Learner observation tasks as a learning tool for pre-service teachers

Group power and individual behaviour

Psychological studies of group behaviour have found that individuals behave differently in groups than they do when they are alone. ‘All groups posses a power to influence and establish their own norms of behaviour and attitudes within their community’ (Bany and Johnson 1964:39). What is more all groups tend to make members conform to these norms and values approved by the group. The values established by the group can vary in extremes. A group may display an atmosphere in which the members feel free because of prevailing kindness and friendliness. In another group, an atmosphere of suspicion, jealousy, or high competitiveness may exist. The kind of pressure that operates to influence individual behaviour can be overt and subtle. It can range from mild teasing to strong ridicule if the group member fails to conform. But an observer should take into account that a classroom group does not always give overt evidence of being a cohesive unity. Sometimes a quarrel over an incident that happened during the play period does not indicate the class group is not friendly, or a vigorous disagreement over group work shows a lack of solidarity. That is why every situation should be treated and reflected within a specific context.

5.1.3 Gender differences in behaviour

There are some stereotypes of gender differences in behaviour such as that boys are generally more aggressive, physically and verbally, and enjoy taking risks whereas girls are more sociable, more nurturing and more compliant. Teachers are aware of this phenomenon and they tend to challenge ‘disruptive’ boys and not girls during questioning sessions. Children's interaction with each other is also affected by the gender composition of their working groups. An anonymous reviewer in the studies of Pica, Holliday Lewis, Berducci, and Newman (1991) has noticed that ‘the concept of gender is a relational construct and very much influenced by interlocutors’ perceptions of each other during social interaction’ (Pica et al., 1991:369).

 The description of the task

The overall task (see Appendix 1) is targeted to raise awareness with student teachers about the factors that enhance positive classroom climate and classroom discipline respectively. The second task relates to gender differences in physical behaviour and attitude to each other, the teacher and the lesson in general. Another concern of the task involves studying students’ preferences for seats within different types of seating arrangements. The more advanced aim is to give student teachers a hint about the type of communication as well as the amount of communication that learners produce in different classroom arrangement.

This task is accomplished during the first meeting of a trainee with the class group. Student teachers are recommended to take a position aside from the pupils’ desks to notice facial expressions, emotions and any other physical motions every time the teacher attends to an individual or small group of learners. I have chosen the procedure of teacher’s attendance to learners as a measurement of learners’ behaviour. Although it does not indicate the frequency of occurrence of learners’ behaviour but it gives a student-teacher the idea about the techniques of classroom management, student-student, and teacher-students relationships in particular. For example, if a learner is doing another task different from the lesson objectives the teacher keeps the situation on alert and might attend to the pupil immediately.

A grid of learners’ seating arrangement should give student teachers a rough idea about the method that the teacher employs as it is described above. Gender indication is important as it provides a good picture of social climate and relationship, and teacher’s techniques of classroom management.

Student teachers are guided with some graphical symbols that reflect this or that physical behaviour which typically occurs in the classroom. At the same time pre-service teachers feel free in adding any other symbols for different behaviour than is indicated in the case if they notice during observation. I have introduced graphic symbols to put against every student on the grid without verbal description as symbolic indication is more feasible. This technique permits pre-service teachers to capture non-verbal behaviour that occurs very fast in real time. The system provides graphic symbols that are internationally recognised and comprehensive. Moreover, graphic symbolic indication simplifies the design and further analysis. Graphic symbols reflect concrete non-verbal behaviour and allow an observer to keep and recall the events that have happened during the lesson very easily. After the lesson student teachers have more time to describe the behaviour they observed in more precise words while reflecting on the influence of physical behaviour of students on the classroom climate.

Student teachers are guided with three additional tasks. They are recommended to make some field notices on the learner’s response to the teacher’s attendance. Fixing actual utterances that are produced by learners should promote further recollection of the type and the amount of language produced by the pupils in different positions. Another task provides the idea about learners’ behaviour and comfort while changing their positions. Pre-service teachers should capture the ‘action zone’ (Shamim 1996:123) of students where they feel free in movements without disturbing each other physically. Finally, student teachers are asked to notice and fix the behaviour of learners in two time intervals, at the beginning and at the end of working on the task in a new seating arrangement. In so doing student teachers should infer learners’ preferences for seating arrangement and the amount of time they can work together comfortably.

After the lesson student teachers are recommended to comment on all the tasks mentioned above immediately. During further post-observation discussion they continue their reflection on the relationship between seating arrangement and social climate in the classroom. Analysing gender-related differences in physical behaviour pre-service teachers will infer learners’ attitude to each other, the teacher and studying process in general. As it was mentioned above analysis of the type of utterances and their amount will lead student teachers to infer the influence of seating arrangement on learners’ involvement into the lesson and their progress in learning accordingly. Finally, student teachers will plan their future lesson in accordance with learners’ comfort and preferences for seating positions that provides effective classroom management and eventually enhances pupils’ learning progress.

 Learner motivation

5.2.1 Types of motivation

Motivation is an internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action. If we define the goal and if that goal is sufficiently attractive we will be strongly motivated to do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal. A positive relationship between motivation and second language achievement is arguable among researchers but in general language teachers acknowledge that strongly motivated learners are easier to teach than those who have no such goals.

The best known categorization of motivation in language learning is the distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation. An integrative motivation involves an interest in learning foreign language because of ‘a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other language group’ (Gardner 1985:6). The term ‘instrumental’ describes a situation in which students believe that mastery of the language has ‘some practical value and advantages of learning a new language’ (Gardner 1985:10). The language is treated as an instrument in their attainment of such a goal. Learners can, of course, have both integrative and instrumental motivation as it is impossible to separate two kinds of motivation in every situation of the learning process. Muchnick and Wolfe (1982:273) found evidences of both strong integrative and strong instrumental motivation in the same students.

