REFLECTIVE TEACHING

“Becoming a Reflective Teacher”

By: Eddy Muñoz

A workshop for the Teachers’ Training Course
 Reflective Teaching

AIM:
Have a better view of your
teaching and a broader
perspective of yourself as
a teacher.
 Teaching Writing

INTRODUCTION:

Just as we can get a clear idea of what we look

like to others when we gaze carefully into our
reflection in a mirror, so, too, can reflective
teaching practices help us gain a clearer
picture of ourselves as teachers.
 REFLECTIVE TEACHING
 Very few animals possess the gift that human infants
quickly acquire: the ability to recognize themselves in
a mirror.
 Mirrors may not seem like magical instruments, but
every time you look into one, something remarkable
happens. You recognize that the strange person
imitating your every move is not one of the many
people you see during the day—it is you yourself.
 Teaching Writing
Being reflective teachers means considering issues of culture
and personality. The linguist Claire Kramsch, in her book
Language and Culture, observed that language is so closely
connected to culture that at times we can't be sure whether we're
teaching English or some aspect of an English-speaking culture.
Reflective Teaching
Growing as a teacher doesn't mean
trying to become someone else. You
might be shy, inexperienced, or slow to
speak up. However, this doesn't mean
you can't be a great teacher. Always try
to reflect on who you are, not on
someone else.
Teaching Knowledge

 According to Robert Sternberg and

Joseph Horvath In their enlightening
article, "A Prototype View of Expert
Teaching”, knowing about teaching is the
first critical aspect of being a reflective
teacher.
Experts and Novices
What exactly is an expert? Well, an expert makes the difficult look easy! We hear a
violinist play a difficult piece, and she makes it sound so simple. We watch a talented
football player complete a perfect pass, and he makes it look effortless.
In contrast to an expert teacher, a novice teacher will make a lesson look
difficult!
Reflective Teaching

How do we become an
expert in English
language teaching?
Reflective Teaching

We begin with the gifts, abilities, or

interests we are born with.
We're surrounded by people who
have different training, experience,
and talent. Each of us is an expert in
some things, but we're novices in
many others.
 Your Expert Area
Regardless of your individual talents, you are an expert and everyone else
in the world is a comparative novice in another way. You are an expert
about your particular teaching situation. You know your students, the
curriculum you must follow, and the resources available to you.

If you are a new teacher somewhere, it's important to learn as much as

possible from your colleagues, who are experts on teaching at your school.
An excellent way to do this is to team teach with a local teacher with
experience. Often, both of you will benefit from this partnership.
Teaching knowledge also includes knowledge about the content area being
taught.
 Reflective Teaching
Knowledge about the language is important, especially
for you, the teacher. However, ESL/EFL knowledge
should be used primarily to teach the language, not
teach about the language.

You can rely on experts in linguistics, pedagogy, and

even ESL/EFL, but you are the expert when it comes to
the students you are teaching.
 Teaching Efficiency
The second quality of an expert teacher that Sternberg and
Horvath list is teaching efficiency. An experienced teacher is
an efficient teacher.

Example, when you observe a veteran elementary teacher

conduct an English lesson, you usually see very little wasted
energy or time. The instructor moves in an organized manner
from task to task. At the same time, he or she is responsive to
unplanned moments while simultaneously ensuring that
students don't disrupt the lesson.

The essence of efficiency is time management, because time

plays an important role at all levels of English language
teaching.
 Time on Task

Becoming competent in a second language like English

involves massive amounts of what psychologists call time
on task. An accomplished pianist or a competitive
swimmer must spend many hours rehearsing a piece or
practicing to swim. Their talent (or "intelligence") will
enable them to achieve very little unless they devote
significant time to the task.
 Time In Courses and Classes
Time also plays a role in scheduling courses and classes.
Intensive English programs expose students to a great deal of
language instruction. However, the more traditional and longer
ESL/EFL curricula have at least two time advantages.

The first involves gaining competence in higher level English.

Exceedingly difficult skills, like becoming a proficient bilingual,
demand an extraordinary amount of time. Not weeks or months
—but years.
 Reflective Teaching
 A teacher has to be smart about not wasting time in
individual lessons. For example, how much time is
wasted if the teacher hasn't prepared ahead of
time? How many minutes are consumed if the
teacher doesn't give clear directions?

