Zhazira Karabalayeva

2Nd year master course student

7. Self-development

Who do you want to be as a teacher? Do you want to be the most respected teacher? Do you want to be the most knowledgeable one? Do you want to be the memorable one? Or one who will make the most profound impact on your students’ lives? Well, I want to be everything. But most of all I want to be a teacher who could make have certain positive effect on my students’ lives. This is the reason why I am so interested in self-development. I believe that the only way to become a great teacher is to constantly search for new ways of improvement.

The biggest question is where to start this pursuit for perfection. I believe there is no perfect answer to this question. However, there are certainly some common ways of approaching this challenging task: attending professional trainings, reading books related to teaching profession, taking online courses (such as MOOCs), peer coaching. In this section I would like to talk about my experience of using these tools for the purpose of professional growth and self-improvement.

The most obvious tool is professional teacher development trainings. I really enjoy learning something new and it is extremely interesting to attend those training. However, in majority of cases the trainings are abstract and only of a theoretical value. The only training session that was extremely helpful was CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). The training was impressive as it was not just of theoretical value. In fact, throughout the whole course I was teaching classes that were monitored by peers and by tutor. The feedback from such teaching was invaluable. For example, I was told to speak less in class as the class should be students centered. In fact the proportion of teacher talking time and student talking time should be 70% to 30%. Teachers should initiate discussion and encourage communication but not participate in the conversations themselves. Another interesting teaching tool I learned to use was CCQs (concept check questions), which I now really like to use during my classes.

The next on the list are Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) I would say this is my favorite self-development tool. I really like the flexibility of online courses. You can watch it anywhere and anytime. You can also choose virtually any topic. Most of the courses I watched were courses on teaching, learning and improving thinking. Some of the great courses I enjoyed watching are Learning How to Learn (Coursera.org) , Science of Everyday Thinking(Edx.org). Of course, taking courses online and completing them require a huge self-discipline and commitment. Nonetheless, I find this opportunity fascinating: any person in the world can take up a course from universities such as Duke University, Stanford, MIT online for free (well, in most cases the courses are free). Try it out, I think anyone can find something interesting there! The platforms I would definitely recommend coursera.org, edx.org, futurelearn.org.

Peer coaching is another strategy that would certainly make you a better teacher. The essence of this practice is to attend the lessons of other teachers and learn from them. Peer teaching is a tool that can help to exchange opinions, peer assessment and peer observation. Observing lessons of other teachers and asking for advice help to develop reflection and deeper understanding of teaching patterns and trends. However, there are certain difficulties teachers might face such as the difficulty in accepting criticism and letting other teachers observe your problems and deficiencies. Yet, this is a very meaningful way not only to learn from others, but also cooperate, help and build trust.

Finally, I would like to talk about very simple algorithm, which was developed by David Kolb. Here is the scheme:

What does this really mean? Well, a teacher should always be a researcher. He or she should do experiments all the time. We start with experience stage and, perhaps, a certain problem in doing something. For example, students are always noisy and distracted. They do not listen in class.

Then comes the second stage - reflection. This stage is all about analyzing and asking yourself (and perhaps others) questions. For example, what are the reasons why students are demotivated? Are those reasons internal or external? Where there moments during classes when students were truly engaged? What were those moments? What are students interested at? Who would they listen to? How do I collect the information? Should I give them a questionnaire? Should I invite another teacher to see the lesson? Should I talk to them individually?

The next stage is conceptualization. At this stage is about finding the answers to the questions and the ways of solving the problems. Again, you can do alone or you can ask a tutor, a colleague or, perhaps, someone who you think is a good teacher for advice. Then you make a specific plan for improvement. Finally, you do active experimentation. It does not mean you have to change everything at once. It means you can change little thing and see how it works, how students respond to that problem.

So do whatever seems easy to do. You can start from reading books, watching online lectures or attending professional trainings. Just do not stop to look for ways of improvement and growth. Always try something new. Remember if something didn’t work in the past it does not mean that it won’t work at some point. Whatever you do you have to remember that you can change and your students can change. If you really want to be a great teacher you will certainly be one someday. The key to success is believing in yourself and believing in your students. Everything is possible. Start little by little, but dream big.