, by some lucky chance, you visited Kazakhstan too. Probably, you know the system in the Post-Soviet countries. How would you describe the reflection and its development in the Post-soviet Countries?
I know that Language Teachers in Kazakhstan still stick to the Soviet System of Education. For instance, High School English Language Teachers Training Faculties in the universities still take different types of Psychology Courses during four years of their Bachelor's degree. That is why when having a student teacher practice at schools, teachers should be able to psychological portrait of their students individually and be able to evaluate their subject knowledge as well. Which means that Teacher write everyday diaries and journals. In these diaries teachers usually write about classroom everyday activities, what went wrong and what went right and give possible reasons for them. during 30 days of practice each day ought to be written in the diary. towards the end of the practice student teachers hand in their diaries and journals to their supervisors. supervisors, in turn, give feedback and some personal matters are discussed individually. some recurring issues are discussed in group. that was a simple example which is based also on my personal experience. at that moment, unfortunately, I, personally did not know what is #reflection#. but we were told that the activities above are means for improving as a teacher. because while writing you keep in mind and analyse and try to avoid things that were unsuccessful next time.
if you have seen something or different in the countries you worked or in post-soviet countries it is much appreciated if you share.
It is very interesting. I looked at your profile. You have worked in so many countries. I am actually from Kazakhstan. I am telling this because you mentioned Mongolia in your profile. I just thought maybe, by some lucky chance, you visited Kazakhstan too. Probably, you know the system in the Post-Soviet countries. How would you describe the reflection and its development in the Post-soviet Countries?
I know that Language Teachers in Kazakhstan still stick to the Soviet System of Education. For instance, High School English Language Teachers Training Faculties in the universities still take different types of Psychology Courses during four years of their Bachelor's degree. That is why when having a student teacher practice at schools, teachers should be able to psychological portrait of their students individually and be able to evaluate their subject knowledge as well. Which means that Teacher write everyday diaries and journals. In these diaries teachers usually write about classroom everyday activities, what went wrong and what went right and give possible reasons for them. during 30 days of practice each day ought to be written in the diary. towards the end of the practice student teachers hand in their diaries and journals to their supervisors. supervisors, in turn, give feedback and some personal matters are discussed individually. some recurring issues are discussed in group. that was a simple example which is based also on my personal experience. at that moment, unfortunately, I, personally did not know what is #reflection#. but we were told that the activities above are means for improving as a teacher. because while writing you keep in mind and analyse and try to avoid things that were unsuccessful next time.
if you have seen something or different in the countries you worked or in post-soviet countries it is much appreciated if you share.
-
Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
Sorry, I never got to Kazakhstan although we heard a lot about it. Hunting with eagles mostly. They said that the people of Western Mongolia and Eastern Kazakhstan were family.
I have never heard of making a diary of the psychological profile of students and it would be frowned upon in Canada and the US as an invasion of privacy. If the student had problems they would be sent off to a guidance counsellor and then a profile would be available to the teachers but that is only in rare cases. Sounds like an interesting idea but I never had to do that in Mongolia. Perhaps I just didn't understand enough of the teacher conference because it was mostly in Mongolian and I just reported on the student's oral English progress. I didn't get to see the curriculum of the teacher's college and only gave them workshops on learning in groups and co-operative learning. I wish now I had looked more closely.
I am sure teachers everywhere have problems with undue influence from influential parents. I have never run into the problem of not being able to get students to do what I asked though but then I usually asked them to do a project and since they chose the project were excited about it. They usually did way more than I expected or asked for, particularly with illustrating or demonstrating the idea. I usually had the opposite problem in Mongolia and the parents didn't think their children weren't working hard enough or doing enough homework. I think they were a special set of parents though in a private school, having to pay for education when the public schools were free.
I can see that I didn't ask a lot of questions that would have been interesting.
We did have very strict inspections where the inspectors took our day book of what we had taught, the children's notebooks and compared them to see if we taught what was in the curriculum. I followed the Mongolian English teacher's curriculum in oral English and I don't really know how they checked on that. None of the inspectors spoke English I don't think but I don't really know as no one approached me.
We certainly take psychology courses in teacher education in Canada and I did do profiles of students in the courses I took in special education and our prof commented on the profiles we developed. But no one asked me to do that as a classroom teacher in Canada. I am sure that it would make you very reflective but I would worry that you would sometimes be wrong. You don't have time to get to know the students well enough to judge what they are doing or why.
I have never heard of making a diary of the psychological profile of students and it would be frowned upon in Canada and the US as an invasion of privacy. If the student had problems they would be sent off to a guidance counsellor and then a profile would be available to the teachers but that is only in rare cases. Sounds like an interesting idea but I never had to do that in Mongolia. Perhaps I just didn't understand enough of the teacher conference because it was mostly in Mongolian and I just reported on the student's oral English progress. I didn't get to see the curriculum of the teacher's college and only gave them workshops on learning in groups and co-operative learning. I wish now I had looked more closely.
I am sure teachers everywhere have problems with undue influence from influential parents. I have never run into the problem of not being able to get students to do what I asked though but then I usually asked them to do a project and since they chose the project were excited about it. They usually did way more than I expected or asked for, particularly with illustrating or demonstrating the idea. I usually had the opposite problem in Mongolia and the parents didn't think their children weren't working hard enough or doing enough homework. I think they were a special set of parents though in a private school, having to pay for education when the public schools were free.
I can see that I didn't ask a lot of questions that would have been interesting.
We did have very strict inspections where the inspectors took our day book of what we had taught, the children's notebooks and compared them to see if we taught what was in the curriculum. I followed the Mongolian English teacher's curriculum in oral English and I don't really know how they checked on that. None of the inspectors spoke English I don't think but I don't really know as no one approached me.
We certainly take psychology courses in teacher education in Canada and I did do profiles of students in the courses I took in special education and our prof commented on the profiles we developed. But no one asked me to do that as a classroom teacher in Canada. I am sure that it would make you very reflective but I would worry that you would sometimes be wrong. You don't have time to get to know the students well enough to judge what they are doing or why.