Reflecting vs. complaining

I recently had the great opportunity to do a “remix” of my friend and colleague Josette LeBlanc’s great presentation on The Experiential Learning Cycle (The ELC). Click here for slides/materials and reflections and here for her pre-presentation thoughts. In the presentation that I did a few weeks later I mostly followed her format but I added in some personal stories and details. I’d like to share one of these stories below. This is sort of how I imagined saying it. 

I have been in this field for just about 12 years and more than 7 of these have been in Korea. I first started working in Jinju, which is a city in the south. It is a pretty small city and back then there weren’t many foreigners around. This was over 10 years ago, remember. Actually, for the first few weeks the only non-Koreans that I knew were the two guys that I worked with till one day I bumped into, actually literally bumped into, an American lady from California. She was nice enough. She was quite friendly and she told me that I should join her and her friends for a drink sometime. I was excited because I liked the occasional beverage.  I also thought it would be nice to meet some different people. I was excited and then she said something that I have remembered and thought about for a long time. She said, “Yeah you should come meet us at _____ bar, because we all get together and bitch about teaching every Friday night.”

Bitching or reflecting or neither?

I had only been teaching for a few weeks and this sounded just terrible to me. I mean, why would they bitch about teaching? What was there to bitch about? Why would I want to sit around and listen to people bitch? I thought I’d be happier just having drinks with happier people. This is what I thought after three weeks. Well, after three years and more it became easier and easier to bitch, but I don’t think it became any more productive. I think it is just too easy to complain but I really don’t think it helps much. Maybe we feel better for a moment but we don’t really get anywhere with it.

Though I taught for nearly 8 years till I got into reflection I don’t think I really developed much till then.  I always liked teaching. I enjoyed it. I liked seeing students’ progress. I liked interacting with students. My students seemed to like my class and they seemed to improve. I got rehired. I got better jobs. I got good evaluations. But again, I don’t think that I really improved much until I started reflecting and thinking about what was really going on in class and how the choices that I make might impact this. I’ve found using the ELC is one of the best ways for me to do this.

(End of story) 

To be honest, I can’t really say that I have totally quit bitching! I can say that when I get started on a solid roll of complaints I am much more aware of it. I can unload my feelings and I can push myself into the description zone and try to recall and think about what really happened. I find that going through the ELC and creating action plans pushes me behind simply complaining and being bothered. I find it to be much more productive and also easier to handle the real difficulties that might arise in teaching. 

I find myself wondering if teachers complain more than those in other jobs. I feel like it is all too easy to get caught in the circle of complaining. I find that the ELC is a good way for me to avoid this. I wonder what strategies other teachers employ. 

Considerations for reflection

Reflection is something that I’ve been thinking and talking about a lot these days. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am presenting (tomorrow!!) on reflection. As co-facilitator of KOTESOL’s Reflective Practice Special Interest Group I have the wonderful opportunity to talk about and practice reflection in our monthly meetings in Seoul. If you would like to read more about the group, what we do and what we are planning to do you can click here and go to pages 3-4 for a short article on that. I find all the meetings helpful, inspiring,  and enlightening and in this post I’d like to share some ideas that came up in the February (2012) meeting that was facilitated by my friend and colleague Manpal Sahota. In the meeting we mostly focused on different ways of reflecting and tried to think about the decisions we might want to make if we decided to try reflecting in these particular ways. The different ways that we mostly focused on were group discussions, journals, class observations, and teaching portfolios.

The question we were asked for each of the different ways was, “What do you think a teacher would have to do/consider when planning to use these ways of reflecting?” 

The following are the questions/considerations that the group came up with (along with my own thoughts and additions): 

Journals

  • Is there a format/structure? What is it?
  • Do you want to follow a rubric? What type? Why?
  • Is there a specific topic/focus? Or just what comes to mind on the day?
  • How often do you write in the journal?
  • How long is each entry?
  • How much time do you spend on each entry?
  • Where do you write it?
  • When do you write it? (Examples include during class, right after class, another day)
  • Do you want to get feedback on the journal? From whom? How? On what?
  • Do you want to choose the journal topic before teaching the lesson?
  • When/how do you revisit the journal? What do you do
  • Do you include some degree of accountability for yourself? How? What is it?

A quick note about journaling: It seems to me that many people equate journaling with reflection. From my view, journaling is just one of the many ways that we can reflect. I think it is helpful to think of journaling as a useful way of reflecting but not the only way. Journaling is surely not the only way and is not the best way for everyone. Some people just don’t like writing. Some people don’t want more time on the computer. Some people feel better with charts or pictures. Some people think better when they are talking (with or without someone else). Some people are self conscious about their writing skills. So, let’s take a look at some other ways.

