Talking about Teacher Talk (briefly)

As a teacher and teacher trainer, Teacher Talk Time (TTT) is a subject raised often. Too much TTT, reduce TTT, how can we limit TTT. These sorts of comments won’t surprise many who read this blog. It seems we all, collectively seek to reduce our TTT. Why? Because we are developing student-centered classrooms, and running student-centered activities and the whole idea of TTT starts with teachers, so obviously TTT is bad.

But we all aren’t Caleb Gattengo. Even if we wanted to be, is The Silent Way what’s best for every ESL and EFL classroom in the world? If so, what gives with all the alternative methods?

No…even if we’re all silent way masters. In reality, what we’re really talking about here is teacher effectiveness, and how TTT can become Teacher-centered instruction and diminish our effectiveness as language educators.

So, if we aren’t limiting TTT, what are we doing here?

When working with teachers, I find it most helpful to focus on what the TTT is all about, rather than the amount. For what purposes are teachers talking? Are we explaining or demonstrating? Are we providing contextual examples or simply playing “knower-in-chief” so the students feel like they’re in good hands? Are we talking because we feel it gives us control? Because it allows us to ‘cover bases’? Because we don’t trust the students? Because we don’t trust ourselves? Our plans? Our methods? Are we talking because we have a clear objective or we’re reacting to something we’ve seen or heard? Are we talking for classroom management? Are we aware of what we are saying? Are we aware of what the students understand? How do we know what they understand?

In reality, TTT is critical, and the demand for it depends on the level of the students, the particular class and the purposes of the teacher. Students, let’s remember, are in the class because they need guidance.

Yes, teachers should strive to develop student-centered classes, but this doesn’t mean teachers don’t talk.

Teachers need to be aware of their sandbox. The sandbox is where we all get to play. It’s where the teachers lead students to play. The sandbox is the totality of language students engage with/listen to/are expected to produce. TTT needs to stay inside the sandbox. Teachers need to be aware of the language they’re using. Grading it is a skill. Managing language, staying inside that box, is a practice- only time, focus and effort improves it.

The next question may be, How do we define the sandbox? First, needs assessment. Which quickly turns into continuous assessment. A teacher’s obligation is to their students. And if a teacher starts playing outside the students’ sandbox, how can they be expected to find success. We must collect evidence in order to discover what is happening in relation to this sandbox. To do that, teachers need to observe, note, record and generally step out of the way. And that, stepping out of the way of our students learning, may be the hardest part of working with TTT. Giving up control is never easy, and handing over the responsibility for learning to the students feels…hard, in many ways. But they’re the ones walking the path. They’re the ones engaging in their sandbox, and when we’re gone, they’re the ones who have to communicate for their needs. We’re only providing the time and knowledge necessary for them to succeed in doing so.

If a teacher maintains a rigid sandbox, how can students flourish and demonstrate what they know. Where is the goldilocks zone? There is no clean answer. And that is why I love teaching. Every context, every scenario demands a run through the ELC, preferably in the company of engaged educators, with critical reflective practice being the rock from which everyone stands.

There is no easy answer to TTT, except that is it necessary, should be intentional and is consistently affected by a number of factors. As with everything in life, it’s done best when it’s done with forethought and consideration.

MISC

Those long experienced in this blog know that it’s largely been on hiatus since 2014. There was an incredible eco-system of interested, dedicated and passionate teachers who were key to keeping the blogs flowing, and in connecting yours truly with like-minded teachers across the globe (from all of whom I took away greater than I feel is possible for me to have shared).

A shift was to come.

Things went dark. And so it’s been, aside from a random flare ups.

A little flare up occurred again tonight. My eyes were alight with great new ideas, and I couldn’t wait to get them written down.

And then I thought about the blog here, I realized that it doesn’t serve the same purpose for me anymore. And so, it shall lie dormant until I can find an appropriate vehicle to motor it along.

 

Designing a Curriculum for Learning

Like an old tome found in the back of a library, I’m dusting off my observation glasses and ready to kickstart this old blog back into gear!

What could’ve brought me back into the fold after such a long – and presumably permanent – hiatus? A very fortunate happenstance – catching the newish blog post by THE Tony Gurr over at allthingslearning by the title –

So…What Exactly Should Curriculum Planning Look Like – for 2017/18? (Part 02)

It struck a chord because it speaks directly and succinctly to the core of what I’ve been haphazardly trying to express to my teachers for the past six months. Let’s let go of the textbook! Take our teacher hats off and put a student hat on. Reflect on what the students learned. Find evidence to back it up. Be creative and experiment! Try new ideas. Break the rules.

Lots of head nodding, backslapping all round. We were going to make a difference, flip the script!

But for all the good theorizing we did and no matter how much I’ve proselytized – the textbook continues to be the first place to turn.

Students need content!

I can’t do my job well if I don’t know where I’m going.

I don’t know what we’re doing here.

I sympathize greatly with these perspectives, for while we (as the ESL field in general) do a fair job of theorizing and creating highfelutin methodologies, on-the-ground implementation of English language classes (especially those of the ELF variety) continues to tend to revert to ‘follow the book…creatively’ curriculum reality. It exasperates some teachers who see their motivation sucked away by endless testing schedules and grammar-driven curriculum demands.

So…Why is it so hard to implement student-led curriculum?? Why do so many EFL contexts rely on textbooks?

1. Turnover – academies and institutes generally see yearly turnover of their faculty. Providing teachers with books to follow cuts down on the need for…
   1. training
   2. trainers
2. Keeping a book at the heart of things gives parents/students concrete understanding of what is to come and what has been passed (or in the common language – learned)
3. (controversially perhaps, but true to my experience) Books provide a crutch for those with less-honed grammatical understandings.
4. Textbooks lend legitimacy. Oxford or Pearson are names that most people know of, and thus trust. A school striking out on its own without a book needs some other authority figure to back up the curriculum.
5. Textbooks can be a nice little income earner.

Now, don’t get me wrong, textbooks are grand. They are a super resource for teacher and student alike. The problem is that they can quickly become a magnet of focus for all stakeholders involved.

So what’s the solution to EFL curriculums?

A start would be to read Kathleen Graves’ excellent book, Designing Language Courses.

In short, there’s a process that we must go through. It’s not onerous, and the process itself is highly illuminating. But as with so much in life, without putting in the time to do it right, the result won’t live up to expectations.

Before starting anything, it’s critical one gets to the heart of their pedagogical beliefs. Take a critical eye to them. Play devils advocate. Tease them out.

Then, define the context. Describe every possible detail about the school, classroom, class, students, admin demands, anything that could possibly have an influence on the class should be included here.

Set SMART goals. This takes practice. And then more practice. And then you practice some more. Make them Specific. Make sure they’re Measurable. Make them Achievable. Make them Relevant. Make them Time-bound.

Assessment can then be done by gathering evidence and measuring.

It’s all about Goals.

Goals (or outcomes as Tony referred to) help us reorient our perspective away from the content and onto the students. What exactly do we want to get out of the students in this semester? This month? Week? Class?

At my school, the administration provides the SMART goals for the program as a whole, as well as level specific goals. The teachers use the curricular goals as guidance for developing a scope and sequence to their class, which allows the production of more specific, fine-tuned goals that coherently scaffold students learning from day-to-day.

Implementation then relies on how well the goals (or outcomes) are stated or designed.

Which will have to be the subject of another blog post. Here’s hoping it won’t be another year+ before that comes along.

 

 

e=mc2

One of the tougher variables to account for when seeking out the best avenues to learning is motivation.

Motivation is talked about everywhere. Conference abstracts promise new ways of motivating students. Publishers sell their textbooks with new and improved tasks or culturally relevant material. Teaching offices are filled with lamentations regards the lack of motivation in the classroom along with plenty of prescriptive advice from colleagues.

Students need to be, at least partially, intrinsically motivated to successfully learn languages.

This post will argue, however, that motivation alone will not do the trick. Motivation, like a delicate flower, will bloom and wither away or be crushed without the appropriate care (or input). I myself have attempted to learn a number of languages and had all sorts of intrinsic motivation to do so. Each time ended with a whimper and frustration.

In my own failed attempt to learn language, I often lacked direction, which (by the way) is where a good teacher comes in really handy. Who knew?

I also lacked any way of interpreting the contextual nuances of the language I was attempting to learn. As any teacher knows all too well, Google translate is not yet meet the standards of the Babel Fish that helped Arthur Dent navigate the galaxy with his trusty towel.

As Google translate proves, understanding the nuts and bolts of a language (vocabulary and grammar) does not bring forth useful or often even understandable communication.

