Presentation given at IATEFL 2015 Manchester

2. Why Blog?
• Seven reasons why teachers should blog

3. My Journey as an avid blogger

4. Why Blog?

5. Potential opportunities afforded by academic blogging
Exposure
Engagement
Networking
(Mccrea, 2010)

6. Blogs invite networking
«Sharing a responsibility of
the modern educator» by
Jackie Gerstein

7. Blogs allow construction of knowledge

8. Blogs can support professional identity
development
• Blogs making public and explicit one particular
person’s values, perspectives, and thinking-
online identities for the authors
(de Moor &Efimova, 2004, in Luehman 2008)
• Blogs developing social alliances;
«...one key way people define themselves is through
what Gee (2001) referred to as “affinity groups,” people
who are bonded primarily through shared practices,
goals, and endeavors- interactions that support identity
development».

9. BLOGS PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES
FOR REFLECTION
Image Credit: Greg Miller 21st Century
Leadership

10. Reflective Practice
• «a process of internal dialogue
facilitated by thinking or writing
and through external dialogues
and reflection together with
others» (Clarke 2003)

11. Reflective Writing & The 5Rs Framework for Reflection
5R Framework What is it? Critical Quesions to Ask
Reporting A brief descriptive account of a
situation / issue (ie.the
reflective trigger)
What happened, what the situation /
issue involved
Responding Your emotional / personal
response to the situation / issue
etc
Your observations, feelings, questions
about the situation / issue
Relating Personal and/or theoretical
understandings relevant to the
situation / issue
Making connections between the
situation / issue and your experience,
skills, knowledge and understanding
Reasoning Your explanation of the situation
/ issue
Explaining the situation/issue in terms of
the significant factors, relevant theory
and/or experience
Reconstructing Drawing conclusions and
developing a future action plan
Your deeper level of understanding about
the situation / issue that is used to
reframe / reconstruct your future practice
and further develop your understanding
of professional practice

12. Levels of Reflection
Critical reflection
Dialogic
reflection
Descriptive
reflection
(Hatton & Smith, 1995)

13. Descriptive: «A Challenge to Embrace- Motivation»

14. Through descriptive reflective passages
• Providing number of reasons why motivation
can be a challenge
• Exploring relevant literature
• Listing professional & personal reasons to
instigate action
• Analyzing own professional practices

15. Dialogic Reflection: «Podcasts in Our Class»

16. Dialogic Reflection
“We onlystudy for exams and I don’t enjoy
learning English”commented one of my
students today. I understand this comment
and agree with it to a certain extend but on
the other hand I have a weekly outline that
I need to follow. I need to cover some
certain objectives and materials as a
teacher!! Students do not like listening to
lectures and recorded listening of the course
book and then having discussions about the
topic they listened to all the time. At times
they resist to speak in English, and shift
back to Turkish. But, then… Can there be
more enjoyable way(s) of catering for the
needs of the students and the curriculum?
• Making concious
connections between
peadagogical beliefs and
and classroom practices

17. Critical Reflection
• Constructing realities of teaching
• Reconstructing understanding
• Developing future action plans

18. «Reflections on Language Assessment»

19. Benefits of Reflective Practice
• Recognition of teaching as an art
• Challenging tradition
• Fostering understaing and respect for diversity
in applying theory to classroom practice
• Development of a deeper understanding of
one’s own teaching
• Increasing effectiveness as a teacher
• Validation of teacher’s ideals (Schön 1983)

20. Blogging and Reflective Practice
• Promoting critical and reflective thinking on
individual level
• Promoting reflection at a broader group level
through Online Communities of Practice
«Distributed cognition is powerful in describing the
ways in which teacers draw upon networks within
and beyond school to collaborate and share
expertise, rather than act as isolated individuals»
(Putnam & Borko, 2000; Wenger 1998 in Killeavy 2010)

21. In conclusion