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Reflective Practice: International and

Multidisciplinary Perspectives
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Teacher self-awareness through journal

writing
a
Thomas S.C. Farrell
a
Department of Applied Linguistics , Brock University , St
Catharines , Canada
Published online: 14 Jun 2013.

To cite this article: Thomas S.C. Farrell (2013) Teacher self-awareness through journal writing,
Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 14:4, 465-471, DOI:
10.1080/14623943.2013.806300

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 Reflective Practice, 2013
Vol. 14, No. 4, 465–471, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2013.806300

Teacher self-awareness through journal writing

Thomas S.C. Farrell*

Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, St Catharines, Canada

(Received 9 February 2013; final version received 1 May 2013)

Reflective practice has now become the leading paradigm in second language
teacher education and development programs worldwide. Teacher reflection
refers to teachers subjecting their beliefs and practices of teaching and learning
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to a critical analysis. One way that has been suggested to promote reflective
practice for experienced ESL teachers is through journal writing. This case
study sought to investigate in what ways regular journal writing promoted
reflective thinking in one experienced ESL college teacher in Canada over a
two-year period of reflection. Results showed that the teacher wrote mostly
about her self-awareness as a teacher and that writing regularly in a journal
provided her with some constructive behavior changes both inside and outside
the classroom.
Keywords: reflective practice; journal writing; language teaching; teacher
beliefs; teacher practices

Introduction
Reflecting on practice can help teachers move from a level where they may be
guided largely by impulse, intuition or routine, to a level where their actions are
guided by reflection and critical thinking. One method that has been recommended
that can facilitate reflection is by writing regularly in a teaching journal. This paper
outlines a case study of how journal writing facilitated one experienced ESL college
teacher in Canada to reflect on her practice which resulted in a change of her
perception of self as an ESL professional.

Reflective practice
Reflecting on practice generally means that teachers must learn to subject their own
beliefs about the teaching and learning process to a critical analysis, and thus take
more responsibility for their classroom actions (Farrell, 2007). Of course, there have
been many different definitions of reflective practice over the years with some
considering it a ‘mulling over’ things before and after classes, while other defini-
tions consider it a more organized examination of practice. The former definition
where teachers informally evaluate their practice does not really lead to improved
teaching because it is not structured in any way, and can even lead to more
‘unpleasant emotions without suggesting any way forward’ (Wallace, 1996, p. 13).

*Email: tfarrell@brocku.ca

Ó 2013 Taylor & Francis

 466 T.S.C. Farrell

The latter definition, sometimes called ‘evidence-based’ reflective practice, suggests

that teachers systematically collect evidence about their teaching and their students’
learning in order to make more informed decisions about teaching (Farrell, 2007).
According to Dewey (1933), this informed decision making is based on systematic
and conscious reflections because teaching experience when combined with these
reflections can only lead to awareness, development and growth. The study reported
on in this paper followed the evidence-based reflective practice model and made
use of teaching journals as a means of facilitating reflection.

Teaching journals
McDonough (1994, pp. 64–65) maintained that teachers who write regularly about
their teaching can become more aware of ‘day-to-day behaviors and underlying atti-
tudes, alongside outcomes and the decisions that all teachers need to take’. Writing
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in a teaching journal as Bailey (1990, p. 218) suggested, can help language teachers
‘experiment, criticize, doubt, express frustration, and raise questions’ about their
practice. In addition, Burton (2005) has maintained that journal writing for the
purposes of personal reflection has two main functions: (1) for documenting and
recording thoughts and activities so they can be reflected on later, and (2) for
analysis. Thus teaching journals can be used as a way to explore the origins and
implications of a teacher’s beliefs about language teaching (and learning), and as a
way of documenting a teacher’s classroom practices (Richards & Farrell, 2005).
Teachers can then compare their stated (written) beliefs with their recorded class-
room practices in order to monitor for any inconsistencies (Farrell, 2007). In this
way, second language teachers can use teaching journals as a as a problem-solving
device, for reflecting on new teaching ideas, and as a means of legitimizing their
own practice.

The study
The study presented in this paper utilized a case study approach (van Lier, 2005) that
is exploratory and descriptive in nature to arrive at basic information (Bogdan &
Bilken, 1982).
A case study approach was used because it was able to follow one particular
teacher (Jessica, a pseudonym) in great detail, and as such ‘cannot be adequately
researched in any of the other common research methods’ (van Lier, 2005, p. 195).
The study took place in Ontario, Canada, over a two-year period and Jessica
was part of a group of three teachers who met regularly in a group to discuss and
reflect on their practice. They also observed each other teaching and wrote a teach-
ing journal about their experiences. This paper reports on the reflections of one of
the participants when she wrote in her journal. Initially, Jessica agreed she would
write about anything, whenever she wanted, and to write at least one entry after an
‘event’ was experienced inside or outside her classroom. Jessica is an experienced
ESL teacher and has an advanced degree in TESOL.
All of Jessica’s journal entries were first coded and then analyzed for recurring
themes and patterns. In order to establish a list for initial coding, I used Farrell’s
(1998) categories as an initial a priori heuristics for coding the data. Jorgensen
(1989) has provided support for such use of a priori frameworks when coding data
within case study research. I also allowed the data to ‘talk’ to me and a new
 Reflective Practice 467

category emerged from this analysis called self-awareness. So, the main category
that emerged from the data out of all the issues Jessica wrote about in her teaching
journal was her self-awareness. I present the development of her self-awareness as
a teacher with relevant excerpts from her journal entries.

