MASARYK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

TEACHER SELF-REFLECTION
Diploma Thesis

BRNO 2010

Author:
Bc. Iva Christodoulou

Supervisor:
PhDr. Alena Kaprkov

Declaration
I hereby declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only sources listed in
the bibliography.
I agree with the diploma thesis being deposited in the Library at the Faculty of Education at
the Masaryk University and with its being made available for academic purposes.

Brno, April 17, 2010

Bc. Iva Christodoulou

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Alena Kaprkov for her guidance, valuable
advice and encouragement. I am also obliged to my pupils and my colleague Eva Strachotov
for their help and cooperation.

Abstract
The thesis deals with a topic of teacher self-reflection as one of the teacher key competences.
It consists of a practical and theoretical part. The theoretical part emphasises the importance
of teacher professional development and presents reflective approach to teaching and
individual self-reflective methods as a possible way of work on a teachers growth. The
practical part demonstrates the use of three chosen reflective methods: a teaching journal,
questionnaire and observation, for revealing teaching problems in the practice of a basic
school English teacher. Possible causes of these problems are identified and followed by
suggested solutions. Further, positives and negatives of the used reflective methods are
discussed.

Anotace
Prce se zabv tmatem sebereflexe uitele jako jednou z klovch kompetenc uitele.
Skld se z teoretick a praktick sti. Teoretick st zdrazuje dleitost profesnho
rozvoje uitele a prezentuje reflektivn pstup k vyuovn a jednotliv metody sebereflexe
jako mon zpsob prce na profesnm rstu uitele. Praktick st demonstruje vyuit t
vybranch reflektivnch metod: uitelskho denku, dotaznku a pozorovn k odhalovn
problm ve vyuovn v praxi uitelky anglitiny na zkladn kole. Jsou identifikovny
mon piny tchto problm a navreno jejich een. Dle jsou probrny pozitiva a
negativa pouitch reflektivnch metod.

Key Words
Teacher key competences, self-reflection, reflective teaching, professional development,
teaching journal, observation.

Klov slova
Klov kompetence uitele, sebereflexe, reflektivn vyuovn, profesn rst, uitelsk denk,
pozorovn.

Contents
INTRODUCTION
THEORETICAL PART
TEACHER COMPETENCE
A Definition of Teacher Competence
Reasons for Formulating Teacher Competence
Key Competences
Reflection as One of the Key Competences
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
REFLECTIVE TEACHING
Current Models of Education
The Reflective Approach
TEACHER SELF-REFLECTION
Topics for Self-Reflection
Collecting and Interpreting Data
Journals
Self-observation methods
Observation
Action research
Teaching portfolios
Surveys and questionnaires
PRACTICAL PART
DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTEXT
DESCRIPTION OF THE CLASS
THE RESEARCH
The Teaching Journal
The journal analysis
Comments on journal writing
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire analysis
Comments on using the questionnaire
Peer Observation
Observation analysis
Comments on the observation method
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
A TEACHING JOURNAL
B A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PUPILS
C OBSERVATION QUESTIONS

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Introduction
The thesis is devoted to teacher self-reflection which is considered to be one of the
ways to teacher development and professionalism.
The theoretical part firstly looks at a teachers ability to reflect upon his/her teaching
as one of teachers key competences, tries to define professional development and examines
reflective approach to teaching. Secondly, it presents several techniques of collecting data for
self-reflection teachers can use as a starting point for working on their professional
development.
The practical part is devoted to the authors try to reflect on problems in her teaching
in one basic school class. The self-reflection is carried out by three different methods: keeping
a teachers diary, questionnaire and observation. The collected data are analysed and the used
methods are discussed.
As a teacher who has been through more than seven years of teaching English at
primary and lower secondary levels, I have found myself in a position of a certain stagnation.
At that phase I started to ask myself more often What a teacher am I? To answer the
question I tried to look at my teaching from three different points of view.
Firstly, my superiors and colleagues opinion. The feedback I get from time to time
from my superiors is not very helpful. On the whole, I appear to them to be a teacher who
works hard and is willing to work extra, has no big problems neither with getting on with
colleagues nor pupils, pupils parents do not protest against what is going on in English
classes so generally, the head of the school can rely on me. Concerning the teaching itself,
one or two observations a year cannot provide a competent feedback for me, not mentioning
the fact that none of my superiors is a foreign language teacher.
As for my colleagues, all I can say at the moment is that none of my colleagues
teaching English in the school where I work is a qualified English teacher.
Secondly, my pupils view. Their progress, their relationship to English and their
reactions to what we do in English lessons are a constant source of feedback for me.
However, I get the feedback mainly by observing my pupils or listening to their spontaneous
comments, I do not collect their opinions in a systematic way. Moreover, I realize that
opinions and reactions of pupils at primary and lower secondary school are often influenced
by their immediate emotions and mood.
Thirdly, of course, I try to answer the question about my teaching myself. Taking a
step back and looking at myself from a certain distance, I think I can say that I am (usually)

able to handle a class of teenagers; I am (usually) able to plan a lesson, organize it and
manage it; some of my pupils love English, some of them hate it; some of them are able to
reach quite a good level of English in my lessons, others are not able to get over How old are
you? phase; I discuss teaching problems with my colleagues; I go to conferences and courses
to educate myself; I engage myself in international cooperation and projects.
Nevertheless, as soon as I step closer again, the individual skills which, at the first
sight, seem to be mastered to a certain point, start to reveal their imperfections: my lesson
planning is too general and instinctive; I tend to speak too much Czech in some of my classes;
my reactions to pupils behaviour depend quite often on my mood, I am not consistent enough
when it comes to dealing with pupils forgetfulness and messiness; I do not pay enough extra
attention to pupils with special needs etc.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that some of the problems that keep appearing during
my teaching practice have gradually become part of my teaching, I basically know about them
but I do not do enough to identify them precisely to be able to work on their solution.
I am taking writing this diploma thesis as an opportunity to try to approach my
teaching problems in a more organized way - by systematic self-reflection with the help of
three self-reflective methods that represent three different points of view of my teaching.

THEORETICAL PART

Teacher Competence
The term competence1 has been one of the most frequently used terms in the last
decade in primary and secondary educational environment with the connection to the school
educational system reform being in progress in the Czech Republic. Pupils or students key
competences were the first ones the teacher public had to get acquainted with when they
started creating school educational programmes and, simultaneously, a debate concerning a
new concept of teaching profession including teacher competences and the standard of
teaching profession has been going on mainly in academic circles.
This chapter will first look at some examples of teacher competence definitions from
both Czech and foreign literature, further, it will try to answer why it is necessary to formulate
the competence and discuss what competences are the key ones for successful mastering of
teaching profession. The final part will concentrate on reflection as one of the teacher key
competences.
A Definition of Teacher Competence
What does it mean to be a professional teacher, what competences are the crucial ones
for performing the profession effectively? Different educationalists have had different
opinions especially on how complex the teacher competence should be. It is important to
mention an example of a complex educationalists view on teacher competence before
moving to individual views of those specialized in foreign language teaching (FLT) which
will better serve the purpose of this thesis.
As Spilkov (2004, p. 25) summarizes, debates trying to find answers to questions of
teacher competence have been going on since the end of 1960s in western Europe. From the
first normative descriptions of teaching profession or comprehensive sets of characteristics of
an ideal teacher, the views have moved to a more holistic and integrated approach to teaching
profession. Nowadays, professional competence is understood to be a complex ability or

The term competence is used either as an uncountable noun for a persons range of skills or knowledge , or
as a countable noun for a skill needed for doing a particular job (Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced
Learners. Oxford: Macmillan)

qualification for successful profession performance. It involves knowledge, skills, attitudes,

values, personal qualities (Spilkov, 2004, p.25). Authors translation.
What results from such a definition is that for being a competent teacher it is not
enough to go through all seminars at teacher training course at university and pass state
examinations, teacher competence grows with practice and experience and it involves the
whole teachers personality. Completing the obligatory educational part can be used as a
springboard for further developing of the teacher competence. Wallace (1991) calls such
professional capability initial competence. He further compares it to the professional
competence which he sees as a moving target or a horizon, towards which professionals
travel all their professional life but which is never finally attained (p. 58).
Not all educationalists use the term teacher competence, though, e.g. Kyriacou (1996,
p. 20) prefers the term essential teaching skills and defines the skills as individual logically
interconnected teacher activities which support pupils learning. Authors translation. He
further distinguishes three important elements of these skills: knowledge (of the subject,
pupils, methodology etc.); decision making which involves thinking and decision making
before, during and after a lesson; action, i.e. the teacher behaviour.
To narrow the complexity of the problem of the teacher competence the author will
now focus on a FLT field so the following views on what a professional teacher is are taken
from literature that is used in FLT training. Wallace (1991, p.13) considers the professional
competence a result of received and experiential knowledge put in practice and being
constantly reflected on. Received knowledge is the theoretical knowledge teachers get
during their training (e.g. knowledge of linguistics, psychology etc.), the experiential
knowledge is a term Wallace uses for the practical knowledge gained through the practice of
the profession and subsequent reflection.
Harmer (2007, p. 33) is more specific and besides the knowledge (about the language
system, materials, resources and classroom equipment used for teaching), he emphasises the
teachers ability to play different roles in the class, to establish a good rapport with students,
to possess certain teaching skills (e.g. for managing classes, matching tasks and groups,
variety, destination), and his/her willingness to update his knowledge.
It is possible to summarize all the above mentioned views on teacher competence: the
competence is (1) a set of knowledge received during a teachers education together with (2)
skills that are based on that knowledge and developed through practice and reflection, and (3)
teachers personal qualities.

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Reasons for Formulating Teacher Competence

Over the past year a group of Czech educationalists entrusted by the Ministry of
Education together with the help of teachers and public have been preparing a controversial
Quality Standard of Teaching Profession where the individual competences are to be stated.
The first version of the document was supposed to be prepared by the end of October 2009
and discussed and commented on during year 2010. Unfortunately, the document has not been
published on Ministry of Education web pages yet and up-to-date information on current
situation is missing so it is impossible to refer to it.
Nevertheless, the Standard" is supposed to formulate and describe teacher
competences and should serve as a norm in a further professionalization of the teaching
profession.
Why is it useful to create such a norm? The main arguments for usefulness of such
professional standard for teachers are that it will clearly state the objectives towards which the
teachers preparatory and further education should be aimed at; teachers will know what is
expected from them; they could continuously work on their development (Rdl et al., 2009);
and consequently, perhaps, as Prcha (2002, p. 108) summarizes:
It is supposed that given competences and standards can lead not only to an
improvement in teacher education but consequently even to an improvement of the
quality of school education because new competences and standards are put in a
relationship with the quality of teachers. Authors translation.
Key Competences
This subchapter is devoted to moving from general definitions of teacher competence
to individual competences which are considered to be the crucial ones for mastering the
teaching profession. Several examples of teacher key competences listings from different
sources will be introduced, first from the western European authors, followed by examples
from the Czech educational environment.
Vonk, Giesbers, Peeters, Wubbels refer to six basic areas of responsibility of a
teacher (as cited in Spilkov, 2004, p. 26): (1) knowledge and understanding (of subject,
curriculum, educational system knowledge etc.); (2) planning and designing of the whole and
partial activities; (3) teaching strategies and methods providing meaningful learning;

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(4) classroom management; (5) evaluation of pupils learning, results and also personality
development; (6) further teacher professional development, reflection of his/her own work.
Authors translation.
Kyriacou (1996, p. 23) states the following essential teaching skills areas: planning
and preparation; lesson presentation; lesson management; classroom climate; discipline;
assessing pupils progress; reflection and evaluation.
From the Czech educational literature a model of professional competences, which
was created by Vautov (2001, 2004), is certainly worth mentioning as it served as a starting
point for designing the professional standard. She based her model of key competences on so
called Delors concept of the four pillars of education (learning to know, to do, to live
together, to be) where she allocates a certain function of a modern school to each pillar of
education and relates individual competences to particular educational aims and school
functions. The following key professional competences have been elicited from the mentioned
sources: field-subject competence; didactic and psychodidactic competence; general
pedagogical competence; diagnostic and interventional competence; social, psychosocial and
communicative competence.; managerial and normative competence.; profession and
personality cultivating competence (cited in Spilkov, 2004, p. 30). Authors translation.
The lists of competences by different authors basically describe the same or similar
requirements on teaching profession although they use different terminology and some views
are more complex than others. Nevertheless, the number of requirements on teacher education
and development is quite extensive and demanding so a question arises whether it will be
possible for a single teacher to meet all the expectations determined by the competences.
Reflection as One of the Key Competences
As it is possible to see from the above quoted competences listings, reflection is
always mentioned as one of the key competences. Vautov (2001) cited in vec (2005, p. 29)
regards the ability of reflection and self-reflection to be a part of profession and personality
cultivating competence; Slavk, Sior (1993) understand the reflective competence to be a
sign of teachers preparedness to reflect and evaluate pedagogical actions (as cited in
Prcha, 2002, p. 107); Kyriacou (1996, p. 23) includes reflection and self-evaluation into his
essential teaching skills; vec (2001) describes self-reflection and self-regulation as a part of
developmental competence (cited in Spilkov, 2004, p. 28).

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Some authors even hold the view that instead of making lists of what a teacher should
be like, it is more important rather to show dilemmas, conflicts and uncertainties the future
teacher will tackle. to teach him/her to reflect and ask questions on his /her own doing
tech (1994) as cited in Prcha (2002, p. 109). Authors translation.
Moreover, reflection is considered to be one of the most important competences by
many authors. Spilkov (2004, p. 26) summarises views of several western European and
Czech educationalists: Competences in the self-reflection area and evaluating of teachers
own teaching competences are regarded as a determining sign of professionalism. She
continues by referring to a concept of the reflective practitioner or science-based
practitioner which some theoreticians use as a key-word for expressing the fundamental of
teacher professionalism. Authorss translation.
Pollard and Tann (1993) believe that the process of reflection feeds a constructive
spiral of professional development and competence (p. 4).
Reflection is definitely a vital skill as it can be considered to be a key to teacher
development. It can be either intuitive or systematic and organised, it enables teachers to
become aware of their weak and strong points. Absence of such awareness would make a
further teacher grow impossible. However, to reflect does not mean just to realize what the
strengths and weaknesses are, it should involve analysis of a searched area and a plan of
subsequent actions.

Professional Development
Once a teacher undergoes a training, starts teaching and gets over the very first years
of working when he/she basically forms his/her own routines and habits and develops his/her
own approach to teaching and learners, he/she finds out that there are still many questions
arising from his/her experience, skills that need to be worked on and challenges waiting to be
faced. At this point, there are several possible directions such a teacher can follow. Before
looking at them closely, it is necessary to point out that not all teachers will have the above
described feelings after a few years of practice. Some might feel that they have managed to
find their own way of teaching, they are satisfied with it and do not see any reasons for further
exploring something that actually works for them. Any failure can be perceived as an attack
from the outside by such teachers, they would hardly look for the cause of it in themselves.

