Luận văn using journals as a means of teacher’s reflection on action to enhance teaching quality at faculty of english hanoi national university of education

In addition, reflective practice helps teachers avoid routines and promotes responsibility for their actions As can be secon, the importance of reflection to professional development of

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNTVERSITY, HANOT UNTVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ MINH THANH

USING JOURNALS AS A MEANS OF TEACHER’S REFLECTION-

ON-ACTION TO ENHANCE TEACHING QUALITY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH — HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

(Sứ dụng hình thức ghi nha ki dé ty dénh gid sau bai day ctla gido vién

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

trường Dại học Sư phạm Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodolagy Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ITANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN TH] MINE THANH

USING JOURNALS AS A MEANS OF TEACHER’S REFLECTION-

ON-ACTION TO ENHANCE TEACHING QUALITY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH — HANOI! NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

(Sử dụng hình thức ghỉ nhật kí đễ tự đánh giá sau bài dạp của giáo viên

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

trường Đại học 8w phạm Hà Nội

MLA MLNOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Hoang Thị Xuân Hoa

Aims of the studÿ sesesntnee HH n0 0e rre

3 Scope of the study

Methods of the study HHu re HH n0 0e rre

Significance of the study sesesntnee HH n0 0e rre

Overview of the study

2.2 Functions and advantages of journals

2.3, Foous of journal wriling,

13

2.4 Analysis of journals HHu re

2.5 Prompts for journal entries

2.6 Guidelinos for writing journals

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 Data analysis approach

2, Results of questionnaire

2.1, Teachers’ understanding of reflective practice

2.2, Teachers’ use of reflective practice

2.3, Teachers’ use of journals ¬—

3 Results of analyzing reflective journals

4 Results of interview HH

4.1 Diffectiveness of journal writing

42 Difticultics in reflection process

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

PART T: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Reflective practice has become a major focus in ESL/BFT leacher education

programs worldwide since it is undoubtedly beneficial and cssential for professional growth and more effective teaching As cited in Maat and Zakaria

{2010}, refl ion has contibuled Lo self improvernent (Schon, 1983) This will lead

to the changes in teachers’ cognition and teaching practices (Cooney, Shealy &

Amold, 1997, cited in Maat & Zakaria, 2010) According ta Cohen and ITill (2000),

reflection car be used as a tool 1o mvestigate Leaclong practices in order lo achieve

meaningful educational reform

Some people may argue that experience is the key to professional growth as

toachers form routines and stratogics to deal with recurring silualions of leaching Ilowever, accarding to Parker (1984), research shows that “for many experienced

lsachers, many classroom roulines arc] stralegies 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 oxperience in a systematic way so thal il can play a productive role Sharing the same viewpoint, Odeh, Kurt, and Atamtirk 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 cbvious reasons is that they have to cope with a

wide range of situations and make several decisions regarding Iheir students Boing

reflective and critical will help them effectively deal with complexities of

classrooms Another reason is that thore are growing demands on teachers, which may cause them to feel isolated Systematic reflection could help teachers take

control of their teaching and feel self-confident In addition, reflective practice helps teachers avoid routines and promotes responsibility for their actions

As can be secon, the importance of reflection to professional development of teaching is undeniable Lowever, although teachers are aware of the benefits and importanee of reflective practice they do not apply it to their teaching practice The facl thal several procedures lake place simultaneously during a lesson makes il difficult for teachers to be aware of their own teaching mistakes in classrooms and why they happen This is illustrated by Richard and Lockart (1996) when he quoted the comments by a number of teachers after watching their own videotaped teaching:

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

My pacing was iervible 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

J seemed to ignore half the students in the class

Conceming the use of reflective practice, the research by Odeh, Kurt, and Atamtirk

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-actiou

a deeper level of reflection

The case of EFT leachers al the Facully of English, Hanoi National University ol”

Kducation (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 colleaguss, this activity is not popular despite the teachers” awareness of its benefits Reflection is cspecially of greal 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 leamers If we practice reflection we can more effectively

encourage learners to reflect on, analyze, evaluate, and improve their own

learning,” {p.14)

Due to the importance of reflective practice in professional sclf-development and

the above-mentioned current situation, it is desirable to introduce activities to

promote teachers’ reflection-on-action In this action research, journal writing is introduced as a means of reflection to hopefully enhance teachers’ reflective

practice and teaching quality

1 Aims of the study

This study is an attempt to promote teacher’s reflection-on-action in FOH-IINUE

via the use of journal writing 1 will investigate the effecliveness of this avlivily 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 cnhancing teachers’ reflection-on-action of teachers al FOR —

HNUE using joumal 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 if airns al promoting leachers” reflection-on-action within a certain context, namely the Faculty of English, Ianoi

