TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ BELIEFS

STUDENTS' BELIEFS

For this third blog entry I worked, as the title says, on teachers and students’ beliefs. It was not an easy task, believe me, depending on the age, on the type of person you are dealing with, answers tend to vary completely. But in the end, it was very nice to see how the people react to these questions, and most important their thoughts about teachers and language learning. For by Bachelor’s degree I do believe this gives me tools and an idea of what I am going to be dealing with for the rest of my life. In a good sense, of course. Do not get me wrong; this is what I want to do.

Anyway, talking more specifically about the work I did, it is important to stand out the functions that beliefs have in teacher education. On the paper Gaining insights into teachers’ ways of thinking via metaphors, the author Gölge Seferoğlu quotes Richardson (1996) which talks about the functions saying “the first relates to the constructivist theories of learning suggesting that teacher candidates bring beliefs to a teacher education programme that strongly influence what and how they learn. The second function relates to beliefs as the focus of change in the process of education.” This means that anything that we construct, anything we build (in a personal way) throughout time regarding teaching will influence the students’ learning process. We have to be very careful; anything that we, as teachers, show in our classes, will be the image students will start having about ourselves and about learning a foreign language.

First, I will start about beliefs in language learning from students. For this part I will have to quote an Interview I did to kids during recess time the few questions I asked to students were: what they thought about learning English, if they liked it, if they thought it was important, what they liked the most and least, and finally, I asked about how they liked to learn.

Most of the students, (I interviewed 5 boys and 5 girls), told me that they liked learning English and that they considered it important because perhaps, in the future they will live in the States. They tend to link language learning with travelling and being able to communicate with other cultures. Not only to understand what others say, but also to make oneself clear when trying to communicate something. (Students, 2013. Personal interview).

About the positive aspects the students mentioned, they said that they liked learning another language because it was learning new things and it was also fun. I would like to clear out that by learning new things they were referring more to learning new vocabulary. A girl told me it was important to become “universitaria”. She associated this to the fact that her mother speaks English and studied at a university. Another girl told me that she liked learning English when a teacher taught her. At their age (first grader students) it is very difficult to get different answers from what they live and what they are used to. But taking into account what she said, I guess this means a classroom with a certain type of model to follow. (Students, 2013. Personal interview).

Before I start talking about the negative aspects mentioned by the kids, it is very interesting to see that in one hand, the 5 boys I interviewed said that they did not like learning English. On the other hand, the 5 girls I interviewed said they liked learning English. Although, about the importance of learning it, the 2 groups agreed on its great importance. Now, negative things. Well, in a general view, students did not like to learn English because sometimes they did not understand; they said that there were certain words that they did not get. (Students, 2013. Personal interview). Maybe, from my own point of view, teachers could try to improve this area so that kids feel more comfortable during English class.

Other negative aspect that was mentioned was that what they liked the least about learning English was doing homework. But, if you ask me, I do not think this has to do directly with learning English, but in general. Kids just do not like to do homework; it is something to reflect on mostly in general aspects, rather than to talk specifically in language learning. I mean, they are kids, of course they do not like doing any type of homework! 

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS

For this other part of my work I asked the in-service teacher to tell me what she thought a teacher should be. I did not asked her directly to use a metaphor, but she did. In the following part you will find the drawing she made and the explanation she send me via e-mail.

“A teacher should be an open book because we need to learn from new generations. Education has to be focused on changes and a real search of individual needs and interests.

As I was taught some years ago, it is necessary to identify students’ needs and interests to design activities for specific purposes. Nowadays, I find heterogeneous classes in which such as interests and needs depend on technology, life styles, family structure, learning disabilities, among others.

I wonder if this learning interests and needs became individual instead of a whole class interest. Through the practice and experience I have realized that the more we know our students contexts and real needs as individuals, the more we can help them.

Each page of that book became our teaching successful or unsuccessful experiences.  The last chapter must have very clear, that we as teachers do not have the last word. There is something new to learn.” (In-service teacher, 2013. Statement).

According to the chart that Seferoğlu (2009) uses on his reading, which was adapted from Oxford, there are three categories of teachers: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. 

Having the chart above with the specifications, I will say that the in-service teacher I am observing is democratic. The in-service teacher talks about changes and interests, that is a good thing because it has not to do that much with the established aspect of teaching. She talks about purposes and needs, which is important because this could lead eventually to responsibility from students. What I also consider that should be stand out is the fact that there is the need to get to now our own students and that we also learn from them. Students need to be stand out during classes and as a starting point in order to work through the whole year. I may have to confess that at the beginning I thought she was going to be completely autocratic because of the drawing. But then I asked her to give an explanation so that I did not have to make untrue statements only judging by the drawing she made. It is not ok to judge a book only by its cover. 

Having mentioned all of the above, is it a very interesting exercise to do with teachers and students. It is very hard to find things that motivate students to learn a different language, even more if they do not have their vision of education as something good, important. That is why they tend to relate this to annoying things. About the teacher, well, everything we do will be expressed. In the end, students will be our own reflections. They grew with that, is what they were taught. Talking about teachers, it is not that easy to recognize oneself as we are. Sometimes we tend to think that we do things according to something that is "better seen", but at the end, we are the people we are. It is as simple as that, and maybe, by recognizing this, we are able to change, change certain aspects about what we do, how we do it, and become a better person for oneself.

REFERENCES

• In-service teacher (2013, March 20) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá.
• In-service teacher (2013, April 1) Statement. Bogotá.
• Seferoğlu, G. (2009). Gaining insights into teachers' ways of thinking via metaphors. Educational studies. Vol. 35, No. 3, July 2009, 323-335. 
• Students (2013, March 20) Interviewed by Rodríguez Carolina. Bogotá.