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Hopefully, though, there are more teachers who never stop searching for improvement and
want to work on their professional development.
This chapter will try to answer what is meant by professional development, what are
its forms and what are the reasons for it.
Professional development of a teacher can already start during his/her training period
if the teacher training programme is designed to provide a broader approach in which
developmental insights are learned alongside classroom teaching skills (Head & Taylor,
1997, p. 12, 13). Teacher trainees in some training programmes might be expected to reflect
on their practice, e.g. by writing teaching journals, taking part in peer observations or keeping
their teaching portfolios. However, the activities mentioned are then a part of teachers studies
which means they are compulsory. In contrast to the training, though, teacher development is
usually voluntary and should continue during the whole teachers career.
Bailey, Curtis and Nunan (2001, p. 4) quote Dale Lange (1990) when trying to define
professional development: Teacher development is a term used in the literature to describe a
process of continual intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth of teachers. Head and
Taylor (1997, p. 1) use Underhills (1986) explanation, which is simple but apposite, and
describes the process of development as becoming the best kind of teacher I personally can
be.
Teachers can either decide themselves to work on their development or they can be
required to do so by the institutions they work for. For the development where the teachers
themselves are its active initiators and overtake responsibility for their change and growth, the
term bottom-up development is used. The opposite one, where requirements are imposed on
teachers from the outside, is called top-down development.
Bailey et al. (2001, p. 6) divide the opportunities for development into formal and
externally organized (e.g. participating in courses, conferences, working on higher
certification) and informal, more private (e.g. teaching journals, teacher chat-groups, studying
a language).
It is obvious that the main reason for either bottom-up or top-down development is
generally the effort to improve the quality of teaching, however, the particular reasons of
individual teachers are usually more specific.
Bailey et al. (2001, pp. 6, 7, 10) state the following reasons for teacher development:
to acquire a new knowledge and skills (learning new teaching techniques, learning
to use new equipment etc.);

14

to keep up with changes (in teaching approaches, in governmental regulations or

policies etc.);
to increase teachers prestige which can lead to an increase in their income and to
becoming more competitive in their next job search;
it can lead to inspiration and empowerment which means working out our
(teachers) way forward, based on our own understanding (Edge, 1992, cited in
Bailey et al., p. 7);
feeling in control over their professional development can help teachers stay
enthusiastic about their work;
to help to fight negativity in teaching environment.
Since teaching is quite an isolated profession - Dan Lortie (1975) cited in Bailey et al.
(2001, p. 10) calls it the egg carton profession because once entering the classroom,
teachers are on their own, isolated from their colleagues - taking part in professional
development activities can also help teachers to realize that there are other teachers who
encounter similar problems in the classroom.
On the other hand, as Bailey et al. (2001, p. 10) add, also participating in private
professional development activities (reading books, articles etc.) helps teachers to expand
conceptual understanding of teaching and vocabulary for discussing that knowledge which
can increase their confidence in discussions with peers, superiors, learners and parents about
the objectives and purposes of their work and subsequently lead to becoming more competent
teacher with a greater respect.
Ideally, teachers start and learn to work on their professional development at the time
of their training period and continue during their teaching careers. Engaging in development
activities can help teachers gradually become more confident and competent.

Reflective teaching
The previous chapter was concerned with professional development, this one tries to
look at what is necessary to do to become a professional. The first part is devoted to a brief
introduction of current models of education to look at different ways of connecting teacher
education and practice, the second part explores reflective approach to teaching in a greater
detail.

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Current Models of Education

Wallace (1991, p. 6) presents three major models of professional education which
have been used in training professionals, including teachers. They are the craft model, the
applied science model and the reflective model.
In the craft model a trainee learns the profession by imitating the experts techniques,
and by following the experts instructions and advice. Stones and Morris (1972) state that
teachers were trained according to this model until about 1945: The master teacher told the
students what to do, showed them how to do it and the students imitated the master (in
Wallace 1991, p. 6).
Stones and Morris further point out that it is a conservative technique and depends on
essentially static society so it is not able to reflect the progress and developments in all the
areas connected with teacher education.
The applied science model is also called technical rationality by Schn (1987) or the
technical-rational approach by Sarsar (2008, p. 4). He describes it as a behavioural
approach to teacher education based on a front-end loading model in which professionals
were taught knowledge and skills (Foley, 1995) by experts in order for them to be
effective.
Wallace (1991, pp. 8, 9) explains that in this model a trainee gets acquainted with
scientific knowledge by experts in a given area and applies the knowledge into practice. If
he does not succeed, it is because he does not understand the knowledge well, does not apply
it in the right way or because the findings of the scientific knowledge themselves are wrong.
Changes in practice can be based only on experts findings and on the teachers findings right
in the classroom.
The professional development, though, has moved to the reflective approach over the
last decades, as Sarsar (2008, p. 4) claims. He adds that it was Schn (1983) who opposed the
idea that professional practice is based mainly on scientific research findings and that by
applying their theories and principles everyday problems can be solved.
Before describing the reflective model, it is necessary to introduce several terms that
Wallace (1991, pp. 12-15) uses or introduces in connection with it. The terms are
professional knowledge, received knowledge, experiential knowledge, knowing-inaction, and reflection.

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When talking about professional knowledge, Schn (1983) emphasises that there are
two different kinds of that knowledge. He refers to the first one as to research-based theories
and techniques, Wallace uses the term received knowledge. Basically, it is the theoretical
knowledge that e.g. teacher trainees receive during their studies and it consists of facts,
data and theories, often related to some kind of research (Wallace 1991, p. 12).
The second kind of knowledge, which Wallace calls experiential knowledge, is
based on two phenomena described by Schn (1983): knowing-in-action and reflection.
By knowing-in-action Schn means the tacit knowledge which every professional uses in
his/her every day practice: he makes innumerable judgements of quality for which he cannot
state adequate criteria, and he displays skills for which he cannot state the rules and
procedures (cited in Wallace 1991, p. 13).
When applied to teaching, Wallace further mentions the numerous immediate
interactions and decisions teachers make in the classroom every day which are definitely not
based on a direct application of received knowledge, often satisfaction (or unease) is
expressed in terms of feeling, rather than a conscious application of principles.
He adds that each professional performance that raised especially positive or negative
feelings should be followed by reflection so that the teacher can either build on the positive
aspects or avoid the problems in the future. Reflection can lead to the conscious
development of insights into knowing-in-action (Wallace, 1991 p. 13).
Professional education should therefore include both kinds of knowledge: received
knowledge where the trainee gains the theoretical base of the subject of his/her studies, and
experiential knowledge which enables him/her to develop knowledge-in-action through
practice and gives him opportunity to reflect on it (Wallace, 1991, p. 15). In this model,
Sansar (2008, p. 4) explains, teachers are viewed as reflective practitioners [who] build on
their experiences and are actively engaged in developing theories that they can use in
practice (Gould & Baldwin, 2004) and are placed at the centre of professional development
programmes.
To conclude, while in the craft model and in the applied-science model the role of the
teacher is more or less of a passive performer of knowledge gained either straight from a
master or during his/her studies, the reflective model gives the teacher an opportunity to take
the success of his/her teaching into his/her hands by helping him/her to become a researcher
right in his/her own classroom.

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The Reflective Approach

This chapter firstly tries to define reflective teaching and introduce key terms
connected with it, secondly, it explores the meaning of reflective teaching, and thirdly, it
looks at what a reflective teacher does.
Bailey et al. (2001, p. 36) divide the definitions of reflective teaching from two
different points of view. Some authors view reflection more as an individual process,
emphasising a rather solitary process of introspection and retrospection focusing specifically
on a teachers action and thoughts before, during, and after lessons. Other authors take a
broader stance and embed the concept of reflection within the social and political contexts of
programs, schools, and communities.
Richards and Lockhart (1996) represent the first view when focusing on the teaching
process of the individual teacher in the classroom. They claim that in reflective teaching
teachers and student teachers collect data about teaching, examine their attitudes, beliefs,
assumptions, and teaching practices, and use the information obtained as a basis for critical
reflection about teaching (p. 1).
The second, more complex, view is expressed by Zeichner and Liston (1996) who say
that reflective teaching involves a recognition, examination, and rumination over the
implications of ones beliefs, experiences, attitudes, knowledge, and values as well as the
opportunities and constraints provided by the social conditions in which the teacher works
(cited in Bailey et al., 2001, p. 36).
Both approaches are interconnected by Leo Bartlett (1990) who sees reflection as the
relationship between an individuals thought and action and the relationship between an
individual teacher and his or her membership in a larger collective called society (cited in
Bailey et al. (2001, p. 37).
Naturally, each teacher is a part of a school and each school is a part of a community
so even if a teacher concentrates basically only on his/her teaching in his/her reflection, its
effects can influence primarily the pupils in the class he/she teaches and secondarily the
school and the society both the pupils and the teacher are parts of.
Reflection can be also considered in terms of reflection-in-action (in the course of
teaching) and reflection-on-action (before and after the lesson), terms introduced by Schn
(1983) in Bailey et al. (2001, p. 28). Both forms are important in the reflective process. As
Russel & Munby (1991) in Bailey et al. (2001, p. 37) explain, reflection-on-action is more

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conscious and well known compared to reflection-in-action which teachers perform promptly
during their teaching.
Pollard et al. (2005, pp. 14-22) bases his concept of reflective teaching on the work of
Dewey (1933) who distinguished between routine action and reflective action. Routine
action is influenced by tradition, habit and authority and by institutional definitions and
expectations.it is relatively static while reflective action demands desire to think over
ones actions and work on his/her development which implies flexibility, rigorous analysis
and social awareness (p. 14). Pollard further applies Deweys thoughts to teaching in his
seven key characteristics of the meaning of reflective practice:
1. Reflective teaching implies an active concern with aims and consequences, as well as
means and technical efficiency. A teacher is not only responsible for his/her own
classroom practice but should be an active participant in providing a critical feedback
on educational policy of a state.
2. Reflective teaching is applied in a cyclical or spiralling process, in which teachers
monitor, evaluate and revise their own practice continuously. A teacher should
overtake responsibility for working on his/her development, the need for a change in
his/her practice should emerge from his/her self-reflection.
3. Reflective teaching requires competence in methods of evidence-based classroom
enquiry, to support the progressive development of higher standards of teaching.
A teacher should be familiar with methods that enable him/her to collect information,
analyse it and evaluate it.
4. Reflective teaching requires attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility and
wholeheartedness (three characteristics of reflective teaching stated by Dewey).
5. Reflective teaching is based on teacher judgement, informed by evidence-based
enquiry and insights from other research. Teachers are the ones who make constant
decisions and judgements in interaction with their pupils and situations in schools and
classrooms, however, they should not neglect the contributions of professional
researches; teachers and researchers should cooperate in their work.
6. Reflective teaching, professional learning and personal fulfilment are enhanced
through collaboration and dialogue with colleagues.
7. Reflective teaching enables teachers to creatively mediate externally developed
frameworks for teaching and learning. Teachers should remember their own

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principles and values when employing external demands into the specific context of
their teaching.
All the above mentioned characteristics suggest that to become a reflective teacher
means to engage oneself in a complex continuous process. What particular activities are
teachers supposed to be engaged in to be considered reflective teachers?
Zeichner and Liston (1996) suggest that a reflective teacher:
examines, frames, and attempts to solve the dilemmas of classroom practice;
is aware of and questions the assumptions and values he or she brings to teaching;
is attentive to the institutional and cultural contexts in which he or she teaches;
takes part in curriculum development and is involved in school change efforts;
takes responsibility for his or her own professional development.
Further they add that a reflective teacher also has to be able to reflect even on
unplanned and unpredictable events in teaching because teaching, even under the best
conditions, always involves unintended as well as intended outcomes (cited in Bailey et al.,
2001, p. 39).
To sum up, reflective teaching views a teacher as an active initiator and executor of
improvements and changes in his/her classroom who at the same time feels responsibility for
his/her role within the context of the school and society.

Teacher Self-Reflection
Teacher self-reflection is basically becoming aware of teachers own acting in a
certain, e.g. educational situation, followed by asking questions about why the teacher chose
to act the way he did and consequently trying to find solutions and suggestions for
approaching the given situation alternatively.
vec (2005, p. 78) defines self-reflection as thinking over ones own actions and
acting in interaction with pupils, also with their parents and colleagues at school the
teachers inner dialogue with him/herself it requires frankness to oneself and to other
people, certain pedagogical experience and also psychological and pedagogical knowledge.
Authors translation.

20

The process of self-reflection is complex, therefore some authors have tried to divide it
into individual phases. vec (2005, p. 79) refers to J. Smyth (1989) who describes the
self - reflection process in the following way:
1. Descriptive phase (What happened? What was my reaction?)
2. Informative phase (What exactly was the situation about? In what context did the
situation develop? What class was it?)
3. Contrastive phase (Why did the situation happen? Who caused it?)
4. Phase of situation solving reconstruction (How could I proceed now when I know
about the situation? What approaches are available? What do I need for their
practical realization?) Authors translation.
It is possible to say that all teachers pay some attention to self-reflection, even though
most of them do it intuitively and occasionally which cannot be compared to a thorough,
organised, and systematic way of self-reflection.
If a teacher decides to explore his/her teaching in detail, firstly, it is necessary to
decide what is going to be the subject of the self-reflection, what exactly the teacher is going
to reflect on in his/her teaching and secondly, he/she has to choose the way of collecting and
analysing the data about his/her teaching.
Topics for Self-Reflection
The areas a teacher wants to concentrate on in his/her self-reflection can be chosen in
many different ways. Kyriacou (1996, p. 140) refers to researches which show that most of
teachers usually start their exploration from a problem that they confront in their practice
rather than trying to evaluate their teaching as a whole. As the next possible starting point of
self-reflection he gives an example of filling in pre-prepared questionnaires or scales focused
either on a particular topic or evaluating the teaching generally, which can help teachers to
identify an area that they want to work on. The last suggestion for finding the right source of
themes to evaluate and develop Kyriacou together with vec (2005, p. 84) propose using the
list of key competences as a scaffolding, support for self-reflective inventory.
The following examples are some reflective questions that can be asked when using
the profession and personality cultivating competence as a starting point (vec, 2005, p. 85):
Do I cooperate with my colleagues?; Do I enquire about my pupils opinions on my

21

communication with them and on the classroom climate?; What is my idea of further
professional development?; What do I do for it? etc. Authors translation.
Richards and Lockhart (1996, p. 1) offer a list of reflective questions about teaching,
e.g. How can I collect information about my own teaching?; What are my beliefs about
teaching and learning and how do these beliefs influence my teaching?; Where do these
beliefs come from?; What a teacher am I?; What learning styles and strategies do my learners
favour? etc., and they claim that in asking and answering questions such as these, teachers
are in a position to evaluate their teaching, to decide if aspects of their own teaching could be
changed, to develop strategies for change and to monitor the effects of implementing these
strategies.
Collecting and Interpreting Data
Once a teacher decides what he/she is going to explore about his/her teaching, it
should be followed by the choice of a technique suitable for collecting the data. Nevertheless,
choosing the right technique does not necessarily mean proceeding in professional
development. The information collected through them is usually descriptive in the first place
and only the further work and analysis of them can be regarded as reflection possibly leading
to teacher development and grow.
There are several most frequently mentioned techniques for such exploration: Richards
and Lockart (1996, p. 6) mention journals; self-monitoring methods which include lesson
reports and audio or video recordings; surveys and questionnaires; observations and action
research; Richards and Farell (2005) add teaching portfolios, analyzing critical incidents, and
case analysis.
The methods presented could be also divided form the point of view of different
observers concerned: methods where only the teacher himself is the person involved, i.e.
he/she collects the data and analyses them, e.g. in journal writing or self- monitoring methods;
or other people (other teachers, supervisors, pupils) are involved in helping with gathering the
information about the teachers work and its further exploration, e.g. observations.
Wallace (1991, p. 60) looks at the ways of recalling and analysing the data in a more
complex way, he talks about key parameters involved: primary data and medium for
recalling the data and interpreter and interpretation for their analysis.
By primary data he means what really happens, e.g. in the classroom, and states
three sources of these data: (a) directly experienced by the professional concerned, i.e. the

22

data are collected by the teacher him/herself; (b) directly observed by professional concerned,
i.e. the data are collected by someone present in the class; (c) or indirectly
experienced/observed, e.g. watching a teaching film.
Media are the most common forms of collecting the information, one teaching event
can be recorded through more than one medium. The forms mentioned are: (a) personal recall
(the simplest form, simply trying to remember what happened); (b) documented recall (recall
is documented field note, teaching journal); (c) audio; (d) video and transcript (verbatim
account of the interaction in lesson, usually derived from audio or video).
After the data are gathered, their further interpretation can be carried out from the
point of view of the number of interpreters, their professional status and degree of training.
The interpretation itself may vary along a cline from being almost completely unstructured at
one extreme to being very highly structured at the other (Wallace, 1991, p. 65).
Nevertheless, for the next subchapters where individual techniques for reflective
examining of teaching will be introduced in detail, I will stick to Richards, Lockharts and
Farrells techniques division since I find it clearly organized.
Richards and Lockhart (1996, p. 3) base the chosen explorative techniques on five
assumptions about the nature of teacher development:
1.

An informed teacher has an extensive knowledge base about teaching.

A teacher who has deeper knowledge about teaching as about a very complex
profession is better prepared to judge and decide appropriately in the process of
his/her teaching.

2.

Much can be learned about teaching through self-inquiry. Teachers themselves

know the best what is going on in their lessons so they are the ones to explore
their teaching in the first place.

3.

Much of what happens in teaching is unknown to the teacher. In every lesson

there are many things going on in the same time and the teacher is not always
aware of them completely.

4.

Experience is insufficient as a basis for development. Even though experience

is a key component of teacher development, also experienced teachers fall into
routines so it is necessary to systematically reflect the experience for it to stay
effective.

5.

