19

Exploratory Teaching

The aim of this unit

• To reflect with you on the concept of exploratory teaching

• To take a closer look at how to organize exploratory teaching

• To start a teacher development project

What do you have to do in this unit?

1. Warming up discussions

2. Input reading

3. Exploratory tasks

4. Self-assessment questions

5. Teacher’s research-project simulation

Input reading 1

Warming up discussion 1.1

Rank the problems facing you as the teacher of English in the order of their importance for you. Share the results in the group and produce a “profile” of problems in the whole group (the most important problem for the whole group, the less important problem for the whole group etc) (Adapted from Barbara, L. and M. Scott 1994. Reflections on Language Learning. Philadelphia)

Problems

Rank

Lack of student motivation Lack of teaching materials Mixed-ability classrooms Poor equipment Lack of professional experience Lack of effective techniques Lack of fluency in English Lack of support from administration Lack of co-operation with colleagues Lack of access to resources Little attention to group dynamics Limited role of homework Little consideration of learner preferences Subjective learner assessment

Integrating research and “pedagogy”

Exploratory task 1.1

Mark the following statements as +1 no doubt, 0 perhaps, -1 needs research

Statements	Marking
Teacher flexibility is the key to success	+1 0 -1 +1 0 -1 +1 0 -1 +1 0 -1 +1 0 -1 +1 0 -1 +1 0 -1
Learning is impossible without rote
The best way to teach is submersion
Accuracy and fluency can’t go together
There are eternal truths in good teaching
Teacher should control the lesson
Non-communicative teaching is useless

Puzzles in teaching create the necessity for critical thinking and search for innovative solutions. This is not at all simple for a teacher to decide upon the change. Change in one’s teaching ways means risking the achieved stability, loosing the much needed and hard earned security and facing a possible failure.

Exploratory task 1.2

Read the following Japanese miniature and think of at least three implications it has for an individual teacher thinking about change

Poem	Implications
No one forces me To undertake this journey I think on the whole I will call it too trying And turn around And go back

The teachers have always been is search of a more effective instruction. In order to achieve the goal, it is necessary to go through the process of change as a professional. Vital factors of change are the purpose of change, the context of change and the culture of change. The “purpose” is the driving force of the change that the teacher is to undertake. Why should a teacher change something in the teaching ways? For this one needs sound reasons. The “purpose” is also an anticipated picture in the teacher’s mind of what will happen as a result of the change process. The “context” is a set of circumstances, in which the teacher works. These circumstances can either limit or liberate the teacher in what they venture to achieve. The “culture” in teaching is a set of professional beliefs, prejudices, habits, attitudes, strategies and values that are endemic to a particular teaching community. The process of change is not an event. It is an initiative that is better “to think big (to have longer goals in mind) but to start small (taking one small step at a time)” (Hargreaves, A. 1994. Changing Teachers, Changing times. Teachers’ College Press. N.Y.). Introducing innovations in one’s job is fraught with a conflict. It can be either internal conflict between one’s old views and new ideas or an interpersonal conflict between the participants involved in the process. The reason for a conflict can be “ clash of interests”, “potential rewards”, “clash of new and old”, “breaking organizational traditions”, “swapping status”. Possible ways of handling the conflict are “avoidance of the problem”, “compromise”, “confrontation” (Torrington, D. and L. Hall. 1995. Personnel Management. L.: Prentice Hall International. P. 642). The process of change is a continuous process because a change is not an end to the problem. Rather, the introduction of innovations “redesigns the job” and this can and does cause many new problems.