By Paolo Rossetti, March 1998
Written for, but not endorsed by, the University of Leicester, UK
M.A. in Applied Linguistics / TESOL
Module 5
"As we read our journals, we hear our lives." - Dennis Cleary
For centuries written journals have provided a record of experiences, ideas and reflections for individuals from all walks of life. Scientific journals such as the ones kept by Charles Darwin formed the basis for breakthrough academic publications while the poignant personal journal courageously kept by Ann Frank during the Second World War provides testimony to particular events in history; moreover, millions of other private, unpublished journals have been for many "a secret place of self where one can be detailed, honest, creative, and powerfully clear about one’s life." (Cleary 1998:/~zenden/ID_intro.html) All these attempts to reconstruct the human experience are masterpieces in their own unique ways.
Journals are also credited with helping develop creativity, release pent-up emotions, increase awareness and appreciation of the world around us, work out personal quandaries, and improve self-expression as well as providing a means for personal growth, intellectual exploration, and spiritual contemplation. More explicitly, a written journal is a tool conducive to a state of mind where a free flow of consciousness, an unimpeded stream of inner thoughts, is released and preserved upon paper for future discovery and analysis. (Hagood 1998: /whyjournal.html)
According to Cleary, a journal provides an opportunity for the expression of the inner self; it is a journey into our own experience as a form of active meditation allowing ideas and emotions to be expressed without being instantly referenced, analyzed and labeled by our conscious mind.
In the realm of Psychology, journals are used as valuable tools for reaching "a deeper level of intelligence and inspiration" (Hagood 1998: /whyjournal.html) than the subject realizes is in his or her possession. In particular, Hagood describes journals as practical tools for achieving the following goals:
Consequently, one would suppose that such an introspective tool be of great benefit in the field of language learning where personal experience reigns unchallenged. In fact, research into the learning of languages has occurred from the perspectives of numerous disciplines - psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, biology, etc. - and probably the only issue that all researchers agree upon is that learning a language is a highly personal experience of which the mechanics are still somewhat of a mystery.
Journal writing for students has long been hailed as a very effective technique not only for providing mechanical writing practice based on topics of direct interest to the student or as an efficient evaluation tool, but also more recently as an exercise in self-reflection about learning itself. Students in fact are often being encouraged to take more control of their learning experience through journal writing, noting among other things what they learned, how they learned it, and how they applied it. (Porter et al 1990: 227)
Running parallel to language learning is language teaching which, again, is quite simply based on very personal experiences and values that are often hard to define since they form a core part of our ‘inner essence’ - our own characteristics, upbringing, educational background, and life experience just to name a few.
Teacher trainers grapple incessantly with the difficulty of transferring personal experience to trainees. How does one transfer years of subconscious learning into a learner-oriented information package?
And, if one does succeed in communicating such experience, how does one deal with the different ways people accommodate such valuable lessons into their own baggage of experience?
Or, perhaps, could it be that the very approach of transferring experience is ineffective at the source and that stimulating internal experience is a more effective approach?
This paper is divided into two parts. Initially, the focus will be on using journals for teacher training, and then a shift will be made into applying the principles of journal keeping into the area of course and syllabus design, development and application. This researcher bases his work on the assumptions that learning is a life-long venture, and that teacher training involves the development of both in-class lesson delivery mechanics and out-of-class lesson preparation.
With the 21st century now a few years ahead, and the tumultuous pace of change that has been cast upon the world by a steep acceleration in the learning/growth curve in all areas of our lives, English Language Teachers face ever heavier professional demands. Indeed, English is by default the lingua franca of the world - it is spoken by people in most countries, and it is the unchallenged medium of global communication on the Internet.
Passive, or even simply reactive, teachers will be at a severe disadvantage dealing with the pressures and demands brought about by the social, political and economical shifts of the coming century. While, on the other hand, "the teachers who will thrive in this new environment are those who are capable of generating their own professional dynamic, who are pro-active rather than reactive." (Wallace 1996: 281)
Teacher training as we know it - preparing would-be teachers for work in traditional language classrooms, equipping them with underlying currents of theoretical knowledge, and supplying them with an armful of tested classroom techniques and activities - is similar to the army training that occurs when a large draft of soldiers is urgently needed for the front: Here’s your rifle, there’s the trigger, do what all the others do. Oh, and you’ll do fine, son.