Critical reflection can trigger a deeper understanding of teaching. Teachers

reflecting on their teaching continuously have systematic information about their

23

teaching which enables them to determine in what position of professional

development they occur and what needs to be changed.
Each of the techniques has its own positives and negatives, the teacher him/herself has to
decide what approach suits him/her and the purpose of his investigation best.
The following subchapters will introduce some methods of collecting information in
greater detail, I have chosen such methods that I find executable by an ordinary teacher in the
context of Czech primary and lower secondary schools. Three of the techniques (writing a
journal, questionnaires, observation) will be tried for my own self-reflection and commented
on in the practical part of the thesis.
Journals.
Writing a teaching journal is a continuous process of keeping a written record of
teachers thoughts, experience and observations. It can be also kept in the form of audio or
electronic journal.
vec (2005, p. 80) regards a teachers inner dialogue expressed in writing to be a
purposeful means of analysis and improvement of his/her pedagogical activities. Authors
translation .
Bailey (1990), cited in Gebhard (1992, p. 40), defines writing a journal as a first
person account of a language learning or teaching experience, documented through regular,
candid entriesand then analyzed for recurring patterns or salient events.
In the following paragraphs examples of topics to write about will be given; the
reasons for keeping a journal; different forms of writing a journal and its target audience will
be mentioned; and journal writing benefits and difficulties will be discussed. At the end, tips
for successful journal writing are included.
Many various topics can be drawn from journal writing, different authors often offer
lists of similar reflective questions it is possible to use as a starting point or areas to focus on
in journal entries. Richards & Lockhard (1996, p. 16) offer examples of such areas: personal
reactions to things that happen in the classroom or in the school; questions or observations
about problems that occur in teaching; descriptions of significant aspects of lessons or school
events; ideas for future analysis or reminders of things to take action on. Within each such
topic, many further sub-questions arise to be explored in greater detail.
The purposes of writing a journal depend in the first place on the individual teacher
and his/her needs for writing, he/she is usually the one who decides why to write and what.

24

Richards and Lockhard (1996, p. 7) state two general purposes of keeping a journal: (1)
events and ideas are recorded for the purpose of later reflections; (2) the process of writing
itself helps trigger insights about teaching. Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 70) mention also a
purpose of it being a way of collaborating with other teachers in exploring teaching issues.
Some authors stress especially the importance of subsequent analysis of the entries,
e.g. Bailey (1990) says that in reworking, rethinking, and interpreting the entries, teachers
can gain powerful insights into their own classroom behaviour and motivation (cited in
Gebhard 1992, p. 41).
Thinking about journals, most people usually have an individual writing on mind.
Nevertheless, other forms of journal writing are possible too. Richards and Farell (2005, p.
70) mention also writing for a peer and group or dialogue journal writing which are less
common and require a cooperation of two or more teachers.
Connected with the forms of writing is the audience the journal is intended for.
Richards and Farell (2005, pp. 72, 73) talk about three types of audience for a teaching
journal: the writer, other teachers, and a supervisor. Firstly, for the teacher him/herself
journal serves as a personal record of thoughts, feelings and reactions to teaching, Gebhard
(1999) calls it an intrapersonal journal. Secondly, it is also possible to share the journal with
other teachers as a basis for comparison, discussion, and further reflection which can be
called a dialogical journal. Thirdly, sharing a journal with a supervisor is another possible
way of working on solution to some problems, alternatively, it can serve as a richer source of
information about a persons teaching than could be obtained from a brief classroom visit.
Depending on who the audience is, the teacher decides about the approach to his/her
writing, whether it will be a stream-of consciousness approach or edited approach (Richards
& Farrell, 2005, p. 76). A stream of consciousness method is more suitable for individual
writing where the message the text carries is of much greater importance than used style or
grammar; edited approach might be more preferable when sharing the journal with another
person.
To exhaust the journal writing investigation method, it is necessary to mention also its
positives and negatives and give tips for successful writing.
The advantages of keeping a journal were summarized by Brock, Yu and Wong (1992)
in Richards and Ho (1998, p.154), e.g. journals are a great instrument for reflection; they are
easy to keep; they increase the teachers knowing of the way he/she teaches; serve as a source
of questions and hypotheses about teaching; offer direct record of classroom events and
experiences which is undisturbed by an outside observer etc.

25

On the other hand, Burns (1995) in Richards and Ho (1998, p.155) describes journal
writing limitations as collected from teachers comments: journals are time consuming; the
activity is artificial unless you are a regular writer; comments are unfocused; its initially
interesting, ultimately tedious, activity; they are difficult to analyze and interpret. Jarvis
(1992) in Richards and Ho (1998, p. 155) adds difficulties some participants have in moving
beyond description to more reflective mode of writing; entries sometimes fail to make links
between what they write about and their own classroom practices, sometimes little sense of
reflection on practice is evident; Richard and Farrell (2005, p. 70) mention also the question
of sharing the journal as one of the difficulties.
To avoid the difficulties and make journal writing successful, Richards and Farrell
(2005, p. 75) offer the following suggestions:
1.

Set goals for journal writing.

2.

Decide who your audience is.

3.

Be prepared to set aside time for journal writing.

4.

Set a time frame for a written activity.

5.

Review your journal entries regularly to see what you can learn from them.

6.

Evaluate your journal writing experience to see if it meets your goal.

Bailey (1990) in Gebhard (1992, p. 40) suggests the following process:

1.

Provide an account of personal teaching history.

2.

Systematically record events, details and feelings about the current teaching
experience in the journal.

3.

Study the journal entries, looking for patterns and significant events.

4.

Interpret and discuss those factors identified as being important.

Self-observation methods.
Self-observation or self-monitoring methods belong to methods where the teacher
him/herself is the key person of investigation and further analysis of his/her teaching, no extra
help of other people is required. Self-monitoring or self-observation refers to a systematic
approach to the observation, evaluation, and management of ones own behaviour in order to
achieve a better understanding and control over the behaviour (Armstrong & Frith 1984,
Koziol & Burns 1985 as cited in Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 34).

26

A teacher can collect information about his/her teaching through writing lesson reports
or making audio or video recordings and what he/she finds out can be either kept private or
shared with other colleagues or supervisors. If the teacher decides to keep the information to
him/herself, he/she then shifts the responsibility for initiating improvement in teaching
practices from an outsider, such as a supervisor, to the teacher (Richards & Farrell, 2005,
p. 37).
As Richards and Farrell state, the records documenting the teaching help the teacher
become aware of his/her current knowledge, skills and attitudes and use such information as
a basis for self-appraisal (p. 34) which can be considered to be a starting point of teacher
development.
There are many benefits of self-observation methods, Richards and Farrell (p. 37)
point out that they allow the teacher to (a) make a record of teaching which can be used for
various purposes; (b) provide an objective account of ones teaching; (c) can help teachers
better understand their own instructional practices and make decisions about the practices
they are not aware of and might wish to change; (d) help develop more reflective view of
teaching; (e) it is teacher initiated.
The following paragraphs will examine closely the self-observation techniques
mentioned: lesson reports, audio and video recording.
Lesson reports.
A lesson report is a structured inventory or list which enables teachers to describe
their recollections of the main features of a lesson (Richards &Lockhart, 1996, p. 9).
In a lesson report a teacher describes what happened during a lesson, it is usually done
shortly after the lesson which means that the account can not be precise. The main purpose of
report writing is, as Richard and Lockhart further claim, to give the teacher a quick and
simple procedure for regularly monitoring what happened during a lesson, how much time
was spent on different parts of a lesson, and how effective the lesson was. Depending on
teachers intention, a lesson report then can be directly evaluated as well as kept for later
complex analysis of several such reports.
Richards and Farrell (2005, pp.39-41) suggest two ways of capturing the course of the
lesson: either in the form of a written narrative or a checklist or a questionnaire. In a written
narrative, the lesson is recorded in a descriptive, reflective or both ways, the teacher
him/herself decides about the structure and the exact focus of the writing, the process of

27

writing itself can be quite a discovering process. On the other hand, such writing is time
demanding, subjective and some important parts of a lesson can be omitted.
Checklists and questionnaires, which are pre-prepared by the teacher himself, by a
group of teachers or experts or can be found published, are usually easy and quick to
complete. They either focus on a certain aspect of a lesson (e.g. grammar presentation,
individual skills, interaction patterns etc.) or are interested in the lesson as a whole with many
various aspects being covered. As Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 42) point out, such checklists
or questionnaires can grant more detailed account of a lesson, however, it is necessary to
prepare them carefully and try them out several times to make sure that they meet the
expectations of a particular teacher.
Audio and video recordings.
Audio and video recordings enable a teacher to document either whole lessons or parts
of them. With the audio or especially video help it is possible to record the lesson in a much
greater detail than with any other method and it is indisputably very objective as it captures
the reality of a lesson as it is.
Many other benefits of audio or video recordings are mentioned by Richards and
Lockhard (1996, p. 11): (a) they allow the teacher to choose who to focus on - the teacher
him\herself or a particular group of students; (b) the recordings can be replayed and used
many times; (c) they show details that cannot be seen otherwise; (d) Schratz (1992) adds that
they confront the lecturer with a mirror-like objective view of what goes in a class.
As Richards and Farrell (2005) point out, teachers are usually surprised by what they
see or hear although they tend to assume that they have a fairly high level of self-awareness
of their own teaching style or approach (p. 42).
Not many negatives concerning the use of both methods can be found. The main one is
connected with the presence of the video or audio recorder in the classroom, it can be quite
disturbing so a question arises whether its presence and the knowledge that the lesson is
being recorded will influence the dynamics of the lesson, resulting in a lesson that is not
really typical or representative (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 43). This problem can be
reduced by recording several subsequent lessons so that the teacher and the pupils get
accustomed to the presence of the recording device and stop taking notice of it. Other
disadvantages include limited range of the devices, especially the audio one, and working
with the recording, e.g. its reviewing, can be quite time-consuming and if a transcript is

28

necessary, several hours might be needed for a word-by-word account of a lesson (Richards &
Farrell, 2005, p. 43-45).
As for the audio recording, Richards and Farrell mention several possible ways of
recording the lesson depending on the position of the recorder which can be either placed on
teachers desk, in the centre of the room or the teacher can have a portable microphone.
Nevertheless, in all the places, the quality of the audibility of the teacher and pupils will vary
depending on their distance from the recorder. It is also possible to use more recorders to
ensure that most reactions from the pupils will be captured.
Video recordings are the best in providing all the possible details from a lesson.
Following points need to be considered before videotaping the lesson: (a) who will do the
videotaping (a colleague, a student, other member of the staff or the camera could be set up
and turned on); (b) what should be included in the video (a whole lesson, part of it, pupils
performance, teacher performance etc) (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 44).
Observation.
Observation is a method many teachers associate with their preparatory period when
they were asked to observe lessons of more experienced teachers and keep less or more
detailed notes that were discussed later on either with the observed teachers, other teacher
trainees or teacher trainers. Such observation is connected with teacher training and it is not
the aim of this thesis to pay close attention to it. This chapter will concentrate on the role of
observation in experienced teacher development, how to observe or be observed can help in
the process of further teacher growth. Firstly, it will try to define what observation is in this
context and who can observe, secondly, it will try to answer what makes observation effective
and suggest principles for observing, and thirdly, it will look at its possible topics and
methods.
Observation generally means attending somebody elses class in order to observe
different features of teaching. Wajnryb (1992) views observation mainly as a a multi-faceted
tool for learning and a skill that can be learned and improved with practice and she adds
that being in the classroom as an observer opens up a range of experiences and processes
which can become part of the raw material of a teacher professional growth (p. 1).
Observation should not mean mere coming into a classroom, pulling out a sheet of
blank paper and filling it with chaotic notes, although, even this is the way observation can
proceed. As Wajnryb (1992, p. 1) argues, observation should involve also a phase of
preparation where the aim, method and focus of the observation will be made clear and a

29

follow-up with analysis, discussion and interpretation of the data, together with reflection on
the process.
Observation can be used by different people for different purposes: (a) a teacher
trainee can observe an experienced teacher for the purpose of learning teaching; (b) a teacher
trainer can watch a teacher trainee to guide him and help him in his first teaching attempts;
(c) two teacher trainees can observe each other to support themselves in the training; (d) a
supervisor can visit a teachers lesson to evaluate his/her teaching; (e) and finally, the
situation which is being focussed on here, two teachers or a group of teachers can agree on
attending one anothers lessons to work on their professional development.
Observation of people of the same professional status (teacher-teacher, traineetrainee) is called peer observation. Peer observation (teacher-teacher) is being meant when
discussing observation in this part. Although it is not a common practice in schools, as
Richards (1998, p. 147) explains because of its evaluation element and logistical difficulties
in arranging such activities within the context of teachers timetables, it hides a great
potential for teacher reflection. Besides peer observation as a tool for self-reflection, Richards
(1998, p. 144) mentions also the possibility of a student teacher observing an experienced
teacher as his/her assistant in the process of development. He argues that such a cooperation
can be enriching for both sides: it is quite demanding for a teacher to collect information
about his/her teaching alone so a teacher trainee can help with that and the teacher then can
use the data as the basis for critical reflection; on the other hand, the observer can undergo the
observation experience as a part of his/her preparatory course.
Nevertheless, in both peer and teacher-teacher trainee observations the observer is not
expected to evaluate what he sees, his/her task is to collect information.
What could be done to make observation an effective tool for development? Wajnryb
(1992) emphasises that observation skill is not only an intuitive process, it can be learned.
The ability to see with acuity, to select, identify and prioritise among a myriad of cooccurring experiences is something that can be guided, practised, learned (p. 1). Next,
Wajnryb (pp. 7, 8) points out the importance of using observation tasks to make the
observation more effective. She defines an observation task as a focussed activity to work on
while observing a lesson in progress and states two reasons for their using: as there are a lot
of different things to see in every lesson, the tasks enable the observer to focus on one or two
particular aspects of teaching and let the observer concentrate on collecting the data instead of
trying to make an opinion in the course of the lesson.

30

Having an observer in a lesson is generally not a very welcome experience by many

teachers since observing is associated with evaluation. It is therefore necessary to introduce
basic principles for observing to avoid misunderstandings and ambiguous feelings about its
purpose. Wajnryb (1992, p. 19) suggests the following guiding principles:
Observers need to maintain a sensitive awareness of the potential for
vulnerability - a trust and respect is a must between the observer and the
observed.
The presence of a visitor inevitably affects the classroom dynamics - each class
is an organism on its own so observers should try to be as little intrusive as
possible.
Generalisations based on data collected from one lesson should be avoided
seeing one lesson cannot tell the observer everything about the teachers teaching.
Sometimes it is necessary to discuss with the observed teacher before the lesson
what is going to be observed (e.g. lesson planning), sometimes revealing the
purpose of the observation in advance might contaminate the data (e.g. if a
teacher knows that his/her questions are going to be focused on, this knowledge
might be reflected in the used language).
Any follow-up discussions should be shared with the observed teacher; the
experience of observing has to be meaningful, rewarding and non-threatening to all
involved.
Richards (1998, p. 147) introduces guidelines that were developed by a group of
teachers participating in peer observations:
The observation is voluntary.
The participants choose partners to work with.
Each participant will both observe and be observed.
Preobservation and postobservation sessions will be held first to agree on the
objective, tasks and methods of the observations and later to analyse and
discuss the information collected.

31

After the general rules for observation are made clear, it is possible to proceed to
deciding about the topics for observation. Richards (1998, p. 144) mentions these topics for
reflective classroom observation: organization of the lesson; teachers time management;
students performance on tasks; time-on task; teacher questions and student responses;
teachers explanations; teachers action zone; students performance during pair work;
classroom interaction; use of textbook; new teaching activity; group work.
Wajnryb (1992, p. 16) divides her observation tasks into following sections: the
learner, language, learning, the lesson, teaching skills and strategies, classroom management,
materials, and resources. Each section is further developed into several sub-categories which
can be observed.
Deciding on a topic is making one step to a meaningful observation, choosing the right
procedure to record the information is another one. Procedures for peer observation
introduced by Richards & Farrell (2005, p. 88) are written narratives, field notes and
checklists. Written narratives record the lesson as a whole; field notes are brief notes
capturing the key events of the lesson; and a checklist is a structured inventory listing
features of a lesson that the observer completes.
Action research.
Action research is a typical example of a reflective teaching cycle. In action research a
teacher concentrates on one particular problem right in his/her classroom, inquires about it in
a systematic way, draws a conclusion based on collected data and develops a strategy for
improvement. After implementing the strategy, he/she finds out whether it was effective.
As Richards and Farell (2005, p. 171) explain, the term action research itself expresses
two aspects of the activity: (1) research, being a systematic approach to carrying out
investigations and collecting information that is designed to illuminate an issue or problem
and to improve classroom practice, and (2) action, meaning taking practical action to
resolve classroom problem.
Many benefits of carrying out an action research can be found, one of the main ones
being the fact that the teacher him/herself chooses the issue of the research within his/her
classroom and its outcomes will again be applied there, on his/her pupils. Wallace (1998)
emphasizes two other important benefits of action research: it is very problem-focused and
very practical in its intended outcomes (p. 12). Richards and Farrell (2005, pp. 171, 172) add
that by planning and implementing the action research teachers learn to understand a lot of
teaching and learning processes deeper and gain useful inquiry skills. Moreover, the research

32

dimension in the teachers every day practice together with redefining the role of the teacher
as of the one to have means for improvement, leads to teachers over-taking the responsibility
for change and improvement in his/her teaching.
Action research is a time-demanding activity and it can be carried out either by a
teacher on his/her own or with the cooperation of other colleagues.
Richards and Farrell (p. 171) state three characteristics of action research:
1.

Its primary goal is to improve teaching and learning in schools and classrooms
and it is conducted during the process of regular classroom teaching.

2.

It is usually small-scale and is intended to help resolve problems rather than

simply be research for its own sake.

3.

It can be carried out by an individual teacher or in collaboration with other

teachers.

Action research has four basic procedures that repeat in cycles: planning, action,
observation and reflection. Richards and Lockhart (1996, p. 12-13) develop the individual
phases from the teachers point of view:
The teacher (or a group of teachers):
1.

Selects an issue or concern to examine in more detail.

2.

Selects a suitable procedure for collecting information about the issue.

3.

Collects the information, analyzes it, and decides what changes might be
necessary in his teaching.

4.

Develops an action plan to help bring about the desired change in classroom
behaviour.

5.

Observers the effects of the plan on teaching behaviour and reflects on its
significance.

6.

Initiates a second action cycle, if necessary.

The individual phases will now be examined in more detail.

Choosing the appropriate issue to examine is the first and very important step of the
whole process which determinates its successful completion. A teacher begins with deciding
about a problem or a concern he/she has in his/her classes or with choosing an issue he/she
would like to know more about.

33

Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 178) emphasise that the selected issue has to be made
specific and turned into a question and also point out the importance of choosing issues that
can be fairly readily explored and that are likely to lead to practical follow-up. They give a
few examples of a selected issue, e.g.: No matter how many times I correct certain errors in
my students writing, they seem to continue making them.

Turned into more specific

question: What change in error correction strategies might improve the accuracy of students
writing?.
Wallace (1998, p. 21) provides detailed strategy for selecting and developing the topic.
He looks at the selecting process from the point of view of (a) purpose (Why are you
engaging in this action research?); (b) topic (What area are you going to investigate?); (c)
focus (What is the precise question you are going to ask yourself within that area?); (d)
product (What is the likely outcome of the research, as you intend it?); (e) mode (How are
you going to conduct the research?); (f) timing (How long have you got to do the research?);
(g) resources (What are the resources, both human and material, that you can call upon to help
you complete the research?); (h) refocusing/fine-tuning (As you proceed with your research,
do you suppose you will have to rethink your original question?).
The second step is collecting the information the teacher needs in order to answer
his/her question and deciding how to collect it.
For example in relation to the question asked about the error correction, the teacher
can proceed this way (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 179): This question requires collecting
information on the types of error correction strategies you currently use and their effects on
learner performance. Alternative strategies can be tried and monitored for their effects.
Richards and Farrell (p. 180) point out that there are two stages of collecting the data
within the progress of action research: (1) before carrying out the action research to examine
the investigated issue deeply, and (2) after the strategy has been implemented to decide
whether the taken action solved the initial problem.
Various research approaches can help a teacher to decide about what methods would
be the most suitable for his/her action research. Wallace (1998, p. 38-44) presents (a)
quantitative and qualitative approaches (quantitative describe what can be measured and is
therefore objective, qualitative describe what cannot be counted or measured and is therefore
subjective); (b) individual and collaborative approaches (whether only the teacher him/herself
is involved or the collaboration of other people is needed); (c) complementary and intrusive
approaches (distinguish between research techniques that do not disrupt but rather extend
ordinary teaching routines and the ones that disrupt learning or teaching processes in the

34

classroom or even lives of students or teachers); and (d) illuminative/heuristic and conclusive
approaches (conclusive approaches try to prove that some facts are true; illuminative want to
look at a problem from a different point of view, heuristic try to discover something new).
Data needed for the research can be collected in many different ways, Burns (1999) in
Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 180) suggests the following examples of observational
approaches to collecting the data: (a) notes (descriptions and accounts of observed events); (b)
journals; (c) recordings (audio or video); (d) transcripts (written representations of
recordings); (e) diagrams (maps or drawings of the classroom indicating physical layout
and/or student-teacher interactions or locations).
Also nonobservational methods are mentioned by Richards and Farrell (2005, pp. 180181): (a) interviews and discussions (face to face personal interactions to discuss the issues
from other peoples perspectives); (b) questionnaires and surveys (to gain responses to nonface-to face situations); (c) life/career histories (profiles of students previous life and learning
experiences); (d) documents (relevant to the research questions including students written
work, records and profile, course overviews, lesson plans and classroom materials).
All the mentioned means of data collection have their advantages and disadvantages
and serve different purposes. Two important conditions that have to be taken into account
when collecting the data are validity and reliability (the procedures measure what they claim
to measure and measure it accurately) (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 181). As a way to
guarantee the reliability, it is recommended to collect the data from several different sources
(e.g. a colleague observing a class, questionnaires filled in by pupils, audio recording of a
lesson), which is called triangulation.
After the data have been collected, third step follows, the data must be analysed.
There are, obviously, differences in the difficulty of data analysis of individual research
techniques, e.g. questionnaires are easier to be analysed than narratives.
The information collected and analyzed should lead to the fourth step, to creating a
plan for making changes in the classroom in order to improve the initial situation. The
changes can involve changes in the way the teacher teaches, in the materials he or she makes
use of, or in the forms of assessment that are employed (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p.182).
After the results of the research are incorporated, the situation in the classroom should be
reflected on again to find out whether the changes have been effective.
As Richards and Farrell add, action research can go through two or more cycles
(plan, gather data, intervene, reflect, plan, gather data, intervene, reflect), which means that
the cycle can take place in a spiral rather than in sequential steps.

35

After the action research has been completed, it is possible and welcome to share its
results with other colleagues which helps build a community of practitioners aligned towards
teacher research and a professional climate that is open to public scrutiny and constructive
critique (Burns, 1999 as cited in Richards &Farrell, 2005, p. 184).
Teaching portfolios.
Portfolios generally have been associated mainly with artists presenting their work,
recently though, portfolios have become an important part of language learning, teacher
training and teaching.
Evans (1995) gives a general definition of a portfolio:
A professional portfolio is an evolving collection of carefully selected or composed
professional thoughts, goals, and experiences that are threaded with reflection and
self-assessment. It represents who you are, what you do, why you do it, where you
have been, where you are, where you want to go, and how you plan on getting there.
(cited in Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 98)
A teaching portfolio is a collection of various documents presenting and informing
about different aspects of teachers work. It provides the opportunity to undertake a holistic
assessment of ones teaching (Richards & Farrell, 2005, p. 102). Various metaphors are used
by different authors to express the nature of teaching portfolios: Richards and Farrell (p. 100)
use mirror and map metaphors, mirror because it captures the reflective nature of a portfolio
and map because it captures the idea of creating a plan and setting goals; Brown and
Wolfe-Quintero (1997) in Bailey et al. (2001, p. 224) compare portfolios to a collage as the
very process of compiling a portfolio can help them (teachers) to gather together their
thoughts about their professional strengths and synthesize them into a cogent collage.
The particular reasons for compiling a portfolio may differ, the main one, though, is
reflection of a teachers work. As Bailey et al. (2001, p. 225) say, in contrast with the
snapshot of information gained from e.g. observation, portfolios present the big picture
of teachers professionalism.
As the main benefits, Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 98) point out that portfolios,
firstly, demonstrate a teachers approach to his/her work and present evidence of the
teachers thinking, creativity, resourcefulness, and effectiveness; secondly, they are source
of review and reflection; thirdly, they can encourage cooperation with other teachers.

36

On the other hand, some difficulties could be faced when compiling portfolios.
Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 102) warn that the process of creating a portfolio is quite time
demanding and it is an ongoing process - new items could be added when needed for a long
period of time. Sometimes also deciding what a portfolio should contain can be problematic
and a teacher should always adjust its content to the intended purpose and audience of his/her
portfolio.
What could a teaching portfolio include? Different authors provide slightly different
lists of possible items. Bailey et al. (2001, pp. 227-228) suggest three main thematic
categories that a portfolio should have: (a) documents related to teachers actual teaching
duties; (b) to his/her professional development; (c) and to his/her administrative
responsibilities. Further, they offer a list of examples of particular items that fall into the
categories: teachers teaching philosophy, details of courses taught, peer observation notes,
journal entries, video recordings, feedback from learners, examples of learners work,
teaching materials produced, any professional items a teacher has written, teaching/learning
presentations, conferences attended, committee work, additional support.
Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 103) divide the items into five categories: (a) evidence
of a teachers understanding of subject matter and current developments in language teaching;
(b) evidence of a teachers skills and competency as a language teacher; (c) his/her approach
to classroom management and organization; (d) documents showing a teachers commitment
to professional development; (e) information concerning his/her relationship with colleagues.
Several types of portfolios can be distinguished. Depending on the purpose and
audience, Richards and Farrell (2005, p. 99) present two different types of portfolios: a
working and a showcase portfolio. A working portfolio includes items that document a
teachers journey towards a certain aim; a showcase portfolio is created with the purpose of
presenting the teacher at his/her best and could be useful when applying for a new teaching
position.
Portfolios can be kept in a paper form and also in an electronic form which gives the
teacher an opportunity to present his/her work and ideas through different formats: audio,
video, graphics, text and, consequently, present the portfolio on a CD or on the Internet.
Surveys and questionnaires.
Surveys and questionnaires are probably the most common data collection technique
used. Freeman (1998) describes them as sets of written questions focusing on a particular

37

topic or area, seeking responses to closed or ranked questions or open-ended personal

opinions, judgements and beliefs (p. 94).
A teacher can either use pre-prepared forms created by other teachers or experts or
he/she can prepare them him/herself which is more time-demanding and requires a prior study
of the area the questionnaire is supposed to focus on in order to be able to prepare suitable
questions.
The main benefit of this method is that information can be collected quickly from a
large number of people. Otherwise, it is impossible to discuss other positives and negatives of
this method in general since each questionnaire serves a different purpose, is intended for a
different group of people and focuses on a different topic.

38

THE PRACTICAL PART

Description of the Context

As I have explained in the introduction, I decided to try to reflect on my teaching in a
systematic way as I felt that even after seven years of teaching there were still many things I
wanted to improve and work on. I also knew that most of the reflective work had to be done
by myself in the first place, with some help of my pupils and perhaps my colleague. In this
chapter I will introduce the school where I collected data for my self-reflection.
In September 2009, after a two-year break on maternity leave, I started teaching parttime in Boeny Nmcov Basic School in Zbeh. It is a school with about 430 pupils and 28
teachers. The pupils in the primary level (years 1 to 5) come mostly from the near
surroundings, however, many new pupils join for the lower secondary level (years 6 to 9)
from nearby villages where they spent the first five years of their school attendance. The
average number of pupils in a class in the primary level is 20, in the lower secondary it is 30.
The school does not specialize in any subject, its scope is rather general, with some
extra attention paid to information technology and sports, however, the extra lessons are not
included in the curriculum but covered in after school clubs in pupils and teachers free time.
The school is very specific in its layout. It consists of six pavilions which are
connected by a long corridor. In each building there are four classrooms grouped according to
the year the pupils attend. Pupils spend part of their lessons in their classrooms, for some
lessons they have to move to other classrooms and pavilions. Until this school year, there was
no extra language classroom and children from year six to nine had their English lessons in
different classrooms all over the school. Since some changes and rebuilding was done last
summer, a new classroom for teaching languages was established at the beginning of this
school year. Unfortunately, it is very small and the number of desks and chairs that have to be
there make it difficult to move around. Except for a blackboard and a few notice boards there
is no other equipment available so far. The walls have been decorated with posters and pupils
projects so the room has become cosy and especially younger pupils enjoy having their
lessons there.
According to the School Educational Framework, English is taught from year three to
year nine and in every year pupils have three English lessons a week. Four teachers (including

39

me) teach English at school, all of them are women. Three of them formerly taught different
subjects but due to a long-term lack of English teachers they were retrained to teach English.
In years 3 and 4 English is taught to the whole class (approximately 20 children per
class), only in year 5 pupils are usually divided into groups. In year 6 pupils are streamed into
groups A D according to their level of English. Their knowledge of English is tested in a
test which is prepared by the English teachers. I was surprised to find out about this way of
dividing pupils into groups as it is not common in our primary schools. My colleagues
decided to stream the children four years ago because they find teaching more effective if the
pupils in one group are of approximately the same level of English. There is a possibility to
move across the groups during the school year, the teachers can either decide themselves for a
shift or the pupils can express their own feelings and discuss them with their teacher.
However, the final decision of moving from one group to another is always based on an
agreement between a teacher and a pupil. If a pupil does not want to leave the group he/she is
in, he/she is not made to do that. After having the possibility to experience this system for
seven months, my impression is that pupils do not think much about being in a group of a
certain level, they tend to judge the group rather according to the teacher who teaches there.
However, some more perceptions of streaming will be discussed further.
To talk about teaching English in general, I feel that there is not much cooperation
between individual teachers, no strategy of teaching English is elaborated. The teachers
basically only agree on the main course book they use and the curriculum and then each of
them works in her own pace and style. Similarly, each teacher seems to have her own
resource materials, only few extra resource books, dictionaries and other materials are
available to all English teachers.

Description of the Researched Class

After about three weeks of teaching and getting acquainted with the school, new
colleagues and pupils, I decided to start working on my self-reflection through focusing on
one particular group of pupils that I teach. I chose pupils in year 6 (class 6AB), aged 11 12,
because at that time they seemed to be a problematic group in many different ways. From the
very beginning I had problems with their disruptive behaviour, their achievements were very
low and they had great problems with concentration. I felt frustrated and was not happy with

40

myself as a teacher there and both my pupils and me found it difficult to find common
ground.
First, I will try to characterize the group. The group is a mixture of pupils of two
classes 6A and 6B. The pupils meet in this arrangement only for English. They are the D
group which means the group with the lowest knowledge of English. There are fourteen
pupils, twelve boys and three girls. All of them are basically of the same cultural, economical
and ethnical background except for Eda. Eda is a Romany and has adoptive parents. He is the
most problematic pupil in the group. Since he is extremely overweight and lacks any hygienic
habits, nobody wants to sit near him and cooperate with him. He is very untidy, frequently
forgets things and does not work, refuses to write and if he does, it is difficult to identify
individual letters. He has been repeatedly punished for bullying younger children. As for the
behaviour in my lessons, he is passive in all ways and quiet most of the time. Four boys
(Dominik ., Dominik L., Luk and Rosa) have an individual educational plan because of
their specific learning difficulties. All of them are dyslexic and have serious problems with
concentration. Luk and Dominik . have almost illegible handwriting and are quite hardworking and quiet. Dominik L. is talkative, outgoing, with a very short attention span, lazy.
Rosa is an introvert, speaks quietly, pessimistic, reacts inadequately to any negative
comment. As for the other boys, Daniel, Milo and Marek become to pupils with the best
knowledge of English in the group, Martin is the weakest one, Roman is talkative, loud and
disruptive, Lubo is a bit unreadable with achievement swings. The girls are very quiet,
Karolna misses a lot and is very weak, Elika is hard-working and Kristna is a day-dreamer
who needs to be pushed to work all the time.
All of them have been learning English for three years but seem to be able to use only
several basic English words and structures. One third of them are new to our school, they
started commuting from nearby villages this school year.
We have English together three times a week, twice in the language classroom and
once in their own classroom. They prefer being in the language one because it is clean.
Sometimes we have a lesson in an IT classroom. The main textbook used is Project 1, the
second version, pupils have their own workbooks with grammar summary in Czech and
English-Czech vocabulary list.

