This article illustrates how you can plan for your professional development as a teacher. A reflective journal being featured is a result of a research finding. Read the steps and a sample on how you can use this professional activity to advance yourself professionally.
Steps in Using the Reflective Journal
If you are a teacher, and would want to use a reflective journal as your professional activity for self-direction, here are steps you can follow:
- Have a notebook and a ball pen for the journal;
- Think of a particular problem that you have, for example, a pronunciation problem;
- Identify the reasons why that problem exists;
- Look for strategies or activities that can improve your pronunciation skill such as listening to native speaker or to someone who is good at pronouncing words, using a speech laboratory or imitating and producing the sounds correctly, using audio and video tape analysis, among others;
- Use or apply the pronunciation activity/ies chosen; and
- Evaluate or assess your progress or improvement in pronunciation.
Sample Plan of Professional Development using Reflective Journal
Now, take a look at this sample.
Date: January 19, 2011
Topic: Improving My Pronunciation Skill
Questions to Ponder:
- What are the words I cannot pronounce well?
- How did I know that I mispronounced them?
- How would I correct my pronunciation?
- What do I need in order to improve my pronunciation? Should I listen to a friend who is good at pronunciation or would I go to a speech laboratory in order to hear how I produced the sounds and check them there?
- Are the strategies effective in improving my pronunciation? What are the indicators that my pronunciation skill has improved? What assessment tools should I utilize?
Reflections:
In this part, you may now reflect as to how you progress in your activities. You may also indicate the effectiveness of reflective journal as a self-directed professional development activity.
With the example given, the teacher may start writing a journal using the suggested format below:
Date:
Topic:
Questions to ponder on:
Reflections:
Since you already have an idea on how to write a reflective journal, you may start planning for it. For example, you may talk to your principal or department head that you would like to engage in this activity by writing a weekly journal for a period of 3 months. Or, you can have it daily for a longer period of time, say 6 months or one year. But your plan should be realistic. Just do only what you can do without giving yourself much pressure.
This activity can give you more benefits. Aside from helping yourself, you can also make this as your action research. So, try this professional development activity soonest and see the results!
© 2015 January 12 M. G. Alvior
