About Reflective Teaching

Leo Barlett’s article: “Teacher development Through Reflective Teaching”, from Second Language Teacher Education (1990), book published by Cambridge University Press, moved me deeply. First, it confirmed the feelings I had that it is not possible to be a good teacher if you are not a person that reflects upon his or her actions, thoughts, and beliefs in order to follow a life-long learning process.

Second, that teachers (who play a very important role in facilitating or obstructing the process of development of human beings), should know not only what they are doing, but why they do what they do. I am not referring only to the academic aspects, but to the relationships and interactive dynamics they establish with the learners, with their co-workers, and the educational authorities.

I was talking to a teacher last Wednesday, and at one point XX said: “the problem is that I hate it here”.  X was an accountant who was at the moment studying to become a certified public accountant, yet X was also teaching fourth grade students Spanish, and Social Studies.  What’s worse, X had been doing it for the last 5 years, and I suspect that the students being taught  were as unhappy as X was. What a great contrast with another teacher who was also teaching the same students, but who absolutely loved her chosen profession.

What I told the accountant-teacher, was that now that at least, X had admitted it, it was possible to  start working towards alleviating some of the anguish by changing  the ways X did things. It is much worse when we encounter teachers who think they like their job, but pass their deeply buried dissatisfaction to the students, and then complain about their behavior and lack of interest.

I fully agree with the author when he exhorts teachers to take time to think about what they are doing, how and why. What I think would help, is to have time to do this, as part of the regular work schedule.  Too many times, teachers’ hours are filled with lessons, and correcting student works or reflecting about how to improve their performance, is left for the hours that are stolen from family and very needed relaxation.

Something I might try this coming year is to record my observations, and then download the files into my computer, so I don’t have to take time transcribing what I said.