- The document discusses several topics related to professional development for teachers, as outlined by various authors. - It examines goals for continuous professional growth, qualities of effective language teachers, the importance of classroom observation, collaborating with other teachers, and maintaining a commitment to lifelong learning. - The evaluation agrees on the importance of setting goals, taking risks, and developing as a professionally competent teacher through practice and staying updated in one's field.

1. UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE LA SANTÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN
FACULTAD DE EDUCACION
PEDAGOGIA EN INGLES
Professional development
“Reaction Paper”
English Methodology II
Mg Roxana Correa
Student: Makarena Sánchez C
Concepción, November 19th 2013.

2. Reaction paper
Summary
Brown (2001), stated that teachers once they finish their degree, they should
encourage themselves the idea of continuing their professional development, and keep up
with the latest innovation. For that reason he defined eight different goals, which contribute
to do a more favorable job of teaching. The first idea pointed out was to follow the rules of
peak performers, such as set realistic goals, set priorities, take risks, and practice principles
of stress management.
The second idea is related to the features that a good language teacher needs to
develop, for example, professional citizenship, cultural adaptability etc. Another topic into
discussion was classroom observation, mainly because once teachers get into a teaching
routine, it is complicated for them to take the time and to asses one another. The fourth idea
was connected to classroom research; many academics think that it would be more suitable
to leave that job to a researcher, who is more efficient for that area. The following idea
talked about teaching collaboration, which requires the help of other, in order to develop
professional competence, which includes four ways of learning, for example from teacher
to teacher, named peer-coaching etc. Consequently, critical pedagogy is also a suggestion
that learners should think for themselves openly. Finally, agent for change emphasizes the
need to make changes in today’s world.
As Pettis (2002) established, it is the teacher’s role to promote student’s
communicative competence, which means that if the goal of a teacher is to ensure
communicative competence, then it correspond to them guarantee that they have the
necessary principles, knowledge and skills to accomplish it, these three requirements are
linked in the professionally competent teacher. Another item to take into consideration was
the contradiction between teaching only speaking or grammar items, due to the fact that
there are few professors who claimed that speaking is inadequate preparation to teach
English, while other rely particularly on grammar, if so then those teachers must be expert
to do it.

3. Additionally, she also referred to novel teachers, and experienced teachers; the
difference lies in that a novice teacher is concern with what to teach, whilst experienced
teachers want to know how to teach. The last topic Ur (2002) mentioned is related to the
personal commitment to professional development, making emphasis that it is our
professional duty to become updated, to look for opportunities, and to be competent of the
demandsnowadays.
As mentioned by Taylor (2002), it is important to take into consideration that a
teacher never stops learning, and for that reason it should be relevantto apply some kind of
research, she basically emphasized the importance of doing research when teaching.
Nonetheless, the author also suggested that the first question that a teacher has to make
himself is, whether what he has been wondering about, does it really matter? So at the end,
it leads teachers to get to know more about his students, to meet with new challenges as
well as to make improvements in certain area, depending on what they want to discover.
In order to do a research, it is needed to think in certain aspects, and to follow some
steps, such as if the researcher would need to collaborate with other, with a group work or
do it by himself, if his topic has been taken by other authors, by taking this decision the
next move will be how to start his investigation, where to focus, how to collect the
information, who are going to be the participants, and to determine some expected results.
All those levels are significant so as to propose new findings.
The term “professional” was discussed by Ur (2002), who suggested that the
definition has been broadly used, so it would be pertinent to establish the term under some
restrictions. However, the definition is quite different in contrast with other concepts. In its
more deep analyzes, somebody who is a professional must present all the skills, knowledge,
and conventions in comparison to the lay population, who do not have it. Another concept
was the distinction between the professional and the amateur, who the difference is
primarily focused on their performance on the field, a professional prepares himself to do a
competent job, the amateur does it only for entertaining or simply love of it.
The other two concepts were professional versus technician, and professional versus
academic. The first one, it is focused on their skill, that means that a technician tend to

4. develop his skills through experience, while a professional need both to acquire the skills
and to be able to take courses of action. For the last two concepts, these differ between one
another, because a professional is an agent of real-world change, meanwhile an academic is
an agent in order to improve his personal way of thinking.
The research done by Hayes (2000), analyzed the deficit of cascade model of
teacher development. For the same purpose, different strategies were applied in order to
introduce innovation to the problem, and to improve the quality of teaching English. One of
the advantages of implementing this new innovation is that, it does not require long periods
out of service. The process will depend strictly on how engaged the teachers are with the
project.

