A challenge: the reflective teacher – Daniel Shiro

Daniel Shiro –

Reflecting on your own teaching, your beliefs and your skills is never easy. It is however the alternative to spending years and years teaching the same way, with the same examples and the same results – which are sometimes far from the results you should be getting with your learners.

When I started teaching, I was led to believe that the teacher was the main factor in the learning process – a good teacher could be the difference between the learners’ results. The teacher had to be fun, an entertainer, an actor, basically the star of the show. Not to mention that we had to control the group, and control the lesson. I remember trying so hard to make students enjoy my lessons and I wholeheartedly believed that if learners were having fun they were learning.
After many years of teaching experience, certificates, training, reflective teaching and endless hours of reading and research I reached a completely opposite standpoint. Now, I truly believe (and many will agree) that the main factor in the learning process should be the learner. The teacher should take the role of a supporting actor, which can be difficult to accept. Be it because of our ego, be it because we wish to help our learners.
It took me some time and maturity to accept that my own success came from my learners’ achievements: a new job, a promotion, a successful international trip, the possibility of watching films without subtitles, etc. It also took years of reflection on my own insecurities as a teacher and as a person to reach this point.
In many instances of my career, I was introduced to new approaches to teaching, new techniques and new trends. Not because I was forced or asked to do that but because of my curiosity: I was the type of child who would open all my toys just to know what was inside (as my mum insists on telling everyone). As an adult, curiosity led me to interesting books, new ideas, interesting people – many of whom are also teachers – and experimentation in my lessons. Curiosity took me far beyond my comfort zone.
So, Daniel, what is your point exactly?
By opening up to you and sharing my personal experience, I hope to convince you – the teacher, the reader – to be more open to new ideas and to experiment with new techniques and approaches. Broadening your horizons in terms of teaching may seem daunting, scary even, but only by exploring will your teaching improve. By experimenting with new ideas you may either find out the way you’ve been teaching might not the best way, or that it could actually be excellent. Nevertheless, you’ll never know if you don’t try to find out.
And how can I do that?
Start by questioning and reflecting on some of the techniques you use in class and your core beliefs regarding teaching and learning. Ask yourself why you do what you do in the way you do them. Then, read and research on that subject until you find some answers. These answers may open up new questions which may lead you to more interesting discoveries.
The next step is to experiment, reflect on the results and then reach some conclusions. Have in mind that the conclusions you reach may not always be the right ones, but the process of reflecting on your teaching will surely lead to professional development and growth.
Personally, I’m still curious about how to best help my learners in the learning and teaching process and the way I can push myself and my fellow teachers is by sharing my view and provoking others to do the same. For that, I will be writing a series of blogposts on this topic.
Furthermore, I challenge you to share your own views on teaching so we can discuss and reflect on them. I challenge you to become a reflective teacher.