Albeit, the training does have its effects in most cases. The newly-crowned teachers set off on their own, crash a few times; some get up, learn from their mistakes, and a few eventually go on to becoming excellent teachers serving possibly tens of thousands of students in their lifetime.
In this sense, ongoing teacher development is no different from initial teacher training, though the discussion may be louder as old dogs reluctantly try on new tricks. Both of them are mainly a matter of receiving and processing information and advice from more senior colleagues - in training programs, in face-to-face conversations, by reading their articles, corresponding with them or by attending their presentations at conferences. Ultimately it is always a question of someone relating his or her own personal experience: "I did this and it worked" - "We found that this approach in this environment failed." - "They suggest trying this."
Again, this sharing of experiences is certainly an effective part of professional development as ideas spark other interpretations while tumbling across criticisms, which in turn bear new ideas - that, in all effects, is what we call progress. Progress that stems from people learning from their mistakes, reflecting on their practices and continuously experimenting until the ‘ideal’ is achieved. Progress that is founded on sharing personal experience.
"Practical wisdom as the form of the practitioner’s professional knowledge is not stored in the mind as sets of theoretical suppositions, but as a reflectively processed repertoire of cases," (Elliot 1991: 53) which is used to evaluate the current circumstances and decide which action may be the most appropriate based on comparisons with past cases. (53)
Personal experience is therefore at the very essence of professional development; and all people are naturally equipped with the ability to generate personal experience, although not all are able to consciously reflect on it, realize its potential and draw conclusions from it. Since this experience is at a deeper, less visible level than the areas our conscious thoughts regularly operate, training is needed.
"Autonomous professional development is [generated] through the ability to reflect on one’s own professional practice, with the correlative assumption that trainees can be ‘coached’ in this ability. Such ‘reflective practitioners’ will be able to continue to develop their professional expertise not away from classroom practice into academic theory, but by using theory mediated within their continuing practice." (Wallace 1996: 281)
The kind of ‘reflective practice’ referred to by Wallace in Freeman et al (1996) originally stems from the UK educational action-research movement of the late 1960s "in opposition to the development of a curriculum technology which stressed the prespecification of measurable learning outcomes" (Elliot 1991: 51) by instead proposing the importance of basing the curriculum on process values as determined by practitioners, not on purely academic concerns; and the participatory research concept put forward by the Latin American Paulo Freire in the early 1970s where "research and action (including education itself) become a single process [and] the results of research are immediately applied to a concrete situation." (Anderson et al 1994:17)
In the early 1970s in North America, Anderson et al (1994) report that the movement among teachers to participate in action research began mainly as "research on successful school change efforts and schools as contexts for teachers’ professional work began to report that school-based problem-solving approaches to change were more likely to be implemented successfully than large, federally funded, outside-in initiatives." (20)
Action research is therefore a legitimate movement, also called ‘reflective teaching’ in the English language teaching (ELT) discipline, which has met with considerable success, as well as criticism, by proposing that its fundamental aim "is to improve practice rather than to produce knowledge" (Elliot 1991: 49) and that "it is directly and immediately related to professional action." (Wallace 1996: 281) Perhaps the most compelling explanation is provided by Elliot (1991) who defines action research as "the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it" where knowledge is not validated independently and then applied to practice, but it is "validated through practice." (69)
More specifically, the model of action research within ELT suggests that "experience alone is insufficient for professional growth, and that experience coupled with reflection is a much more powerful impetus for development [moving the practitioner] beyond the search for instructional techniques alone to a concern for ‘what’ and ‘why’ questions." (Bartlett 1990: 201)
Of the many possible applications of this practical and down-to-earth model of research leading to immediate professional development, the one tool which would provide the practitioner/researcher with opportunities to directly tap into his or her own particular teaching circumstances would be the recording aspect of keeping a journal. Not only would the journal provide detailed, analyzable records, but also provide a channel for disclosure of internal thoughts and subconscious feelings.
