Becoming the Best Teacher YOU Can
Chris Johnson (cjohnson@stjames.es)
The Action Research Cycle
Reflect

Self-Reflection (possible questions to ask yourself
Where are you now as a teacher? What is special about your teaching? Where do you want to be?
How effective is: my classroom management, my error correction
How effective am I at: Teaching grammar, Teaching pronunciation, Teaching lexis
How do I help my learner develop their: listening skills, reading skills, writing skills, speaking skills
How good am I at creating: a supportive environment, rapport with my learners

Other ideas
Observing yourself (Complete a reflection journal during and
after classes)

Student feedback (student feedback books to be completed at
the end of the class with general or guided questions, weekly or
monthly roundtables)
 Film yourself in class (Then review it and give yourself
feedback)
Plan
 Having highlighted the areas you want to work on, create specific
actions to meet these. They should be SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based.
e.g. I need to provide more error correction
Action Point 1: Over the next month, I will pick up on 3 errors during each
speaking activity
Action Point 2: I will have a error correction slot at the end of each class
Action Point 3: Every class, twice, I will provide a slot for peer correction.
Act and Observe
To analyse what impact the actions have had we can use the same ideas
when we reflect (Self-Reflection, Observing yourself, Student feedback,
Filming yourself in class)
Areas to consider exploring
Here are a few interesting areas to research:
Process Vs Product writing, developing listening/ speaking /writing/ reading/
pronunciation, teaching grammar, catenation, teaching Spanish speakers, increasing
motivation, promoting learner autonomy, teaching speaking strategies, Demand high
teaching Dogme, (De)Suggestopædia, the silent way, grammar translation, the lexical
approach, situation language teaching, the direct method, counselling learning, audiolinguistics, the natural approach, task based learning, humanistic approaches
My Action Plan
1. How am I going to decide what areas to work on?
2. After creating my action plan, how am I going to evaluate any
improvements?
3. Without having followed the action research cycle, are there any areas
that I already know I want to work on?
If so, what are my SMART action points going to be for these?
4. What areas am I now considering exploring, researching or
experimenting with?