41

The Research
The aim of my research was to (1) find out whether systematic self-reflection will
reveal the most problematic areas in my teaching, help me search for their possible causes and
suggest solutions; and (2) to compare and analyse the benefits and drawbacks of the methods
I chose for my self-reflection.
I decided to carry out my self-reflection with the help of three methods: (1) writing a
teaching journal; (2) a questionnaire for pupils; and (3) peer observations. I used the teaching
journal as the main reflective method to identify the particular problematic areas from my
point of view; the questionnaire aimed at pupils to get feedback from them; and observation
to (1) get inspiration from my colleagues teaching and (2) to ask her to help me collect data
by observing one of my lessons.
Each method is elaborated in detail in the following chapters and the self-reflection
process tries to follow all the phases mentioned in the chapter on Self-Reflection (see p. 20)
the descriptive phase that describes the problem, informative and contrastive phases that give
more details and ask why the problem appeared and the last phase trying to suggest a solution
of the problematic issue.
The Teaching Journal
The journal analysis.
After having three-week experience with 6.AB, I decided to start writing a journal to
reflect on problems my pupils and I were facing in our lessons (for the whole journal see
Appendix A). Since almost every lesson seemed problematic in a way, the individual entries
tried to answer a question What was a problem in todays lesson? and I expected them to
help me uncover the main problems I have not only in this class but in my teaching in general.
I started writing the journal at the end of September 2009 and finished at the end of
January 2010. At the beginning, I wrote an entry approximately after every one or two
lessons, later on about one entry a week. I had the idea of purely writing without looking
back, followed by a thorough reflection later, but soon I found out that after almost every
recorded problem I usually added one or two thoughts on its causes.

42

Firstly, I will state examples of entries related to the particular problem and try to
analyse them; secondly, I will try to find causes of the problems within each issue and suggest
their possible solutions; and thirdly, I will sum up the experience of journal writing.
After rereading the journal I was able to identify six main problem areas that I face in
class 6AB:
disruptive behaviour
pupils low motivation
a question of pupils assessment
overusing Czech
low achievers
problems with particular pupils

Disruptive behaviour.
What frustrated me most in this lesson was their disruptive behaviour the kids are
very lively, some of them simply dont stop fidgeting for the whole lesson!!! and cant
concentrate for longer periods of time. (Appendix 1, entry 5)
Again, discipline was the biggest problem, half of them chatting and fidgeting all the
time. They are driving me mad. I need them to be quiet when I explain things or give
instructions but half of them are like little fleas. I was so desperate today that I even
threatened them with writing a test so they calmed down a bit. I cant do this every lesson
though!! (Entry 6)
It seemed to me that none of the kids today was able to keep still, they are moving all
the time even though they dont move from their places. They move even when they write. It
takes me a lot of time before I make all of them concentrate on what Im saying. At last I got
upset and made them finish the work during their (and my) break to punish them somehow.
(Entry 12)
To prevent discipline problems I asked the kids to sit one by one today and it helped a
lot. They could concentrate on work.(Entry 7)
They want to play games and have fun but when we do play games, they start behaving
like little monster. (Entry 25)

43

To find out the possible causes of the disruptive behaviour in 6AB I decided to use
Kyriacous (1996, pp. 99 - 103) idea of four roles of a teacher that contribute to building his
authority as a starting point. He claims that the authority of a teacher depends on his/her (1)
expressing his/her status; (2) competent teaching; (3) managerial performance; (4) effective
approach to disruptive behaviour.
1. Kyriacou claims that it is not as important to have a certain status but to act in
harmony with it (p. 100). Pupils can judge from a teachers relaxed, confident and
convincing behaviour and also from the activities that the status allows the teacher to perform,
e.g. deciding about who is going to talk, what activities the pupils will work on etc.
Thinking about my own status, I have to admit that I see myself as a little disorganized
person who does things rather intuitively than in a systematic way. Therefore, I might be
perceived by pupils as a chaotic person whose reactions are quite unpredictable and not as
consistent as they should be. I have also found out that I tend to approach teaching in 6AB as
a little struggle between pupils and me, not as cooperation, I cannot say I feel relaxed in most
of my lessons with them.
2. The second Kyriacous suggestion is that a teacher has to be and feel competent in
the knowledge of the subject he/she teaches, show his/her interest in it, plans, prepares and
manages the lessons well. He claims that pupils perceive bad teaching as a sign of a teachers
disrespect towards them, whats more, they can even feel harmed by it (p. 101).
I always plan and prepare my lessons because it makes the work easier especially in a
class like this one. Knowing exactly what to do means having enough space left for solving
problems and unexpected situations that might appear, and being able to concentrate on them.
Being unprepared would lead to more stress and chaos.
3. The third important role of a teacher is that of a class manager. A teacher has to
ensure smooth beginning, progress and ending of each lesson. He tries to involve pupils into
learning processes and make sure that shifts from one activity to another are fluent. The most
important pre-condition of a successful class management are clear agreements and
procedures for performing classroom routines and clear rules concerning pupils behaviour in
the classroom (pp. 101-102).
My lessons have certain routines that help to structure them (e.g. a greeting and a short
conversation with pupils at the beginning). I try to use and interconnect variety of activities
into a meaningful whole and I dare say that most of my pupils are involved in work for most
of the lesson.

44

4. The fourth support of a teachers authority is his/her reaction to pupils disruptive

behaviour and the ability to solve such situations fairly.
Regarding the third and the fourth point, I see the greatest negative in my neglecting
the necessity to create explicit classroom rules concerning discipline and interaction between
pupils themselves and pupils and the teacher. I have to admit that my reactions to pupils
breaking the rules often depend on my mood which makes my behaviour rather unpredictable
and confusing.
I know what my biggest problem is Im not consistent enough and that causes most
of the problems I cope with. I warn and threaten but dont always carry out my threats or I
act too impulsively, my reactions to problematic situations are not systematic. When the kids
upset me, I sometimes lose my temper, threaten them with e.g. having to re-write school rules
after school but then I feel sorry for them and let it be for this time. I must try to keep calm.
(entry 15)
Unfortunately, this has a lot to do with my temper and although I know about the
problem, it is quite difficult to change behaviour that is natural for me and have the emotions
under control for all the time.
What are the particular areas that I need to work on concerning the discipline?
Set clear rules at the beginning. Rules that need extra work are rules for speaking in
the lesson e.g. how to take turns in speaking, make sure the pupils do not interrupt
one another or the teacher when they speak, pupils should put their hands up if they
want to say something. Set also rules for bringing aids, writing homework and rules
for group and pair work.
Involve pupils into formulating the rules.
Be consistent and keep the rules.
Try to stay calm in conflicts or extreme situations.
Motivation.
The motivation is very low, they arent interested in learning at all, not only in
learning English, they find it annoying to write. (Entry 2)

45

I have to work on motivating the kids more (but how???), theyre used to getting bad
marks and dont mind. (Entry 6)
there was little time left and the kids started to moan about having to learn English
so I used the opportunity to have a discussion about the importance of English in todays life.
Some kids had their own stories from their own families .(Entry 21)
... she (inspector) actually mentioned only one negative thing that I dont praise the
children much. First I just thought whether I should praise them for coming to school but nw
when I think about it more, she was right. (Entry 30)
Pupils motivation is influenced by many factors but I will only concentrate on those that
a teacher can work with in a class. Harmer (2007, pp. 20-21) suggests several things that a
teacher can do to sustain pupils motivation: (1) use involving and exciting activities; (2)
choose activities that are slightly above the pupils level; (3) act as a competent teacher; (4)
consider the issue of affect, pupils need to feel that the teacher really cares about them, they
need to feel supported and valued; (5) let pupils have some decision-making powers.
1. As for using interesting and involving activities, I think that this is the only way to
make my pupils work in lessons so I devote quite a lot of time to planning and preparing
activities that would interest them. I always get immediate feedback as my pupils can express
their enthusiasm or boredom in quite a straightforward way.
2. I sometimes have problems with choosing the right level of activities for the pupils,
I will look at this issue more closely in the parts discussing low-achievers and testing.
3. The question of teachers status and his qualities has been discussed in the part
devoted to disruptive behaviour.
4. I always thought that I was able to create positive and encouraging atmosphere in
the class, however, having thought about my teaching quite intensively lately, and having
seen my colleagues lesson has led me to realize one important thing: my feelings about my
pupils, their learning and progress do not always correspond with the way I act in the
classroom. In other words, I find it difficult to express my positive feelings while I am quite
good at expressing the negative ones. I continue to explore this matter in the chapter on peer
observation (see p.63).
Showing interest in pupils as people and not only as learners of English is another
issue that is interconnected with positive and caring atmosphere. Unfortunately, I see my
pupils only three times a week for forty-five minutes and I am supposed to teach them
something so I hardly find time to get to know them better. However, I try to use every time I

46

get in contact with them, e. g. when meeting them in corridors, to express that I know about
them. I do it simply by smiling at them, greeting them together with addressing them with
their names and sometimes asking a single question or commenting on something that
involves the particular pupil. In lessons, when we encounter an interesting topic that they wish
to express their opinions about, I let them speak (shortly in Czech as their knowledge of
English is not sufficient) to learn more about them, their backgrounds and interests.
5. Concerning the last point which suggests involving pupils in making decisions in
class, I have not tried it much yet. For my pupils, it might be suitable to offer them several
activities they could choose from when, e. g. practising grammar or vocabulary, sometimes I
let them decide whether they want or do not want to hand in homework or another task to
have it marked.
Here are the particular areas that I need to work on concerning pupils motivation:
Pay more attention to adapting all the used materials to the pupils level so that they
can feel successful and challenged at the same time.
Be positive and encouraging.
Not forget to actually show my interest in pupils.
Let them participate on some decisions concerning our work in the classroom.
A question of pupils assessment.
They are group D so I dont expect many good marks within the group but I dont
want to give bad marks only they would lose their motivation completely!! I must lower my
requirements to let them be successful but if I lower the requirements too much and they are
able to do what I want them to do how will I asses them? I dont want them to stop trying
but I also cant give them very good mark. (Entry 8)
I decided to create a mini portfolio something like a self-evaluation sheet in Czech
where the kids can evaluate themselves. (Entry 18)
Well, I was surprised today to see that many pupils found it difficult to say e.g. what
was hard for them to learn or what they enjoyed. Obviously, they arent used to think about
their own learning. Next surprise was to see how self-confident they are: most of them
assessed themselves with mark 2 for their work. (Entry 19)

47

In my lessons, mostly written tests are used, oral examining is preferred only for
learners with specific learning difficulties. As in all the other subjects in our school, grades
1 5 are used to evaluate pupils progress and abilities.
I would like to look at the problem of assessment from the pupils point of view. The
pupils are all low-achievers and that causes some problems because no matter how much they
and I try, their effort is assessed with grades 3 5 in most tests and I do not find it much
motivating neither for them as pupils nor for me as their teacher.
On one hand, all the pupils are more or less on the same level so their achievements
are similar and nobody feels like an outsider within the group because of bad marks. This is
one of the few positives of streaming the pupils that I appreciate. On the other hand, they
often talk about themselves as about them being the worst group and are somehow put up
with the fact that they cannot be much better which I find quite dangerous.
Evaluation is indubitably an important part of learning, it can be performed through a
variety of forms and techniques.
Kyriacou (1996, pp. 121-123) states several main objectives of assessment, I will only
refer to two of them that emphasise its importance for pupils. The first one says that
assessment should provide pupils with feedback on their progress, and the second one
claims that assessment should motivate pupils. Authors translation. Further, Kyriacou
mentions also the main drawbacks of assessment. As one of the most serious he considers the
fact that if it shows that a pupils performances are lower compared to that of his/her
classmates or to the expected standard, the pupil becomes frustrated and it can lead him/her to
disliking the school and losing motivation for further learning.
As for the first objective mentioned, I can say that this happens in my lessons.
Together with the mark I always provide pupils with feedback and we devote some time to
going over the problematic parts when they ask questions and make sure they understand
where and why they made a mistake.
To meet the second objective, though, is quite impossible. Because of the low level of
the pupils, the marks they get really correspond to their abilities and performance. I could
create tests that would be easier for the pupils, they would surely find it more motivating to
get better marks but it would cause quite a serious problem for me: the final assessment in
half term and at the end of the school year would not be fair in relation to the achievements of
more advanced pupils.

48

One of the possible solutions would be to use verbal evaluation only but it is
impossible at the moment as the school classification rules only enable pupils with specific
learning difficulties to be evaluated verbally in case their parents ask for it.
Another way is to use also other forms of assessment which will tell the pupils more
about the progress within their own abilities and limits and to try to show the learners that
their main objective should be the ability to use English in their lives even though on a limited
level.
I have decided to pay more attention to assessing pupils effort, too, so once or twice a
week I choose one pupil at the beginning of the lesson who I focus on and he/she gets a
mark for his/her work and activity. The pupils do not know who I choose and they often try
harder because it is a possibility for them to get a good mark.
Self-evaluation sheets that we call mini portfolios (see details in Appendix 1, entries
18, 19) have also become parts of the pupils assessment and I find them important because
the pupils themselves are involved in their self-evaluation. They learn to think about their
own learning and progress and they try to self-assess their language abilities.
I have also learned to become more enthusiastic and expressive in showing my
satisfaction with my pupils achievements, trying to comment on their performance rather
positively than focusing on the mistakes they make (e.g. well done, you would definitely be
able to ask for what you want in a shop abroad).
Overusing Czech.
I realized that the amount of English I speak in lessons is really low, I somehow
gradually gave up. So I told the kids today we would try speaking as much English as possible
and to my surprise, it worked somehow. Now it will be quite a challenge to go on with it.
(Entry 29)
I definitely struggle with using English in all my classes, not only in this particular
one. I use English for the main instructions and that works quite well, I insist on using English
when the pupils practise a certain language structure in a controlled way, either in pairs or
with the whole class, I talk with them in a very simple way about pictures or articles we read
and they try to react. Nevertheless, I use mostly Czech e.g. when giving instructions to more
complicated exercises, when presenting grammar or translating some difficult parts in a text.