National University of Fducation Tn 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 Significance of the sludy

This research provides an opporlumily for the participants im the target context to

systematically reflect on their teaching, from which they can have their own

assessinent of the effectiveness of journal writing as a means of reflection-on-action

This will accordingly lead to their decision on whether (o continue using journals in their professional development process or not In addition, the findings on teachers’

obslacles 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 T: Introduction - presents (he rationale, aims of study, rescarch questions,

scope, method, significance, and organization of the study

Part IT: Development - this part is divided into 4 chapters as [ollows:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background — provides the thcorctical 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 - prosonts findings and implications Limitations and suggestions for further research are also provided

Part II: Conclusion — gives summary of the research and limitations as well as

suggestions for further study.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CTIAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Reflective practice

11 Definition

In teaching, reflective thinking, reflective inquiry, reflective teaching, reflection and reflective practice are used more or Jess as synonyms In this study, these terms are understood interchangeably

Since originated by John Dewey (1933), the concept of reflective practice has been

defined in many ways by various researchers According to this educator, it is when

people face a complex situation and wonder what needs to be done that they begin to

reflect on that situation Le stated that the purpose of reflective practice is to direct the

teacher in taking actions and in taking decisions Tn order to clarily his ideas, Dewey

provided a distinction between routine actions and reflection actions, between

unsystematic thoughts and reflective thinking,

In Dewey’s view, teachers who act routinely react to circumstances without thinking about the reasons or different alternatives ‘hese teachers often take things for granted

and do nat try to justify their teaching methods, resulting in limited numbers of solulions As a resull, nor-refleetive Leachers olien fail lo recogmze problems, lave

little motivation for improvement, and are therefore unlikely to fulfill their professional

polential 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 (caching prachee 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

Deliberate Purposeful Structured About linking theory and practice

Dewey, as cited in Odeh, Kurt, and Atamtirk, finally came to the conclusion that

reflection “emancipates us from merely impulsive and routine activity enables us to

direct our activities with foresight and to plan according to ends-in-view, or purposes

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)

v 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)

v A critical, questioning orientation and a deep commitment to the

discovery and analysis of information conceming the quality of a

professional’s designed action (Bright, 1996, p.165)

Y An ongoing process of examining and refining practice, variously

focused on the personal, pedagogical, curricular, intellectual, societal, and/or

ethical contexts associated with professional work (Cole & Knowles,

2000,p.2}

¥ The thoughtfil consideration and questioning of what we do, what works and what doesn’t, and what premises and rationales underlie our teaching and

that of others (Hubball, Collins & Pratt, 2005, p.60)

While looking through all definitions above, there seems lo be 2 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 sLudents’ learning Tt 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 lo 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 scts of steps that teachers should take when they reflect on their teaching Larrivee and Coaper (2006) proposed three steps including, J) Solitary reflection - thoughtful consideration of your avtions and critieal 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 secking your own truth, and 3) Perpetual problem-solving- solve the problem

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

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

1 problem definition: describe and analyze the structural features of an

educational situation, issue, or problem

tớ means/ends analysis: gathor and cvaluate information as to the possible sources of the dilemma under consideration and to generate multiple alternative solutions and their potential implications

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 secu, there are some variations among scholars” s

uuggestions; 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, acqniring, 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 laken based on the reflective process so thal (cachers cold test the new findings in practice and generate new understanding of the phenomenon

1.3 Types of reflection

Regarding types of reflection, Harrell (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 leaching and tustead can give unpleasant feelings and frustralicn to Leachers

In contrast, the strong form means systematic and critical reflection

Sumilarly, Schén (1983) made the distinction between reflection-imaction and

tellection-on-action (ciled in Mast & Zakaria, 2010) According to him, reflection-in-

action occurs during [he aclivily, 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-acton rather than teffeetiorn-in-a tion is the focus of this study

2, Journals as a means of reflection

2.1 Definition

Joumals are accounts of teaching experiences; it “records thoughts, feelings, issues and concems can provide both a window of the past and a galeway ts 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 10 explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations”

Similarly, it is stated that joumals are written record of both “experiences of , and feelings about planning, preparing and delivering teaching and leaming” (Scales, p.16) According 1 this author, joumals contain not only “general accounls 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 joumal The first step

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 joumals regularly in order to realize what might have not becn 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 self- reflection process since it enables teachers to become “more aware of what is going on

in both their inner and ouler worlds” and promotes their self-discipline (p 21) These two authors clarified their points by listing the following functions that joumnal writing can serve (p.21)

Looking more objectively at classroom behaviors Naming issues and posing questions

Recording critical incidents Identifying vausc and effect relationships Discovering habits of thought

Working through mlcrnal conffiet

Seeing patterns of unsuccessful strategies overtime

Y 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 ta the hidden affective

variables that greatly influence the way teachers teach amd students lear” (Brock, Yu