Considering that linguistic knowledge alone is insufficient, what is a teacher to do? To begin, it is critical to understand grammar as more than mere form. Diane Larsen-Freeman has a very useful article titled ‘Teaching Grammar’ in which she describes how linguistic grammar can be taught via a three dimensional understanding of grammar as: form, meaning and use.  Rather than merely focusing students on grammatical form, Larsen-Freeman advises that students be exposed to the meaning and social contexts in which different grammatical elements are utilized.

This idea of a semiotic understanding of language was developed by Michael Halliday’s. Halliday’s systemic functional linguistic (SFL) model of language sees language as a system. By seeing language as ‘a meaning-making system through which we interactively shape and interpret our world and ourselves’, (Derewianka & Jones, 2012) the systemic functional model demands far more of learners than merely becoming acquainted with the pieces of a language.

Context is critical. In order to understand linguistic context an interlocutor needs to understand the channel of communication (mode), who is involved and how that affects linguistic choice (tenor), and what is happening in the interaction and how the external environment may be playing into it (field) ((Derewianka & Jones, 2012). Considering the fact that mode, tenor and field are constantly shifting in the real world, how might a language learner possibly begin to account for the seemingly infinite variables that may affect their choices?

I believe that this complexity is exactly what feeds learner motivation. Teachers need to help learners lean into the challenge. Learners need an appropriate guide that can help dissect and analyze linguistic encounters. By not shying away from the complexity and assisting my learners in disassembling the language they encounter, I have found engagement in the language learning process far easier to cultivate and maintain.

Engagement = Motivation * Context 2

ESL & EFL

In an ESL world, finding meaningful interactions and experiences for students is a bit easier. The EFL world, however, is a far different story. EFL students learn English as an abstract concept. Teachers, parents, school administrators and governments impose English on them. Often this occurs without students ever really understanding why they are learning the language. The amount of times I have been forced to ask some variant of “Why do you want to learn English” and heard the canned response (almost verbatim – across two continents and multiple age groups) “because English is a global language that I need to blah blah blah” is depressing.

If students don’t know why they are learning, how will they maintain whatever motivation they have? If learners are working with decontextualized and meaningless linguistic knowledge how can they be expected to engage and succeed in the difficult and complex process of language learning?

One of the most difficult tasks (especially) for a native speaking English teacher in the EFL world who does not speak the learners L1) is communicating effectively and gathering enough input from the learners to know how to connect their language learning with their lives outside the classroom. If I do not know the how or why or what about the English speaking world my students are interested in, how can I expect them to stay engaged with such a process as mentally taxing as language learning?

In an excellent interview titled “How Teachers Can See Students’ Identities as Learning Strengths“, Dr. Christopher Emdim talks about his idea of ‘reality pedagogy’. He states that, “the fundamental principle of co-teaching in reality pedagogy is that the neoindigenous student is the expert on the best way to deliver information to others who are part of their culture.” Reading this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my friend Alex Grevett (who has a wonderful blog that can be found here) and his 2012 presentation entitled “Make Your Students the Experts“. In other words, hand over the classroom to the learners and let them use the language being worked with to explain and/or discuss matters of personal interest to them and their lives.

Another way of working with meaningfulness and context is to think about content. What will the learners need the language for in their immediate and daily lives? What are their goals and interests that might lead to motivating them to learn now for the future?

The picture to the left is the result of a conceptualization exercise I did prior to beginning a course. I took what I knew (generally) about the students I had worked with at my school in the past. I then envisaged a window. I pictured myself as one of my students. How might they see the English world.

Home became a metaphor for the comfort students feel in their own language and culture. The window to the ‘English World’ outside became a passage through which they had to navigate the multiple stakeholder demands of their education, as well as an indicator of the skills they would need to successfully immigrate to ‘the English World’ on the other side of the window.

The ‘English World’ included everything I knew that interested my former students about the English World outside. At the moment, I teach only male students, so football and cars are always dominant and popular themes. Twitter is a large and ever present influence in their daily lives. As is TV and movies, travel, future employment, family obligations, etc.

By completing this exercise I had a platform from which I could draw meaningful content. I also had a good idea of how much more I wanted/needed to know about my students!

Knowing what pupils are interested in is critical to making the language presented to students meaningful, thus providing a reason to be motivated to learn it. Further, being aware of the contextual scenarios students will or might encounter provides the necessary information to help pupils develop pragmatic understanding (i.e. what are the appropriate [or less-than-appropriate] linguistic choices available to them when confronted with such scenarios).

