Sử dụng hình thức ghi nhật kí để tự đánh giá sau bài dạy của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao chất lượng giảng dạy ở khoa tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội

To fulfill this purpose, the study aims to answer the following question: How effective is journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action effective in promoting teaching quality as

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH THANH

USING JOURNALS AS A MEANS OF TEACHER’S ACTION TO ENHANCE TEACHING QUALITY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

REFLECTION-ON-(Sử dụng hình thức ghi nhật kí để tự đánh giá sau bài dạy

của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao chất lượng giảng dạy

ở khoa tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH THANH

USING JOURNALS AS A MEANS OF TEACHER’S ON-ACTION TO ENHANCE TEACHING QUALITY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

(Sử dụng hình thức ghi nhật kí để tự đánh giá sau bài dạy của giáo viên

nhằm nâng cao chất lượng giảng dạy ở khoa tiếng Anh,

trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2012

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH THANH

USING JOURNALS AS A MEANS OF TEACHER’S ON-ACTION TO ENHANCE TEACHING QUALITY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH – HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

REFLECTION-(Sử dụng hình thức ghi nhật kí để tự đánh giá sau bài dạy của giáo viên

nhằm nâng cao chất lượng giảng dạy ở khoa tiếng Anh,

trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 4

5 Significance of the study 4

6 Overview of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 1 Reflective practice 1.1 Definition 6

1.2 Reflection procedure 8

1.3 Types of reflection 9

2 Journals as a means of reflection 10

2.1 Definition 10

2.2 Functions and advantages of journals 11

2.3 Focus of journal writing 13

vii

2.4 Analysis of journals 14

2.5 Prompts for journal entries 14

2.6 Guidelines for writing journals 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 1 Participants 18

2 Data collection instruments 18

2.1 Questionnaire 18

2.2 Interview 19

2.3 Journals 19

3 Research procedure 20

3.1 Problem identification 20

3.2 Preliminary investigation 21

3.3 Hypothesis 22

3.2 Intervention 22

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1 Data analysis approach 24

2 Results of questionnaire 24

2.1 Teachers’ understanding of reflective practice 24

2.2 Teachers’ use of reflective practice 25

2.3 Teachers’ use of journals 26

3 Results of analyzing reflective journals 27

3.1 Participant 1 27

3.2 Participant 2 28

3.3 Participant 3 29

3.4 Participant 4 30

viii

4 Results of interview 33

4.1 Effectiveness of journal writing 33

42 Difficulties in reflection process 35

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

to the changes in teachers’ cognition and teaching practices (Cooney, Shealy & Arnold, 1997, cited in Maat & Zakaria, 2010) According to Cohen and Hill (2000), reflection can be used as a tool to investigate teaching practices in order to achieve meaningful educational reform

Some people may argue that experience is the key to professional growth as teachers form routines and strategies to deal with recurring situations of teaching However, according to Parker (1984), research shows that “for many experienced teachers, many classroom routines and strategies are applied almost automatically and do not involve a great deal of conscious thought or reflection” (cited in Richard and Lockhart, 1996, p.4) These researchers asserted that it is vital to examine experience in a systematic way so that it can play a productive role Sharing the same viewpoint, Odeh, Kurt, and Atamtürk stated that reflective practice allows teachers to “think about what, how and why they do it” and therefore “step out of routine action and make adaptations to match the needs of the learners” (p.3) Larrivee and Cooper (2006) also insisted that there are many reasons why teachers should be reflective One of the obvious reasons is that they have to cope with a wide range of situations and make several decisions regarding their students Being reflective and critical will help them effectively deal with complexities of classrooms Another reason is that there are growing demands on teachers, which may cause them to feel isolated Systematic reflection could help teachers take

I had no idea I did so much talking and didn’t let students practice

My pacing was terrible I didn't give students enough time to practice one task before going on to another

I did a bad job on the group work exercises The students didn't understand what they were supposed to do