5. Evaluation
Nowadays, most people agree that teachers need to implement new ways of
teaching, according to the student’s need, to be updated bringing up new ideas and so on.
However, it would be important to take into account that teachers also need to prove
themselves about what they are capable of, and to set both their goals and purposes. I agree
with Brown (2001), who suggested that as peak performers we should follow, or at least
keep in mind a few rules, such as set realistic goals, because knowing which are your
weaknesses as well as your strengths allow to boost the best of us, and also to accept new
challenges; this year I was supposed to apply for a scholarship in U.K, so I set up the
TOEFL IBT test; nonetheless, at that time, I did not know for sure that reading was my
weakness, I knew that speaking ability was my advantage, for that reason I did not reach
the necessary points. Consequently, following with the second rule, we teachers have to set
priorities, in my case if the TOEFL did not work, there must be something else I could
apply to, for example British Council or Amity program. It is important to think of what is
most relevantand in this moment I consider that being exposed to real English in a foreign
country is an excellent opportunity, I also take into account that it is a risk, for being away
of my family for monthsor get totally independency, but we need to take that risk, because
in the end it would turn into an experience that will teach a lot. As an in-service teacher,
and what I saw in high school is the fact that teachers must necessarily apply a few
principles for classroom management, sometimes it gets really frustrating to deal with long
hours of work, the students’ behavior, and also the constantly pressure of parent’s demands,
in order to success in classroom, but as it was previously said, teacher may request put in
practice some priorities, to put certain limitations, and to know what I am capable of to do
as a human being.
According to the list that Allen in Brown (1980) proposed for a good language
teacher, it covers all the characteristics a good language teacher should have, ideally.
Unfortunately, in the reality the facts are quite different, one of the items I consider less
accomplish by teacher is related to be competent prepared as a TESL; mainly because the
majority of teachers does not take full responsibility of what being a teacher really means,
most of teachers once they got their degree do not decide on continue their study, or to be

6. updated; moreover, there is also a lack of professional citizenship, that is to saythere is not
a duty beyond the society or with the students. That is why I believe that teachers should be
able to, as well as we expect good results from our students, then we should also provide
good sources for them. Following the previous idea, Brown mentionedthat all the features
divided in four aspects for a good language teaching. I could say that the one I have
developed the most during my practicum at school is interpersonal skills, since I have dealt
with different levels, and all of them are different, students think, act, study in different
ways. However, I still need to improve my pedagogical skills, how to apply strategies, how
to make the class more efficient and how to execute lesson plans, but I know is just a matter
of practice. The other two aspects technical knowledge and personal qualities, I have been
developing since I started in the university and some of them before that, I rather be
organized as much as possible to manage the time and to set new goals.
Another issue that occurs among teachers is the lack of classroom observation with
other colleagues. Once teachers get into the same routine at school, it is complicated to find
time to assess and see other teachers. I believe that as well as we receive feedback from our
teachers at university, we should not lose the same chance to receive opinions from other
teacher’s perspective, in this way we will be able to enhance our teaching methods, and will
cause an enriching experience for both the observer and teacher. As far as education is
concerned, we could infer that experts are the most suitable when it comes to do research.
However, we are the educators; we are the ones who know about it. From all the
alternatives that Brown added for the process of professional developing, I would suggest
to put in practice team-teaching or action-research, every time that I have to work with
classmates, I think about the time we got and the quality of the work we have to provide, so
a useful tool for this kind of assignment is to divideresponsibilities within the group, and at
the end we all give corrections if it is needed. I also choose action-research, because it
demands a deepresearch in a certain area, and to collaborate with other co-worker, for
example, during this semester with my group, we have been working on our thesis, our
research as we have seen so far will take a lot of work, but it is not impossible. Finally, I
believe that we have to give our students opportunities, to make them think for themselves,
but more importantly to trust in them as they rely on us.

7. Accordingly, the concept of action-research was mentioned by Taylor and Brown,
both agreed thatclassroom-research is more valuable when the researcher is the teacher,
because he is the one who knows about the area, even though researching requires statistic
and number, there can be a researcher as a helper. Whenever I am at school for my
practicum and I talk to my in-class teacher, we always come up with ideas for the students,
unfortunately, some of those ideas do not depend on us, but at least we are aware of the
deficiencies that students or event the school demand.
However, research is not only about what I want to know. There are other factors
that contribute to it, and one of them is deciding if I want to work alone or in collaboration
with peers, for this aspect it would be better to analyze how you work best. In my opinion,
collaborative work works best for me, because there might an item which I am not good at,
so someone else could be in charge of that part, at the end it turns into more practical task.
What is more, I need to be sure if my topic has not been already published by somebody, if
that is the case, I think that the theme should not be changed at all, on the contrary I can
adapt it, for example, If I decided to talk about the advantages of bilingualism, and it has
been already talked before, then I can become interested about the advantages of
bilingualism particularly in task-switching, so at the end I keep talking about the same
topic, specifically on an area. One detail I disagree on is the fact that Brown stated that
classroom-research is not carry out for a thesis or for a journal. If I take into account the
earlier example, I think it can be apply to a classroom-research, for instance if I want to
analyze how bilinguals perform in task-switching, I will need to evaluate a bilingual school
versus a private school with the same level of English, it would be possible to do it, and of
course it would contribute to my own understanding of the teaching-learning process.
Pettis (2002) referred to principles, knowledge, and skills as mechanisms of
promoting the development of the students’ communicative competence. If one of these
three items is missing, then a teacher could not become into a professional competent
teacher. Indeed, I admit that those three characteristic need to work along. On one hand,
we need to provide the skills, to manage a class and provide effective material, which is
also mentioned by Brown (2001) who named pedagogical skills that are based on the

