Questão 2031401

Read the text to answer 33, 34 and 35.

Reflective teaching: exploring your own classroom practice

Reflective teaching means looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works – a process of self-observation and self-evaluation.

By collecting information about what goes on in our classroom, and by analysing and evaluating this information, we identify and explore our own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in our teaching. Reflective teaching is therefore a means of professional development which begins in our classroom. Why it is important? Many teachers already think about their teaching and talk to colleagues about it too. You might think or tell someone that “My lesson went well” or “My students didn’t seem to understand” or “My students were so badly behaved today”. However, without more time spent focussing on or discussing what has happened, we may tend to jump to conclusions about why things are happening. We may only notice reactions of the louder students. Reflective teaching therefore implies a more systematic process of collecting, recording and analysing our thoughts and observations, as well as those of our students, and then going on to making changes. If a lesson went well we can describe it and think about why it was successful, if the students didn’t understand a language point we introduced we need to think about what we did and why it may have been nuclear, if students are misbehaving – what were they doing, when and why?

You may begin a process of reflection in response to a particular problem that has arisen with one or your classes, or simply as a way of finding out more about your teaching. You may decide to focus on a particular class of students, or to look at a feature of your teaching – for example how you deal with incidents of misbehaviour or how you can encourage your students to speak more English in class, and the first step is to gather information about what happens in the class.

Diary writing is the easiest way to begin a process of reflection since it is purely personal. After each lesson you write in a notebook about what happened. You may also describe your own reactions and feelings and those you observed on the part of the students. You are likely to begin to pose questions about what you have observed. Diary writing does require a certain discipline in taking the time to do it on a regular basis. Here are some suggestions for areas to focus on to help you start your diary: peer observation, recording lessons, student feedback. Once you have some information recorded about what goes on in your classroom, what do you do? Think: you may have noticed patterns occurring in your teaching through your observation, you may also have noticed things that you were previously unaware of, you may have been surprised by some of your students’ feedback, you may already have ideas for changes to implement. Read: you may decide that you need to find out more about a certain area. There are plenty of websites for teachers of English now where you can find useful teaching ideas, or more academic articles. There are also magazines for teachers where you can find articles on a wide range of topics, or if you have access to a library or bookshop, there are plenty of books for English language teachers. Pose questions to websites or magazines to get ideas from other teachers. Or if you have a local teachers’ association or other opportunities for in-service training, ask for a session on an area that interests you. Reflective teaching is a cyclical process, because once you start to implement changes, then the reflective and evaluative cycle begins again. As a result of your reflection you may decide to do something in a different way, or you may just decide that what you are doing is the best way. And that is what professional development is all about.

(Julie Tice, Teacher, Trainer, Writer, British Council Lisbon. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article. Adapted.)

Mark the item in which gerund use follows the same pattern as in “Reflective teaching is therefore as means of professional development” (L 3).