Portfolio nauczyciela

Artykuł na temat roli portfolio w nauczaniu języka angielskiego

A teaching portfolio

One of the modern techniques used by language teachers to present their professional growth and changes is a teaching portfolio. A teaching portfolio can be described as a regular collection of any teaching material that represents teachers' thoughts and beliefs, their professional development and teaching achievement. This collecting material prompts teachers' reflections on their teaching performance and shows these reflections as a vivid lifelong process in a teacher career.

A list of the components entering a teaching portfolio can be very varied and depends on the teacher who completes his portfolio. It can contain among others such components as: teacher's beliefs, including teacher's principles of human learning, langue learning and langue teaching, methodology with effective teaching techniques, activities, tasks and stages of his language lessons. A very important entry of teaching portfolio is a professional development classifying an evidence of the teacher's growth with recent changes in teaching, new ideas, attended conferences, interesting articles or books. A main part of a teaching portfolio is occupied by teacher's reflections describing teacher's impressions of a specific lesson, unexpected events in the classroom, either positive or negative, students' reactions to some tasks or teacher's instructions. It also includes critical analyses of his teaching and thinking about alternative means of teaching goals or aims.

Teaching portfolios are better known and spread at schools of the United States than in other countries. However, more and more teachers find out the importance of writing portfolios at their daily work. Those who keep their portfolios believe that their writing helps them support the need of being updated and improve their teaching effectiveness by modifying their rutinized ways of teaching. Therefore, they collect their writing, then classify it into categories and form biographies of their teaching changes which clearly indicate their professional development.

Analiza spostrzeżeń, opinii i wypowiedzi nauczycieli języka angielskiego na temat przydatności portfolio w pracy zawodowej

English language teachers' portfolios

Ten English language teachers collected their portfolios to express their opinions, thoughts, changes and teaching experiences on the basis of reflective analyses of their teaching activities.

One of the most common characteristics of their writing refers to constant learning in a teaching process. The teachers present two ways of teacher's growth: on-job learning and off-job learning. On-job learning is defined as a process which enriches teachers' teaching experiences and promotes their changes in this process. The other path of a teacher development-off-job learning leads to attendance of various courses, conferences and presentations. These sources provide teachers with the authentic and professional language, theoretical knowledge, new techniques and approaches to language learning as well as some practical activities which can carry out in his classroom.

However, the most important and the longest period of their off-job learning the teachers find at the college. They claim that they not only have been equipped with general and specific knowledge of teaching and learning, and up to-date methods and techniques, but also they had opportunities to improve their language skills and develop teaching strategies. Furthermore, they spent their time to analyse any teaching problems and discuss teaching matters. All of them agree that the time they spent at the college was very fruitful.

Another content of the teachers' portfolios highlights self-improvement as a valid way to keep up with the newest teaching methods and enhances teachers' self-confidence, and independence. By being reflective in their work, the teachers are able to find out how much they have developed themselves professionally and what should be improved in their further teaching. Therefore, the teachers underline the importance of making analyses of their teaching performance, being critical to themselves and drawing conclusions from their jobs. All those attributes clearly indicate the teachers' thoughtful and analytical approaches to their work and reveal their professional growth.

One of the authors of the portfolios considers a factor which, according to him influences a "real" teacher. He names it "talent" or "art of teaching" and describes it as an issue which might be inborn or acquired through the years of teaching experience and shaped by a teacher's own personality, some extra skills or the environment. The author is convinced that "talent" or "art of teaching" gives the teacher a lot of charisma.

The teachers of these portfolios emphasise a great importance of co-operation with other teachers and native speakers. They feel the need of regular meetings, where they can exchange their teaching experiences, ask for advice or suggestions. They also notice that the image of a language teacher has changed and now, being a solitary teacher and relying only on himself, means being a bit out of date.

Analysing the teachers' portfolios it can be pointed out that all the teachers notice they have changed over the years of teaching. Furthermore, they know that a process of teacher changes not only requires a period of time but also a big effort connected with a critical and reflective approach.

Opracowanie: Krystyna Pulczyńska-Mądry

Wyświetleń: 1110