I seemed to ignore half the students in the class

Concerning the use of reflective practice, the research by Odeh, Kurt, and Atamtürk showed that “there is a gap between theory and practice” and that the majority of participating teachers practice reflection-in-action and ignore reflection-on-action –

a deeper level of reflection

The case of EFL teachers at the Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education (FOE – HNUE) is no exception As a novice teacher, the researcher finds that reflective practice is of great value to professional development; however, from her own experience and observation as well as discussions with her colleagues, this activity is not popular despite the teachers’ awareness of its benefits Reflection is especially of great significance because teachers in this context are training teachers-to-be, and it is stated by Scales that “Reflective teachers are more likely to develop reflective learners If we practice reflection we can more effectively

1 Aims of the study

This study is an attempt to promote teacher’s reflection-on-action in FOE-HNUE via the use of journal writing It will investigate the effectiveness of this activity and the teachers’ difficulties when using journals as a means of reflection-on-action

To fulfill this purpose, the study aims to answer the following question:

How effective is journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action effective

in promoting teaching quality as perceived by teachers?

2 Scope of the study

This study focuses on enhancing teachers’ reflection-on-action of teachers at FOE – HNUE using journal writing Within its scope, the research aims at justifying the effectiveness of using this means of reflection as perceived by the participants and investigating their difficulties in their reflective practice

3 Methods of the study

This study is conducted as an action research because it aims at promoting teachers’ reflection-on-action within a certain context, namely the Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education In order to fulfill that aim, journal writing is utilized by the participants Interviews and teachers’ reflection journals are employed in order to get data which are analyzed by qualitative method

4

4 Significance of the study

This research provides an opportunity for the participants in the target context to systematically reflect on their teaching, from which they can have their own assessment of the effectiveness of journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action This will accordingly lead to their decision on whether to continue using journals in their professional development process or not In addition, the findings on teachers’ obstacles when using this means of reflection will hopefully help to improve the effectiveness of this activity, which eventually aims at enhancing teachers’ self-development and teaching quality

5 Overview of the study

This paper is divided into the following main parts:

Part I: Introduction - presents the rationale, aims of study, research questions,

scope, method, significance, and organization of the study

Part II: Development - this part is divided into 4 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background – provides the theoretical framework of

reflective practice and journal writing

Chapter 2: Methodology – describes the study population, the research design as

well as data gathering instruments

Chapter 3: Results and discussion - analyses and discusses data

Chapter 4: Findings and implications - presents findings and implications

Limitations and suggestions for further research are also provided

Part III: Conclusion – gives summary of the research and limitations as well as

suggestions for further study

In Dewey’s view, teachers who act routinely react to circumstances without thinking about the reasons or different alternatives These teachers often take things for granted and do not try to justify their teaching methods, resulting in limited numbers of solutions As a result, non-reflective teachers often fail to recognize problems, have little motivation for improvement, and are therefore unlikely to fulfill their professional potential In contrast, reflective teachers do not follow habitual ways of teaching They spend time considering what happens in classroom and the consequences of their actions with the aim of improving their performance Reflective teachers engage themselves in thoughtful consideration of dilemmas in their own teaching practice and think about these dilemmas in relation to several factors and contexts

This distinction between mere thinking and reflection is also emphasized by Scales with a list of features of reflection in professional settings as follows:

of which we are aware It enables us to act in deliberate and intentional fashion to know what we are about when we act” (p.2)

Larrivee and Cooper (2006, p.4) cited different definitions for this concept by several authors, some of which are as follows Reflective practice is:

 A process that helps teachers think about what happened, why it happened, and what else could have been done to reach their goals (Cruickshank & Applegate, 1981, p 553)

 The use of higher-level thinking, such as critical inquiry and metacognition, which allow one to move beyond a focus on isolated facts or data to perceive a broader context for understanding behavior and events (Hatton & Smith, 1995, p.40)

 A critical, questioning orientation and a deep commitment to the discovery and analysis of information concerning the quality of a professional’s designed action (Bright, 1996, p.165)

 An ongoing process of examining and refining practice, variously focused on the personal, pedagogical, curricular, intellectual, societal, and/or

While looking through all definitions above, there seems to be a consensus on the concept of reflective practice Reflection comes from teachers’ willingness to question their own practice with the aim of enhancing their teaching and students’ learning It is

a purposeful and systematic process that enables teachers to explore, contemplate and analyze their experiences in classrooms which results in deep understanding and finally guides the teachers in making decisions and taking actions to improve their professional practice

In order for reflection process to be productive, teachers ought to follow a certain number of steps These steps are going to be presented in the next part

1.2 Reflection procedure

Different authors suggest different sets of steps that teachers should take when they

reflect on their teaching Larrivee and Cooper (2006) proposed three steps, including 1)

Solitary reflection - thoughtful consideration of your actions and critical inquiry into

the impact of your own behavior keeps you alert to the consequences of your actions

on students, 2) Ongoing inquiry - unending questioning of the status quo and conventional wisdom by seeking your own truth, and 3) Perpetual problem-solving- solve the problem

These steps correspond three questions given by by Driscoll and Teh (2001), namely

what? so what? and now what? Similarly, LaBoskey (1993, p.30) suggested three

following steps:

3 generalization: integrate all of the information into a tempered conclusion about or solution for the problem identified

Andrew Green (2011) cited Dewey’s ideas, stating that reflective process incorporates five stages, including problem, suggestions, reasoning, hypothesis and testing

As can be seen, there are some variations among scholars’ suggestions; however, they

have some consensus Rogers (2001) (as cited in Rossouw, 2009) identified four

commonalities among the theoretical approaches he explored The first step is to identify problem and make a decision to find a solution Second, additional information related to the problem is collected This may involve “hypothesis and reasoning, acquiring, organising, and examining information, making assumptions and drawing conclusions” (p.28) Next, a plan and a decision are formed as a result of data collection step; a new understanding or theory may be created Finally, actions are taken based on the reflective process so that teachers could test the new findings in practice andgenerate new understanding of the phenomenon

1.3 Types of reflection

Regarding types of reflection, Farrell (2008) stated that there are two main forms, namely weak form and strong form The former is when teachers “informally evaluate various aspects of their professional expertise” (Wallace, 1991, p.292 as cited in Farrell, 2008) According to this author, this form of informal reflection may not improve teaching and instead can give unpleasant feelings and frustration to teachers

In contrast, the strong form means systematic and critical reflection

9

Similarly, Schön (1983) made the distinction between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action (cited in Maat & Zakaria, 2010). According to him, reflection-in-action occurs during the activity; teachers observe their thinking and actions and the activity may be reshaped and adapted in progress It is said that this type of reflection is temporary and easily forgotten Reflection-on-action, on the other hand, takes place after an activity – a retrospective thinking about an experience This form of reflection

is considered to be more systematic and thorough Van Manen (1991), as cited in Larrivee (2006), noted that reflection-on-action is more systematic, thorough, and effective than reflection-in-action since teachers have more time for reflection, and they are not distracted by multiple tasks in the teaching process Therefore, reflection-on-action rather than reflection-in-action is the focus of this study

2 Journals as a means of reflection

2.1 Definition

Journals are accounts of teaching experiences; it “records thoughts, feelings, issues and concerns can provide both a window of the past and a gateway to the future” (Larrivee and Cooper, 2006, p21)

Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985, p.19), as cited in Boud (2001, p.2), define journal as

“intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations”

Similarly, it is stated that journals are written record of both “experiences of , and feelings about planning, preparing and delivering teaching and learning” (Scales, p.16)

According to this author, journals contain not only “general accounts of learning sessions” but also “critical incidents” which are more important since they provide the

“basis for learning and continuing professional development” (p.16)

Richards and Lockhart (1996), citing Bailey 1990, Porter et al 1990, and Walker 1985, suggested a procedure which consists of two steps for keeping a journal The first step

10

is to spend five or ten minutes after a lesson making entries on a regular basis, such as once or twice a week or every day The second step is to review journals regularly in order to realize what might have not been noticed in the writing step

2.2 Functions and advantages of journals

Journal writing is a popular means of reflective practice and journal writing over time helps teachers “develop the habit of reflection” (Yost, 1997, Yost, Forlanza-Bailey, & Shaw, 1999, cited in Larrivee and Cooper, 2006, p.22)