49

I have found out, though, (see the entry above or results of Question 10 in the
questionnaire analysis, p. 62) that pupils enjoy when I speak English to them for most of the
lesson, they concentrate more to guess what Im saying, help each other and feel challenged.
Therefore, I have decided to speak English more than I used to and it works and the pupils are
happy about it.
Low achievers.
What to say about the kids., on the whole they seem to lack the very basic knowledge
of English, although they have had English for three years (Entry 2)
the results were really poor even though I thought the test was easy and we
practised a lot for it. we did the correction all together and again drilled the sentences but
some pupils find it extremely difficult just to fill in the sentence pattern I wrote on the board.
(Entry 4)
Instead of spending ten minutes over a warm up, doing the warm-up has actually
become the aim of the lesson. I didnt realize how difficult the kids would find the task
(Entry 10)
we practised What do you call this in English? and What does a poster mean? A
disaster! I should have anticipated that it would be extremely difficult for them just to replace
the words. I translated the sentences for them into Czech but Im afraid that they still didnt
know what they were saying. (Entry 12)
After todays lesson I felt like having to start again from the very beginning but it is
impossible. I simply dont think the result would be much better even if we went through all
the things again. (Entry 17)
I wonder how they will make any progress when they arent even able to lean the
basics, what I will do with them when more difficult structures and more vocabulary to learn
will come? (Entry 20)
Started verb be, nothing seems to work for the kids to remember when to use am, is or
are. I asked them to learn personal pronouns He, she is ok but other pronouns are helpless.
They cannot do it in Czech. (Entry 26)
I have never taught a group of pupils who can all be considered as low-achievers so
this is quite a new experience for me. At the beginning I found it quite difficult to be able to
estimate the appropriate level of challenge for them, e. g. I decided to do an exercise in a

50

textbook and it turned out to be very hard for them so we spent much more time over it than I
planned and after finishing it, both the pupils and I felt exhausted and frustrated. Moreover,
when the pupils find out that something is above their limits, they simply give up, stop
working and start being disruptive. Therefore, I have to pay a lot of attention to finding or
creating extra materials and worksheets that either simplify or support the textbook we use or
provide extra practice of learned items.
I have found out that most of the work must be done at school because the pupils are
simply not willing to spend much time studying at home. They are used to have average or
bad results in most of the subjects and to be fair, often the effort they put into learning does
not bring the expected results. Therefore, I decided for a slower pace to make sure all the
pupils understand the very basics and have time to ask questions; the language learned is
recycled a lot; I also try to include visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities to make the
lessons more lively and varied and to stimulate pupils learning in as many ways as possible.
This approach also suits the learners with specific learning difficulties.
As the last point I would again mention continuous encouraging and praising pupils
which contributes to positive atmosphere and the pupils feel valued and successful despite the
marks they get.
Even for me as a teacher it is quite difficult to accept that although I spend much more
time preparing for lessons in this group of pupils than in other groups, the pupils results will
not be so rewarding for me, and that it is necessary to lower my expectations, to learn to
appreciate the little steps forward we make together, and to try to do my best to keep my
pupils interested in English.
Problems with particular pupils.
Problems with Eda again, he simply doesnt work and I cant stand over him the
whole lesson to check on his work. I know now that its the same in all subjects. I told him I
wasnt going to let him pass English for free but he seems he doesnt care at all. (Entry 11)
What shall I do with Eda??? He is really a problem. He doesnt work, doesnt care
about notes in his report books, about bad marks I write notes to his parents every two
weeks, they always sign them but no change in Edas approach. (Entry 16)
Dominik L. drives me mad all the time.. He is so lazy, it is unbelievable. I must ask him
to work or sit properly ten times every lesson. Im becoming allergic to his behaviour and
excuse. (Entry 28)

51

To solve serious issues connected with the behaviour of particular pupils is a longtermed process. In case of pupils like Eda, it is necessary to share the problems with other
colleagues and decide on a collective process in solving the situation. Unfortunately, in many
similar cases, no matter how much the parents cooperation is needed, it is impossible to rely
on it. Edas parents have been informed continuously about his very low results,
unwillingness to work and be prepared for lessons, and also about his bad hygienic habits, but
nothing has changed and Eda will fail several subjects at the end of this school year.
Comments on journal writing.
I chose the method of journal writing because I knew it was going to be a challenging
task for me and I wanted to know how I would cope with it. It was as difficult as I expected it
to be, not the writing itself, because I had what to write about, however, the fact, that I had to
find time to sit down and spend ten minutes over it, was sometimes annoying. At the
beginning, I usually wrote an entry straight after my lessons at school but later I started to put
it off for the evening or for the next day. I ended writing the diary with a different strategy, I
made a few notes right after the lessons I wanted to comment on and wrote the entries at the
end of the week.
I knew that I was not going to be the only person to read the journal, so although I
used the stream of consciousness method for the paper and pen version, I had to edit my
entries and language slightly for the purpose of this thesis.
As for the process of writing itself, I firstly planned the diary to be only descriptive but
I soon found out that it was more useful to add one or two thoughts about the causes of the
problems. In fact, having to sit down and write about a particular problem enabled me to
arrange my thoughts that always follow the problematic situation but are often forgotten or
suppressed.
To sum up the experience, I will try to mention the positives and negatives the journal
writing had for me. One of the main positives was the fact that I managed to (or rather had
to) find time to think and write systematically about problems I have in teaching, each
question raised another question and, gradually, I started to see the causes of the problems
more clearly. The next benefit was the possibility to write openly about what happened in the
classroom, not having to hide anything, knowing, that for the time being, I was the only
audience and that being honest and open can quicken the search for improvement. As the last

52

benefit I would mention the simplicity of the method itself, it is enough to have a pen and a
piece of paper and you can sit and write almost anytime and anywhere.
The negatives: the writing did need some time and consistency so although I thought I
would start with a slight aversion that would gradually turn into enthusiasm, I did not find the
experience of journal writing much enjoyable. Enriching and useful but not enjoyable. It was
also quite uncomfortable to write in English because from time to time I was looking for
words and it made the process less natural. The question I set at the beginning of my journal
writing and the class I focused on showed to be quite restrictive, I would prefer to write also
about other matters, e. g. other classes, colleagues, events at school, that I felt were more
urgent in certain moments, however, the scope of the journal would become too broad.
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire analysis.
After finishing the diary, I felt it would be useful to know the other sides opinions and
impressions so I decided to use a questionnaire for pupils as the second reflective method. I
tried to compile it in such a way so that it would help me find out details concerning some
aspects of the pupils motivation and generally their feelings about what is going on in
English lessons. I realize that the answers might not be completely reliable because pupils of
their age can find it difficult to express their opinions without being influenced by momentary
emotions and feelings.
The questionnaire was in Czech (see Appendix B) and it was anonymous. I first tried it
on a group of pupils a year younger and no problems appeared. It contains eleven questions,
there are closed and ranked questions and also open-ended questions asking for personal
opinion. I will look at every question closely and try to discuss the results. All the pupils (14)
were present the day I asked them to fill in the questionnaire (March 25, 2010).

53

Question 1.
Circle the answer: I enjoy English lessons a lot I enjoy them I dont enjoy them
much I dont enjoy them.

Question 1
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
enjoy a lot

enjoy

don't enjoy
much

don't enjoy

In this question, pupils could choose from four possibilities to express how much they
enjoy or do not enjoy English. I was really surprised to find out that twelve pupils either enjoy
English lessons or even enjoy them a lot. To me it means that the time and extra work that I
spend over creating suitable and interesting activities pays back and the pupils appreciate it.
Question 2.
Write at least one reason why you enjoy or dont enjoy English.
This question asks pupils to be specific about why they enjoy or do not enjoy English.
Pupils answers follow:
I enjoy English because:
Two pupils find learning English enjoyable itself:
I learn English;
I learn another language.
Two others even think English is fun:
It is fun (here) (appeared twice)

54

Four pupils can see the connection between learning English today and being able to use it in
their future for travelling and communicating with foreigners or for their job:
I want to learn a language to be able to communicate if I go somewhere;
It is a nice language and I would like to travel to Ireland once;
I can communicate abroad;
I learn a foreign language to get a good job.
Three of them mention particular classroom activities that make them enjoy English:
We work in groups;
We speak English;
I learn new vocabulary.
One pupil even mentions the teacher to be the reason for his/her enjoying English.
We have a good teacher.
Only two pupils mentioned reasons for why dont enjoy English:
We dont work on PC much;
the big tests.
As for the negative comments, I know that technique is a part of todays pupils lives
and they enjoy working with it, unfortunately, the two IT classrooms are only available
several times a week and all classes must be able to use it. Moreover, every time we go to the
IT classroom, the pupils expect a free lesson and are surprised when I, on the other hand,
expect them to work. Unfortunately, the school is only equipped with one learning
programme for teenagers which is not very interesting so there is not much choice of work
on PC.
The big tests that we write after each unit are not liked by children, because they are
quite difficult for them and they usually get bad marks, however, I must repeat again, the
marks correspond to their knowledge and abilities.

55

Question 3.
Circle how much you enjoy or do not enjoy the following activities in English lessons:
listening tasks; working with textbook; working with workbook; projects; games; working on
computers; pair/group work; picture/word cards; crosswords, word searches; worksheets;
other activities you enjoy (write which ones).

listening tasks

Question 3
14

working with textbook

12

working with workbook

10

projects

games

6
4
2
0
1

working on computers
pair/group work
picture/word cards
crosswords, word
searches
worksheets

1 enjoy , 2 sometimes enjoy , 3 dont enjoy , 4 did not answer

The most enjoyable tasks are games, computer work, crosswords, word searches,
pair/group work. Games and computers are the activities that the pupils ask for all the time so
it is not surprising they are their favourite. I was pleased to find out that they like working in
pairs and groups, although especially group work still needs a lot of practise.
Of average popularity are listening tasks, picture/word cards, worksheets, working
with a textbook, workbook. Working with a workbook means doing exercises either at school
or for homework and it is connected with writing a lot which the pupils do not like. However,
I find work with it necessary for individual grammar and vocabulary practice. The textbook is
out-of-date so the layout and content does not appeal to pupils very much, unfortunately,
nothing can be done about it at the moment, new textbooks will be available from the new
school year but probably not for this class.

56

I was surprised to get to know that using extra worksheets and picture/word cards is
not as liked as I expected it to be because I prepare them to support the textbook and to help
the pupils understand and practise the learned language slowly, step by step.
As other activities that they enjoy the pupils mentioned Bingo which goes under
games section; sentence translations I have noticed that most of the pupils would like to
read and translate, e.g. texts in a book from English into Czech, they are used to this method
from previous English lessons and they probably feel safe doing something the way they
know; working on the blackboard Im happy that somebody mentioned it because I forgot to
include it in the list the group is quite small so I often let pupils write on blackboard either
competitions, games or even exercises and they enjoy it very much.
Question 4.
Circle the answer: It is very useful useful little useful not useful to learn English.

Question 4
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
very useful

useful

little useful

not useful

no answer

Twelve pupils find learning English very useful or useful so, hopefully, they realize
the importance of being able to speak another language for their lives. One pupil did not
answer.

57

Question 5.
How do you use English in your life now? Circle the answer, you can choose more
than one possibility.

Question 5

ei

rs

on
't

us

he
ot

g
lin
el
av
tr

re

ad

in

Id

bo
ok
s

/m

ag

az

in

es

lm
s
g

TV
/fi

gs
so
n

ch
in
at
w

in
g
te
n
lis

w
or

ki

ng

ith

co

to

pu
te
r

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Before the pupils started filling the questionnaire, I drew their attention to this
question and assured them that by using English I do not mean being able to speak fluently
abroad or understand the whole song in English but being able to use their momentary
knowledge of English in the listed activities, e. g. noticing and understanding some words or
phrases in songs or films.
As I expected, most of the pupils use or need some English in activities connected
with computers, eight of them also mention use of the language for travelling purposes. Two
mentioned extra possibilities communicating with a relative or a friend from abroad. It is
good to see that all pupils come to contact with English in some ways in their lives, nobody
answered that he/she would not use it at all.

58

Question 6.
How would you like to use English in the future? Circle the answer, you can choose
more than one.

Question 6
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
work

watching
films in
original
version

travelling

reading
books and
magazines

others

I won't use it

Most pupils think that they will use English in their future jobs or for travelling, the
other possibilities were not chosen by many pupils. Two pupils ticked they would not need it
at all, they were the same two who ticked they did not enjoy English lessons. In fact, I
expected more pupils to answer this way since when we have had discussions about the
importance of learning English, some of them always argue that they find it useless to learn it
because they will never need it.

59

Question 7.
When the teacher explains new things or gives instructions to tasks, I understand her
always - most of the time - from time to time - never.

Question 7
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
always

most of the
time

from time to
time

never

it depends

By asking this question I wanted to assure myself that children understand my

instructions and explanations, that they are clear enough for them. I considered myself to be
good at explaining and instructing but the pupils see it differently. This feedback is very
important to me, only after having thought about their answers, I realized that I do not always
check pupils understanding. I can do that simply by asking if they all understand, if anybody
needs any help, if everything is clear.

60

Question 8.
Circle the answer, you can choose more than one: I would need more time to be spent
over: reading; writing; listening; speaking; practising pronunciation; practising grammar;
practising vocabulary; others (fill in).

Question 8
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

rs
he
ot

vo
c

ab
ul

ar
y

ar
m
am

ci
on
un
pr

gr

at
io

g
ki
n
ea
sp

ng
ni
te
lis

ri
w

re

ad

in
g

tin
g

I asked this question to find out if there are any areas that the pupils feel they would
need more practice in so that I can pay more attention to them. Most pupils would like to
work more on speaking activities and practising vocabulary, writing is surprising because I
know how much they do not like it. Only one pupil added another activity PC again.
Question 9.
Write at least one suggestion: English lessons could be improved by .
In this question, I wanted the pupils to suggest their own ideas of what would make
the lessons better.
Their answers were:
games; more fun; English every day; nothing, I enjoy English; computers; vocabulary
tests to test only individual words; work less and .(the rest is illegible); not to write
tests for marks; watch American films with subtitles; pairwork

61

Some of the suggestions are not viable (have English every day), two suggestions
mention the problem of testing - some pupils were used to write tests where they only
translated individual words from Czech into English and they complain about the tests I
prepare because they test words in a context which the pupils find quite difficult.
Question 10.
Circle the answer: I would like English to be spoken more in lessons. Yes / No

Question 10
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
yes

no

Most of the pupils would like to speak English more and I take that into account, I am
happy that they find it useful and, hopefully, their answers mean that they are also willing to
participate actively.

62

Question 11.
Circle the answer: I feel that I am getting better at English. Yes / No

Question 11
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
yes

no

both

I should have used also I dont know option in this question because two pupils could
not decide between the two possibilities and circled both. By asking this question I wanted to
make sure that the pupils themselves feet that their work in English lessons is worth the effort
and that they can see some progress and improvement which I consider to be a very important
factor of motivation. Ten of them feel positive about their progress in English which could be
considered as an important aspect of their motivation.
Comments on using a questionnaire.
The questionnaire served its purpose, with its help I got the information I wanted.
Many positives emerge from the questionnaire: most of my pupils enjoy English lessons, find
learning English useful, use it within limits in their lives and think that they will use it in the
future. I found out which activities they prefer more, which less, and what would need more
attention. Pupils are interested in speaking English in the class and feel their progress. I would
say that English lessons contribute to their motivation and positive attitude towards English
Concerning the negatives, I found out that pupils do not always understand my
instructions and explanations another item that needs my attention; there are two pupils who
seem to have no motivation and do not consider learning English useful; some activities
(textbook, workbook) need to be worked on more to become more enjoyable

63

I was a bit of disappointed over the open-ended questions I hoped pupils would
write more about their feelings and give more suggestions but I know it is difficult for them in
their age. The number of questions was just right, I noticed that towards the end of the
questionnaire pupils started to lose their attention.
Regarding the questions themselves and knowing now the pupils approach to filling
in the questionnaire and their answers, I would consider changing three questions in order to
get more precise answers. In question 8, I would either let them circle only one or two
activities or left the question open-ended I think pupils simply ticked several possibilities
quite randomly, without really thinking about them much. In questions 10 and 11, I dont
know option should be added to leave a possibility for those who cannot decide.
Generally, the questionnaire method proved to be easy and quick to use for collecting
the needed data and due to a small number of respondents also easy to be analysed.
Peer Observation
Observation Analysis.
I chose peer observation as the last self-reflection method. My colleague Eva was so
kind as to agree with coming into my lesson and letting me observe hers. I prepared thirteen
questions to be answered during both observations (see Appendix C), they basically focus on
factors that can influence the areas I consider most problematic in my teaching: classroom
discipline and influencing my pupils motivation.
We met before the observations to discuss the questions I prepared and afterwards to
talk about the lessons. The observations took place on March 29, 2010 (Observation 1) and
March 30, 2010 (Observation 2).
I decided to ask my colleague Eva for cooperation since she is the kind of teacher who
gets on well even with the most problematic pupils and classes so I hoped seeing her teaching
might be inspiring for me.
It is necessary to say a few words about Eva who is not a typical teacher. She started
working as a teacher when she was over forty, until then she had worked in laboratories as a
chemist. She started teaching chemistry in our school and studied biology and a short
pedagogical course simultaneously to get necessary qualifications. Several years ago she was
also asked to teach a few English lessons as there was a lack of English teachers in our
school. She has never studied English at university but it has been her great hobby and she is

64

an enthusiastic learner and teacher. Nowadays, she is studying at pedagogical faculty in

Olomouc to expand her qualification.
Observation 1.
My lesson was the first to be observed; each observation question is followed by Evas
answer (in italics) and my commentary.
1. Is the lesson well-planned and organized?
Yes, it is. A lesson with a variety of activities that are interconnected.
I planned the lesson carefully and, because we worked with a text in a textbook, I also
prepared several extra activities to practice the reading thoroughly.
2. Is the pacing good?
The lesson is brisk but at the same time the pacing respects needs of the particular group of
pupils.
I managed to choose activities of appropriate level and no unexpected problems appeared so
the planned timing was kept.
3. Are the changes between individual activities smooth?
Yes, a good start is followed by individual activities. All of them fluently fit together.
Yes, all individual, pair and the whole class work were included, quiet activities were
changing more lively ones so the lesson went well without any hold-ups.
4. Is every pupil involved in some way during a lesson?
Every pupil is involved, all of them work.
In every lesson I try to involve all the pupils equally, the class size lets me do that easily and
also the frequent use of pair and group work. I only have problems with individual pupils who
are often reluctant to work and I have to urge them several times a lesson.
5. Are teachers instructions clear?
Ts instructions are clear, both English and Czech are used adequately according to pupils
age and knowledge.
6. How do pupils react to teachers instructions?