Group Discussions

  • What are the expectations? Are they the same for everyone? Are they clearly stated?
  • Are there agreed upon norms/code of conduct?
  • What are the goals and objectives of the discussions?
  • Where are the discussions held? How comfortable is the room? What equipment is there?
  • Is there a seating plan? What purposes does it serve?
  • When are the discussions? Day? Time? (Duration?)
  • What about refreshments? What? Who organizes? Who pays?
    Is booze ok?
  • Is there equal participation? Is this a concern? How can we create a situation where some  people don’t dominate and so everyone speaks? How can we create space for some people not to speak if they don’t wish to?
  • Is an agenda set before the discussion? Is an agenda set at the beginning of the discussion? (So that people know what is coming and what they can get out of it)
  • Is there a leader/facilitator? What are his/her roles? How is the leader determined (volunteer, nominated, rotating etc.)?

Class Observations

  • What are the goals of the observation? Is it for development of the teacher that is teaching? Is it for observers to learn new skills? Is it for teachers to practice new skills? Is it to show off? Is it for continued/future employment?
  • Are there guidelines? What are the guidelines? Where do the guidelines come from? What purpose do they serve?
  • Are there SMART objectives for the observation?
  • How will the observation be conducted (live/videotape/audiotape)?
  • Who will observe? A critical friend? Peer? Supervisor? Education professional? Other?
  • Which class will be observed? Some considerations include students’ level/ability, Student-teacher rapport, the time of day and the type of lesson.
  • Will the teacher do anything different/special for the observed class? Why/Why not?

Teaching Portfolios

  • What goes in them?
    Some possibilities: awards, philosophy, curricula, teaching material, lesson plans, conference information, student work, teaching demos, reflections)
  • What is the medium? Dead trees? Digital? Is it interactive (like an app or something?)
  • How long/big is it?
  • What is the format? How will we organize it (chronologically, by class type/student level)?
  • How often do we update it?
  • How can we make this more for reflection than for job hunting?
    (Some wisdom from the group: It is the curating that matters.

Of course this is just a short list of different ways of reflecting and some considerations for these ways as there are many more ways (and considerations). What other ways of reflecting would you add? What other considerations would you add? As always, any comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading and happy reflecting!

What does the word “reflection” mean to you?

Note 1: I don’t mean to attack anyone or their ideas, beliefs, definitions or anything.

Note 2: I think it’s great to start out a blog post with the above note.

Note 3: It seems I will be taking a break from the heavily observation/feedback focused turn the blog has taken lately and focus on reflection, which is another of my main interests.

When reading the most recent issue of KOTESOL’s “The English Connection“  magazine I noticed the following ad for an upcoming symposium in Busan:

Much has been made about the need for teacher
improvement. We as teachers know that we
need to continue to develop our skills, teaching
techniques, and our delivery to help our students
understand the material that we present. How
can we measure our development? How can we
know if a lesson has actually been successful or
not?


The BG-Kotesol Reective Teaching
Symposium, to be held at Busan
University of Foreign Studies on
April 21st at 2pm, will provide some
answers to these (and other) questions.
For more information visit the BG-Kotesol
Facebook page or contact us at
BGkotesol@gmail.com.

Actually, I didn’t just notice it.  A few things jumped out at me!
I felt like maybe the person that wrote the ad and I might be working with different definitions of reflection and might have different assumptions about teaching and learning.* I am a big believer in reflection but I am not completely sure that it will necessarily help us answer the questions:

How can we measure our development?
How can we know if a lesson has actually been successful or not?

I think that we can find much, much more from reflection. I wonder what you, dear reader, see as the main questions that can be answered by reflection.  What do you think are the main benefits of reflection? What questions do you think are answered through reflective practice? 

I will actually be presenting at the symposium  (but surely not answering the above questions!). Watch this space for more information.  Please do be sure to read friend of the blog Josette LeBlanc’s post on her upcoming presentation at the symposium. 

*I must admit that I am a bit leery of the word “present.” To my mind it assumes a certain role for the teacher and perhaps one that might not always be best for students. Maybe this is a post better left for another day!

Personal Misfires as an Observer

I am often reminded of my first experiences as an observer. I think it is safe to say that there were quite a few misfires. I hope that by sharing my experience here I might help people avoid the pitfalls that I so easily fell into as a beginning observer. Another hope is that my examples here might help people think about observation and feedback in a slightly different way.