According to Larrivee and Cooper (2006), journal writing is a systematic reflection process since it enables teachers to become “more aware of what is going on

self-in both their self-inner and outer worlds” and promotes their self-disciplself-ine (p 21) These two authors clarified their points by listing the following functions that journal writing can serve (p.21):

 Looking more objectively at classroom behaviors

 Naming issues and posing questions

 Recording critical incidents

 Identifying cause and effect relationships

 Discovering habits of thought

 Working through internal conflict

 Seeing patterns of unsuccessful strategies overtime

 Tracing life themes Sharing the same viewpoint, Richards and Lockhart (1996) claimed that journal writing

“helps trigger insights about teaching” and functions as a “discovery process” in which

“events and ideas are recorded for the purpose of later reflection” (p.7)

In comparison with other modes of reflection, journal writing have certain advantages, one of the most important of which is that it “provides access to the hidden affective variables that greatly influence the way teachers teach and students learn” (Brock, Yu

4 They are an excellent tool for reflection

5 They are simple to conduct

6 They provide a first-hand account of teaching and learning experiences

7 They are the most natural form of classroom research in that no formal correlations are tested and no outside observer enters the classroom dynamic

8 They provide an on-going record of classroom events and teacher and learner reflections

9 They enable the researcher to relate classroom events and examine trends emerging from the diaries

10 They promote the development of reflective teaching

(Brock, Yu and Wong, 1992, p 295, cited in Wallace, 1998, p.63)

For the above-mentioned reasons, journal writing is adopted for this study as a means

of reflective practice

2.3 Focus of journal writing as a means of reflection

In terms of the content of journal entries, there are a variety of topics from classroom experiences

Bartlett (1990, pp 209 – 210) (cited in Richards and Lockhart, 1996, p.7) gave further ideas about this issue, listing teachers’ routine and conscious actions in the classroom;

12

conversations with students; critical incidents in a lesson; teachers’ personal lives as teachers; their beliefs about teaching; events outside the classroom that they think influence our teaching; and their views about language teaching and learning as examples

It is noticeable that a very favorable option for focus of reflection is critical incidents Wallace (1998) considered critical incidents as “a way of reducing the burden of diary/journal-keeping and also achieving focus” (p.64) Critical incidents are key occurrences which are of significance or importance for the teacher These either positive or negative incidents are situations for learning and will lead to generalisable ideas and solutions which are transferable to other groups and learning situations The most important thing to remember is that the teachers do not solely list the incidents; they have to discover why the incidents were significant to them, how they reacted and why, what are the options of reactions for them, and what the outcomes of those reactions would have been

On the other hand, it is possible for teachers to reflect generally on their teaching process without a particular focus This option of reflection offers “a source of ideas or issues for further investigation” (Wallace, 1998, p.59) From this reflection, recurrent patterns will emerge, leading to awareness of common features or problems that need dealing with

2.4 Analysis of journals

Journal writing only takes effect when the entries are analyzed This point is made by Kathleen Bailey (1992, p 224 cited in Wallace, 1998, p.63) that “simply writing diary entries does not yield the maximum potential benefit of the process In order to really learn from the record, the diarist should reread the journal entries and try to find the patterns therein.”

 The data may already be selective and focused on a particular issue (e.g questioning techniques, student interaction) Have you got enough data to think your way to a solution?

2.5 Prompts for journal entries

In order to make the full use of journal writing, Ross (1990) suggested that questioning prompts should be given to “stimulate greater awareness of personal values and implicit theories of teaching” (cited in Larrivee and Cooper, 2006, p.22) Smyth (1991, cited in Larrivee and Cooper, 2006), therefore, proposed a series of four questions, respectively moving from description to meaning to confrontation to reconstruction, to

be a powerful tool for prompting higher-order reflection The questions are:

(1) What do I do? Description

(2) What does it mean? Meaning

(3) How did I come to be like this? Confrontation

(4) How might I do things differently? Reconstruction

Similarly, Driscoll and Teh (2001) provided a three-question framework of reflection along with “trigger questions” for each stage:

a What? Description of the event

What happened?

What did I see/do?

b So what? Analysis of the event

How did I feel at the time?

What were the effects of what I did (or did not do)?