 But efficiency in the classroom doesn't always mean

that the less time something takes the better.
 Efficient Classroom Activities
 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) promotes a
variety of principles that lend themselves to efficient
teaching.
 Pair and group work allow for an efficient use of class
time.
In a 50-minute oral skills class of 20 students, for
example, even the most vigorous teacher can only
spend about two minutes on questions and answers per
student. However, if this same instructor devotes the
period to pair work on an information gap activity, each
student will have at least 15 to 20 minutes to talk!
 Reflective Teaching

 An equally efficient teaching tool, especially when combined with

group work, is task-based instruction.
 This is characterized by activities that engage language learners in
meaningful goal-oriented communication to solve problems,
complete projects, and reach decisions.

 The last one is Project work on the list of efficient classroom

activities. As a long-term, task-based instruction demands a great
deal of group work. Most of the work for these is done out of class.
In addition, because students are free to choose their own projects,
they often put much more energy and enthusiasm into this work
than in the more traditional in-class activities.
 Teaching Insight
 When we observe other teachers in action, we're also
watching ourselves because we often compare what we see to
what we do.
Peer Observation
 Cultures, institutions, and even individuals differ in how much
they support teacher observation. If your situation encourages
teachers to observe their colleagues in action, you are
fortunate, because peer observation encourages professional
growth. Whether you follow a prepared checklist or simply take
informal notes, it's also helpful to observe the behavior of the
students as well as the teacher. How students react and
respond can reveal much about whether a teacher is effective
and appreciated.
 Self-Observation
Self-observation is really no different from watching your
peers. The only difference is that the teacher you choose
to observe that day happens to be you! Before the
advent of modern technology, self-observation was quite
impossible. Now, though, almost all schools have audio
and video recorders.

Videos also give encouragement. Teachers can see

successful moments that they may not have recognized
without the aid of a camera. Above all, videotaping gives
you a real-time perception of what your students see and
hear when you meet them in class.
 Journaling
Just as composition students keep journals detailing their
progress in English class, so teachers can do the same by
writing about their teaching. Journaling can be an individual
effort, like keeping a private diary of the day's or week's
events.
It's not necessary to write down a great deal. But it does
help to be consistent. It's better to write a paragraph a
week then several paragraphs every now and then. Also,
don't make your entries purely descriptive, like, "This week,
I gave a dictation and introduced a new song." Instead,
write more about your reflections: "The dictation I gave this
week was much too difficult for them because . . ."
 Professional Development
If we each make it our responsibility to keep learning about teaching,
we'll continue to gain teaching knowledge, efficiency, and insight, and
therefore we'll become more reflective teachers.

Continuing Education
 You may not realize it, but at this very instant you are pursuing
professional development through continuing education. By taking
this introductory course to English language teaching, you're
demonstrating that you're a committed teacher and have a serious
interest in improving yourself professionally.
 Even without formal course work, you can easily continue your
professional development by reading the many books, journals, and
Web site materials available to any ESL/EFL professional almost
anywhere in the world.
 Professional Associations
It's also important to remember that you are not just an individual
English teacher, facing your classroom alone and confronting
challenges that are unique only to you. You are part of a great
community of ESL/EFL practitioners teaching millions of students
around the world, and this community has much to offer you.

By joining a local, national, or international association of

ESL/EFL professionals, you will gain in teacher knowledge,
efficiency, and insight. You will also be encouraged and
supported by a fellow community of language teachers. If you're
not already a member of one of these associations, an excellent
place to begin is your provincial or national ESL/EFL association.
 Reflective Teaching
Associations almost always provide you with newsletters or
journals, information about job opportunities, and annual or even
semiannual conferences. Despite all the wonders of modern
technology, nothing can compare with face-to-face interaction with
like-minded colleagues.

Conferences give you a chance to meet some of the famous

people you've read about or whose materials you've used in your
classes. They also give you an opportunity to hear fellow teachers
discuss materials, activities, or approaches to their teaching that
have worked (or not) for them. Finally, these meetings are almost
always supported by publishers who exhibit their materials for you
to consider.
 Conclusion
When we view ourselves as teachers we’re just trying to discover
the way we’re doing in class for the betterment of the students. It’s
extremely important to know that through peer and self-
observation, journaling, and pursuing professional
development we become reflective teachers. By applying
all this principles we can have a better view of our
teaching and perspective of ourselves as teachers.