Discovering Reflective Practice
How would you rate your teaching performance — both within the classroom and out? What things are you performing well at? In which areas might you be lacking and in need of improvement? How could improvements be made in areas where improvement would be welcome? Chances are that, as an English instructor in Korea, you have not given serious consideration to these questions or discussed them with your colleagues. For many of us, it is too easy to think, “I am doing okay — no worries,” and disregard a need for professional improvement.
For the English language teaching practitioner, Reflective Practice (RP) is a great way to take stock of your teaching practices. And the Reflective Practice Special Interest Group of Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL is a great place to help you do this. To mark our two-year anniversary, we thought it would be nice to celebrate our success publicly.
Who are we?
The Gwangju-Jeonnam Reflective Practice Special Interest Group (RP-SIG) is one of three groups across the country whose aim is to help other English language teachers to get into reflective practice, and support them in their activities. There are other groups like us in Seoul and Daegu.
What is Reflective Practice?
As recently redefined by Thomas S. C. Farrell, reflective practice is “…a cognitive process accompanied by a set of attitudes in which teachers systematically collect data about their practice, and while engaging in dialogue with others, use the data to make informed decisions about their practice both inside and outside the classroom.” Put simply, RP involves reflecting in, on, and for a teaching activity with the primary goal of improving teaching practices.
How can we describe our first two years?
With David Shaffer’s encouragement, I cofounded this branch with Maria Lisak in 2013. Our first year was mainly about community-building and sharing ideas. Maria emphasizes this in her comment:
“While professional development seems to focus on keeping current about methods and activities, [and] KOTESOL is stellar about providing so many great ways to connect a personal EFL need or interest, there is yet another side of teaching — that of the teacher/research practitioner. The RP-SIG gives a trusted, comfortable space to think about our teaching in a community of practitioners who share similarities yet still offer insightfully different perspectives to look at our teaching. Spending time personally reflecting on our teaching should be a regular teaching habit. Reflecting with others offers us a chance to look at problems and successes from multiple lenses to help us grow into being the best educators we can be.”
After Tyson Vieira joined me in the second year, taking over for Maria, we decided to address more specific themes (e.g., teaching beliefs, values, and practices; goal-setting; critical incidents; project-based learning) in small workshops. At the same time, we began a strand introducing methods for reflecting on our practice (e.g., journaling, portfolios, peer and video observation, and action research).
What do we do?
Every month, we get together in an informal café setting. Tyson describes our meetings:
“In our meetings, our primary aim is to explore various topics and elements in teaching. Through this exploration, we gain awareness and the willingness to try alternatives in our teaching, which is quite energizing. The more areas of the teaching-learning dynamic we discover in our meetings, the more we want to tread further. As a result, a cycle is created to increase awareness and stimulate further exploration, leading us to fresh, new insights and questions in the teaching field.”
What is in store?
More exchange and exploration, of course! In the coming year, we are thinking of doing a strand of meetings focusing on elements of the classroom. That being said, we believe in the co-construction of experiences and welcome all ideas from our active members.
How to find us?
We meet most months before the regular Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL Chapter meeting. Our next meeting will be from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, 11 April 2015. For venue or other information, please join our Facebook group (Reflective Practice SIG Gwangju-Jeonnam). If you do not use Facebook, you can find information on the KOTESOL website or contact me (jocelynmnu@yahoo.com) or Tyson Vieira (tyson.vieira.esl@gmail.com). Please feel free to join us along your journey toward professional development!
Reference
Farrell, T. S. C. (2015). Promoting Teacher Reflection in Second Language Education: A Framework for TESOL Professionals. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL Monthly Chapter Meeting
Date & Time: April 11 (Saturday), 10:30a.m – 5.00p.m
Place: Chosun University, Main Building, Left Wing, Rm 4211
Morning (11:00) Reflective Practice Session
Afternoon Presentations
- Music, Chants, and Video-making by Chad LaRoche
- Reflecting on Classroom Elements: Learner Level by Tyson Vieira
For more details:
Facebook: Gwangju-Jeonnam KOTESOL
Website: http://koreatesol.org/gwangju
Email: gwangju@koreatesol.org
Twitter: @GwangjuKOTESOL