2º integrative assignment. Edited

Becoming a reflexive teacher: A matter of practice

            A teacher is not born critical; a teacher becomes critical after experiencing classroom situations that challenge his or her structures. TEFL colleges should include in their Curricula spaces especially designed to lead students’ into reflective practices. Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín, and Medina Pérez (2003) wrote:

The critical incident is a pedagogical strategy used to present students’ with specific unexpected teaching problems which they are supposed to solve. This practice allows students’ of a Teacher Training College to start developing a more critical view on classroom reality and more resourceful attitude at the moment of having to deal with unexpected problems.

(Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín, and Medina Pérez, 2003, p. 104)

            Fernández González et al. (2003) introduced a structure to facilitate the analysis of these conflictive situations. They proposed a four labelled structure:

1)      Context.

2)      Description of problem.

3)      Possible causes.

4)      Possible Solutions.

Is it enough for a teacher or student to reflect on the conflicting situation only? Or is it necessary to share it with colleagues? Do fictitious critical incidents, created with a pedagogical purpose serve the aim of triggering reflexion and resourcefulness on teachers and students?  Do the practices in TEFL College prepare students for real life action?

As teachers, we know that classroom situation is a portion of reality purposefully prepared to generate teaching and learning processes, and teaching practices are not the exception. If it is accepted that teaching is for life then, learning is for life too. As a consequence, critical incidents prove to be an effective didactic instrument to train students/teachers to face, analyse and find solutions to problems in their classroom when they are students, to be later transferred to their real classroom as teachers (Fernández Gonzáles et al., 2003, p 110). If becoming a reflexive teacher will heavily depend on how reflexive the person was as a student, how long has it to be waited before reflexive students start to be trained?

References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N. & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved November 2010, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Mind the chess

      In September 2002 I was finishing my practicum in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) College in La Plata. That day was going to be a relaxed one because I had to present a simple grammatical topic- used to. I was so well prepared; I had rehearsed the class in front of the mirror for hours, as if I was going to teach mirrors. The material was ready and my teacher was not going to observe the class that day. The students were always so friendly in the classroom and the teacher of the class was so kind to me that nothing could fail.

I used to teach a group of 23 students in their 1º year of Polimodal at Bellas Artes, but that day they taught me. As soon as I entered the room I was shocked. Instead of sitting in rows as usual, the students were sitting on the floor on big black and white squares all around the classroom, mingled with giant black and white pieces of chess specially designed to play Human Chess. I did not know that the tradition in that school was to celebrate Spring Week. Following to the tradition, all the classes of the school were involved in a contest in which they had to decorate the classroom in the most artistic and original way.

For me, nothing was more important than the presentation of ¨ used to ¨, not even that most expected celebration of the year at school, so I asked them to move the pieces aside and bring desks and chairs because the class had to start- that picture was so far from the sitting arrangements I had studied from books. Not even one student hesitated to say no. I could not believe the teacher did not say anything to them- was a giant chess game more important than an English lesson?

I was so puzzled at the beginning, but after some minutes, and as soon I could open my mind and relax myself, I must confess that I started enjoying walking around a human-sized chess while teaching. That day was a memorable teaching exchange.