When students are provided with content that is meaningful and the contextual understanding necessary to make informed choices, their engagement with their learning is usually more sustainable.

 

e=mc2

 

 

• Derewianka, B. & Jones, P. (2012). Teaching language in context. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.
• Larsen-Freeman, D. Teaching Grammar. Retrieved 6 August 2016, from https://www.uibk.ac.at/anglistik/staff/freeman/course-documents/tesfl_-_teaching_grammar.pdf
• Grevett, A. (2012). Make Your Students The Experts: My KOTESOL National Conference Presentation 2012. The Breathy Vowel. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from https://breathyvowel.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/make-your-students-the-experts-my-kotesol-national-conference-presentation-2012/
• Schwartz, K. (2016). How Teachers Can See Students’ Identities As Learning Strengths.MindShift. Retrieved 5 August 2016, from http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2016/07/19/how-teachers-can-see-students-identities-as-learning-strengths/

the provisional nature of the self

“A pair of wings, a different respiratory system, which enabled us to travel through space, would in no way help us, for if we visited Mars or Venus while keeping the same senses, they would clothe everything that we saw in the same aspect as the things of Earth. The only true voyage of discovery, the only real rejuvenating experience, would be not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is” (Proust, 1933).

My perception of the reality of I is both self-driven and socially constructed through contextualized life experience. Being at least partially socially constructed, my perception of I cannot ascertain aspects of self that are hidden from me – hidden both in the perceptions of others and in the void of the unknown that is hidden both to myself and to others.

Being inherently subjective, self-reflections cannot serve to illuminate this gap: they are ‘clothed’ in the same senses that drove my initial perceptions.

Further frustrating this search for who I really am is the temporal nature of the I, which constitutes a dynamism and complexity in continual flux. So being, the finish line in the pursuit of our ‘true’ selves is perpetually out-of-reach, a thought that can lead one to see the endeavour as fruitless. I would argue though, that it is the search itself that provides the reasoning for continuance.

In conducting the search for my ‘true’ self I must seek to gain some insight into the universes of those in which my socially constructed self coalesces. Partially seeing myself through others eyes helps to correct for the subjectivity bias’ of my own perceptions.

Accessing bits and pieces of the ‘Blind Self’ sheds light on the perceptive universes of the other, and brings in to sharper focus the reality of the ‘open self’. Through this parallaxic research comes greater understanding of who I provisionally was, at some point in time and within a defined context. It also brings greater understanding of the other present at that time.

As a teacher, greater awareness of self leads to a more informed decision making process as the perpetual search consistently raises up, questions, and challenges the values, beliefs, and experiential understandings that guide my thinking.

As an EFL teacher, this greater awareness serves to come some way in alleviating potential misperceptions and misunderstandings of the resident culture and society that partially define the students I teach. In undergoing the struggle to find my own ‘true’ self I consequently discover aspects of the universes of others, which helps define the questions a teacher poses in order to make better decisions.

Considering the provisional and complex nature of a single individuals understanding of self, a teacher may be best advised to “focus on wholes, relationships, open systems, and environments…seeking out patterns and phenomena that emerge from the multi-dimensional and dynamic interactions of the classroom” (Cochran Smith 2014).

Through the prism of complexity theories, a teacher can begin to take stock of the complex whole of the classroom, which is more than the sum of its constituent parts. Reflecting on the patterns and phenomena that become evident through the use of complexity theories helps guide a teacher’s decision-making; creating a more defined path to greater learning opportunities for one’s students.

Effective teaching, I posit, is best achieved through the relentless pursuit of the answer to the question, who am I? Armed with a perpetually updated sense of who I am allows a teacher ‘see’ with greater effect, helping to illuminate the patterns and phenomena of the complex system of the classroom – the key source data on which we rely.

 

Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Grudnoff, L., Ludlow, L., Haigh, M., & Hill, M. (2014). When complexity theory meets critical realism: a platform for research on initial teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 41(1), 105.

Pippin, R. (2005). The persistence of subjectivity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Proust, M. (1993). The Guermantes way. New York: Modern Library.

myths of perception

Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. (Joyce- Ulysses)

Perception is a powerful influence upon the decision-making center of the brain. Such being the case, it is necessary that a reflective sort consider the life, learning and cumulative results of experience- wisdom- that serves as the raw material upon which comprehension of the world around oneself is drawn. It is also advisable to keep at the forefront of one’s mind the inescapably of one’s subject-led viewership of this world.