14

c Now what? Proposed actions following the event

What are the implications of what I have described and analyzed?

How can I modify my practice?

The model of reflection provided by Gibbs (1988) is considered to be the most complete since it asks clear and specific conclusions and action plans This model consists of the following questions:

What sense can you make of the situation? Bring in ideas from outside the experience

to help you What was really going on? Were different people’s experience similar or different in important ways?

2.6 Guidelines for writing journals

Second, it is advisable to be regular in journal writing habits, especially in early days of journal writing

Third, it is advised that when starting to write, teachers should not spend too much time thinking about it; instead, they had better let the writing flow and try to capture the experience and critical incidents

Another advice is that the writing style for journals should be free, spontaneous and informal since it is a personal activity Furthermore, the use of illustration such as diagrams, drawings or other visual aids is encouraged

Finally, teachers should review their journals regularly to see if there are any recurring themes that they can choose for improvement and development In addition, it is beneficial to summarize their journals at the end of a period This will not only show their progress but also provide a basis for their professional development In addition,

it is useful to highlight main ideas for summary and action plans

as a means of improvement and development When the researcher presented her research proposal at a research idea sharing session in her division and called for voluntary participation, four teachers volunteered to take part in the study and agreed

to send their reflection journals to the researcher

All of the participants are working at the division of language skill development; however, each teacher is assigned to take charge of teaching different skills and course books These teachers are very young; their teaching experience ranges from 1 year to

6 years Two participants have master degree while the other two are taking a master course

2 Data collection instruments

In this study, interviews and journals are employed as the instruments of data collecting

2.1 Questionnaire

Most of the items in the questionnaire (Appendix 1) are open-ended questions The questionnaire is divided into three main parts: the first part probes the participants’ general understanding of reflective practice; the second part investigates their current use of reflective practice; and the last part asks about their use of journals as a means of reflection

17

The questions in the first and the last parts were designed based on the literature review

on reflective practice and journals as a means of reflection respectively The second part adopted questions on current reflective practice given by Wallace (1998, p.55) Basing on the result of this questionnaire, the researcher had discussions with the participants about relevant issues of the study to make sure that they understand the aims of reflective practice, the procedure of reflection as well as the use of journals to reflect on their teaching In particular, the participants were also asked to choose the focus of their reflection

2.2 Interview

After ten weeks of reflection, a semi-structured interview (Appendix 2) was conducted

in order to investigate two issues, namely the teachers’ perception of the effectiveness

of reflective practice and their difficulties in doing this activity The interview is structure in nature with some guided and follow-up questions It not only gives the interviewee “a degree of power and control over the course of the interview” but also allows for great flexibility as well as rich information (Nguyen, 2008, p.51)

The guided journal (Appendix 3) includes two main parts; the first part is for information about lesson details while the second part consists of five following items, each of which is clarified with guided questions:

1 Description

18

In this part, teachers describe a significant event or a situation in their teaching

2 Feelings

Teachers describe their reactions to the situation and how they felt about the situation

as well as the way they reacted

3 Analysis & evaluation

Teachers analyze the effect of what they did or did not do and evaluate the experience In addition, they have to try to find out reasons for what happened

4 Conclusions

From the analysis and evaluation, teachers find solutions for the problem or draw conclusion about the implications of the event In addition, personal teaching style

or features can be recognized

5 Thoughts added during review

In this last item, teachers note down their thoughts or a new insight about the event after reviewing their journals

This use of guided journal sheet is in line with Larrivee and Cooper’s (2006, p.21) statement that “reflection can be facilitated via guided prompts, structuring periodic rereading of previous entries to search for any emerging patterns, and posing questions

in a nonjudgmental way as a means of creating ongoing dialogue”

3 Research procedure

3.1 Problem identification

The researcher herself is a novice teacher During her early teaching time, there were some sessions in which other teachers came to observe her class She found it beneficial since her colleagues gave her valuable feedback on her teaching so that she could improve her practice However, she recognized that it was impossible to have regular observation activities

19

As a result, a question was raised: In what way can I myself gain understanding of my

own teaching for professional improvement?

