Hans
Humberto Oviedo Gómez
Reflective
Teaching Course
M.
A. Edgar Alirio Insuasty
Neiva, October 4th, 2015
Exploring
my Teaching Beliefs
1. What beliefs or
assumptions about language learning and language teaching have you held
throughout your English language development and your teaching career?
During my experience as
a teacher and bearing in mind my writings posted (Professional Autobiography, 4
journal entries, teaching metaphor), I have concluded on the following assumptions:
Teaching and learning
imply social relationships
“…I
realize the importance of being sociable and friendly with my students, peers
and in general, with the community I belong to…” (Teaching Metaphor)
“…I was
learning from excellent teachers who taught me not only knowledge, but also
experiences and values…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…I want
to contribute in at least a small portion of a better future for this and the
coming childhoods…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…The
activities were interesting to them, they liked to perform in spite of the
short time for preparing…”
(Journal Entry 2)
“…they
were very active at participating and giving their ideas by supporting them…” (Journal Entry 2)
“…They
had to take a role in a debate by supporting their arguments and they did it in
a good way…” (Journal
Entry 3)
“…This is done to improve and
enrich the debate session into a more enjoyable and challenging activity…” (Journal
Entry 3)
“…This activity was
meaningful because students were active at participating and…” (Journal Entry 4)
“…I was giving some
feedback and allowed students to be aware about what they were missing…” (Journal Entry 4)
Wondering about possible
improvements makes the difference
“I
can conclude this is an ongoing process, full of opportunities to grow” (Teaching Metaphor)
“…Meanwhile,
I was also attending to different courses to improve my English…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…during
the afternoons I used to go to the school with the people who had weaknesses to
improved, but in my case I went to learn about more topics because I thought in
the mornings English classes were not enough…” (Professional Autobiography)
“…Although
a picture was presented, students were a little bit confused about the topic.
Sometimes, the language I used was not understandable for the students. I
should look for other words like synonyms in order to avoid misunderstandings
in the instructions…” (Journal
Entry 1)
“…there
are some aspects I have to improve if I teach this lesson in the future. First,
selecting a…” (Journal
Entry 1)
“…In
practice, in this second session instructions
were clearer than the first session and I tried to be sure my students
understood what I needed them to understand…” (Journal Entry 2)
“…In
this opportunity, I tried to correct the things I had to improve from the
previous lesson…”
(Journal Entry 2)
“…One of the things that
could be improved is the pacing of the Debate in last session. Maybe, there
were some misunderstandings about what a debate is although they have the definition
and instructions included on the workshop…” (Journal Entry 3)
“…I
think what we could improve is to make emphasis in the main differences between
those similar words, not only by telling those differences, but putting those
words in context since the beginning…” (Journal
Entry 4)
“…Next
time, I am totally sure, these difficulties are going to be overcome, by trying
to take the most important and meaningful activities to guarantee a success in
the lesson…” (Journal
Entry 4)
Teachers should be open-minded
“…I
relate myself as an open-minded person, ready to learn and ready to teach…” (Teaching Metaphor)
“…At the
beginning of the first session students were shy. This could be improved by
stating a better “hook” in the anticipatory set and relating it to their prior
knowledge…”
(Journal Entry 1)
“…I have
to be aware that instructions were clear and understood by students…” (Journal Entry 1)
“…this second
session instructions were clearer than the first session and I tried to be sure
my students understood what I needed them to understand…” (Journal Entry 2)
“…Although
there are some things and features to improve as mentioned above, this one was
a good attempt, the objectives proposed
were achieved and students were involved into the activities
proposed…” (Journal
Entry 3)
“…As
Teacher Researcher I realized the importance on planning on students’ possible
facilities or difficulties…” (Journal Entry 4)
Teaching is a long trip
full of benefits and difficulties
“…my
teaching practice during these years has showed me the benefits and
consequences of my experience…” (Teaching Metaphor)
“…I had
the opportunity to teach Basic English Courses to university students about to
graduate…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…I
started thinking about this profession seriously, I liked the way I taught and
I liked the comments my students made upon my way of teaching…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…I
could realize that one of the main facts in the first intervention was that
objectives were not as clearer as I wanted…” (Journal Entry 1)
“…Time
was one of the points that affect the development of the whole class. Students
did not have enough time to prepare and develop well organized scripts and
there was one group missing to perform…” (Journal Entry 2)
“…At the
beginning of the third session students were also shy. But in this opportunity,
they faced this fact easily and broke the ice quickly…” (Journal Entry 3)
“…This
first activity was a little bit confused because there were some similar words
and students got frustrated…” (Journal Entry 4)
Experiences build good
professional educators
“…These
two important people in my life have marked and shaped the conception I had
about teaching and about being one of them…” (Professional Autobiography)
“…The
curious thing in this fast advance, was the fact that I did an English Exam to
be promoted, I did it and I approved it! J, this was one of my first
direct contacts with English…” (Professional Autobiography)
“…Well,
I learnt many things from different fields…” (Professional Autobiography)
“…Something
that marked my childhood was that my aunty Zonia was an English teacher, in
vacations she used to teach all our family some basic knowledge about this
interesting language…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…At the
beginning I did not want to be a teacher but opportunities were coming one by
one and I started to love this profession…” (Professional Autobiography)
“…Teaching
is the best way to build human beings, and that is my principal desire and
proposal in my life…” (Professional
Autobiography)
“…What I
have to improve if I teach this lesson in the future is being aware of the time
and provide them with an “extra minute” to organize their performances in a
proper way…” (Journal
Entry 2)
“…This teaching lesson
was a really good experience…” (Journal
Entry 4)
2. What sources have you
derived those beliefs or assumptions from?
Facing the challenge of
being teachers has not been an easy task. During these years of experience, I
have the opportunity to explore the teaching and learning world. Based on those
experiences, my beliefs and assumptions mentioned above have been growing every
time. These beliefs are based on my personal experiences as teacher and what I
think I have to improve. Bearing in mind author’s ideas about teaching,
learning and other specific fields related to both, I realized the importance
of having such assumptions. Nuñez & Tellez, Tomlinson, Oxford,
Kumaravadivelu along with professors I have had the opportunity to meet have
help me to build my teaching philosophy.
3. How would you challenge
some of those beliefs?
I personally think the
process of challenging my assumptions and beliefs is by taking them as a cycle.
Bearing in mind Peters’ (1994) Date process model, as cited in Hillier (2005),
I try to tackle the situations presented by: first, describing the
problem/situation; second, by analyzing the nature of what I described; then,
based on literature, if needed, try to theorize and frame the problem with a
possible solution and; finally, by acting on the situation to improve or
achieve better results.
Based on those ideas, I am
sure in the fact that reflecting on our experiences lived in every lesson would
contribute not only to the professional educator’s improvement, but to the
learners’ environment they belong to.
References
Hillier, Y. (2005).
Reflective Teaching in Further and Adult Education. Continuum.
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