The teacher’s reflection about the teaching and learning processes as strategy to enrich the own professional practice, as well as enhance students’ learning

Abstract

This research analyzes the way teacher's reflection about the teaching and learning processes may enrich the professional practice, as well as enhance the ninth grade students’ learning of English in I.E.D. Jackeline Kennedy. To carry out the inquiry four instruments to data collection were applied: a student interview, a survey based on the interview’s results, and the teacher and student journals. Through the daily teacher’s reflection in a written journal, the teacher reflected about their own teaching practice in three stages: the descriptive, the comparative and the critical. In the last one and right after the class, the teacher analyzed the students’ behavior, participation in the activities and learning during the class time, as well as the effectiveness of the methodology applied, the activities she designed and the way how the objectives were achieved in order to take some important decisions which were modifying the classroom environment from a behavioral and learning point of view and allowed her to improve the teaching practice, at the time she enhanced the students’ learning of the language. The results obtained demonstrated that students’ context, their needs and likes, as well as the teacher approach to teach and the methodological procedures and the activities and so on, play an important role in the teaching and learning process. So when teachers reflect critically about their own teaching practice, it increases their experience and professional growth and make their students motivated to learn and use the foreign language. Key words: reflection, learning, teaching strategies, motivation.