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Reflective Teaching,

a Guide for FL Teachers’ Practice

Teaching has been considered a complex task in which a sort of knowledge

is negotiated between participants, in other contexts they are named teachers and

learners. This type of relationship is directly influenced, shaped, and determined by

teaching assumptions or approaches that teachers or institutions follow. In this

sense, it sounds quite logical that making decision about what methodological

principle apply is a relevant duty. The result should correspond to a panoramic view

that answer to the expectations and needs a certain community has about

teacher’s role; that is why foreign language teachers must develop a critical

thinking in classroom and teaching practices. One of the most relevant features

that cope with the requirements mentioned above is reflecting teaching whose

concern with teachers’ awareness of a need to change, innovate, and adjust to the

circumstances (Pennington, 1995:706) allow them to make improvements and

accurate decisions. Similarly, this approach guides them to the main personal duty

which is the search of mechanisms that improve their teaching practices based on

the idea that successful learning can only be result of accurate teaching. Jack

Richards has described this idea as:

“an approach in which teachers and student teachers collect date about

teaching, examine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and teaching

practices and use the information obtained as a basis for critical reflection

about teaching”

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Considering it, the continual examination of teaching performance proposed in

Reflective Teaching allows educators to improve their teaching practices by

receiving feedback from their experiences; in this sense, Reflective Teaching has a

significant impact on FL teachers.

Since all the assumptions, from which reflective teaching is shaped, are

based on the pressing need of building a bridge between theory and practice by

adopting a critical-reflective attitude, FL teachers will greatly improve their

performance. Wallace (1991) states that critical reflection triggers a deeper

understanding of teaching due to the fact that it involves examining teaching

experiences as a basis for self-evaluation and decision making to provide a source

of change. Thus, educator will be conscious about their strengths and weaknesses

in order to actually work on them. Besides, adopting this approach means for FL

teachers to have the chance to clarify how and why teaching takes place, to know

if learners are truly learning what teachers expect to, and to know what occurs

during the learning process. Richards clearly condenses that idea by standing that

“much of what happens in teaching is unknown to the teacher […] they are often

unaware of the kind of teaching they do or how they handle many of the moment-

to-moment decisions that arise” (1996:6). Moreover, critical reflection gives

teachers a certain power and degree of responsibility which is determined by the

level of autonomy and control exercised during the practice in order to consider

and evaluate these experiences and move towards successful educational

process.

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Besides, gathering information is a fundamental issue that provides data for

teaches to examining their performance. Murphy has identified six topic areas for

reflective teachers in order to explore in their task for making experiences more

meaningful (2001). The fist area regards to communication patterns in the

classroom. By exploring this aspect, teachers can better understand how the

dynamics of the communication process works in the classroom; likewise,

reflective FL teachers may establish the relationship between teacher-learner,

learner-learner, and teacher-learners through applying this reflective principle. The

second area, deals with the importance of understanding these sorts of reactions

that lessons brigs about and the learners’ responses to those purposes for

analyzing this issue. In third place, teachers’ decision making appears as

fundamental aspect because of teachers’ lack of awareness about what deeply

happen in the classroom enterprise and his/her need to realize about it. As it is

cited above by Richards, teachers most of the times are not conscious about the

type of teaching they are implementing or how they cope with every decision that

arise at moment of teaching.

Furthermore, the affective climate of the classroom is the fourth topic area

proposed by Murphy for a reflective teaching view. The reasons to include this

element are quite logical. The role of affectivity in FL learning has been deeply

accepted and praised by humanist and constructivist practitioners because

affectivity in classroom can interfere in a positive or negative way in the FL

acquisition. Then this a topic in which teachers may concentrate their reflections in

order to facilitates the learning process. The other area that can be study is the

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instructional environment due to the fact it may condition and limit teachers’

performance according to methods and instructional purposes they use. Finally, the

sixth area that FL teachers should examine is the one related to professional

development what is concerned with profession engagement. In fact, it is important

to consider it because this represents the teachers’ inners motivation and goals

towards their careers, that is to say, teachers self improvement.

So far, it has being showed why to appeal to reflective teaching in FL

classroom settings and on what topic areas teachers may focus the process of a

reflective practitioner. When talking about this particular cognitive activity,

reflection, it is conveyed the idea of critical retrieving of experiences to analyze,

measure, contrast, consider, and exam the experiences in order to give teachers

the possibility to enlarge and improve their understanding of teaching and their

occupational hazard as well. Even though Parker argues that “while experience is

a key component of teacher development, in itself it may be insufficient as a basis

for professional growth” (cited by Richards, 1996), the fact of questioning about

past experiences allows not only teachers but also learners to receive feedback.

Thus teachers can modify, change, shape, or adapt the further experiences and at

the same time, answer to the challenge of a reflective practitioner breaking out the

monotony some teachers fall in.

