Reflecting on Teaching
Written by Dr. David E. Shaffer
The start of a new year is often a time to make plans for the coming dozen of months, including resolutions for the coming year. It is often a time to also look back on the past year to reflect on what one has done and how one might improve upon that for the next year.
“Where is all this leading?” you may be asking yourself by now. Well, not so long ago, a very thoughtful Korea TESOL member, Virginia Hanslien, made a post on her Chronicles of Hope blog (January 3) challenging teachers to reflect on their past year of teaching through a set of ten questions. For my personal self-reflection, I have decided to expand these questions to cover my teaching career rather than limit my reflections to just 2018. I do this in the hope that, in addition to being helpful to me, it will encourage you to likewise reflect on your past year (or years) of teaching and make any changes that you think might benefit your teaching in the coming school year. Let’s get started.
What is your favorite classroom activity?
To begin with, let me state that most of my teaching of skills courses has been with upper-level, university English majors. I like to do activities that, in addition to having a language-item focus and a practice element, are interactive – whether they are pair-work, group-work, or whole-class activities. Label me “lazy” if you like, but what has worked exceptionally well for me is to have the students lead the class instead of me. In a favorite activity of mine, pairs of students were each assigned to lead a 45-minute class session. They were to select a language point that would be beneficial to the students in some way and create a lesson focusing on this in some manner. They would come to me to discuss their ideas and from there we would work on creating the content of the session. My role was mainly that of a facilitator.
One activity that sticks out in my mind was a snakes-and-ladders type of board game in which the players had to briefly discuss a topic, determined by the square they landed on, and ask at least two related questions to the other players. After 45 minutes, there were no winners – no one had gotten to the finish line! The students became much more interested in the discussions that they were generating than in getting to the finish line first to win the game. The students all became winners in my opinion – the activity creators and the game players.
What was the best piece of teaching advice?
Spoon-feeding should not be part of the job description of a language teacher. Information that is directly given to students is easily forgotten. My teaching advice would be to allow the students to discover new things about the language and sort them out themselves. Through such inquiry and discovery, learning is attained and that learning is retained. It is the task of the teacher to create the proper environment, to provide the right materials, for this inquiry and discovery process to occur – much more difficult than spoon-feeding but much more effective.
What was your proudest moment as a teacher?
I have always taken pride in hearing that a student of mine was accepted to an English education program at a graduate school in Seoul. And I have taken even greater pride in discovering that one of my students completed a doctorate in TESOL in the U.S. But when I felt proudest was probably when a non-English-major student of mine knocked on my office door about eight years after she had graduated to thank me for making her work so hard in my class. She was now the proud director of an English academy!
What was your favorite coursebook?
I am not a fan of coursebooks. They are too sanitized, too general, and often too boring to be very effective. An alternative of mine is to have the students compile a portfolio of their work in the course that the teacher can assess and give feedback on periodically throughout the course – somewhat similar to what an artist might do for a job interview.
What is your greatest discovery as a teacher?
To not blame the student for not learning. It is the job of the teacher to create an environment conducive to learning. This will not be the same environment for each student. Different students require different things to motivate them, and it is the task of the teacher to discover what is motivating to each student.
What was your greatest frustration?
It is most frustrating to have that single student in the class for whom you cannot discover what presses his motivation button – no matter how hard you try. I am thankful to not have had this experience often.
What was your most motivational idea, quotation, or picture?
I created a course centering on having the students reflect on their own language learning methods, evaluating them, and then making adjustments to them to make them better. They did this through journal writing, classroom paired discussions on their methods, and presenting to the class a method that worked exceptionally well for them. Through this, students became aware of many new learning methods and resources to improve their own English learning practices.
What class or group did you enjoy teaching the most?
I got a special joy out of teaching my sophomore English education majors in my Classroom English course. It was the first time for almost all of them to ever stand in front of a group to teach. During the course, each student had two sessions to “teach” a lesson in teaching English through English to their classmates. It was so gratify to see the improvements they made in so little time!
Which superpower would make you a super teacher?
I wish I could read minds, not to know what students were thinking of me (oh, gosh no!) but to be able to know what their problems were with their English learning. Students are often unable to articulate their problems. If I were able to read their minds, helping them with their language learning problems would be so much easier.
How do you plan to start your first lesson of the year?
At the beginning of a course, it is standard to give a description of the course to the students along with types of assignments that will be given and information on testing. However, I think it is important to ask the students what their expectations are from the course and to explain to them how those expectations might be attained.
Now it’s your turn. How would you answer these questions about your teaching? Happy reflecting!
The Author
David E. Shaffer is vice-president of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL). On behalf of the chapter, he invites you to participate in their teacher development workshops at their monthly meetings (always on a Saturday). For many years, Dr. Shaffer has been a professor of English Language at Chosun University. He is a long-time member of KOTESOL and a holder of various KOTESOL positions; at present he is national president. Dr. Shaffer credits KOTESOL for much of his professional development in English language teaching, scholarship, and leadership. He is board chair at the GIC and also editor-in-chief of the Gwangju News.