Moving to the realm of a classroom, a teacher: leader, guide, friend is also the teacher: inconsiderate, demanding, blind. As teachers we are the subject of our own perceptions of the multitude dynamic inputs within the classroom and lean heavily upon thought through our eyes.

Easily forgotten, we are the object of any number of students perceptions, and each one has their own life from which to draw upon and form their own unique perceptions of the class, the material and the teacher.

Challenging ourselves to push beyond the ineluctable modality of the visible requires genuine curiosity on our part. Learners will not let us in on their own, honest perceptions if they perceive that the teacher projects a prefabricated understanding of who they are based on the teachers own pre-developed experience with other students. This one-size-fits-all objectification is rightly infuriating as it wipes clean the highly unique learner and their individualized perceptions of their world.

While the teacher may be the primary actor within the classroom, they are by no means the controller of perceptions. How a teacher wields the power of primacy in the classroom determines whether or not they are objectified as leader or imbecile, guide or pedant.

Learners will encounter teachers, classmates and the ‘it’ being studied on their own terms. The teacher can help highlight or guide learners to the material they hope students will learn, but regardless of their efforts each learner will engage with and integrate their own uniquely defined perceptions of _______ on their own terms.

The myths of perception can lead us down a rabbit hole of ignorance, trapping us in the single-visioned subject-led perception of our own world. I control the classroom and what is learned. I have the knowledge they need. That student isn’t doing his job, he is absent-minded. He doesn’t care about all the hard work I have put into giving him a helping hand. The way I do it is superior.

Rarely will thoughts be laid so bare, yet dig just below the surface and you may just see the domination of your own subject-led perception. Thought through my eyes. Be wary of this seductive trap- relying solely on the world perceived by the viewer alone- for it is merely a mythical representation of a single being’s understanding of a multimodal, dynamic world.

 

 

 

observation

Over the years there has been one or two S.M.A.R.T. goals that I have repeatedly failed to meet. Observing others and being observed in the classroom is high on that list.

Classroom observation has always been on my lists of “should-do’s” and “I know it’s important buts”. I have got other things to take care of. And of the times I have been observed, nothing much special has come of it. The experiences have been inconsistent and peripheral to what I do.

In my first encounter with observation, my class was taken to a special room for the occasion. A panel of the school’s teachers sat in the back while I did my thing. This highly rewarding enterprise saw me receive papers from each of the teachers with a numerical score and some comments. The lowest score was a 93 and it came from the vice-principal. His comment, “you should get the students to speak more”. And so ended my first observation, six weeks into my teaching career.

Since then there have been sporadic times when people have ‘popped into class’ to watch for 20 or 30 minutes. I receive notes on what they thought went well and what might be improved. It has all been quite useful in setting my mind to the fact that observation is not a waste of time, but also not something that really deserves the effort.

That line of thinking has come to an abrupt end recently. This semester I am participating in my MAT-ESOL teaching practicum. It involves a number of cycles in which:

1) I develop a lesson plan and have a detailed discussion of it with my advisor.

2) I teach the lesson in front of a critical friend (with attendant pre and post meetings).

3) I write up an analysis of the lesson.

4) I finish with another in-depth meeting with my advisor.

These cycles have really pushed me to open up the dynamic interactions that regularly occur in my classroom. Meetings with advisor and critical friend have served as both a source of enlightenment and a jolt of encouragement.

The effects of all this have not just been to improve my practice, but to open up previously unseen paths of thought that have gotten me thinking about the art of teaching in wholly new ways.

What I have found most surprising is that the after effects of these cyclical observations leave their imprint on me and my classes for days and weeks after the cycle of observation has completed. The mental combustion that the robust, frank and supportive discussions brings about has led to a real and very noticeable increase in my ability to better understand the Thou-It and I-It relationships of my classroom, in real time. This in turn has been a major boon to the corresponding I-Thou relationships.

The cycles of observation have acted as real catalysts for self-produced solutions to my own uniquely observed conundrums of the classroom.

Now I see how observation, when done well, can be such a massive asset to a teachers growth. And as before, being observed and observing will be a S.M.A.R.T. goal. However, in deference to achievable (the A in SMART) I will aim to be observed twice a semester. For all the good observation does, if done well, it is quite an additional amount of work.