3.2 Preliminary investigation

In the next step, the researcher reviewed literature and had discussions with her colleagues in order to answer the question above It turned out that colleague visits to her class sessions were a form of reflective practice It was also found out that teachers could self-reflect on their own teaching in different ways This is also asserted by Richards and Lockhart (1996, p.3) that “while comments of a supervisor or other outside visitor can be a useful source of information about one's teaching, teachers themselves are in the best position to examine their own teaching.”

The researcher realized that normally she herself practices reflection, but it is arbitrary during or after her teaching; this may take place when she is on her way home or

discusses with her colleague Accordingly, another question was raised: How can this

reflection be more systematic and effective?

Thus, the next investigation was on self-reflective practice which was presented in the literature review Finally, she decided to choose journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action for her own teaching practice, which she found very beneficial The researcher had a chance to present her investigation in a research idea sharing session at her faculty Some of her colleagues were interested in participating in the study Therefore, this study was proposed to investigate the effectiveness of journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action as well as teachers’ obstacles when using it Before journals were used by the teacher as a means of reflection, a questionnaire was distributed in order to gain an overview of the participants’ knowledge as well as current use of reflective practice

3.3 Hypothesis

20

It is hypothesized that journal writing is a useful means of promoting reflective practice

in the Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education

With this hypothesis, the study was implemented so as to investigate its effectiveness and teachers’ difficulties in this activity In particular, it aims at answering the following question:

How effective is journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action in promoting teaching quality as perceived by teachers?

3.4 Intervention

After the preliminary investigation, the researcher had discussions with the participants about the aims and procedure of the study In addition, relevant issues related to reflective practice and journal writing were made clear to the teachers in order to make sure that they have a sound understanding required for productive participation Especially, guideline for writing journals (as presented in the theoretical background) was presented to the participants After that, the guided journal format was introduced and each part in the format was explained and illustrated so that the participants could know how to write a reflection journal

The research took place during the first semester in the academic year 2011 – 2012 (from January to June) However, the study started late, thus it lasted for only 10 week (from April to June) The teachers used the guided journal format to reflect on their teaching every week They did not write journals immediately after each lesson; instead, they did it at home on the day they had classes These journals were then sent

to the researcher as a source of data for analysis When the teachers forgot to send the journals or to write reflection journals, the researcher reminded them After the study finished, the participants were asked to revise their journals and discovered new insights for their issues or identify their own recurrent teaching problems or strengths

21

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 Data analysis approach

In this study, an inductive approach to data analysis was adopted After the data had been collected, they were analyzed and categorized into patterns The researcher then read the data again to choose segments for illustrating the patterns

2 Results of questionnaire

2.1 Teachers’ understanding of reflective practice

Before conducting the intervention, it is necessary to find out the participants’ knowledge of reflective activity and the use of journals as a means of reflection-on-action

It was revealed from the teachers’ responses to the questionnaire that they had heard of the term “reflective practice” or “reflection” before but they did not fully understand what it was For them, reflective practice is

+ Teacher’s self observation and evaluation of what she/he has done in class and how it works

+ It is a way of looking back what we have taught for students Then, we could see our strengths and drawbacks in teaching

One participant stated that “I’m not sure about reflective practice in teaching

“Reflective” may imply a consideration again what you did teach in the class, I

suppose.”

These conceptions are in line with the Scales’ remark that “a commonsense view of reflection is that it involves just thinking about things” (p.8) It can be seen that these teachers had a vague and incomplete understanding of reflective practice

This lack of knowledge is also shown in their answers about different alternatives for reflection and the reflection procedure Two participants stated that they had no ideas

+ The first step, carry out the lesson, second step, take notes on the problems while teaching and after teaching; third step, give out the solutions for the problems; lastly, teach the same topic again by applying the solutions in practice

Their responses revealed their different levels of understanding of relevant issues of reflective practice

In spite of this incomprehensive knowledge, the participants seemed to have positive attitude toward this activity All of them asserted that reflection was very important , explaining that it helped them to “experience about the strength as well as the drawbacks of our lesson, to improve the quality of the lesson”, “find out the reasons for

a successful/ unsuccessful lesson and ways to fix that”, and “develop our strengths and limit our drawbacks.”

