Exploring the critical incident technique

Not only teachers but also other professionals can have the opportunity of reflecting on their practices by applying their professional judgment through the use of many effective techniques. The critical incident (CIT) is one of these techniques since it can be successfully used to gather useful and practical information by analyzing people’s actions and behaviours in specific situations. In order to use the critical incident technique effectively and purposefully, general aims need to be clearly defined and proper procedures for the collection and analysis of objective facts have to be followed (Flanagan, 1954).
The critical incident technique involves the collection and evaluation of specific actions and behaviours which can be actively employed for the solution of problems and the elaboration of psychological principles. An incident can be any functional activity that is inferred and predicted by its doer and it is considered critical when the observer can clearly define the purposes and consequences of that particular action studied (Flanagan, 1954). According to Flanagan (1954), a reported observation can be approved if those actions were collected objectively by making use of few subjective interpretations and inferences. Besides, this psychologist points out that “the critical incident technique does not consist of a single rigid set of rules” (The Procedure in Its Present Form, 1954, para.1) since its principles are adjustable and changeable to satisfy the particular situation observed.
When making use of the critical incident technique, general aims should be formulated for the correct assessment and planning of specific behaviours. Indeed, it would not be possible to judge a person’s particular action if the observer does not know what he/she is expected to achieve. Moreover, the situation to be observed should be specified and examples of behaviours should be provided in order to help the observer make an objective description. On the other hand, the authorities in the field of study such as supervisors and principals should not only propose the possible main purposes of an activity but also agree on them. After defining each general aim clearly and briefly, these authorities should provide observers with detailed instructions regarding the standards that need to be applied when evaluating the behaviours in a specific situation so that those particular actions observed are relevant to the general aims already defined (Flanagan, 1954).
After an activity has been observed, accurate data which meets the general objectives needs to be collected through procedures such as individual and group interviews, questionnaires and written records. Interviews are made by trained staff that collects detailed descriptions from the observers by asking suitable questions related to the general aims of the activity. Then, the group interview procedure can take the form of a questionnaire when the observers abound. Regarding written records, Flanagan (1954) explained that the details of incidents can be recorded in the way they occur or through the use of forms where a check can be assigned to describe and classify observations. Taking into account the diversity and complexity of any teaching situation in a classroom, the most suitable procedure in the educational field is the individual interview since many relevant details would need to be collected from the observers.
Once the data has been collected, it needs to be properly analyzed so that it can be usefully employed for solutions to practical problems in many concrete situations. For example, a typical performance of an officer, a teacher or a principal can be measured by means of a check list which assesses all the important behaviours of a situation. Moreover, proficiency measures have been adopted through the use of standard samples of behaviour in order to assess participants’ performance at the end of training courses such as military personnel. Training problems have also been evaluated for the military in specific situations while factual incidents have been collected for experimental studies in the field of counseling and psychotherapy. On the other hand, the study of operating principles has provided a detailed description of relevant facts for the improvement of emergency services and aircrew operations (Flanagan, 1954).
As a conclusion, the critical incident technique is a flexible method that involves certain procedures for the collection and analysis of specific behaviours which need to be relevant to the general aims defined by the leading authorities in the field of study. Indeed, Flanagan (1954) points out that this effective technique can collect factual incidents which can be analyzed and applied to different areas such as education, psychology and military training programmes. In the educational field, teachers’ use of equipment such as boards, projectors, DVD or CD players and computers can be studied and adapted to enhance language learning in the classroom. Besides, teachers’ attitudes in the classroom could be observed and analyzed to check, for instance, if they encourage students to use the foreign language or if, on the contrary, they threaten learners by insisting on their mistakes.



References

Flanagan, J. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51-4. Retrieved January 2008, from http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/special/cit-article.pdf