 

 

formative assessment

***GUEST POST ALERT***

It is with great pleasure that I host my first ever guest post. The following blog post is courtesy of my dear friend, Manuel Alex Solano. Alex is a fellow student in the MAT-ESOL program at Marlboro College Graduate School. He has been teaching English as a Second Language in Costa Rica for the past seven years. Two of those years have been spent as a teacher trainer. Alex has a BA in TESOL as well as a number of teaching certificates from SIT, including: workshop design, adult learning theory, compassionate communication, and most recently formative assessment.

OK! let’s talk assessment…

_____________________________________________________________

Throughout life we constantly face moments in which we evaluate situations, things, or people. This also makes us objects of critical observation or examination. When this happens, when people are being evaluated or judged, there is a sense of unfairness that makes us ask ourselves questions such as; Does she/he know who I am? Or has she/he even taken her/his time to understand why I did that? This idea of something not being fair appears especially when the results of the examinations are perceived as negative.

In the classroom some situations are similar. Students evaluate their peers and teachers on different aspects while teachers do the same with students, but most times only to test their abilities, knowledge, and even memory. Many times students think they are not being evaluated fairly and sometimes they might be right.

What do most institutions want to see by the end of the courses? Of course they want to see grades. It could be letters or numbers but it has to be a tool that “shows” that learners are either ready to pass a course or to graduate. Institutions want something to magically turn learning into figures, something more concrete. Is that possible? How can teachers represent in numbers how much a student has learned? Are we informing our students about their progress when we give them grades? Are we treating students fairly? Do final tests always show students’ progress?

There is a tool we can use to assess students’ learning and to provide them with a clear picture of their progress. It is known as formative assessment. This tool might be the key to answer some of our questions, but what is formative assessment? What is actually useful or beneficial about it?

We use the general term assessment to refer to all those activities undertaken by teachers—and by their students in assessing themselves—that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs.

Black, P. & William, D. 1998. Inside the black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, King’s College, London

Formative assessment refers to a variety of techniques or methods teachers use to observe students’ progress/learning and identify needs. The purpose of this is to gather as much feedback as possible to make any kind of adjustment needed in order to better opportunities for students to acquire knowledge, or for them to learn within a more holistic experience. It is important to remember that tools such as self-assessment and peer-assessment could also be part of formative assessment. This will also inform students of their own development.

There are some important characteristics we should keep in mind when designing formative assessment tools. Two of them are validity and reliability. Validity we understand as the extent in which an assessment tool measures what it says it is measuring. In other words, the tool must be designed in the same format we teach and addressing the same material that we cover with our students in class. In this case, reliability may be defined/understood as how much we can trust that the results would be similar if the tool was used at a different time or place. In other words, no factor other than knowledge affects the results of the given tool.

For assessment tools we have quizzes, presentations, charts, tests, and others. Basically we can make any kind of tool formative, as long as we do not use it for grading and as long as we use it to inform our students and our selves of where students are, where we all want them to get, and where students arrive. It is not about the final results but about the progress students make. With this we can keep our institutions’ rules but we can bend the way we get to those only for our students’ learning benefits.

So, wouldn’t it be great to take our time, gather information, observe and compare results to use those as feedback to improve relationships with people? If the answer is no, at least as teachers we should follow these principles to focus more on students’ growth and less on numbers or letters. The fact that a student is not ready to go to the next level it, does not mean she/he has not improved. Therefore, it is in our hands to gather information and make students participants of this progress to witness learning and development. By doing so we are letting everybody know how much we care and we are also promoting autonomy so that students become more responsible for their own learning.

assumption hunting

A snapshot of my current thoughts and feelings surrounding reflective practice.

________________________________________________

Seeking out and identifying the assumptions I have, the underlying biases that define my personal understandings, is a step in my reflective practice that I have only recently begun to explicitly explore. It is challenging. Discovering the unconscious biases that define the perspective through which I view the classroom, and the world, is not an easy web to untangle.

How does one seek out assumptions that are unconscious? This is a question with no easy answer, no definitive result. Hunting assumptions is a process, one in which I’m aiming to make a recurring objective in my critical reflective practice. If I take for granted that I am constantly learning, growing and experiencing the world around me; I must also take for granted that the assumptions that guide my beliefs and practices in the classroom are also ever changing.

Assumptions are not, in of themselves, bad things. Assumptions help to guide my decision making as a teacher. As Brookfield states, “informed actions…are based on assumptions that have been carefully and critically investigated.” If I accept this, the objective is not to eliminate assumptions from my teaching practice, but to better understand and analyze those assumptions through a process of reflective investigation. Such inquiry better places me to assess whether or not my assumptions have a concrete base on which to stand.