10

and Wong, 1992, cited in Wallace, 1998, p.63) These authors also presented the

following advantages of joumals:

They are an excellent tool for reflection

They are simple to conduct

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

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

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

leamer reflections

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 Wang, 1992, p 295, cited in Wallace, 1998, p.63)

For the above-mentioned reasons, journal writing is adopter 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 joumnal entries, there are a variety of topics from classroom

experiences

Barileit (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,

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 điaryjeumal-keeping and also achieving focus” (p.64) Critical incidents are key occurrences which are of significance or importance for (he teacher These either positive or negative incidents are situations for leaming and will lead to genoralisablo ideas and solutions which are transferable to other groups and learning situations The most imporlant thing to remember is thal 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 pattems will emerge, leading to awareness of common features or problems that need dealing with

12

Regarding this analysis, Wallace (1998, p.59) proposed two ways of analyzing field-

notes which could also be applied for journal entries as follows:

¥ They can be scanned as a source of ideas or issues for further investigation

Are there any recurrent concerns’ Are there any common features or events?

Are there any ideas that could be followed through? Are there persistent

problems or (hermes [hal warranl more detailed observation and analysis?

Y The data may already be selective and focused on a particular issue (eg

questioning lechmiques, siuderd imleraction) Have you gol enough dala Lo

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 doIdo? Desoripion

(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 Uwee-question framework of reflection along with “trigger questions” for each stage

a What? Description of the event

What liappened?

What did 1 see/do?

b Sa what? Analysis of the everit

How did I feel at the time?

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

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

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?

What are you going to do differently in this type of situation next time? What steps are

you going to take on the basis of what you have learned?

It can be seen that the set of guidelines by Gibbs (1988) is the most detailed and

comprehensive ard it comprises those by other authors above Therefore, this model is going to be adopted in this research

2.6 Guidelines for writing journals

14

Regarding the use of journals as a means of reflective practice, there are some guidelines and options for effective exploitation

First, in terms of the time for journal writing, it is possible to write joumals immediately after a teaching event or at the end of the day or the former option, it is

more advisable because then the teaching details are fresh in mind while in the latter,

there may be more {ree time for reflection

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 tune

thinking about it, instead, they had better let the writing flow and try to capture the

oxperience 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

Tinally, 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 sununarize 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,

il is usclul to hightighL nam ideas for summary and action plans

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1 Participants

This action research involves four female lecturers from the Faculty of English, Ilanoi

National University of Education These participants are chosen on a voluntary basis

since the basis of all reflection is a willingness to undertake the process and to value it

as a means of improvement and development When the researcher presented her

research proposal al a rescarch idea sharing session in her division and valled 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 (he division of language skill development, however, each teacher is assigned to take charge of teaching different skills and course bouks Those Leachers are very young; their (caching experiences ranges from 1 year Lo

& years ‘Iwo participants have master degree while the other two are taking a master

course

2 Dala collection instruments

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

21, 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,

16

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

on reflective practice and joumals 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 rellective practice, the procedure of rellection as well as the use of journals lo reflect on their teaching In particular, the participants were also asked to choose the

focus of their reflection

2.2 Interview

Afier ten weeks of reflection, a scimi-siruetured 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 semi- 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)

2.3 Journals

Auother dala collection mstrument and also means of miervention is journals Tn this

study, a guided journal format (Appendix 3) is designed for the participants to reflect

on their teaching Since this was the first time the participants used journals for reflective practice, a muuber of options for jownal format wore given to them to choose so that it is convenient for them After discussion, the format proposed by Gibbs (1988) was adopted and adapted

The guided jounal (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 whicl is clarified with gnided questions

1 Description

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 cvaluation, teachers find solutions for the problem or draw conchision about the implications of the event In addition, personal teaching style

or (ealures can be recognized

3 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 jonmal sheet is in line with Larrivee and Cooper's (2006, p.21) statoment that “reflection can be facilitated via guided prompts, structuring, periodic rereading, of previous entries to search for any emerging, patterns, and posing questions ina nonjudgmental way as a mieans of crealing ongoing dialogue”

3 Rescarch 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

Tegular observalion activities:

18

‘As a result, a question was raised: Jn what way can J 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 Uhe question above TL tured out thal colleague visits Lo

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 asserled 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 bes! position to examine their owu 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’ Imowledge as well as

current use of reflective practice,

3.3 Hypothesis

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 offectivencss and teachers’ difficulties in this activity In particular, it aims at answering the following question:

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

promoting teaching quality as perceived by teachers?