2.2 Teachers’ use of reflective practice

Despite their awareness of the usefulness of reflective practice to their professional growth, none of them actually implement it in a formal way However, when responding to the question about their use of reflection, they themselves insisted that

they did reflect on their teaching

These teachers said that they reflected on their teaching when they went home or immediately after the lessons for about ten to fifteen minutes In terms of forms of reflection, none of them stated that their reflection was systematic This is illustrated in the following response:

23

Actually after every lesson, I always recalled about the content, the procedure, the activities, students’ enrollment and interest, etc The problem is those re-considerations are just in mind or thought only, rather than careful writing Such situation is quite consistent with Scales’ observation that “most of us spend time thinking about what we do and the effects we have on others, but we don’t always take

a step further and reflect on our actions and make plans to do things differently.” (p.8) This may also explain why these teachers said that their reflection was “unproductive”,

“somewhat productive”, or “not really productive” Indeed, what these teachers

considered as reflection is termed by Wallace (1998) as “informal reflection” According to this author, “informal reflection can be more therapeutic than productive Contemplating problems does not necessarily lead to solving them” (1998, p.13) Instead, it can “lead to an intensification of unpleasant emotions without suggesting any way forward” (Wallace, 1998, p.14)

One teacher stated that besides thinking about her teaching in class, sometimes she asked her students for their feedback or had colleagues visit her class sessions However, these activities only happened once or twice

2.3 Teachers’ use of journals

The last part of the interview probes the participants’ use of journals Only one of the participants had used journals before when she participated in another study in which she had to write journals about her field trip For the others, they had never written journals before This, along with their lack of comprehensive understanding of reflective practice, could explain why asked about what they would include in their journals, these teachers gave merely a few items to write about

In short, from the interview, it can be seen that the participants have general ideas of reflective practice and are aware of its importance as well as its benefits for professional growth However, their understanding is incomprehensive and they have

24

never reflected on their teaching in a structured and regular way In addition, journal writing is not a familiar activity to them The preliminary investigation about these aspects provided a basis for the researcher to implement her intervention more effectively

3 Results of analyzing reflective journals

This part will present analysis of the participants’ journals to discover the effectiveness

of the activity as well as the teachers’ difficulties Due to the ethics of the research, all the participants’ names used in this study are pseudonyms

3.1 Participant 1: HUONG

This teacher has two years of experience in teaching English She decided to reflect on critical incidents that are related to interactions with students This is because she thought that “besides teaching, I have to deal with many other things, like giving marks, managing my class, but I haven’t had much experience and I may make many mistakes.”

From the researcher’s observation, this teacher maintained her reflection on a regular basis Every time she encountered a significant event, she wrote a journal about it at home

After looking at her journals, it can be seen that the reflection did change her beliefs and her practice For example, in one journal, she wrote that “I should be more careful and don’t take things for granted Shouldn’t believe in students too much; anything could happen” when she found out a student cheating with his grade In addition, because there are some incidents recurring many times, she had the chance to make changes and finally came to a list of things to deal with such incidents This could be seen in the following lines in her journal review:

After three times discovering students’ cheating, I should pay attention to these things:

25

1 Don’t talk about it at beginning of class to avoid tense atmosphere

2 Set the rules at beginning of the course about cheating and punishment

3 If they commit it for the first time, it may be good not to punish them

4 Shouldn’t reveal the names of cheating students in front of class

The review of all journals made her come to the conclusion that she was “quite easy going with students” and “easily affected by emotions” Therefore, she concluded that

“there should be tight disciplines to ensure fairness and transparency for students These should be set at the beginning of the course.”