Self-awareness
Jessica started her entries about self-awareness tentatively as she wrote first about
how she perceived herself when interacting with her students while teaching:

I am also aware this week that I am really funny in class lately – which surprises me.
I enjoy interacting with the students casually before jumping into the lesson for the
day. I believe this is important. I like to be myself with the students – authentic but in
a positive way. I guess the recent pressures of my life have eased (somewhat) and this
is allowing me to relax and enjoy the classroom.
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In later journal entries throughout the first semester she continued to reflect on her
awareness of her day-to-day choices in teaching:

I have my own philosophy to teaching (however conscious or subconscious it may be) but
this is reflected more concretely in my day-to-day choices, my practices and preferences
in teaching. I am not an indiscriminate user of tricks in the classroom. If you ask me why I
have done something in the class – I am confident that I could articulate for you why.

Jessica then began to write more about her need to achieve a sense of balance in
her life between her work and her personal life as she said this was her biggest
challenge:

I see my biggest challenge as achieving a balance in my life. I am actively involved

in a lot of things outside of the classroom and I enjoy that, but I stay at work too late
and I come home very tired every day … Work responsibilities can overtake personal
and home life.

In another journal entry Jessica noted her confusion about how much she should
put into her duties outside the classroom and how much into her actual classroom
teaching and her perceived conflict between the two:

In the last three days in addition to the “usual” classroom stuff, my tasks ranged from
kitchen duties to handling student conflict to discussing changes in college policy. Do
my students realize that the reason I am rushing in two minutes late is because another
student grabbed me in the hall with his or her “issues”?

Jessica then wrote that she wondered if her professional life was in fact healthy and
now at this mid-career stage, she wondered if she would be a teacher like this for
the following years:

Is the pace at which I’m working a healthy and normal pace? Is it healthy to be so
invested in your work? What are my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher at this stage
of my career? What’s next? Am I really going to love doing this for another 20 years?
 468 T.S.C. Farrell

Her next few journal entries revealed the extent of her sense of exhaustion in her
attempts to balance her duties as an ESL teacher and her personal life. For example,
Jessica wrote about her exhaustion in one entry:

Sunday: Tired all day, why? No preparation for the week, dishes in the sink, laundry
piling up, papers, papers everywhere! Feeling of chaos and frustration. Am I so
exhausted at the end of the week that I can’t have a normal – fun weekend?

Jessica then wrote that although she was not feeling good after that for a few days,
that teaching made her feel better because she liked being in the classroom. She
wrote:

Tuesday: I feel I have not established a balance or pace of work that is healthy for me
at this time. 12:30 Time for Class. I leave the class feeling much better. In the class-
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room, it’s all about them (the students) not me. I like that. It’s a break.

Towards the end of the first semester as Jessica started to balance her work and
personal life more to her liking, she noticed how that act of writing in her journal
had allowed her not only to ‘see’ the extent of her exhaustion that semester but also
allowed her to work through all the frustrations with her trying to do everything
and please everyone:

As I analyze my [journal] notes from this week first, I can see the trend already. I do
not feel tired as I write this journal (as I usually do). I don’t feel overwhelmed by the
approaching term. I don’t feel worried about what students think about my teaching.
My personal issues seem less monumental. Suddenly, I feel calm and in control.

After this journal entry at the end of the first semester Jessica decided to write her
reflections on her writing by going over all her journal entries in more detail and to
try to sum up their meaning for her and also her views of how writing impacted
her reflections.

Noticing
On reviewing all her journal entries over the two-year period of reflections, Jessica
said that she really noticed just how the topic of her health had dominated much of
her journal writing: ‘But most of all, re-reading the journal has allowed me to see
once again the trend in my professional “mood/health” – the real issue for me’.
Jessica then noted the importance of reading journal entries after some time to look
for patterns; as she commented:

At one point, I noted a pattern in my journals: I was saying how tired I was every
week. I knew that, but seeing it in the journal weekly really hit the point home.
Re-reading these journals today as a collection shows a lot more: fatigue, emotional
upset, some health problems.

