Views on Learning to Teach

华中师范大学外国语学院 刘青

Ⅰ.Introduction

Learning is not only the need for students,but also for teachers,especially for the teachers who want to have a professional development.Fortunately,there are an increasing number of teachers attaching high importance to learning to teach.But the biggest problem is,as I observed,that most teachers have desire to learn,but they don’t know how to find ways to learn.Here,on the issue of learning to teach,I want to share my opinions from four aspects as follows.

Ⅱ.Learning to teach is a collaborative effort

2.1 The importance of collaboration

It’s a common view that learning is the process of one’s own effort,which,to some extent,neglects the effort of collaboration.Especially in present times,collaborative effort was regarded as an important factor to achieve success,so does the process of learning to teach.Whatever stage of teaching career you are at,collaborative effort is always needed.Nowadays we initiate corporate learning when instructing students,because it’s an effective way to improve students’studying and the sense of collaboration.I think the idea of corporate learning is also applicative to the process of learning to teach.If we see the process of learning to teach as the process of gold metallurgy，then our own effort can be seen as the power,and collaboration can be seen as the catalyst to optimize the process,make it more efficient and perfect.

2.2 Forms of collaboration

In my opinion,the forms of collaboration can be divided into two aspects:one is informal,the other is formal.Formal collaboration includes the ways such as workshop,conference and community.This kind of collaboration can be held in a fixed time to form a firm collaborate relationship.Informal collaboration includes the ways such as peer-observation and journal.This kind of collaboration can be a supplement to the formal ones.

Ⅲ.Learning to teach is a reflective process

3.1 Definitions of reflective teaching

There are different definitions of reflective teaching,but I agree more with the following definitions:

“Reflective teaching can been seen as an activity or process in which an experience is recalled,considered,and evaluated,usually in relation to a broader purpose.It is a response to past experience and involves conscious recall and examination of the experience as a basis for evaluation and decision-making and as a source for planning and action.”

“Becoming a reflective teacher involves moving beyond a primary concern with instructional techniques and ‘how to’ questions and asking ‘what’ and ‘why’questions that regard instructions and managerial techniques not as ends in themselves,but as part of broader educational purposes(Bartlett 1990).

From the definition,I find that reflection can help teachers not only with improving teaching skill,what’s more,reflection can help them to get a deep understanding about teaching and then reach a high level beyond the basic instructional requirement.

3.2 The importance of reflection

For teachers,reflection is not only good for their teaching practice,but also they are good for their own professional development.Many western education researchers also put reflection in an important position,Lunenburg and Ornstein have said in 2004, “It is through reflection that teachers focus on their concerns,come to better understand their own teacher behavior,and help themselves or colleagues improve as teachers.”And Richards and Nunan said in 1990,“Experience alone is insufficient for professional growth,and experience coupled with reflection is a much more powerful impetus for development.” I can’t agree more with their saying.

3.3 How to implement reflection

3.3.1 Peer observation

It is common to have peer observation in schools.The problem is that in China,we take this opportunity just for show.When giving evaluation of peer’s performance,most teachers are afraid to point out the problems,especially when having comments on the experienced teachers’classed,they think it is not good for the harmony among colleagues.But I think peer observation aims at improving,not being flattered.If we act in this way,peer observation will lose its meaning.So I suggest that we teachers should be open-minded to accept any criticism,making full use of this reflection.

3.3.2 Written accounts of situated experiences

Written accounts of situated experiences mean that we can make any accounts on the problem timely when we acting certain teaching method in the class.For example,when we implementing a task-based group work,we can timely write down the accounts such as whether this method is useful,where should be improved and so on.This kind of reflection happens in the class,not after the class,so it can reflect the problem more authentic and timely.

3.3.3 Journal writing

We sometimes ask students to write journals to improve writing skills or reflect what they have learnt.As for us,we should write journals as well to do the reflection.But most teachers are resistant to do this because of the heavy workload.Writing meaningful journals needs perseverance,which means,however tired from the work,we must do it as necessity.

3.3.4 Collaborative diary keeping

This kind of reflection calls for collaboration and can broaden our vision.We aren’t limited to our own reflection,from others’reflection,we may find some useful ideas and solutions.Even if we have common problems,we can make concerted effort to settle it because we have the same goal.

3.4 Closing comments

John Dewey (1933)highlighted three key attitudes in order for teachers to be reflective:openmindedness,responsibility,and wholeheartedness.In reality,most teachers are resistant to do reflection at the beginning and usually express some ambivalence or confusion about what is required,especially as unsettling questions about their own teaching are examined.More often than not,reflection results in more questions and clearer perceptions of themselves and in better plans for solving individual problems.We should believe that our effort in reflection will be rewarded at last.

Ⅳ.Learning to teach is a situated experience

We often think that we learn how to teach in the education course,which provides us teaching theories,teaching strategies and methods.However,usually we get more understanding and practical skills from teaching experiences.From this point,I’d like to say that learning to teach is a situated experience.

We can find that the process of learning to teach is the process of putting what we learnt in the education courses into teaching practice.The theories are the guide,but we may have different performance according to different situated teaching experiences.In my opinion,what we learnt in the book may be the same and changeless,but the way to implement the idea of the book into teaching practice can be diversified according to changeable teaching situation.In this way,we can say teaching is a creative work.Unfortunately,a great number of teachers are lack of such creativity.They just follow one model to teach,day after day,they get bored because they get no improvement.

Therefore,if we don’t want to lose passion from the teaching career,we should seize each opportunity to learn from the situated experience.Situated in our own teaching experiences,we can rich the teaching theories ourselves.

Ⅴ.Learning to teach is a theorizing opportunity

We should not be surprised at this idea.In the third view,I have pointed out that situated in our own teaching experiences,we can rich the teaching theories ourselves,and if we do enough research,of course,we can form a kind of teaching theory.I believe this kind of theory will be more applicative because it comes from practice.

In fact,in USA,many teaching theories come from the teachers who work in the front line of teaching.They are hybrid teacher educators who know both theory and practice.There are so many constraints to do so.One of these constraints is time.In China,teachers always have a tight schedule,especially in senior school,it is extraordinarily difficulty to find enough time to collect data and it is almost impossible to find time to reflect,reread,or share with colleagues.Moreover,teachers do not control their own professional schedules in the same ways that researchers do.Nor do teachers usually have the same degree of professional autonomy in directing their work.

However,we must have such sense in our mind that we have theorizing opportunity.We can do research,and research don’t just mean academic writing and doing experiment,it can exist everywhere in teaching.The point is whether we are willing to inquire,to think and to find.

Ⅵ.Conclusion

Learning to teach is the never-ending work.Through the career of teaching,we will have to deal with new questions and new problems all the time.We could not know all the answers prior to entering teaching.What we needed to know was how to keep on learning over time—how to work with colleagues to transform students’learning opportunities and outcomes,how to pose important questions and find ways to solve the problem in teaching and how to be a hybrid teacher educators who know both theory and practice.To do this work,strong belief in learning is critical.

[1]Freeman,D.Doing teacher research:From inquiry to understanding[M].Boston:Heinle&Heinle,1998.

[2]Richards,J.C.Beyond Training[M].Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1998.

[3]Richards,J.C.&Nunan.D.(eds).Second Language Teacher Education[C].Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1990.