Following this idea, some current approaches that contribute to reflective

practice are: technical rationality, reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action,

reflection-for-action, and action research. The first principle to be considered is the

one regarding to technical rationality, which consists of examining teaching

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behaviors and skills after the class occurs. VanMannen (1977) has defined this

process as “the focus of reflection on effective application of skills and technical

knowledge in the classroom” focusing on the cognitive aspect of teaching; many

beginning teachers start to examine their skills from this perspective in controlled

situations with immediate feedback from teacher educators (Fuller 1970). The

beginning teacher tries to cope with the new situation of the classroom,

instantaneously connecting the formal knowledge with the practice itself. For FL

teachers this issue permits them to reshape their development for future

experiences.

The second notion of reflective practice refers to reflection-in-action (Schon

1983, 1987). For this to occur, fist at all, FL teachers have to posse a kind of

knowing-in-action which is similar to seeing and recognize a face in a crowed place

without listening, and putting gradually separate features together. In this sense,

this knowledge or information is only observable and unable to be verbal. Schon

(1987) says that people can sometimes make a description of something implied

(understood) but not expressed, this subject is the center of professional practice.

From this point, reflection-in-action is derived. Then, when “thinking about what we

are doing in the classroom while we are doing it” (Schon 1983, 1987), a sequence

of moments happens in order to reshape teaching performance: firstly, the situation

occurs spontaneously as a response of a mechanic act, as it occurs in knowing-in-

action; secondly, this pattern produce an unexpected outcome what calls the

attention; then this surprising event leads to reflection within an action; so the

structure of knowing-in-action is questioned by means of critical thinking; finally,

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this reflection carries out new actions which will explore other happenings. As a

result there is a reshape of responses.

Reflection-on-action is the third principle of reflective practice. This notion of

reflective teaching deals with the fact of thinking back on what teachers have done

in order to discover how their knowing-in-action (the knowledge that teachers come

to perform their work spontaneously), may have contributed to an unexpected

action. These elements previously mentioned are quite important due to the fact

they produces an enriched reflection for teachers, as a consequence FL educator

will be capable to face teaching/learning situations and overcome them

successfully.

The fourth notion of reflective teaching is called reflection-for-action. That

consists on the desired outcome of the previous two types of reflection (reflection-

in-action and reflection-on-action) (Killon and Todnew 1991:15). For this reason we

can infer that the main concern of this issue is to take the initiative of acting rather

than reacting to events, and to guide future action for having more practical

purpose. From this aspect, FL teachers have several opportunities to reflect

through a range of different activities that will help them to become more

responsible in their professional field.

The last principle of reflection is action research. McFee (1993:178) clearly

condenses this idea by stating that "It is research into (1) a particular kind of

practice- one in which there is a craft- knowledge, and (2) is research based on a

particular model of knowledge and research with action as outcome [...] this

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knowledge is practical knowledge". Indeed, action research is concerned with the

transformation of research into action. Following this idea, the self investigation of

values of teaching embodies teachers’ habits when they are teaching. That is why I

consider this notion as very useful element because teachers need to be aware of

their beliefs and the teaching practices they implement in classroom settings.

Likewise, through making researches FL teachers can explore new theories and

methodologies which will help the to build their own principles whose main purpose

will be the search of improvement, which at the same time will allow them to

transcend and contribute to the progress of our culture through the improvement of

their existing schema of teaching.

Taking those aspects into consideration, it makes sense for FL teachers to

adopt reflective teaching in their professional lives as an accurate alternative to

examining, evaluate, analyze, make decisions, and improve all the aspects that

teaching/learning process carries out. It is also very important for educators to

realize about the implications of innovation and critical thinking that reflective

practice has in foreign language teaching, as Pennington (1995:706) states that

teachers’ development is "a metastable system of context- interactive change

involving a continual cycle of innovative behavior and adjustment to

circumstances". In short, it is well known that teaching is not an easy task;

however, if there are engaged teachers that implement this comprehensive and

effective approach this aspect will be more hadleable by doing self-improvements

based on teachers’ previous experiences in order to reconstruct their educational

perspectives, and receiving a constant feedback. Which at the same time will affect

Ortiz 8

others (learners), then reflective practitioners will act as a chain whose main

propose is to create a global improvement in teaching practice.

References

Pennington, M. 1995. The teacher change cycle. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 4,

pp. 705-731.

Richards, J. 1990. Beyond training: Approaches to teacher education in

language teaching. Language Teacher, 14, 2, pp. 3-8.

Wallace, M. 1991. Training foreign language teachers. A reflective approach.

Cambridge University.

Richards, J. 1996. Reflective teaching in second language classroom. 6 th

edition. Cambridge University.

Murphy J. 2001. Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston:

Heinle Heinle.

VanMannen, M. 1977. Linking ways of knowing with ways of being practical.

Curriculum Inquiry, 6, pp. 205-228.

Fuller, F. 1970. Personalized education for teachers: An introduction for

teacher educators, Report No. 001. Austin, Texas, Research and Development

Center for Teacher Education

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Schon, D. A. 1983. The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

Schon, D. A. 1987. Educating the reflection practitioner: Towards a new

design for teaching and learning in the profession. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass

Publishers.

Killon, J. and G. Todnew. 1991. A process of personal theory building.

Educational Leadership, 48, 6, pp. 14-16

McFee, G. 1993. Reflections on the nature of action-research. Cambridge

Journal of Education 23, 2, pp. 173-183.