In fact, the journal is perhaps the most suitable tool for action research. The many criticisms of an action research model of implementing change focus mainly on the dubious validity of the data collected - since the data is obtained from an involved source, the teacher, it is obviously ‘contaminated’ and subjective at the very origin thus not meeting the criteria of internal validity required for a qualitative study to be accepted by the academic community. At the same time, the results of action research are not usually transferable nor applicable to other contexts, thereby not meeting criteria of external validity and seriously losing credibility. (Anderson et al 1994: 27)
One must consider, though, that the goals of utilizing a teacher-led journal do not necessarily aim to meet the conditions above. First of all, the research data is most valuable to the ‘reflective practitioner’ when it is originating from that practitioner’s own mind - it would not make sense to rely on an outside source when the answers being sought are inside, but unseen. And, secondly, the results of an action research journal are not supposed to be generalizable and transferable to other contexts; in fact, it would defeat the very purpose of a private journal if it were written with an audience in mind.
Hence, the measure of success of a private action research journal is determined based on its own criteria:
Outcome:
To what extent do the actions resulting from the research lead to a
positive resolution or change on the part of the practitioner?
While this apparent self-imposed isolation and lack of dialogue or triangulation may appear to be somewhat counter to the free flow of information exchange necessary for progress to occur, there is certainly room for the discussion of issues arising from a private action research journal, should the journal-holder wish to entertain in such dialogue, and there is the expectation that such discussion lead to further self-exploration; it is however imperative that the journal remain a safe, private and non-academic tool that releases the subconscious experience of the practitioner, and that it not become the vehicle of discussion.
Ideally, the journal will help reveal the insights that pass through the practicing teacher’s mind during a lesson, or while thinking about a lesson, or indeed at any other time of the day or night. These insights are most commonly lost immediately after they become a conscious thought - they pass by in a flurry of other mental activity, and they can be recovered only at the subconscious level the journal taps into. Admittedly, there is very scarce scientific evidence to support this claim since the outcomes are not measurable by either quantitative or qualitative standards, but the experience shared by those who have pursued a journal is testimony to the power of this deceivingly simple technique.
While it is probably true that journal-keeping is more suitable for certain personality types than others, Bailey provides a sample of the growing body of literature on classroom research through journals in her article "The Use of Diary Studies in Teacher Education Programs". She concludes that the mechanism of the diary study can provide teachers with "usable tools for self-evaluation" and "for ongoing development." (Bailey 1990: 226) Similarly, writing as "a discovery process - a way to explore ideas, generate and connect ideas, change preconceived notions, and connect abstract ideas and experiences" (Porter et al 1990: 227) is demonstrated to "provide opportunities for ongoing learning that most other [teacher training] course assignments do not." (239)
Among the many different ways of using journals as a tool for teacher development, there are a number of criteria which seem to permit the full release of a subconscious train of thought, and, although there should never be an imposition on anyone to keep a journal against their wishes, the following points would provide even the most recalcitrant subject with a working framework to benefit fully from the exercise:
Ultimately, the success of a journal-led action research project depends on the discipline of the practitioner in planning and executing the project. Elliott (1991) puts forward a very detailed description based on a spiraling model by the social psychologist Kurt Lewin (71) but Anderson et al (1994) provide a very simple model of practitioner research based on the work of Chism, Sanders and Zitlow which probably lends itself best to a self-administered project.
Recognizing that teachers "naturally do seem to use a form of inquiry to help deal with the problematic realities of teaching," (46) it seems most efficient to make use of this natural tendency, extending it into a complete, recyclable model of research: Firstly, consider a certain action in practice based on the information and personal understanding of what is "educationally desirable in that situation, feasible and likely to be effective in the sense of resulting in desired outcomes" (46); secondly, apply the action in practice and "observe its results" (47); and thirdly, analyze the results and then repeat the process.
To slightly expand on this model, and to provide a more detailed process for the practitioner interested in conducting such action research, it might be useful to present the following revised model:
The universality of this approach permits it to be a very flexible, customizable action research tool applicable to most all teaching situations by either initial trainees or seasoned veterans. In fact, the results can vary from simple pointers on a minor classroom management issue to a complete overhaul of the course.