65

Pupils ask repeatedly to make sure they understand the instructions but I dont think the
teacher can be clearer, the pupils obviously have problems with concentration. After they
know what to do they react immediately and willingly.
This is connected to the problem with not always understanding my instructions and
explanations that the pupils mentioned in the questionnaire. Evas impression is that my
instructions are clear and that the problem is on the pupils side because they cannot
concentrate. The truth is that I usually have to repeat all my instructions several times before
all the pupils know what to do. I often accompany my instructions with a note on the
blackboard or a short demonstration but that does not seem to help a lot.
7. Do pupils seem to be interested and involved?
Pupils are really interested in what is going on. Every pupil has a possibility to express
him/herself and he/she is happy to do that.
I must say that most of the pupils seem to be interested and work during the lessons. Again,
the number of the pupils is a real advantage, it is easy to check on them.
8. Are the pupils active or passive?
Pupils are very active, spontaneous, hands up a lot, the teacher encourages them to react.
Except for Eda, all the pupils have become active since the beginning of the school year and I
often do not know who to call first because they are eager to show their knowledge.
9. Is teacher encouraging and positive?
At the beginning the teacher was not encouraging enough but it got better during the lesson.
Eva noticed my problems with encouraging pupils, too.
10. Does teacher show favouritism towards particular pupils?
All the pupils get the same amount of attention, I havent noticed any preferences.
I try to pay equal attention to all the pupils, however Eva could not notice that I tend to avoid
talking to Eda sometimes because he never knows what we do or how to answer. This hinders
us in our work and pupils often comment on it.
11. Does teacher move around the classroom?
The teacher moves around the pupils especially when they work individually or in pairs to
monitor and help if necessary, when speaking to the whole class, she stands in the front.

66

I try to help the pupils but often I get stuck with one and have no time for the others. All the
pupils would need more individual attention but it is not always possible.
12. How does teacher react to disruptive behaviour?
The teacher asks the pupil to be quiet in a nice way (could you stop , please?) and it is
enough.
There was not much disruptive behaviour in this lesson, so it was enough to admonish the
pupils who became too talkative or noisy.
13. Any other impressions or comments?
Appropriate changing of work and relaxation. The atmosphere in the class is friendly and
happy. There is enough time for both work and fun.
Towards the end of the lesson some pupils were losing the ability to concentrate, it is a
question whether one of the activities in the second half of the lesson did not cause that the
pupils became more relaxed which influenced their concentration in a negative way.
It is positive to see that the atmosphere in the class is perceived as friendly and happy by an
observer from outside. Eva is right, the activity that caused that pupils could not concentrate
should have been moved to the very end of the lesson.
Observation 2.
For my observation we agreed on visiting a group of twenty-three pupils in year seven,
group B. The lesson is taught in the chemistry classroom because the teacher has a data
projector and a computer with the Internet there and uses it a lot for teaching both chemistry
and English. Unfortunately, the layout of the classroom does not let the teacher move around
a lot because pupils sit in rows of twelve that are separated in two parts by a sink.
1. The lesson was well-planned and organized with a variety of activities, only the beginning
was a bit chaotic because of problems with a CD player.
2. The pace of the lesson was unbalanced, sometimes too slow (pupils repeating individually
phrases from a listening exercise), sometimes too fast (checking answers in grammar
exercise).
3. The changes between individual activities were fast and fluent.

67

4. All pupils were involved in a pair activity or in writing and listening exercise, several
pupils were not called by the teacher while two pupils were called several times during the
lesson.
5. Teachers instructions were clear, she usually gave them in English, pupils made sure they
understood by asking her in Czech, she answered back in English.
6. Pupils reacted immediately and did what the teacher asked them to do, only the pupils in
the very back who were obviously the slower ones, were lost sometimes and asked pupils
around what to do.
7. Pupils were definitely involved and interested in what was going on but when the grammar
was being explained, only some pupils seemed to communicate with the teacher, some especially those in the back - did not pay attention.
8. Part of the pupils were active, they reacted to everything the T did, put their hands up
often, others were rather passive, reacting only when the T asked them.
9. The teacher was extremely encouraging and positive, she obviously has a great
relationship with pupils, it can be felt that she likes her pupils very much. The teacher smiles
all the time, she is calm, a bit chaotic in a cute way.
She shows respect adequately to all the pupils, calls them nicely: Haniko, my dears,
children; for giving instructions and asking them to do something she uses please or be kind:
Be so kind and open your books, Could you answer question one please?; says thank
you for every answer; encourages also by saying Try it please. She makes sure they
understand by often asking Do you understand it? Can we continue now?. She corrects
pupils mistakes in a polite way: Really? What do you think, is that correct?.
10. I would not call that favouriticism but she pays more attention to some pupils. When
nobody seems to know the answer, she asks obviously the best pupil in the class, and when
she wants to make sure really everybody understands, she asks probably the weakest pupil in
the class which means she talks to them more often than to the others.

68

11. Teacher moves around as much as the furniture layout lets her, especially when the pupils
work individually or in pairs, otherwise she stands in the front.
12. In a calm voice, with respect to the pupil: Be kind and pay attention please, Quiet
please!, sometimes claps her hands when there is too much murmur. Otherwise, no
disruptive behaviour appeared in her lesson.
13. Regarding the fact that Eva never studied teaching English, it is necessary to say that her
lesson was very good with only some points to consider.
To sum up both experiences, I have to say I was pleased by Evas positive comments
on my lesson. I did not prepare anything special as I wanted the lesson to be quite average and
it went well with pupils acting the same way they normally do. On the whole, the pupils
appeared to her to be motivated, involved and hard-working, the lesson was well-prepared,
fun and it passed in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. She also noticed the problem of the
pupils limited attention span and a lack of positive comments and encouragement in my
teaching.
Seeing Evas lesson made me realize one very important fact. The teachers
personality, the way he/she treats the students and his/her enthusiasm are, in my opinion, the
most vital qualities of a teacher. Having all of them, Evas lessons do not have to be perfect
from the methodological perspective and still the pupils will respect her and do what she asks
them to do. I liked the positive way she approaches teaching and pupils very much and I hope
that seeing how important this issue is will inspire my own approach.
Comments on the observation method.
Choosing the peer observation method proved to be very beneficial although only one
lesson was observed by me and my colleague. At the beginning I was a little worried of
having a close colleague of mine in the class but this showed to be an advantage at the end.
The atmosphere in both observed classes remained virtually untouched by the observers, I
think I can say this was possible only because of my colleagues and my friendly and open
mutual relationship and knowing that we can trust each other. We met before the observations
to discuss their focus and also afterwards to talk about the experience.
As the main positive I would state my colleagues and my enthusiasm about the
experience, we both found it enriching and beneficial so we are considering trying more

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observations in the future. Getting a feedback from my colleague was a new experience that
helped me look at my teaching through other teachers eyes and get another point of view.
There are naturally a few points that need to be considered when drawing conclusions
based on our observations. Each of us only observed one lesson which is too little to be able
to generalize the collected data. We both knew what was going to be observed during the
lessons and this fact could influence our behaviour in the classroom. Also, the pupils
reactions could have been affected, although, neither me nor my colleague noticed anything
unusual concerning their behaviour.
As the main obstacle of more frequent observing, I consider the logistic difficulties of
our timetables. All four English teachers teach English, in e.g. year six, concurrently so a
difficulty arises in substituting the one who wants to observe. In this case, the two remaining
colleagues were very helpful and split Evas pupils into their classes but this would be
impossible for a longer period.

Conclusion
In the theoretical part I try to introduce self-reflection as one of the teachers key
competencies and proceed by writing about the importance of professional development.
Further, reflective teaching is presented as an approach that delegates the responsibility for
such development on the teacher him/herself and different self-reflective methods are
discussed.
The practical part of my thesis demonstrates how I used three self-reflective methods
(teaching journal, questionnaire, observation) to reveal main problems I cope with in my
teaching. I decided to search for my weak points in one primary school class that seemed to
be problematic in many ways. Some of the problem areas the research uncovered were
expected (e.g. disruptive behaviour), others (e.g. lack of encouragement on my side; the
pupils difficulties with understanding my instructions and explanations) were surprising and
new to me. Moreover, systematic reflection helped me get a deeper insight into my teaching
and find some causes of my problems. I also tried to suggest possible ways the problems
solving could proceed.
The methods I chose for self-refection showed to be all equally important, especially
in presenting three different points of view of my teaching. I expected that writing a journal
would be the most beneficial one because it captures four months of my teaching and

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moreover, I am the one who spends most of the time with the particular class and know all
about what is going on during lessons. On the other hand, one persons perspective can be
also restrictive because he/she can think about him/herself in certain stereotypes. In my case,
both my pupils and colleagues perceptions of my teaching were more positive than my own
which surprised me and encouraged me a lot. A question arises whether I am being too
critical and concerned mainly with the negative sides of my teaching and whether the positive
outcomes of the questionnaire filled in by teenagers and only one observed lesson can be
considered valid enough.
Concerning my personal experience with the methods, despite my expectations,
writing the journal did not suit me much, on the other hand, I was worried of observations and
the experience was very positive and encouraging. Therefore, I would say that choosing the
right method does not depend only on the aim and the purpose of the research but also on the
personal preferences of the researcher.
To sum up, I think I can say that the research was successful in terms of my
requirements, it helped me uncover the weak points in my teaching, their causes and give
suggestions for improvement. The future will show if I am able to reflect all my findings in
my teaching practice and how successful the implementation is.

71

References
Literary sources:
Appel, J. (1995). Diary of a language teacher. Oxford: Heinemann.
Bailey, K. M., Curtis A., & Nunan D. (2001). Pursuing professional development:
The self as source. Toronto: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Gebhard, J. G. (1992). Awareness of teaching: Approaches, benefits, tasks. In T. Kral (Ed.),
Teacher development making the right moves (pp. 34-47). Washington: English
Language Programs Division.
Freeman, D. (1998). Doing teacher research: From inquiry to understanding. Toronto:
Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English (5th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Longmann.
Head, K., & Taylor, P. (1997). Readings in teacher development. Oxford: Macmillan
Heinemann ELT.
Kyriacou, C. (1996). Klov dovednosti uitele cesty k lepmu vyuovn. Praha. Portl.
Pollard, A., & Tann, S. (1993). Reflective teaching in the primary school A handbook for
the classroom (2nd ed.). London: Cassell.
Pollard, A., Anderson, J., Maddock M., Swatfield S., Warin, J., Warwick, P. (2008).
Reflective teaching Evidenced-informed professional practice (3rd. Ed.)
London, New York: Continuum.
Prcha, J. (2002). Uitel. Praha: Portl.
Richards, J. C. (1994). Beyond training. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C., & Ho, B. (1994). Reflective thinking through journal writing. In J. C.
Richards, Beyond training (pp. 153-170). New York: Cambridge University Press
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1996). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms
(6th ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers Strategies for teacher learning. New York. Cambridge University Press.
Spilkov, V. a kol. (2004). Souasn promny vzdlvn uitel. Brno: Paido.
vec, V. (2005). Pedagogick znalosti uitele: Teorie a praxe. Praha: ASPI.
Wajnryb, R. (1992). Classroom observation tasks: A resource book for language teachers
and trainers (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers A reflective approach (2nd ed.)
Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

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Wallace, M. J. (1998). Action research for language teachers (11th ed.). Cambridge.
Cambridge University Press.
Internet sources:
Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (April 1, 2010). APA Formatting and style
guide.. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/1/
Rdl, K., Kolov, H., Pov, M., Spilkov, V., Stblov, H., & Tomek, F. (2009).
Tvorba profesnho standardu kvality uitele: Vstupn dokument pro veejnou diskuzi.
Praha: MMT. Retrieved from
http://www.msmt.cz/uploads/soubory/zakladni/VS_Tvorbastandardu_vstupnidokumen
tproverejnoudiskusi.pdf
Sarsar, N. M. (2008). Adopting a reflective approach to professional development. Retrieved
from
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80
/41/7c/b0.pdf

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Appendix A
Teaching Journal
Entry 1 September 20, 2009
I started teaching at this school this September, part time, as I am still on maternity leave. I
have spent three weeks here so far so have been able to get acquainted with the atmosphere
and pupils a bit. Well, compared to the school I used to teach at before, it is quite a change
and I do miss my colleagues and everything we managed to do there. Anyway, the school is
quite big, over 400 pupils and its situated in six separate buildings which are connected by a
long corridor. I find this really annoying as it takes me a pretty long time to get to the class I
teach and it is physically quite demanding!! Fortunately, there should be a new language
classroom ready at the end of September so I wont have to move so often and far but will
have my own classroom right next to my office. I have an office all to myself which is quite a
luxury compared to the conditions some other teachers here have to be in The colleagues
and headmaster have been helpful and nice so far, what I find annoying is that there is
nothing, literally nothing extra for teaching English except for textbooks the pupils learn from
and a few dictionaries. No extra resource books available, luckily I have enough extra
materials at home, we will see if it will be possible to buy something later on.
I teach four classes, two classes in year three, one in year five and one in year six. I was
wondering which class shall I concentrate on in my self-reflection journal and have decided
for year six as they seem to be quite a problem for me. In the other classes, everything has
been going pretty well so far but in 6AB I have been struggling from the very beginning.
Entry 2 September 21, 2009
Well, to sum up all the things I know about 6AB: there are fifteen pupils in the group, three
girls only. In year six here, they divide the pupils into four groups according to their language
abilities they write a test at the beginning of the school year which helps to place them in
the particular groups. My group is the worst one D group and although at the beginning, I
did not think it was a bad idea to divide the pupils like that, Im not sure now it is such a
struggle and there is nobody in the group to pull them forward.
What to say about the kids., on the whole they seem to lack the very basic knowledge of
English, although they have had English for three years. They are able to produce some
vocabulary but not in even simple structures.
The motivation is very low, they arent interested in learning at all, not only in learning
English, they find it annoying to write, do homework, they can concentrate only for a short
period of time and they are constantly asking questions to make sure they understood well (I
speak Czech most of the time).
The kids came to year 6 from several different schools in the nearby villages, they have to
commute to school now , and I think seven of them come from families that have little farms
to look after.
One boy in the group - Eda - is going to be a big problem. He is a gypsie, lives with adoptive
parents who have obviously given up solving any troubles he has at school. In lessons he is
not disruptive but he does not work at all. I was shocked to see his exercise book and a test
he doesnt bother to write whole words, he writes first two letters and then makes a kind of
wawy I was shocked to see that. Other kids partly make fun of him, because he is fat and
smelly and partly they want to have a good relationship with him as he bullies younger
children and is quite inscrutable. He seems to care only about food, nothing else. If he gets a

74

bad mark or a note from the headmaster for his parents, he just smiles. I wonder if there is any
possibility to change his approach to work
Entry 3 September 23, 2009
We started Project 1 the older version, the starter unit revises all the basic structures and
vocabulary they should be familiar with by now and I approached it as a revision. Soon I had
to change my approach - I found out that they are only able to answer the question Whats
your name?, name a few colours, numbers 1-20, some basic objects in the classroom and
animals. Thats it. So I had to start from the very beginning. The trouble is that the kids dont
like it very much because they obviously went through lets say numbers 0-100 so when I
start revising them, they say we did that, we know that, we can move on. But they do not
know them very well. Well see if the situation gets any better after I practise the numbers
with them It looks that four boys in the group have individual plans because of dyslexia, I
wonder what the total number will be, Im going to see and sign their papers next week.
Entry 4 September 25, 2009
I started todays lesson with giving out the tests we wrote last lesson. The results were really
poor even though I thought the test was easy and we practised a lot for it. I wanted them to
revise the basic structures Whats your name and where are you from in the 1st and 3rd
person sg.
Anyway, we did the correction all together and again drilled the sentences but some pupils
find it extremelly difficult just to fill in the sentence pattern I wrote on the board. Im so
exhausted after each lesson with them as I keep explaining in many different ways all the
time, I have cards with names and countries on that I show them and they make sentences,
they make new identities and talk about themselves and about one another, photos of famous
people. When we practise the structures orally, they are really active and seem to do well
but as soon as I ask them to do a simple exercise its a disaster it looks as nobody
understood anything. At the end of the lesson I just wondered if the structure where are you/is
he-she from is so important to learn.
Entry 5 October 5, 2009
Practising numbers today, they seem to be sure in using numbers 1-20, the higher numbers are
a problem, they find it hard to write them in words when I dictate to them, only two pupils
seem to know them automatically. But they enjoy the activities connected with practising
numbers because after a bit of practice, most of them are able to succeed.
What frustrated me most in this lesson was their disruptive behaviour the kids are very
lively, some of them simply dont stop fidgeting for the whole lesson!!! and cant
concentrate for longer periods of time.
I have to work on motivating the kids more (but how???), theyre used to getting bad marks
and dont mind. I realise that I use mainly threats which doesnt create very positive
atmosphere and doesnt seem to work much anyway because I hardly ever do what I threaten
them with..
Entry 6 October 6, 2009
Again, discipline was the biggest problem, half of them chatting and fidgetting all the time.
They are driving me mad. I need them to be quiet when I explain things or give instructions
but half of them are like little fleas. I was so desperate today that I even threatened them with
writing a test so they calmed down a bit. I cant do this every lesson though!!
So I know now that there are five boys with specific learning difficulties, that explains quite a
lot about the behaviour of some of them. Two of them are very hard working and quiet, one is