Open mindedness is a prerequisite to a successful investigation of these unconscious biases. Without an acceptance to consider all possibilities the very assumptions I seek will blind me from finding them. It is important to remember that “[open-mindedness] is not a blind acceptance of all ideas without intelligent critique. Rather it means a willingness to entertain different perspectives, coupled with an acceptance of the ‘possibility of error even in the beliefs that are dearest to us” (Rodgers). It is easy to observe benefits in being open minded, far harder is finding the strength to walk the walk, to remain open to all possibilities, even those that poke the emotive, soft center of my inner self.

Building a safe space, creating a judgement free zone, is a requirement for both individual and group reflection. However, even with such a space created, the onus of open-mindedness falls upon myself alone. It is a state of being that requires presence and a continual willingness to examine my thoughts, feelings and needs. It is a demand of reflective practice that has at times scared me. I have found that fear has caused a reflexive defensiveness that inhibits my ability to successfully discover the assumptions hidden within my practice.

Accepting ‘the possibility of error’ with myself is a challenge. Doing so in a group brings with it challenges on a greater scale. Understanding that “[reflection] is incomplete if not done in the company of others”(Dewey) is one thing. Finding the motivation and strength for open-minded critical reflective inquiry within a group can only be found within myself.

By remembering that, “no action a teacher takes can ever be experienced as universally and uniformly positive” (Brookfield) I try to preempt my fear of analyzing beliefs that guide my decisions. I try to remind myself that reflecting on my teaching leads not to a final judgement, good or bad, but rather to a greater awareness of why I make the decisions I do. It is this raised awareness, this greater understanding of the inner terrain that defines my world, in which I was formerly blind or ignorant of, that maintains my integrative motivation regards reflective practice.

Reflective practice also provides an enormous boost to the enjoyment and satisfaction I have in my job. Having peers and colleagues on which to rely, on whom I can count on not to judge, but to assist me in seeing the different perspectives that are necessary to accurately hunt down the assumptions that guide me, is invaluable.

Hunting assumptions requires much, but the benefit I have derived from doing so has been many times greater. I am looking forward to continuing this hunt and developing a greater awareness of myself and my teaching practice.

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Some questions for all you readers out there

What do you think of when you hear the words “reflective practice”? How do you maintain the motivation to develop and grow as a teacher? What challenges have you faced in doing so?

Brookfield, Stephen. “The Getting of Wisdom: What Critically Reflective Teaching is and Why It’s Important”

Dewey, John. “How We Think”.

Rodgers, Carol. “The Role of Descriptive Inquiry in Building Presence and Civic Capacity”.

feedback for the sake of feedback

I know feedback is important. One method I employ to garner feedback is to give my students a couple written questions every day.

I then take the responses and read them. I comment on them. Or I ask questions. Often times I request more specific information.

I take great pride in collecting feedback and reviewing it assiduously. I believe all this effort helps to show students my interest in their learning. It also provides a line of communication that may prove more accessible to students. It makes me a more effective teacher (at least that is what I tell myself when I look in the mirror).

All well and good. But what is it all for?

In my previous post I discussed losing my focus. I managed to lose it even while eliciting daily feedback in a number of ways. How, you might ask, did this happen.

Asking for feedback, collecting it, talking about it is all for not if we don’t bloody listen to it.

While in class today I heard a number of students tell me (for the umpteenth time) they have a hard time with taking notes. Something finally clicked. They had been giving me feedback for days requesting specific help with taking notes on what they are listening to.

Instead of listening, I carried on doing what, in my mind, was needed. Somehow I allowed their requests to enter my brain space but not sink into my thoughts on how to guide their learning. I allowed the demands of a static curriculum to guide me, not the needs of my students. I was aware of what my students needed, but it was a superficial awareness. The dots between the feedback and planning didn’t connect.

There are all kinds of interpretations we can infer from this reflection on my teaching. Your guess is as good as mine at the moment (more self reflection certainly called for).

Feedback is meant to help us adjust, to be flexible to the ever changing contexts of the classroom. Feedback is meant to help us meet the needs of individuals and classes as a whole.

It doesn’t do any good to elicit feedback if we aren’t actually going to be present to our students needs and plan our lessons accordingly.