After recognizing patterns in journal writing, Farrell (2012) called this realization as
noticing and he said this is really the starting point in a language teacher’s profes-
sional development. Farrell (2012, p. 13) maintained that when teachers ‘become
more attuned to what is going on’ by engaging in ‘the discipline of noticing’ they
 Reflective Practice 469

move from a dependent position of being brought along by events to a more inde-
pendent position where they make informed decisions based on their reflections
about their future practice. Jessica went through a similar process of reflection
through journal writing where she moved from an initial position of continually
asking herself through her writing if her classes were effective, if her students
enjoyed them and if they were successful or not. For example, in an early journal
entry she wrote extensively about her questioning and evaluating her practice in
what could be considered a type of frenzied manner:

What did I teach this week? How did I do it? Why? Was it enjoyable? Was it useful?
Was it “successful” or “effective”? How is that defined really? Have I over-empha-
sized student enjoyment at the cost of learning? Is there a happy balance there? Do I
take too much responsibility for student learning? Our feedback is primarily our
perception of student enjoyment. We observe their behaviour in class, facial expres-
sions, body language etc. We try to judge if learning has taken place?
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However, after working through many of these issues, as evident from the entries
shown above, Jessica was able to move to a position where she noticed much more
about her surroundings and became more confident about her practice:

I leave the class feeling much better now. I am amazed by how I (and most teachers I
think) can pull a good lesson and a good mood out of a hat when the situation
demands it. In the classroom, it’s all about them (the students) – not me. I like that.
It’s a break. Although I did not survey the class, my own assessment is that the lesson
was both useful and enjoyable and the observations of the observer [she invited an
observer to observe her teaching] helped to inform that [positive] impression.

For Jessica, journal writing was very important as it enabled her to enhance her
personal growth and development. She said that reflecting through journal writing
allowed her to not only note some issues that were impacting her teaching, but that
writing things down and thinking them through allowed her to move beyond these
issues. As Jessica noted, ‘journal writing allowed me to unpack any emotional
baggage be it personal or professional and get beyond it’.
This was because she said that regular journal writing provided her with the
mental space for her to reflect, and the more she wrote, the more she wanted to
look more deeply not only into her teaching, but also into herself as a teacher.
Jessica remarked:

The journal gave me an uninterrupted, private space where I could explore what was
important to me … I could take my time with it. I was forced to identify and select
topics in my own work week that I felt I wanted to investigate more.

So, for Jessica journal writing was ‘an investment in self through a growing aware-
ness of personal thoughts and feelings’ (Hiemstra, 2001, p. 24)
Another aspect of journal writing that facilitated the reflective process for
Jessica was that the very act of writing itself slowed the reflection process long
enough to reflect on it; she said. ‘I felt that the journal forced me to slow down,
observe and reflect’. For Jessica, the act of writing gave her time and space to
examine her practice that would have otherwise gone unexamined because as she
said: ‘It prevented the week from flying by completely unexamined’. Farrell (2012)
said that before a teacher actually writes, they much pause and that this ‘pausing’
 470 T.S.C. Farrell

allows them to organize their thoughts before writing. As Farrell (2012, p. 57)
noted, this ‘pausing’ is the first step in reflective writing because it is the launching
pad for what is to follow. Thus the very act of writing has its own built-in reflective
mechanism that makes it ‘an ideal tool for helping teachers pause and thus engage
in systematic reflections of their practice’ (Farrell, 2012, p. 57). As such, the act of
writing helped Jessica first pause for a few moments to think about what she would
actually write, and then reflect on that writing so she could understand and
ultimately direct it to a place she wanted.

Making time to write

Jessica also noted that although she had used a personal journal before, that she
was not initially looking forward to writing regularly about her teaching because
she worried about being too busy to keep it up. Jessica said: ‘Regular weekly jour-
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naling has never been a favorite thing to do, so I was not too sure how I would fare
on this’. However, she said that she began to enjoy the experience of writing as
time elapsed during the period of our reflections, and thus made sure that although
she was busy, she would make time to write regularly. Jessica noted:

As it turned out, despite initial challenges of time, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed
the journal and consequently found the time to do it. I believe I even commented once
that I preferred to write my journal rather than do marking or other pressing tasks.
This has been a stressful time for me so I think I needed the journal.

If Jessica, an experienced ESL college teacher, was rather skeptical from the begin-
ning about writing because she was very busy, then other experienced and even
more so beginning teachers may also feel apprehensive about writing as reflection.
As such, and as Richards and Farrell (2005) suggested, teachers should first set
attainable goals for their writing, the most important one being why they want to
write the teaching journal. For example, they should consider if they are going to
focus on a specific problem in their teaching or if they are going to write generally
about their teaching and then look for patterns in their journal entries over time. In
addition, teachers should make sure they have enough time (when to write the jour-
nal and the number of entries to write). Richards and Farrell (2005) also suggested
that teachers should review their journal content regularly in order to learn from
and to see if they have achieved what they had intended when they had started their
journal writing.

Conclusion
As the results of this case study indicate, the act of writing forced Jessica to slow
down and delay her reflections; she had to pause before writing and then consider
what she would write about. Thus the very act of writing has a built-in mechanism
that facilitates reflection by allowing time for teachers to organize their thoughts so
that they can consciously explore and analyze their practice in a more organized
fashion than they would normally do. Although generalization is always problem-
atic from a case study of one teacher, there is reason to believe that practitioners
may find much of what is discussed here has relevance for their particular contexts
and practice, and they too can use journal writing in a similar manner for their own
journeys in self-awareness.
 Reflective Practice 471

Note on contributor
Thomas S.C. Farrell is a professor of Applied Linguistics at Brock University, Can-
ada. His professional interests include reflective practice, teacher education, and
development.

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