Humberto Marino

Reflection: Wright has touched on the delicate issue of challenging or disappointing trainees’
expectations during teacher education. Most certainly it is expected that the collaborator be “a
model teacher”. Outline the different areas (classroom management or other) in which you
believe the teachers-in-preparation might use the collaborator (you) as a model-setter. How
can you make sure that you challenge and not disappoint their expectations?

Tony Wright (1990) writes about a meeting of teachers discussing classroom issues and
the roles of the participants in this process. They are guided by a collaborator who,
according to Wright, instead of giving his own views might choose to act reflectively
“constantly challenging the participants to believe in the importance and relevance of their
own views” changing his role from a leader to a tutor. If the majority of the group is willing,
to do this becomes a very enriching experience because members give their opinion,
share their valuable anecdotes and learn more by reflecting upon their own and others’
ideas.

However, this is a risky option since many of the participants adopt a learner role because
of their background and expect the collaborator to give them the correct and absolute
answers about teaching. If the majority of the group has this attitude it can lead to
disappointed expectations because trainees are expecting the collaborator to talk and talk
while he takes the role of leader but they encounter a “tutor role” where they have to make
a greater effort by reflecting, sharing ideas and reaching to conclusions. In the light of this
situation a collaborator has to be wise enough to monitor and evaluate what the group
thinks and what its expectations are.

Evans (2012) talks about different factors that affect classroom management such as: use
of space (arranging the seats of students), use of time (speeding up the activities to keep
students occupied), learning and teaching activities(interesting and engaging activities),
interaction and communication (finding the balance between being strict and lenient),
atmosphere (keeping a positive affective atmosphere), affective domain (motivation and
emotional states), cognitive domain (real-time thinking, previous experience and
knowledge, values, attitudes and beliefs” (Wright, 2005)1) and group factors (social-
psychological factors, emotional links with students).

1
In Evans (2012)
Evans analyzes 5 pre-service teachers as they practice in the areas described above with
the help of a collaborator who supported them, worked closely with them and read their
journals offering suggestions and advice. This collaborator was by their side to offer tips
and tricks to their situations. I think this is a wonderful example of how a collaborator can
be a model-setter to the teacher, by listening and telling them how they managed to solve
problems. After this, the teacher will experiment what he just learned through trial and
error and come again with the collaborator who will help him to become aware of what he’s
doing right or wrong.

Another area which should be outlined is error correction. All teachers have beliefs about
how, when and how much they should correct their students. Lyster and Ranta (1997)2 did
research that observed a variety of lessons in immersion programs and found out that
teachers in their study used recasts (error correction technique where the teacher implicitly
reformulates the student’s error, or provides the correction without directly indicating that
the student’s utterance was incorrect) 55% of the times they corrected their students. The
researchers conclude that teachers should ask colleagues to observe them while they use
the different error correction techniques to help them become aware of their current
practices.

I definitely think that one of the best practices to get better in different areas like error
correction or classroom management is having a more experienced colleague come into
the teacher’s class and observe it. It is often difficult for the teacher to see his own
mistakes, he knows that something is wrong but he does not know where the problem is
located exactly. This is what happened to me recently, I had classroom management
problems recently and did not know what to do but another teacher observed my class and
told me I was allowing students to stand up many times during class. I immediately set my
efforts toward having them seated all the time and the behavior of my students has
improved. Of course this is just a rough example since there are still many things I have to
correct but I decided to focus on this single aspect as other areas that need treatment will
be dealt with in a similar way.

Another area that collaborators usually need be a model setter for training teachers is how
to use the textbook. In some schools, teachers are asked to finish the textbook and so
they hurry up and go forward even if students are not learning at all. Teachers need to be

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Tedick and De Gortari (1998)
taught on how to deal with this situation without going to either of the 2 extremes. Harmer
(1998) summarizes what a collaborator told me to do in these situations: a teacher can
omit 1 or even 2 pages of the book, replace a lesson with one of his own or add the
contents of the book with complementary material.

I think I can be a model-setter for other teachers in the same way that my principal
provided mentoring to me: She had already told me the need to finish the book on time but
I focused too much on doing this regardless of the improvement of the students. She
noticed that something was not working properly in the classroom and we began to talk. I
told her that I was worried to finish the book on time and that I was hurrying up even
though students did not grasp the contents 100%. She understood my position and told
me I should have a balance: I needed to make sure they learned correctly the topics even
if this meant skipping some low importance topics. I think my principal demonstrated
excellent model-setter skills which I will surely imitate: providing thorough communication
and understanding the context of the problem in order to come up with a solution. By doing
this, she challenged my expectations instead of disappointing them.

Finally I will write about an important area in teacher education: student participation.
There are many suggestions to promote participation like remembering previous lessons3
and offering rewards but sometimes colleagues can explain better how to use these
techniques. Another example of how to foster my model-setter role is asking for
colleagues’ help. I observed that a fellow teacher was good at student participation and I
decided to ask her how she managed to have the students interested. She described her
procedure: promoting good behavior by offering extra points; she also suggested a general
principle which was rewarding those who behaved well and finding something displeasing
to students who misbehaved to discipline them. I think I will follow this course of action: be
a model-setter to other teachers by telling them what to do but also explaining the principle
behind these actions so that they can try it themselves; this will encourage and not
disappoint their expectations as they can check if it works.

I will be a model-setter to other teachers by being close to them, talking regularly with
them to see how they are doing, helping and encouraging in order to improve their
teaching skills. I will go beyond this by watching them in action to see what their mistakes
are and offering a solution; I will do this since it is difficult for everybody to see their own

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Haynes, Kim(2015)
mistakes. When I get to talk to teachers I will try to get them to tell me about the situations
within their context to help them analyze the problem and come up with a solution. Finally I
will tell them I how I do things along with telling them the principle behind my actions so
they can imitate by being aware of why I do things. In all of these ways I am sure I will
encourage and not disappoint their expectations.
Bibliografía
Evans, E. J. (2012). Managing the foreign language classroom: reflections from the preservice field
and beyond. Iowa: University of Iowa.

Harmer, J. (1998). How to Teach English. Longman.

Haynes, K. (2015). Top 12 Ways to Increase Student Participation. http://www.teachhub.com/top-

12-ways-increase-student-participation, Consulted on February 25th 2015.

Tedick, D. J., & Barbara, d. G. (1998). Research on Error Correction and Implications for Classroom
Teaching.

Wright, T. (1990). Understanding Classroom Role Relationships. En J. &. Richards, Second

Language Teacher Education. CUP.