The Emergent Teacher

Teacher Questions

Taking a look at yourself

• What are my beliefs about teaching and learning? Where do these beliefs come from?
How do these beliefs influence my teaching?

• What kind of teacher am I?

• What is my role as a teacher?

• What is my approach to teaching?

• What methods do I try to implement in my classroom?

• How do I decide what I will teach?

• What teaching resources do I make use of?

• How would I define effective teaching?

• What are the qualities of a good teacher?

• How should I communicate goals and objectives to my students?

• What roles do I expect students to assume in my classroom?

• To what extent is my teaching based on my students’ needs?

• What do I think my students need to learn?

• How do I respond to my students’ needs?

• What forms of assessment do I employ?

• What criteria do I use to evaluate my teaching?

• What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching for me?

Learning languages

• How do I define learning?

• What are the best ways to learn a language?

• What kinds of exposure to language best facilitate language learning?

• What kinds of learning strategies do I teach? How do I teach them?

Your students

• Who are my students?

• What beliefs (and assumptions) do my students hold about learning and teaching?

• How do these beliefs influence their approach to learning?

• How do my students perceive my role as a teacher?

• What are my students’ goals and objectives?

• What do my students’ want to learn?

• What expectations do they have about their learning? Me? This course?

• What learning styles do the learners prefer?

• What types of learning activities and materials do my learners prefer?

• What interactional styles do my learners favor?

• How much control to my students want to exercise over their own learning?

• How do my students’ characterize effective teaching? Effective learning?

• In what settings will my students use English? For what purposes to they want or need to
use English?

Preparing a lesson
• What is the main goal of lesson? Why?

• Why should I teach this lesson?

• What do I want students to learn in this lesson?

• What will the outcomes of the activities be?

• How well do I know the content of the lesson?

• What activities will be included in the lesson?

• How will I begin and conclude the lesson?

• How will the lesson connect to what students already know?

• Is this lesson going to be too easy/difficult for the students?

• What materials will I use?

• What teaching procedures will I use?

• How will the lesson be organized and sequenced?

• How much time will I need for each activity? How much time will students need?

• How will I communicate the purpose of the activity to my students?

• How will I check student understanding?

• What resources are required?

• What role do I need to take on?

• What grouping arrangements will I use?

• What students have special needs that should be attended to during the lesson?

• How will I deal with different student abilities in the class?

• How will I assess my students’ performance? [focus, recipient, setting, form,

consequence]

• What are my alternative plans if problems arise with some aspect of my lesson?

• What will I do if I have too little or too much time?

• Have I sufficiently prepared for the lesson?

Dynamic, moment-to-moment, interactive complexity of the classroom – helping vs. hindering
learning

• Do students understand me?

• Are my instructions clear?

• Is this too difficult for them? Too easy? Engaging?

• Should I try teaching this in a different way?

• Is this taking too much time?

• Is this activity going as planned? If not, do I like the direction it’s going in?

• Do students need more than I’m giving them? Am I giving them too much?

• Do students have everything they need in order to do the task?

• Is this relevant to the aims of the lesson?

• Am I teaching too much? Am I not teaching enough?

Assessing a lesson

• Was this lesson successful? Why or why not?

• What were the main strengths and weakness of the lesson? What was the most successful
part of the lesson? What was the least successful? What didn’t they respond well to?

• What did I set out to teach?

• Did I teach all of my students today?

• Did students learn what they were intended to learn? Was I able to accomplish my goals?

• What did the students get out of the lesson? What did they really learn?

• Did the lesson effectively address the students’ needs?

• Did the lesson arouse students’ interest in the subject matter? If not, why not?
• What grouping arrangements did I use? Were these effective? Why or why not?

• Were all of the students involved in the lesson? If not, why not?

• Were students appropriately challenged by the lesson?

• What kinds of interaction occurred in my classroom?

• What kind of teacher-student interaction occurred?

• Was the lesson at the appropriate level of difficulty? Were the students challenged by the
lesson?

• What did they like most about the lesson? Least? How do you know?

• Did anything amusing or unusual occur?

• Do I need to re-teach any aspect of the lesson? What should I recycle?

• What would be a suitable follow-up to the lesson?

• Did I have any problems with the lesson? If so, how did I deal with them?

• Did I do anything differently than usual?

• Did I depart from my lesson plan? If so, why? Did the change make things better or
worse?

• Will I teach the material in the same way next time? What would I do differently if I
taught the same lesson again?

• Was my philosophy of teaching reflected in the lesson?

• Did I discover anything new about my teaching?

• Should I have tried to use alternative teaching approaches?

• What changes do I think I should make in my teaching?

Your development

• What is the source of my ideas about language teaching?

• Where am I in my professional development?

• How am I developing as a language teacher?

• What are my strengths as a language teacher?

• What are my limitations at present?

• Are there any contradictions in my teaching?

• How can I improve my language teaching?

• How am I helping my students?

• What am I doing that is hindering their learning?