EXPLORATION OF TEACHING

a process of reflecting teaching for a purpose finding the strength and weakness, the problems, the teacher’s teaching behavior, and the students’ response during the process of teaching and learning

What is exploration of teaching?

Self-observationPeer-observationTalking and writing

Ways for conducting exploration of teaching

Teach while collecting sample of teaching

Analyze teaching

Appraise teaching

Decide on changes in teaching behavior

How to do self-observation?

Collecting samples of teaching (self-observation)

How to collect the samples of teaching

First, audiotapeSecond,

videotape

I.Listen to or view the tape while :

Making short transcript

Tallying behavior Taking notes

II.Study interaction and look for patterns by asking:

-what is going?-how is it going on?

Analyze teaching(self-observation)

Rather than appraising teaching as good or bad, ask interpretative questions, such as,”Are my instructions clear enough for the students to know what to do?

In short, appraising teaching means reflecting on how we treat the students

Appraise teaching(self-observation)

One reason why we want to change teaching behavior because there is a problem to be solved: the students do not talk, instructions are not clear, the students speak the native language too much.

Ask:1. What I want to keep doing?2. What do I want to change?

Deciding on changes in teaching behavior (self-observation)

Is it possible to explore teaching through observation of other teachers?

We can observe how other teachers teach in order to find out how to manage classroom, so, at the end we can make a good replan for our teaching

We can ask other teacher to observe us teaching with a purpose that they will give sufficient information about our strengths and weaknesses in teaching

Observing other teachers

Talking to our colleague teachers is an alternative to identify the strengths and the weaknesses in teaching. Usually this activity is done during break session. By having a discussion with our friends it is easier to replan our future teaching.

Among the other techniques of exploring teaching, writing might perform as the easiest and the most feasible one. We can write down about our plan, problems and all ideas about teaching and learning.

Talking and writing