Critical Incidents in TEFL colleges: A step toward the integration of theory and practice

Many teachers find it very difficult to integrate theory and practice. Unexpected situations arise in classrooms which demand an immediate solution. To this end, teachers are called to reflect on what they are teaching, students’ reaction to learning and new problems that affect daily classroom management. Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez maintain that the use of the critical incident strategy will give future teachers an insight to solve the aforementioned conflicts.

According to Gill and Torre (as cited in Pintos & Crimi, 2010), it is generally believed that knowledge alone is enough to enable a person to teach. However, reality reveals a different perspective since real contexts require strategic decisions when problems arise within the classroom.  et al. (2003) state that reflecting on what happens in a teacher’s own lesson and on other colleagues’ experiences during teaching allows a person to accumulate ideas and possible solutions to actual classroom situations.

Throughout my five years of teaching, I have experienced different kind of problems for which I was not prepared to deal with. Sometimes, I felt confused, but as time went on and I found myself under similar circumstances, I was able to take better decisions. Changes in education, due to social, cultural or environmental factors, demand reflection on everyday practice.

In the context I work, many students come to school not only to be taught about a subject, but also to receive a meal, medical care and even affection. Teachers, in fact, choose their profession because of different reasons too, but what all of us have in common is that we want be heard, to get students’ attention, and whether we like it or not we need to learn about the instruments that help us to fulfill this purpose.

All in all, Fernández et al., (2003) point out that critical incidents provide a professional resource for teachers reflection. The main goal of this teaching strategy is to avoid careless reactions to constant pressure within educational environments.

References

Fernández González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Critical Incidents in Teacher Training for Secondary School Natural Science Teachers. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 17 (1), 101-112.

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y (2010). Unit 2: personal narratives in teaching. Universidad CAECE, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Retrieved August 2010, from

http: //caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6782