Reading for reflection

The article “Los Incidentes Críticos en la Formación y Perfeccionamiento del Profesorado de Secundaria de Ciencias de la Naturaleza” evoked lots of memories from past teaching experiences I had. Fernandez González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez (2003) acknowledge the importance of analyzing the classroom events to develop effective teaching strategies which can help future teachers in their training. They particularly studied the possible causes of students’ misunderstanding about a microscopic examination they were asked to do in a science class in a Teacher Training College. In that class, students did not succeed in interpreting the microscopic images since they were not provided with an introduction to the topic and enough explanations. The description and analysis of that critical incident not only reminded me of a similar unsettling experience I had with a 6th year group, but also helped me find the possible causes of my students’ misbehaviour and low motivation.
I remember a particular lesson I had with a 6th year group which was chaotic because of disorganization and discipline problems. For that class, I gave a task to the group to work privately with the students who had low marks and had to take some oral exams. The task consisted in planning an ideal holiday in pairs by writing a timetable with the activities organized for each day of a whole week. I explained the task and provided the class with magazines so that students could cut and add pictures to their timetables. As I was in a hurry, thinking about all the learners who needed to make up, I did not give any kind of instruction about the layout of the timetable the class had to outline and I did not even provide them with a model on the blackboard. I assumed students knew what they had to do and considered the assignment easy since it was based on the vocabulary of a reading about adventure holidays they had done the previous lesson.
Obviously, when I sat down at my desk and started to get ready to test weak students orally, the rest of the class was already a mess. Instead of asking myself for its reason, I begged students for silence and asked them to work on the task. I was so busy calling individual learners for the oral tests and shouting at the rest for silence that I did not realize students did not know how to do the task, and that was the main reason for their misbehaviour and low motivation. Undoubtedly, as I had not given enough instructions, nobody could succeed in performing the task. As a result, I left the class with a terrible headache complaining about my students’ laziness and thinking about the way to motivate them to work in class, without realizing that the main cause of their misbehaviour had been my lack of explanations.
In conclusion, I was encouraged to reflect on my own practice after reading the analysis of a critical incident made by Fernandez González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez, (2003). I have realized that students’ low motivation can be caused by my own attitudes and ways of managing the class. Therefore, placing all the blame on the students and not reflecting on my own practice is not a positive sign of professionalism. Besides, it was interesting to know that we, teachers, not matter the subject being taught, are faced with similar situations which if shared and analyzed can help us to improve our instruction.



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 interuniversitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza.