QUESTIONS ABOUT CONCEPTUALIZING TEACHING

1.   What do you usually do as a teacher? With what kind of rationale?

I try to do my best in every class and I would like to have always a transformative role. However, I think that in this moment I have the three roles: technician, reflective and transformative. Technician when I want my students do not forget the importance of discipline, respect and responsibility. I have a reflective role when I as teacher allow my students to use their abilities to improve their learning and when I use different strategies to engage my students in the learning process. Finally, I am a transformative teacher when I have to handle with social and cultural differences: single parents, loneliness, drugs, poverty etc.

2.   What is your mind engagement like in the professional exercise of teaching?

Since I became an English teacher, I have tried to be very responsible with all my duties. I enjoy to be updated in terms of methodology and strategies. This is one of the reason I started this master program because I could studied a different master program just for the title but this is not my case. Moreover, I like to motivate my students in order they can participate in different activities inside and outside the school.

3.   How would you characterize your professional, personal and experiential knowledge of teaching?

When you decided to be a teacher, you have to bear in mind that to be a teacher in our country is not seem as a significant profession in terms of social recognition and payment. In spite of that I decided to be a teacher because of vocation because I had the idea to “guarantee personal autonomy and personal significance” (Hansen, 19 95).  However along with the experience my knowledge of teaching has changed. For me a teacher is a person who constructs future. The key point here is to move from work to career and then to occupation and finally to characterize teaching as a profession.

4.   How do you see the relationship between theory, research and practice?

I agree with the author when he states differences between theory and practice. Theory in terms of knowledge and content and practice to use the theory in a context. However, Alexander 1986, claims that “to concentrate less on what teachers should know, and more on how they might think”. In my opinion, this statement summarizes one of the purpose of this course, reflecting teaching, in relation to the necessity of developing critical thinking in teacher an also be aware of the role of teachers as reflective practitioners and as transformative intellectuals. 

5.   To what extent is there a cause – effect relationship between teaching and learning?

According to the author “teaching is aimed at creating optimal conditions for desired learning to take place in as short a time as possible”. I think that the relationship between teaching and knowledge is not really a cause – effect, because as the author states teaching is not necessary for learning, a person can learn from experience. The fact is that teaching acts guides and facilitates the learning process in a formal way.