3.4 Intervention

Afier 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 Lspecially, guideline for writing jaumals (as presented in the theoretical background)

was presented to the participants After that, the guided journal format was introchiced

and cach part in the format was explained and illustrated so that the participants could imow how to write a reflection journal

Tho rescarch look 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 Thoy did not write journals immediately after cach 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 Leaching problems or strengths

20

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 Data analysis appreach

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 iNustrating the patterns

2, Results of questiounaire

21 Teachers* understanding of reflective practice

Refore 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 cl 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 Leaching

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

“Reflective” may imply a consideration again wheat you did Leach in the class, T

suppose.”

These conceptions are in line with the Scales’ remark that “a commonsense view of

rellection is that it involves just thinking aboul (hings” (p.8) Il can be seen thal 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 procedurs Two participants stated thai they had no ideas

2L

about the options for carrying out reflective practice while the other two listed some tools such as diary, students’ feedback, peer observation, or recording lessons

In terms of the steps in reflective practice, onc teacher said that she did not know

exactly what she had to do in reflection Other teachers gave the following procedures:

| Record what happened in the lesson, evaluate (them), improve (the situation), and

then the process staris over again

+ The first step, carry out the Jesson, second step, take notes on the problems while

leaclong and afier 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

rolleetive 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 usc 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 munates In terms of forms of reflection, none of them stated that their reflection was systematic This is illustrated in

the following response

22

Actually after every lesson, | always recalled about the content, the procedure,

the activities, students’ enrollment and interest, etc The problem is those re-

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

“somewhat, productive”, ar “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 mare therapeutic than productive

Conlomplaling problems does not necessarily lead to solving them” (1998, p13)

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 ar twice

2.3 Teachers’ use of journals

Tho Jast part of the interview probes lhe 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 tip For the others, Ihey had never wrilten

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, 1t 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

23

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 rescarcher 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 aclivily 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: TUONG:

‘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, T have lo deal with many other things, like giving marks, managing my class, but I haven't had much experience and I may make many

inistakes.”

From the rescarcher’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

heme

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 belicve 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 ‘his could be seen in the following lines in her journal review:

Afler three mes discovering sludents’ cheating, T should pay allention to these

things

24

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 joumals made her come to the conclusion that she was “quite easy going wilh students” and “easily affected by emotions” Therefore, she concluded Uva

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

It is also noticeable that some of her reflection results were not applicd 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 “Lmovations” _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 Rach week, she taught two class periods

using this book

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

do it Only when the researcher railed to remind her did she remember Lo continue il

As for the content of her reflection, it is realized from her journals that she focused

more on negalive issues (han posilive ores,

It can be seen that after reviewing, some repeating issues are found out, for example,

she wrote in the general review that “A common concem is that 1 need to consider the

suitability of activities like their topics or difficulty level”

Regarding actions based on journal writing, ouly few conclusions were applied

although all units in the book follow the same format, enabling teachers to easily make

changes basing on reflection results

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 cxample, a problom 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 leaching 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 joumal writing ‘his 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 pursne journal writing in

order to learn trom her own mistakes

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

follows

+ Ineffective instructions

| Unexciting class alrnosphere

+ Ilow to encourage students do peer feedback?

+ Usually forget to clicit 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 forpot to elicit answers from students

“This time, T don’t ask directly T give an cxample in matching pictures with

kinds of music, and then ask students why they know the answer By that way,

26

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

‘low 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 Vor instance, she did not Imow 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 wrole thal “T will read theory about giving instruction” and “read about giving peer feedback” Thus, these problems were lel unanswered although she encountered these in the whole semester

3.4 Participant 4: SANG

This loacher has been teaching Fnglish for six years She chose lo 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

Tt should be noted that a really big advantage that Sang had was that she taught twa

classes tho same syllabus This cnabled her to apply what she could leam from her reflections immediately This is an excerpt from her journal about one problem:

“T let the groups watch one extract from a film and take roles After that they had to retell the film as an anecdote They were interested in the activity but the

anecdoles were vol good as T had expected because they only listed the details.”

This is her conclusion about the situation:

“Next time 1 will also let them watch and take notes ‘then, | 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.”

‘After applying these changes, she concluded that “this is so effective ‘The anecdotes of

class C were much better!”

Over the period of the study, Sang did not carry out her journal writing very regularly, sometimes the researcher had to remind her In addition, she did not always review the effects of her application of changes

‘The overall review of jownals 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 nut study carefully about the acronym NBA or aboul he 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’ jownals, some effects of journal writing as

well as teachers’ chstacles could be found

Tt 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 ta 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, litle reference lo theory, no aclions upon problems, and little review an the

journals as well as actions L'irst, most of the participants did not carry out reflective

practice on a regular basis Second some of the problems were left unanswered or the

solulions were found without referring ta any theory Another concern is ual there are cases when they had the answers, they did not take actions to change their teaching

28