Dealing with Critical Incidents.

Last year I started working in a primary school for the first time. It was a 4^th year of 23 students from a very low social class. Even though the students had some discipline problems, they worked really hard when they got engaged. In my first lesson, I met a boy with a very sweet smile who never looked me in the eyes and it seemed like he did not even notice my presence. When I was introducing myself to the group, this boy ran away from the classroom. The students revealed that he always escaped from the classroom to turn off the lights of the school. In fact, he did so. I immediately called the headmaster and he confessed to me that this boy always behaved in that way and that nothing could be done to change his behavior. He suggested keeping him busy with some drawings and that was all. I thought about this and decided that if the headmaster had no interest in encouraging students to learn, then I would do it.

When I was thinking in the possible ways to solve this situation, I remembered that each person can be motivated in different ways taking into account their cultural and social background (Brown, 2000). So, by asking him questions about his interest, I found out that he truly loved cars as his step-father was a mechanic. Then, we started, for example, by learning numbers and colours in English with cars drawings. In that way, he could express his favourite colours of cars and to count them. He made an enormous improvement. He was always sitting next to me as he probably felt that someone was caring for him. His mother had abandoned him at the age of six; he was a survival. I could relate all this to what Fujimura (2005) states:

Social scholars have suggested that rather than emphasize the relative powerlessness of individuals in changing political and economic realities, thereby neglecting the power such individuals have in constructing their own cultural world, anthropologists need to look more deeply into the power of survival (…). (p.50).

I felt very satisfied that I had dealt with this critical incident in such a successful way. Every lesson the relationship between Ariel and me improved a lot. I was so pleased that he could learn a lot of things and that he seemed to enjoy that process of learning. What is more, he did not escape from the classroom anymore and I was also very happy that I had probably contributed to this change. This incident stands out for me because I did a small thing that had a very positive outcome. When I became aware of this student's situation, I could do something about it and I felt very proud of it. It seems important that the headmaster and the teacher in charge of the course should act in situations like this. Perhaps several actions should be introduced to ensure that all students' progress is monitored and encouraged informally regardless their behaviour or personal problems they may have.

Reference

Brown, H.D. (4^th ed., 2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Fujimura, C. (2005). Russia’s abandoned children: an intimate understanding. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved October 2011, from http://books.google.com.ar/books?id=bQby48u0wU0C&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=how+do+abandoned+children+behave?&source=bl&ots=mpk4tW4Kb6&sig=38l6KKEdq5nxbdlyffuaRLLnZSY&hl=en&ei=YROPTpSYOsTj0QG625ET&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Critical Incidents and the Integration of Theory and Practice

When I first saw the title in the article of Fernandez González, Elórtegui Escartín, and Medina Pérez (2003), I immediately came back to my old days at the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) College. Even though I finished it two years ago, I still feel that it would have been very useful to learn from the very beginning how to observe, analyse and reflect upon the problems that may arise in a classroom. In order to be prepared to stand in front of a classroom, we should reflect not only about what we have to teach, but also how to apply all that in a critical situation, for example.

I consider that it is a great idea to make use of Critical Incidents (CI) as a strategy during the initiation in TEFL College because critical incidents help teachers to be resourceful, to learn how to work within a team group and the importance of it, to develop their common sense and to avoid inadequate actions when we are exposed to a conflict situation in a classroom. To have an ace up your sleeve, as one of my teachers always said. All this, is about trying to make a match between theory and practice. Fernandez, Elórtegui and Medina (2003) revealed in one of the possible causes for a problematic situation that “Las prácticas no se corresponden temporalmente con la teoría que se explica. Eran las mismas prácticas para tres niveles diferentes, independientemente del temario que se desarrolla en las clases teóricas” (p. 109).

Altogether, As Tejada (1996) describes, “La reflexión es el eje que relaciona, confronta, diferencia e interioriza ideas nuevas con las anteriores” (as cited in Fernandez, Elórtegui and Medina, 2003, p.102). In other words, we have to reflect about what to be a professional means and thus what should be taught at the TEFL College.

Reference

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17-001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved October 2011, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=12816