75

quiet but is absent minded most of the time and the two left are not able to sit still for two
minutes and dont like working at all. Two of them write in such a way that Im not able to
read it.
Entry 7 October 8, 2009
To prevent discipline problems I asked the kids to sit one by one today and it helped a lot.
They could concentrate on work and I really needed it as we did some listening activities.
They enjoyed the listening even though I had to play it three times and stop it after each
short dialogue. It made them happy when they understood and they tried really hard! Thats
what I find encouraging, the kids moan a lot but on the other hand they do cooperate and
communicate with me, ask questions when they dont understand something. Its probably
better than if they were quiet but passive. Trying to find an excuse for their talkativness
Entry 8 October 13, 2009
At the beginning of the lesson I orally tested two boys who were absent when we wrote a test
and few other kids volunteered too to improve the bad marks they got from the test. I want to
give them a chance for improvement but I will need to set some rules because they should
make some effort to learn continuously or at least before the test. And of course, they find
oral testing easier as I usually help them to say at least something.
Another and much more serious problem comes to my mind when thinking about marking
they are group D so I dont expect many good marks within the group but I dont want to
give bad marks only they would lose their motivation completely!! I must lower my
requirements to let them be successful but if I lower the requirements too much and they are
able to do what I want them to do how will I asses them? I dont want them to stop trying
but I also cant give them very good marks.
Entry 9 October 15, 2009
A miracle happened today! It was our first time in the tiny language classroom and the lesson
went great! I dont understand it. The rooms gives us the opportunity to be physically closer
to one another, they might feel cosier in there, I dont know.
We practised instructions and they were performing what I instructed them to do so a lot of
moving was involved but they were able to do it in quite a disciplined way!
Entry 10 October 19, 2009
My lesson plan got totally changed in todays lesson. Instead of spending ten minutes over a
warm up, doing the warm-up has actually become the aim of the lesson. I didnt realize how
difficult the kids would find the task it was a typical across x down crossword with simple
Maths exercises (adding and subtracting written in words) as clues.
It took almost five minutes to explain how the crossword works I should have started with
writing examples of across and down on the board, I might have saved some time! Then the
kids struggled with the exercises I noticed they were translating the numbers into Czech, did
the mathematic operation in Czech and again translated the result into English. Which means
that they havent mastered the numbers as well as I thought.
The kids were enthusiastic about the exercise though, so I let them work on it in pairs for next
ten minutes and then I only wanted to go through it quickly with the whole class. What a
disaster instead of simply finding the result in the crossword and reading it, they found it too
difficult to orientate in the crossword! so they had to count it again.
We spent the last ten minutes practising the instructions again each of them got one written
on a piece of paper and had to perform it to the whole class and the kids guessed. It was fun
but some kids stopped paying attention as soon as they mimed their instruction. Making a

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circle for such an activity might be a help they wouldnt have hidden themselves in their
desks.
Entry 11 October 20, 2009
A lesson devoted to spelling and alphabet revision. No problems with reciting the alphabet by
heart but as usually, when it comes to spelling, its a disaster. So we practised a lot,
concentrated on the most difficult sounds, we did spelling dictations and they also tried in
pairs and enjoyed it. I dont believe though that they will be able to spell perfectly.
Problems with Eda again, he simply doesnt work and I cant stand over him the whole lesson
to check on his work. I know now that its the same in all subjects. I told him I wasnt going
to let hem pass English for free but he seems he doesnt care at all.
Entry 12 October 21, 2009
It seemed to me that none of the kids today was able to keep still, they are moving all the time
even though they dont move from their place. They move even when they write. It takes me
a lot of time before I make all of them concentrate on what Im saying. At last I got upset and
made them finish the work during their (and my) break to punish them somehow.
Among other things I had the stupid idea to do a bit from their textbook and we practised
What do you call this in English? and What does a poster mean? A disaster! I should have
anticipated that it would be extremely difficult for them just to replace the words. I translated
the sentences for them into Czech but Im afraid that they still didnt know what they were
saying. Next time, I will just concentrate on their passive knowledge when it comes to such
difficult sentences not to frustrate both sides.
Entry 13 October 26, 2009
A Halloween lesson today and the kids enjoyed it and were all actively involved!!! As my
voice has gone, I asked them to work individually, they started with a Halloween wordsearch
where they had a list of words to cross out. Then they were to find the meaning of those they
didnt know in the dictionary and that was a problem for some of them. They didnt see any
difference between the English/Czech and Czech/English parts, couldnt use their knowledge
of alphabet so it took them longer to find the word they needed. I will have to prepare a lesson
on practising dictionary work. Otherwise, kids liked the lesson (heard some positive
comments!).
Entry 14 October 27, 2009
We continued the Halloween staff from yesterday and the kids were supposed to use the
Halloween words from word search in groups to write a few simple sentences about
Halloween. First we went through a quick demonstration of what a simple English sentence
look like but this will definitely need more time and practice. They tend to come up with a
really complex sentences in Czech and then try to translate it word by word. I had to help a
lot, together within the groups we tried to simplify the sentences they wrote and at the end,
two groups were excellent. Unfortunately, especially one group had a great problem with
working, they used most of their time for laughing and doing everything else but writing.
Anyway, I collected everybodys work and those who tried hard and managed to write
something meaningful got good marks.
Entry 15 November 3, 2009
I know what my biggest problem is Im not consistent enough and that causes most of the
problems I cope with. I warn and threaten but dont always carry out my threats or I act too
impulsively, my reactions to problematic situations are not systematic. When the kids upset

77

me, I sometimes lose my temper, threaten them with e.g. having to re-write school rules after
school but then I feel sorry for them and let it be for this time. I must try to keep calm. Why
Im thinking about it today I freaked out when after I handed out the tests, one girl dared to
open her exercise book to peep in when I was writing into a register book. I started shouting
at her instead of acting calmly and prudently.
Entry 16 November 10, 2009
What shall I do with Eda??? He is really a problem. He doesnt work, doesnt care about
notes in his report books, about bad marks I asked him to fill in missing things into his
English exercise book but he hasnt completed it yet and I dont want to spend five minutes of
each lesson checking on what Eda hasnt got again. Its not only English, its in every subject,
we will have to talk about him with my colleagues and his class teacher. I write notes to his
parents every two weeks, they always sign them but no change in Edas approach.
Entry 17 November 12, 2009
Revision lesson today. Finished Unit 1, hooray! We went through all the things that appeared
in the first unit, the kids were to remind me of all the basic rules and vocabulary and I was
surprised to see they were able to do that. The bad thing is that when we did a short practice
afterwards, they made the same mistakes we tackled during the whole unit. Its pretty
frustrating to see that the work was, not useless perhaps, but definitely not rewarding. After
todays lesson I felt like having to start again from the very beginning but it is impossible. I
simply dont think the result would be much better even if we went through all the things
again. The kids would find it really de-motivating and perhaps, this is the most theyre able to
learn at the moment.
Entry 18 November 18, 2009
After the disillusion from yesterdays lesson I decided to create a miniportfolio something
like a self-evaluation sheet in Czech where the kids can evaluate themselves. Im quite
curious to see how successful they consider themselves to be. I prepared about twenty
statements covering all we did by now where the kids have to tick how well they think they
mastered what we learned. Under the statements I asked them four questions about what they
enjoyed most and least and what was easy and difficult for them. Well see tomorrow..
Entry 19 November 19, 2009
Well, I was surprised today to see that many pupils found it difficult to say e.g. what was hard
for them to learn or what they enjoyed. Obviously, they arent used to think about their own
learning.
Next surprise was to see how self-confident they are most of them assessed themselves with
mark 2 for their work. A few people didnt want to pay much attention to filling in the
miniportfolio so I tried to explain how it can help them realize what they are good at and what
needs improvement.
Entry 20 November 23, 2009
Well, at the end we wrote a progress test based on unit 1 and I corrected it straight in the
afternoon. I was pretty depressed to see their results but I will have to get used to them not
having good marks. Obviously, many pupils dont pay any attention to studying at home
because they werent able to do a very simple task on vocabulary where all that was expected
from them was to know a few basic words. I wonder how will they make any progress when
they arent even able to lean the basics, what will I do with them when more difficult
structures and more vocabulary to learn will come?

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Entry 21 November 26, 2009

After the test correction today, there was little time left and the kids started to moan about
having to learn English so I used the opportunity to have a discussion about the importance of
English in todays life. Some kids had their own stories from their own families e.g. about a
daddy who didnt get the job he wanted because he couldnt speak English
Most of these kids definitely wont go on to study after finishing the lower secondary school
so I tried to give them examples of my friends who are good cooks or whatever and were able
to go abroad, get some experience, earn some money but they needed to speak some English.
Some kids were really interested in the discussion but some didnt care much. Why should I
want to work or travel abroad, their question was? Well, what to answer to somebody, who
does not even think of or dream of leaving his or her home village or town one day?
Entry 22 December 1, 2009
We started unit 2 today, listening and reading to the main photo story. We role played the
story, half of the kids have a great problem with reading. They asked me if I could test them
on reading and translating the text because they were used to it in their English lessons. I said
no and they were quite disappointed. I wonder why they like it so much usually because
they write the translation straight into the text and then just read it. Anyway, I told them I
would give them a chance to get a good mark I will choose some expressions or structures
from the text, write them in Czech and they will have to find their English equivalents. And
they can use the book! They were enthusiastic so we will see how it works.
Entry 23 December 7, 2009
One third of the class was missing today - flu epidemic and the work with the kids was great.
Enough time for each of them. I think that such a number in a class with slow pupils and
dyslexic pupils would partly solve many problems because it really enables an individual
approach to those who need it.
Entry 24 December 17, 2009
Most of the kids are back now and its only a week left to Christmas. We went back to the
book and the text in it and I prepared a whole worksheet on my own to practise the
vocabulary and the test comprehension because half of the exercises in the book are too
difficult for them and they give up when they cant do them. At the end of the lesson I gave
them the exercise I once promised they were supposed to find in the text English
equivalents of the Czech words and phrases but at the end only one of them got mark 1. Most
of them copied the whole sentences with the structure I asked for and sometimes they could
not even found it.
Entry 25 December 22, 2009
Christmas lessons: being in a new school I could use the staff I have from the previous job.
We sang a carol, they made their own picture dictionary, crosswords, games but I wish it was
over. They want to play games and have fun but when we do play games, they start behaving
like little monsters.
Entry 26 January 4, 2010
We are supposed to have inspection at school in two weeks everybody is really happy about
it.
Started verb be, nothing seems to work for the kids to remember when to use am, is or are. I
asked them to learn personal pronouns by heart at home, we practise I show a picture of a

79

person or a card with a name or e.g. a friend and they have to substitute it with a pronoun. He,
she is ok but other pronouns are helpless. They cannot do it in Czech.
When thinking about how to teach the verb be, I had an idea we will make cards am, is, are
and try some work with them either so that they have the verbs in their hands.
Entry 27 January 7, 2010
We tried the cards today, kids enjoy working with them but I cant see a great improvement. I
first wrote all the forms of to be on the board, then we practised with the cards I started with
simply saying a person and they had to put up the right card. For many of them it is like a
lottery. I tell them that they simply have to spend some time over it at home and learn it by
heart or at least go through all we do at school but I dont believe they do something at home.
Entry 28 January 12, 2010
Dominik L. drives me mad all the time.. He is so lazy, it is unbelievable. I must ask him to
work or sit properly ten times every lesson. Im becoming allergic to his behaviour and
excuses. I saw him the other day in his PE lesson and he was the best of all the boys, in
English he is somebody else.
Entry 29 January 14, 2010
I realized that the amount of English I speak in lessons is really low, I somehow gradually
gave up. So I told the kids today we would try speaking as much English as possible and to
my surprise, it worked somehow. They even tried to speak English in their desk but they
cant say much so it was a bit funny to hear them saying How old are you?:-) At the end of
the lesson I was exhausted because even if I use the words they are supposed to know I must
say them three times till they get it. Now it will be quite a challenge to go on with it.
Entry 30 January 21, 2010
I had the inspector in my lesson today. I knew it in advance and I prepared group work so that
it is not so visible that their English is so poor. The task was quite difficult for them but with
me running around they managed to do it somehow and they really tried hard not to let me
down. It was so nice of them. I must say that I do like them although we still struggle .
The inspector was a bit reserved but it seems as if they changed the approach a bit, she mainly
talked about the positives of the lesson, she actually mentioned only one negative thing that
I dont praise the children much. First I just thought whether I should praise them for coming
to school but now when I think about it more, she was right.

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Appendix B
A Questionnaire for Pupils
Mil ci, prosm o peliv vyplnn dotaznku. Dotaznk je anonymn a slou k tomu, abych
se dovdla vce o Vaem vztahu k anglitin. Dkuji za vyplnn!
1) Zakroukuj odpov:
Hodiny anglitiny m velmi bav bav sp nebav nebav.
2) Napi alespo jeden dvod pro t anglitina bav nebo nebav?
3) Zakroukuj, jak moc t bav/nebav nsledujc aktivity v hodinch anglitiny:
bav

nkdy bav

nebav

poslechov cvien

prce s uebnic

prce s pracovnm seitem

projekty

hry

prce na potai

prce ve dvojicch/skupinch

prce s jinmi pomckami:

-

kartiky se slovy/obrzky

kovky, osmismrky

pracovnmi listy

jin (napi jak):

4) Zakroukuj odpov:
Je velmi potebnpotebn mlo potebn nepotebn uit se anglitinu.
5) Jak vyuv anglitinu ve svm ivot te? Zakroukuj odpov, me i vce
monost.
pi prci s potaem (hry, Internet, e-maily, chaty)
pi poslechu psniek
pi sledovn televize / film
pi ten knih, asopis
pi cestovn

81

jin monost:
nevyuvm ji
6) Zakroukuj odpov, me i vc monost.
Jak bys chtl/a anglitinu vyut v budoucnu?
v zamstnn
pi sledovn film v pvodn verzi
pi cestovn
pi ten knih a asopis v anglitin
jin monost:
myslm, e ji nevyuiju
7) Zakroukuj odpov:
Kdy p. uitelka vysvtluje novou ltku nebo zadv pokyny k kolm pochopm ji vdy
vtinou obas nikdy
8) Zakroukuj odpov, me oznait i vce monost.
Poteboval/a bych, aby se v hodinch vnovalo vce asu:
ten
psan
poslechu
mluven
procviovn vslovnosti
procviovn gramatiky
procviovn slovek
jin (dopl)
9) Napi alespo jeden nvrh:
Hodiny anglitiny by mohlo vylepit:
10) Zakroukuj odpov:
Chtl/a bych, aby se v hodin mluvilo vce anglicky - ano/ne
11) Zakroukuj odpov:
Mm pocit, e se v anglitin zlepuju - ano/ne

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Appendix C
Observation Questions
1. Is the lesson well-planned and organized?
2. Is the pacing good?
3. Are the changes between individual activities smooth?
4. Is every pupil involved in some way during a lesson?
5. Are the teachers instructions clear?
6. How do the pupils react to the teachers instructions?
7. Do pupils seem to be interested and involved?
8. Are the pupils active or passive?
9. Is the teacher encouraging and positive?
10. Does the teacher show favouritism towards particular students?
11. Does the teacher move around the classroom?
12. How does teacher react do disruptive behaviour?
13. Any other impressions or comments?

Sources:
Underwood, M. (1987). Effective Class Management: A practical approach. London:
Pearson Longmann
Podlahov, L. (2008). Pozorovn vyuovac hodiny. Retrieved from
http://www.pedagog.ic.cz/podlahova_dok/soubory/POZOROVANI_VYUCOVACI_H
ODINY_-_syll..doc