It is also noticeable that some of her reflection results were not applied in that semester but they will be certainly useful for her next semester

3.2 Participant 2: QUYNH

This teacher has been teaching English for three years She chose to reflect on her teaching the course book “Innovations” – pre-intermediate since that was the first time she taught it For this course book, the four skills listening, reading, writing, and speaking are taught in an integrated approach Each week, she taught two class periods using this book

Quynh did her journal writing regularly for the first three weeks, but then she forgot to

do it Only when the researcher emailed to remind her did she remember to continue it

As for the content of her reflection, it is realized from her journals that she focused more on negative issues than positive ones

It can be seen that after reviewing, some repeating issues are found out; for example, she wrote in the general review that “A common concern is that I need to consider the suitability of activities like their topics or difficulty level”

Regarding actions based on journal writing, only few conclusions were applied although all units in the book follow the same format, enabling teachers to easily make changes basing on reflection results

26

Another thing worth mentioning is that Quynh made no reference to theory when reflecting on her problems even when she could not find solutions to them For example, a problem remained unanswered is about how to check students’ performance when they work in groups However, she did not refer to any sources of possible answers to the problem; instead, she made a question mark

3.3 Participant 3: LINH

This teacher has one year experience of teaching During the time of the study, she was teaching reading and writing skills two periods every week That was the first time she was assigned to teach English majored students She decided to reflect on teaching these skills with the hope of discovering issues that she should focus on

At first, Linh was not very enthusiastic about writing journals and often forgot to send her journals to the researcher However, from the forth week, there was a positive change in her practice of journal writing This was the result of an incident in which she was given negative comments after a class visit by colleagues Those comments made her feel really frustrated and she was determined to pursue journal writing in order to learn from her own mistakes

The review of all her journals revealed some of her teaching issues, as she listed as follows:

+ Ineffective instructions

+ Unexciting class atmosphere

+ How to encourage students do peer feedback?

+ Usually forget to elicit answers from students

+ Overloaded with marking students’ writing paper

Among these, Linh found solutions to only a few issues For example, she wrote about how she dealt with the fact that she usually forgot to elicit answers from students:

“This time, I don’t ask directly I give an example in matching pictures with kinds of music, and then ask students why they know the answer By that way,

27

they know how to do the task and that’s more natural than otherwise when I ask

“How can you match pictures with kinds of music?” This way is much better.” However, for some issues, she could not find solutions or the solutions needed further investigation For instance, she did not know how to deal with the huge load of checking her students’ assignments As for the issues of “ineffective instructions” and

“How to encourage students do peer feedback?”, she wrote that “I will read theory about giving instruction” and “read about giving peer feedback” Thus, these problems were left unanswered although she encountered these in the whole semester

3.4 Participant 4: SANG

This teacher has been teaching English for six years She chose to reflect on the use of course book “Innovations” – advanced since this was the first time this book was used

in the faculty She taught two class periods every week In addition, she had the chance

to teach the same syllabus to two classes The four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking are taught in an integrated approach

It should be noted that a really big advantage that Sang had was that she taught two classes the same syllabus This enabled her to apply what she could learn from her reflections immediately This is an excerpt from her journal about one problem:

“I let the groups watch one extract from a film and take notes After that they had to retell the film as an anecdote They were interested in the activity but the anecdotes were not good as I had expected because they only listed the details.” This is her conclusion about the situation:

“Next time I will also let them watch and take notes Then, I will ask them to work in groups to discuss a picture of setting, characters and actions as well as criteria of an anecdote They will base on this discussion to write their anecdotes.”

The overall review of journals helped her to come to some conclusions about her teaching For example, she stated that “I realized I’m quite creative and flexible.” This was shown in some situations in which she had to improvise: when she prepared for the wrong lesson, or when she finished the lesson with some class time left In addition, she concluded in her review that she was quite careless in her preparation For instance,

in one lesson, she did not study carefully about the acronym NBA or about the topic of politics In another time, she did not remember the meanings of all the idioms in the lesson

Overall, from analyses of the participants’ journals, some effects of journal writing as well as teachers’ obstacles could be found

It can be concluded that the reflection process helped the teachers find out some features of their teaching, both positive and negative aspects In addition, it enables them to discover solutions to the problems that they encountered in their teaching Some of these solutions were used to take actions while some were not

Regarding the participants’ difficulties, they include irregular reflection, no solutions to problems, little reference to theory, no actions upon problems, and little review on the journals as well as actions First, most of the participants did not carry out reflective practice on a regular basis Second, some of the problems were left unanswered or the solutions were found without referring to any theory Another concern is that there are cases when they had the answers, they did not take actions to change their teaching