Teaching Acts

Hans Humberto Oviedo Gómez

Reflective Teaching Course

M. A. Edgar Alirio Insuasty

Neiva, September 30^th, 2015

Conceptualizing my Teaching Acts

What do you usually do as a teacher? With what kind of rationale?

The first thing I do to develop my lessons is to plan what I am going to teach. Planning is the first and one of the most important steps in the learning-teaching gear. After planning the activities, based on methodology, activities, policies, along with others, there is a clear important of preparing, design and organizing the class itself. From my perspective, when all the materials and class are ready, the second and most important step and action is being prepared. Teacher should be prepared to face students and face the possible difficulties in the classroom. After developing the class, there is always something to improve, in this sense, there is a clear need to review and re-review the class in terms of reflecting upon the lessons. This reflection has to be done to improve and to empower ourselves in our teaching practices.

What is your mind engagement like in the professional exercise of teaching?

I personally think having the ability to reflect on the experiences is the clue to success. From my view, teachers should be open-minded reflective educators, then flexibility provides us with the necessary tools to be adapted to any circumstance in action. Throughout my personal experience as teacher, I have had the possibility to change and re-shape my way of teaching according to the strengths and difficulties I face in the classroom. In sum, although I did not know it was reflecting teaching I realized about the importance of being reflective, reflecting on my experiences.

How would you characterize your professional, personal and experiential knowledge of teaching?

I am in the process of learning to be a good teacher. Although my experience is not too long, I have had the opportunity to work in different educative fields, from public and private institutions, to university and schools settings. This experience have given me some important characteristics regarding my teaching beliefs. The importance of being sociable and friendly with my students, peers and in general, with the community I belong to. I relate myself as an open-minded person, ready to learn and ready to teach. As mentioned in my teaching metaphor, this profession is one of the most demanding jobs but at the same time one of the most grateful ones. My students are part of my life, each one of them plays a particular role in my life and have shaped the way I am to some extent. These guys, are the basis of my teaching principles and the main actors in my profession.

How do you see the relationship between theory, research and practice?

I think each one of these elements is part of a whole gear. Theory provides us with the specific tools to be used in terms of methodologies, concepts and literature. Meanwhile, thanks to the new vision I have due to the M.A. programme, research is the most important aspect to be applied, then research is the only way in which teachers consciously reflect upon their practices trying to look for improvements in their contexts. Finally, practice is the complement for the last two components. Practice is part of the action, it is where all of us are immersed and whre educators have the power to change the world. To conclude, just with practice from theory and research, the cycle of teaching takes importance.

To what extent is there a cause-effect relationship between teaching and learning?

From my view, there is always a cause-effect in the relationship between teaching and learning. Learning is the process in which learners (no matter the genre or age) acquire information (data or experiences) from different internal or external patterns. While teaching is a process happening in all contexts and with the people around us. Formal teaching is a task trusted on teachers, the filed in which educators are part of. In the same line of thought, I would conclude there is a clear and strong relationship between both concepts, learning and teaching are linked together to guarantee a success in both.