Changing times, changing teachers:
Reflective teaching as a means of empowering teachers to become successful agents of change.

Athiná Arcadinos Leite

aleite@acbeubahia.org.br

Athiná Arcadinos Leite holds a BA and a Teaching Certificate from USP (Universidade Sao Paulo) - and an MBA in Management and Marketing (Ipam, Portugal. She has an extensive experience in the EFL field as a teacher and teacher trainer. She is presently academic director at ACBEU, a US-Brazil binational center in Salvador, Bahia.

Presentation Abstract

Changes and innovations go hand-in-hand. As a natural evolutionary feature of society, times change and have a considerable effect on the field of education, promoting innovations such as alternative ways of managing schools, new curricula and syllabi, and the methodologies and materials that result from them. A good example to illustrate changes that occurred in society and the inevitable influence they exerted in our field is the introduction of technology in our lives, and the impact of such an implementation in the classroom. People change “the times” as well, becoming agents of change - individuals who are instrumental in implementing innovations. The classroom provides teachers with ample opportunities to become agents of change, conducting research not only on the effects of changes, but on any other relevant topic. What could be a better way of implementing successful changes in the classroom other than teacher-initiated enquiry? What could be a more effective way to pursue teacher development other than through reflective teaching? Reflective teaching is one way of enabling teachers to bring about changes in their own classrooms, as well as helping them understand changes that have been imposed from outside the classroom. It becomes therefore an important component of professional development. The objective of this workshop is to give participants insights on the concept of reflective teaching. Besides, participants will have the opportunity to be exposed to different approaches to investigate classroom teaching. The advantages and limitations of each one will be discussed, and participants will decide which procedures are useful and for what purposes. Examples of the different approaches will be provided as well. By the end of this workshop, we expect to have made the concept of reflective teaching less abstract and to have stimulated participants to pursue professional development, adopting reflective teaching as a means to achieve it.

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=df2sx395_38hnp8w3zt