As a matter of fact, "as an evaluation tool, journals can inform the researcher about his or her teaching as no other method can, and allow the teacher to implement curricular changes rapidly." (Anderson et al 1994: 154) While not every teacher is in a situation where he or she has the opportunity to provide input into the curriculum, the vast majority of professional English language teachers in the private sector are normally expected to adapt and supplement the provided syllabus. Quite often the teaching situation is one where there is no syllabus provided, or the one proposed is not appropriate to the current teaching circumstances. Especially in countries where English is taught as a foreign language, the English language teacher is often also expected to design the syllabus, develop the materials and prepare the sequence of activities for the lessons - and teach, too, of course.
Additionally, as teachers grow with experience, even where syllabi are fixed by a ministry’s determination, teachers are often keen to modify the presentation and delivery of the materials to suit their own methodologies and classes, and, within reason, are often awarded this flexibility by the school’s administration who usually see the extra effort as an enrichment of the program.
Since syllabus development, or personal interpretation of it, is bound to happen at all levels of teaching - from the first lesson of a teacher trainee to the umpteenth lesson of a senior teacher - it is surprising that not much effort is dedicated to providing training beyond the mechanics of a single lesson or the development of a thematic group of lessons. In fact, the prevalence of the communicative teaching method as well as the very liberal interpretation of copyright laws in ELT has led to a generation of teachers that prepare for their courses by photocopying favorite activities from a smorgasbord of non-sequential, or modular, publications.
In many unfortunate cases, lesson preparation can become a matter of compiling a haphazard sequence of activities sometimes under a general umbrella of a theme (e.g., shopping), one or more grammar points (e.g., the Present Perfect contrasted with the Simple Past), language functions (e.g., giving instructions), and/or language skills (e.g., note-taking). As a concession, one could point out that some teachers are in fact very skilled at plucking activities from several publications and weaving together a wonderfully entertaining and educational lesson; albeit, if one assumes that a lesson is but one small part of an overall course, very often the learners find a string of unrelated lessons quite confusing and not as effective as they had hoped.
Better organized courses are found in popular coursebooks, although they tend to be too general to please all teachers in all classes; and while these do provide a well-tested, streamlined course of paced learning, the teacher will always be compelled to supplement from other sources in order to personalize the lessons to suit his or her own taste and/or to meet the particular needs of a certain group of students.
At the other end of the spectrum are professional teachers who design their own courses - although some borrow the structure of a coursebook and simply replace the materials with compilations from other publications - by taking an approach starting with the question "What do these students need to learn?" and progressing to developing a custom-made English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course based on the learners’ needs. (Hutchinson 987: 53)
All in all, teachers teach in different ways because of a variety of factors: some are external, such as the amount of support found, materials available, training received, physical space, equipment, etc.; and some are internal, such as motivation, their own understanding of how learning proceeds, personal values, perspectives on education, etc. But, ultimately, teachers tend to teach from their own personal experience. What is deemed to be effective or has worked well before is kept and reused in other forms and contexts, while what is thought to be ineffective or didn’t work well in the past is not. Regardless of the level of independence a teacher is allowed, teachers are in control of their own choices regarding the decisions of what and how to teach effectively.
Just as ESL teachers pride themselves on their individuality in their method of instruction, teachers have different ways of building their own personal experience. In fact, teachers vary widely in systems of lesson tracking - some keep no records at all ( It’s all in my mind ), some accumulate materials, notes and cut-outs in massive collections of manila folders ( I’ve been teaching News and Media for the past six years ), and some maintain elaborate computer databases with keyword search functions ( At an Intermediate level, students will learn 217 new words )
Whatever the system - and we must make room for the teacher’s individuality - there can be no doubt that an efficient collection of past lessons and activities is of great benefit to teachers, providing amongst others:
Applying the personal, revealing benefits of a teacher-led journal to this natural collection of experience, ideas and materials would result in a very worthwhile project indeed. Not only would the teacher embark on a journey of self-discovery, but also apply the concepts of practitioner action research in a direct approach to ongoing syllabus development. The teacher’s intuitive growth of personal experience would be streamlined into an effective research plan, and the results would be both personally beneficial in terms of developing personal experience and immediately applicable to the classroom situation.