In my previous post I detailed my experience being observed and misfiring as an observee. About 18 months after that I was Assistant Director at the same institution and was given the task of observing and helping the recent hires adapt to the program and getting them ready for the “real” observation that would be done by the Director.

Armed with a CELTA, 7 years’ experience, lots of enthusiasm, a desire to help my fellow teachers, the (false?) confidence that I knew what I was doing, high student evaluation scores and the not-so-fresh wounds of painful observation experiences I jumped right in to the task of observing the new teachers.

(This is now nearly 4 years ago so the usual caveats about memory and me simply making things up apply, but this is how I remember it happening!)

I knew that I didn’t want to follow the same model as the Director. One big difference is that I wanted to come to classes that the teachers wanted me to come to. I wanted to come when they wanted me to come, with no surprises. I set up a schedule with my free hours and they determined when would be best for them and asked me to come.

We had a very brief conversation about the lesson beforehand. If I saw a lesson plan before the class I don’t remember doing so. I most certainly don’t remember them telling me what they wanted me to look for. I don’t remember me telling them what I would be looking for. I don’t remember much collaboration or discussion about what they hoped to get out the observation and feedback process. After all, I was the Assistant Director so of course I had all the answers and ideas! No criteria or anything was set up before-hand. I was just going to come to class and then talk to them after it. Tony Gurr, friend of the blog,  doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of checklists (me neither actually) but I think that some sort of shared understanding about what I would be looking for would have been helpful. They had no idea what I would be looking for and neither did I. We were confronted by the nebulous mix of development and evaluation that often plagues observations.

During the lessons I often felt uneasy because I knew that I wanted to give balanced feedback. The problem is that my eyes and ears were more attracted to the negative things. They jumped out at me and prevented me from seeing things clearly. Everything I saw was clouded through my lens of what I thought made “good” teaching. It is as though I had a hidden checklist of right and wrong and good and bad things that *should or *shouldn’t be done in class.

In the post lesson feedback sessions, I knew that I didn’t want to just focus on the negative things. I wanted to highlight the positive things. I wanted to give a mix of positive as well as negative feedback. So, I made an effort to stay positive. There was a problem, though.  My positive feedback was nearly devoid of specifics. Sentences like, “That was a nice lesson,” and “You did a good job” innocently sprung from my lips. Sadly, the feedback recipients likely had no idea what they had done well or no way of thinking about how to replicate this again. I think this is a good indication of a personal misfire.

I remember thinking that a feedback sandwich would be an effective way to deliver negative feedback. The idea is that by giving positive, then negative, and then positive feedback we can lower the risk of hurting the recipient’s feelings. I am not convinced that this worked, especially when the meat in the middle is all they really heard and the positives were sort of just thrown in there for balance and for the sake of sandwich making. Again, looking back, I think that the lack of specifics means that the “good” points I mentioned were pretty superficial which made the feedback much less helpful than it could be.

18 months previously, during the feedback session after my lesson the Director simply told me things and gave me commands or advice. I wanted to move away from this so I tried to ask a lot of questions. The trouble is that most of the questions I asked had a “right” answer. This answer invariably matched with my perceptions on teaching and what I had just seen. I also asked quite a few “Why” questions but these questions were focused on practices that I thought were problematic. I also asked “Why not?” as in “Why didn’t you do this thing that I think you are supposed to do?” Even though this has a question mark, I think it can still feel like an attack and still possibly put the teacher on their heels and ready to defend what they may have chosen not to do. Thinking about my questions, it seems I wasn’t there as a fellow explorer or even a guide but more as a nagger who was there to point out what I they did wrong or missed even though I used questions, smiles, and gentle words.

Another major potential problem with my feedback was that it was almost solely focused on the teacher and what the teacher did and said. I don’t remember saying anything about the students or student learning. I don’t remember saying or asking anything about what might have helped or hindered student learning. As my focus was almost entirely on the teacher I think I missed the chance to help the teachers see the lessons in terms of LEARNing.

I think that the biggest problem is that I completely stuck to my idea of what “good teaching” might look like. Did I mention that I had a CELTA? I mentioned that I had high student evaluations, right? When watching the lessons of the newer teacher my vision was blocked by the thoughts of what I would do in that situation. The teachers and lessons I was observing were unfairly compared to some idealized version of myself and my lessons. Somehow I didn’t make the connection that I was not them nor they me.  These days if someone asks me for advice about observing and giving feedback the first thing I say is “Forget about your lessons” and I think this is generally good advice. What other advice would you give to new observers?

