Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash
In this month’s blog, committee member Jake Kimball reflects on self-development.
Change Starts With Self-Awareness
One of my favorite ways to think about teacher development is through art, so whenever I have the chance, I visit art exhibitions. Recently, I saw a collection of works by Alice Dalton Brown, and over the years I’ve also seen Leonardo da Vinci’s original sketches, an immersive Van Gogh exhibition, and the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Yes, these artists have obvious differences in their styles. But they share one important characteristic. Throughout their careers, they continually changed how they saw the world. Their perspectives evolved. They refined their craft, experimented with innovative ideas, and developed their own distinctive, personal styles.
If you think about it, the same principle can be applied to teaching. If we want to grow and sustain our practice, we need to see our classrooms differently, too. We need to notice subtleties, examine our assumptions, and explore our teaching context with fresh eyes. Just like artists, teachers change when they learn to see things a little differently over time. Meaningful professional growth for me begins with increased self-awareness.
Self-Directed Professional Development
Oxford University Press has published several position papers on contemporary issues in ELT. They are worth your time and free to download. One that will be of particular interest to TDSIG members is Self-Directed Professional Development in ELT (Mercer et al., 2022).
In this post, I would like to expand on Donald Freeman’s cyclic framework for self-directed professional development, in particular, its first two stages. 1) Reflect on current situation and 2) Identify goals and purpose. Together, these two stages encourage readers to think about their current situation before engaging in PD. Mercer et al. (2022) suggest beginning with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to help teachers identify their views about development.
The second step, Identify goals and purpose, requires teachers to reflect on what interests them. While this sounds straightforward, identifying personally meaningful goals is often one of the most challenging aspects of professional development, for me at least. Nevertheless, Freeman offers a thoughtful exploration of four interrelated components of teacher competences.” (Mercer et al., 2022, p. 18). Like artists, teachers first need to understand where they are before deciding where they want to go next. Freeman’s framework offers an introspective way to begin that journey.
© Mercer, S., Farrell, C., & Freeman, D. (2022).
Reflective Practice
No doubt, reflective practice is now widely regarded as an essential part of effective teacher development. This is the one practice that has sustained my own teaching throughout my career. Believe it or not, I still keep a daily reflective journal, although it has evolved from a traditional pen-and-paper notebook to a digital one.
It is natural to start by asking, “What happened?” which is fine. But it is more effective to extend reflection to why events happened, what students learned (or failed to learn), and any prospective changes that might improve future lessons. One challenge involves ensuring that our reflections are informed by evidence. Let’s face it, (my faulty) memory alone is inadequate! Neither is intuition. This casual prompt, “How did the lesson go today?” along with some lesson plan details, is not really a catalyst for serious change. The same holds true for learning. Too often, we ask our students the simple question, “How was the lesson today?” We need to collect evidence to inform our reflections on learning. In short, data collection makes RP more systematic and objective.
Different models have been proposed to guide reflective practice. The one I return to most often is Farrell’s (2015) holistic framework, which introduces a five-level model for teacher reflection: philosophy, principles, theory, practice, and beyond practice. Farrell encourages teachers to reflect not only on their daily classroom practice, but also on the beliefs, theories, and contextual factors that shape their educational approaches.
Using Stimulated Recall
A useful way to raise awareness is through stimulated recall, a qualitative research method in which teachers record their lessons using audio or video. This makes it easier to revisit specific moments to reconstruct their thinking and their play-by-play decision-making process. Thankfully, with today’s sophisticated smartphones, recording individual activities or even whole lessons is much easier than it used to be.
The fundamental challenge, however, is time. Although video remains the gold standard, recording and analyzing lessons require a considerable investment of time and energy. Many teachers I know simply cannot sustain this level of reflection alongside their everyday workload and family responsibilities. Initiatives such as MenTRnet, an international teacher-research community, is an example. Despite its many wonderful successes, attrition is an unfortunate reality. After completing initial teacher education programs, many teachers struggle to find adequate time or incentives to take part in regular, evidence-informed reflection. In my own case, that is why I began looking for something simpler and more sustainable.
Photography as a Reflective Tool
Photo: Yoann Siloine via Unsplash
One practical solution I have adopted is using classroom photographs. I like taking photos because I find it much less obtrusive than setting up a tripod and camera to record. Most importantly, this means photography lowers the barrier to entry. I think we are more likely to start a project like this than to do complicated video recording and analysis. And don’t forget, anything that captures teaching and learning can become a useful prompt for reflection. For example:
The goal here is not to spotlight your best lesson. It is to capture ordinary moments as they naturally unfold. This is the foundation of change.
From Photographs to Reflection
Collecting a folder full of photos is only the beginning. Once you have a folder full of pictures, it is easier to record your thoughts more systematically. The power of a photo lies in the conversations and reflections that follow. Review photos one at a time, ideally soon after the lesson. Use each image as a prompt to reconstruct what was happening during your lesson, what you were thinking, what your students were doing, and what you might change next time. Reflecting with a trusted coworker or friend may even lead to alternative insights because they can ask questions you might never have considered yourself. However, if a colleague is unavailable, journaling is, of course, a suitable and private alternative.
Conclusion
This article started with a comment on artists whose work evolved over their careers. I cannot help but think their growth was not a natural byproduct of time. It came from seeing the world around them differently, then improving their craft ever so thoughtfully. I think teaching is not so different. Every lesson is like a sketch, or more like a work in progress.
My hope is that at least one teacher reading this article will download Oxford’s position paper and then experiment with stimulated recall using photos. Perhaps someone could adapt these ideas into a workshop for colleagues in their local context.
References
Farrell, T. S. C. (2015). Promoting teacher reflection in second language education: A framework for TESOL professionals. Routledge.
Mercer, S., Farrell, C., & Freeman, D. (2022). Self-directed professional development in ELT [PDF]. Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com/elt/expert
About Jake Kimball:
Jake is an English instructor and lifelong learner based in South Korea. After more than 25 years in the classroom, he is still driven by one elusive question: How can we make learning more meaningful, motivating, and at least a little more human? His work explores classroom dynamics, reflective practice, and the everyday realities of teaching. He enjoys combining honest classroom experiences with research-informed ideas. Away from work, Jake is usually commuting, hiking a mountain, reading a book, writing in his journal, or heading to a conference to meet like-minded friends.