Hence, the goal set would be to utilize the journal as a tool to provide the focus for self-lead professional development as well as ongoing syllabus enhancement.
In practical terms, there are two processes which need to occur simultaneously in order to reach this goal. Firstly, there must be a systematic collection of lesson data, including lesson objectives, materials, etc.; and secondly, there must be an opportunity to tap into the inner thoughts of the practitioner. The model earlier described in point 4.3, Model of Journal Research, would provide the structure for the research procedure for these two parallel streams of data.
Accordingly, the first step of the seven-step model would involve the teacher focusing on and recording the lesson delivery aspect of his or her daily professional duties. In order to facilitate such an endeavor within the busy schedule of a full-time teacher, a simple form that can prove to not encroach upon precious preparation time would be most likely to be used with the regularity required.
The form presented in Appendix 1 is therefore designed to be as useful as possible to working teachers while at the same time recording most of all that occurs in the lesson delivery without taxing their time. The teachers may use it to prepare their lessons ahead of time and bring to class an outline of the sequence of activities as well as a list of the target vocabulary, grammar, functions and/or skills which could come in quite handy once the lesson is underway. Yet perhaps the most useful feature of this form is that it provides an accurate and fully-documented record of all lessons taught over a certain period of time - a collection that can be improved and re-used, thereby even further reducing preparation time.
Appendixes 2.1 - 2.8 provide working examples of eight lessons by as many teachers. The format of the sample forms has been slightly modified in response to their comments and misunderstandings.
As the teacher fills out the form presented in Appendix 1 at the start of a course or term to collect the lesson delivery data, a parallel collection of journal entries must commence to bring out the teacher’s subconscious feelings with regards to the lessons taught.
In accordance with the criteria put forward in point 4.2, Criteria for Journal Research, the journal provides an running commentary of the perceptions of the teacher regarding the effectiveness of the course. It opens the possibility for internal debate; as an unseen mirror for discussion, it silently and unobtrusively records what really happened in the classroom from the teacher’s point of view. Undoubtedly there will be many unanswered concerns about the syllabus and methodology, and even the curriculum at large; however, until the end of the course or term, the writer does not re-read or otherwise analyze the journal entries as is permissible with the collection of lesson delivery data.
Once the specified period of time has elapsed, the researcher now has a full complement of a whole course or term’s work at hand, and the journal, to be analyzed.
The journal should now be read and careful note should be made of any patterns, particularly disturbing comments, and otherwise perceptive and useful insights.
Then the results of the journal should be cross-checked with the lesson delivery data collected with an eye to identifying any correlation and determining what possible actions might be the most appropriate in applying the findings to the syllabus.
The resulting potential actions should be written down in point form and discarded if impractical or beyond the means of an individual teacher. The objective is to glean a few practical pointers that can be immediately put into practice, not to attempt to generalize the findings or put forward one’s own professional, political or social agenda.
At the start of a new course or term in which the previous syllabus can be recycled, the potential actions identified from the primary analysis of the data should now be implemented as actively as possible and duly recorded in a repeat of the first collection of data - utilizing the form in Appendix 1 or an adaptation of it, and by faithfully making entries in the journal.
Ideally, the new actions should impact the syllabus and delivery of lessons in a visibly positive manner, but the researcher should refrain from evaluating the changes and drawing any conclusions from them until the second term or course is over after which the journal will be re-read and the data correlated with the new lesson delivery data.
The process then continues, in a ongoing upward spiral that rewards the practitioner with continuous self-development as well as a practical method for syllabus enhancement.
The use of a personal journal by a teacher is therefore a valuable tool for ongoing professional development because it focuses on advancing the natural accumulation of personal experience by providing opportunities for reflection on daily events which otherwise escape unnoticed.
Additionally, it is independent from outside sources, though not preclusive of them, and flexible enough to encompass any need the researcher may have - from a simple classroom application of a particular technique on the part of a trainee, to a complex decision at syllabus level on the part of a curriculum expert.
The reflexive nature of the journal provides the more mechanical lesson planning aspect of teaching with an added dimension, and the resulting collection of lessons is nothing less than a full, real-life syllabus. Not only is it of value to the practitioner for the potential of improvement, but also as a reflection of what actually happens in the classroom.