8. strategies implemented in a classroom. On the other hand, we also have to demonstrate ad
put into practice our knowledge.
However, there is an interesting idea in which I disagree. There is a contradiction on
whether English should be taught by developing speaking abilities, rather than grammar
features. From my perspective and what I have learned, I think that both abilities should be
acquired by the students. Since I started practicum, my teachers always have told me that
we need to encourage students to work under the communicative approach, and to make
them speak as much as we can. Nevertheless, at the different school I have attended, I
realized that teachers tend to apply grammar activities in all times. Most of my in-class
teachers have said that there is not enough time to do speaking activities; they do not
believe that their students would do it, among other opinions. First of all, as teachers we
need to trust in our students and their capacities, we have to provide them opportunities to
use the language, and finally to make them develop productive skills, there are going to be
context in which somebody will need to speak in front of people, as well as he will need to
write an important document.
Pettis (2002) also alluded about the different needs that a novice teacher and
experienced teacher have. It is supposed that novice teachers are concern about what to
teach, while experienced teachers are focused on how to teach. Although I am a student,
every time that I have to create an activity, that I have to prepare my lesson plan for my
microteaching, I have to cope with the question how I will do it? And I am not an
experienced teacher. Once more there is a disagreement between both concepts. Last but
not least, it is our commitment to worry about our professional development, just as Brown
(2001) claimed about it. Since I started my major, I have attended different conferences,
seminars; I have checked different textbooks that can be useful for me. We need to do what
everything it is in our hands, at least that is my personal plan.
I recognize that it is important to have a clear thought about what being a
professional really means, sometimes concepts are bad manipulated; besides, someone
might be called professional by the simple fact that he or she is skillful with some degree of
experience, but it is not appropriate. The definition for professionalism provided by Ur
(2002) and Pettis (20002) agreed in three terms previously mentioned, a professional must

9. integrate the skills, the knowledge and the principles to be consider a qualified professional.
This assumption of professionalism was contrasted with other notions.
In first place, Ur (2002) proposed the difference between a professional against lay
person, amateur, technician and academic. The ones which personally I choose, because I
have experienced them are amateur, technician and academic. The amateur as the definition
explains, does things for love, which makes me remember when I started to loving English
because of the songs and the movies that I still listen to, but I also consider myself as an
amateur, when I was in high school I used to do tutorials for the ones who have trouble
learning English, and I loved to teach them, mainly because I used to speak a lot in English.
The second classification belongs to technician, which is also linked to what Pettis (2002)
said, a technician is only skillful in a few aspects; instead a professional needs to be
developed in all areas of expertise. Finally, there is a controversy between professional and
academic. However, for what I have noticed and understood during this year, a professional
would be the agent of change, in order to improve an element of his concern, for example,
teachers at school, whereas an academic does things in order to boost his thinking by
finding more information based on his matter, as an example a teacher who wants to do a
research of a particular area, to obtain a master degree.
Furthermore, I certainly agree with Ur (2002), I as an undergraduate student, I am a
professional, I belong to a community that is seeking for learning, during this semester I
have seen how teacher are implementing new test in order to know our level of English, so
that is to say that we are committed as long as we take full responsibility of our job. I
communicate ideas, in order to improve my methods. I never stop learning. I get
independency in my own classroom and I am responsible for disciplining the future
generations.
The investigation made by Hayes (2000), discussed the alternative of introducing
innovations to the cascade model effect. Therefore, as personal reflection, I do not assure
the benefits that a cascade model could provide, because the information changes as it goes
down, so the idea is that the information will be trustworthy, and to reach the main goal
which is to make progress about the quality of English, even though somebody can seen
this new methods as a threats, but it is necessary. However, I consider remarkable the idea

10. of implementing new ideas, because as Brown (2001) stated, we as teacher are agents of
change, and the only question that matter is where and how do I need to make the change?
Furthermore, there is always a risk on whether it will work or not, but it is worthy to make
the effort.

11. References.
Allen, Harold. B. (1980). What is means to be a professional in TESOL. Lecture presented
at the conference of TEXTESOL, April.
Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language
pedagogy (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.
Hayes, D. (2000). Cascade training and teachers' professional development.ELT journal,
54(2), 135-145.
Pettis,
J.
(2002).Developing
our
professional
competence:
Some
reflections.
Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice, 393396.
Taylor, E. (2002). Research in your own Classroom.Methodology in language
teaching,
397-403.
Ur, P. (2002). The English teacher as professional. Methodology in language
an anthology of current practice, 388.
teaching: