Reflective Practice for Language Teachers - Thomas S C Farrel - 18th April 2011

Another astonishing talk, delivered by a clever speaker who caught the audience's eye with witty remarks and quick jokes.

He was very straightforward with his message, and started by asking us how one can recognise a Reflective Practicioner. He's the one who constantly seeks answers to questions, as in What do I do? How? Why? What's the result? Will I change anything now I know it?
In short, this is the beginning of Reflective Practice, in which you're supposed to look back and analyse your actions and plan based on reflection.

He pointed out that what a teacher does may be very different from what he thinks he is doing, and it may be very difficult to realise. Reflective teachers collect EVIDENCE and make INFORMED DECISIONS.

Thomas showed us something I personally found extremely interesting: SCORE - Seating Chart Observation REcord, which is used to analyse the communication flow in a class. In his observation, between 60-90% of all teacher classroom communication is in the form of questions, and it is groundbreaking to actually find out the number of questions that may be asked in a short period of time.

Wait time is also crucial for students, and Thomas said that if you wait 3-5 seconds for students to answer a question you may have a considerable increase in the number and quality of answers you get from students.

Thomas also talked about Classroom Observation and its implications, suggesting a more criticism-free approach, instead, teachers themselves could ask students real questions about the lesson goals, what was easy or difficult for them and if they'd change anything.

A very worthwhile talk, which gives rise to loads of reflection on teaching.

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