 

A personal misfire as an observee

Lately I have been doing a lot of work with Korean public school teachers who will be observers and mentors in their schools. I have been wanting to share my experience as an observee for quite some time. This week I finally got the nudge and inspiration that I was waiting for in Tony Gurr’s ongoing series of “Misfires with classroom observation” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,).  Please be sure to check them out as they are incredibly insightful and hopefully related in many ways to what I am sharing here.

Context  

Before I start I will share a little bit about the context of my story, which occurred at a language school attached to a university in Seoul. The language school had an intensive English program (among other programs) where students studied for 30 hours a week with a variety of teachers and had classes like reading, writing, listening, and grammar. Students at lower levels also had two speaking classes. One was called “Practical English” and the other was called “Learning to Speak.” The former was supposed to be more focused on accuracy and speaking in situations while the latter was focused on fluency and was considered a precursor to discussion classes.

The observee from hell with his students.

Classroom Observation Process 

Observations were generally a nebulous mix of development and evaluation. This means that suggestions and critical feedback (along with the occasional positive point) were given with an eye to improving teaching and overall customer satisfaction but the observations were also a chance for the Director to think about potential re-hirings.

Teachers didn’t really know what the criteria was and didn’t really know what to expect in the post lesson conference.  There was no checklist. There were no guidelines.

Also, teachers didn’t know when they would be observed. The director didn’t want teachers to prepare too much for the lesson and it seemed that she wanted to “catch” people teaching in their normal way. Of course, there was no pre-lesson conference or any discussion except, “I will be observing your next class in 15 minutes if that is OK.” There had to be a very good reason for it not to be OK and teachers almost always accepted this.

From what I could gathered from experience and other teachers the post-lesson conference with the Director was generally pretty free flowing with the Director asking a (very!) few questions and then doling out suggestions and pointed critiques.

Does this sound like a recipe for success in observation and feedback? Read on…

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The cult of ICQs

So this is a bit of a rant. I have been saving this up for a while. Let me start with some stories.

100% True story
January 2010

My co-trainer gave what I thought were very good instructions to the room full of future teacher trainers. He spoke at a steady pace and paused at times to let the info sink in. He modeled. He didn’t use any superfluous language and clearly articulated what he wanted them to do in the activity. He split the instructions into smaller bits of information and  he gave the participants a chance to process what he was saying. I think he even drew a little picture on the board.

I don’t really remember the instructions or even the activity at it was already more than 2 years ago. I will, however, probably remember the response for a long time. There were  24 participants in the room, neatly arranged in 6 groups of 4 people. After my co-trainer gave the instructions 23/24 got right to work and seemed to dive right into the task that he had given them.

1 participant didn’t. She looked around at her group members and said in what I interpreted as a tone mixed with confusion, surprise, and judgment,  ”CCQs?” I took it to mean that the instructions were not complete in some way because the trainer had not capped off his instructions with a list of questions aimed to ascertain that he was fully understood by the participants. For me, the proof that they had understood was that 23 out of 24 people got right down to business. I suspect that 24/24 would have followed the instructions if the person in question wasn’t hung up on the lack of questions.

Slightly exaggerated story 
May 2010

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The impact of beliefs on feedback

In early December I had the great pleasure to give  two  3-hour presentations about co-teaching with my friend/colleague/former course participant. We did these presentations over two days and the first day was with Korean public school teachers and the second day was with “native” teachers working in the same public schools. (Please don’t ask why they came on different days!) As part of the 3-hour session we co-taught a roughly 3o-minute demo lesson for about 20 of the 90 audience members.  The rest of the audience watched the lesson with a task of checking the models of co-teaching that we showed. They also were asked to give us written feedback on the demo lesson.

In our demo we used two responses to a question about co-teaching  from an advice column (think Dear Abby for teachers) from KOTESOL’s quarterly magazine (the responses can be found on pages 10-11 here). We tried to model different co-teaching strategies while using  a PDP framework for a reading lesson. We split the group of 20 “students’ into smaller groups of 10 and did a variation of parallel teaching with each of us doing the same/similar vocabulary activities at the same time with some of the words that appeared in the texts. Next, we switched groups (well we intended to anyway. I forgot one day and just kept going with the same group!) and did some reading tasks (reading for gist, reading for more detail, and deciding if they’d like to work with the advice givers and why) with our groups. What the “students” didn’t know at the time was that there were actually two different sets of advice written by two different authors. After we let them in on this  surprise we gave them one more chance to read in preparation for telling a new partner from the other group about the advice they’d read. They read once again and then shared the advice. The final stage was for groups of 4 “students” to make a poster consisting of the best advice for co-teachers, either from what they’d read, heard, or experienced.

A rough outline of the 3 presentation hours ended up being  something like:

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