5.2.2 Constituents of motivation

Constituents of integrative motivation

Motivation is ‘subjective experience’ (Good and Brophy 2000:217) that cannot be observed directly, but it can be inferred from students’ physical behaviour. The key dimensions that demonstrate strong motivation are ‘effort’ which learners put into their learning, ‘persistence’ with which learners continue doing their work in a determined way, and ‘activeness’ which is defined as frequency of participation in classroom contexts. But the first two variables demand high inferences from more observable learning behaviours such as working independently on the task for a long time, consulting with the teacher or the peer when uncertain, working at home with additional material, or display of hilarious emotion in response to the teacher’s reward. Although the relationship between frequent participation and second language achievement remains uncertain it clearly indicates interest to foreign language studying.

The choice of tasks according to the difficulty, the level of aspirations, the amount of effort exerted, and the persistence that learners displayed while working on the task reveals one of the variable of learner’s motivation, their sense of efficacy. As Dörney (1998:119) in his review of Bandura’s (1993) article asserts that people with a low sense of self-efficacy tend to dwell on the obstacles they encounter rather than concentrating on how to perform the task. In contrast, people with a strong sense of self-efficacy approach threatening situations with confidence, they are focused on the task rather than ‘self-diagnostic focus during task-involvement’ (Dörney 1998:120). Student teachers can easily infer this variable from overt learner’s cues on their immediate reaction towards the task they face; learners might complain and mumble about the difficulty, or they approach to the task immediately with or without accompanied exclamations about interesting challenge.

Constituents of instrumental motivation

Instrumental motivation variables are in some way more direct, and more observable. Learners’ attitude to teacher’s rewards and feedback make these variables salient. These variables link task performance to the product that students appreciate, and corresponds to the ‘expectancy + value’ theory (Feather, 1982:33) which holds that the effort students are willing to expend on a task is a product of ‘1) the degree to which they expect to be able to perform the task successfully, and 2) the degree to which they value those rewards’ (Good and Brophy 2000:221). Numerous researches confirm that students do not invest much effort in tasks that are not assessed and valued even if they know that they can perform the task successfully. But it must be admitted that rewards are more effective for increasing effort than for improving quality of performance. Moreover, most researchers agree that praise and rewards are motivating with routine work rather than novelty.

Commonly used types of rewards include: 1. material rewards; 2. activity rewards and special privileges (opportunity to play games, use special equipment); 3. grades, awards, and recognition (honour rolls, displaying good papers); 4. praise and social rewards; 5. teacher rewards (special attention, personalized interaction). Williams and Burden (1997:135) in their extensive review of research on the place of rewards in motivating people notice that material rewards gradually decrease interest in the activity. Whereas system of rewards set up as classroom management motivates towards good behaviour and positive changes, informational feedback rather than controlling is likely to increase motivation towards certain tasks as it enables learners ‘to identify specific aspects of their performance that are acceptable and capable of improvement … and helpful to them to move into the zone of next development’ (Williams and Burden 1997:136).

Finally, we should not deny the role of competition which is seen to be the predominant way to encourage learners to strive to improve their performance as the nature of competition with its prizes and rewards drives learners to volunteer an action and actively participate.

5.2.3 Description of the task

The aim of the task (see Appendix 2) is to raise awareness of student teachers about overall role of motivation in the learning process, and the degree of learners’ motivation to the learning process. Another aim is concerned with factors that are likely to exert a significant influence on learner’s willingness to make personal contribution to the task fulfillment and learning process in general.

This task is accomplished during the second meeting with the class after they have made their first impression about the pupils’ behaviour and relationship with each other and the teacher. Student teachers are recommended to observe six pupils of different gender and language level. The restricted number of target pupils will focus student teachers attention and makes the task more achievable, as they need some time to outline the learning situation and make some descriptive comments. Student teachers are free in choice of the number of female and male learners as it depends on specific a class. The number of female and male pupils can be equal or different.

Student teachers are guided with some observable evidences of low and high degrees of motivation. The choice of these signs reflects various factors that determine pupils’ commitment or lack of it. For example, the facts when a pupil ‘attends the task at once/ after the teacher’s reprimands’, ‘does not obey teacher’s instruction’ reveal pupils’ positive or negative attitude to the task, or the learning process. Observing the behaviour when a pupil ‘complaints about the difficulty of the task’, ‘enjoys working on difficult task’ student teacher can infer pupils’ sense of efficacy whether they under-estimate their capabilities or not. When a learner asks the teacher or his/her neighbour when uncertain it is likely to exert positive attitude to the task. But student teachers should be careful in labeling this desire as integrative or instrumental motivation since pupil responds to the teacher instruction, which might be formulated as getting a good mark, or interesting challenge. The fact when a learner works independently on the task for a long time demonstrates her/his effort invested in the task. But at the same time working for a long time seems to be ambiguous in determination this motivation as integrative or instrumental as it closely relates to students’ language competence, his/her attitude to the task and task instruction. So, student teachers are asked to comment on the manner of working on the task, and emotional behaviour. The fact when learners are glad or upset with teacher’s reward overtly displays pupil’s instrumental motivation, whereas attitude to the feedback should be treated in accordance with the context. Student teachers should judge whether negative or positive feedback is given and its effect on learner’s behaviour. It might raise positive emotions and hilarious exclamations, or frowning and mumbling on the part of learners. The last sign ‘pleas teacher to get a better mark’ is the salient evidence of instrumental motivation.

The frame of the task involves four columns. In the first column the names of learners should be put down beforehand. It allows student teachers to start their observation from the very beginning of the lesson. In the second column opposite the names of the target learners an observer makes some notes about physical, emotional and language behaviour. This task seems to be similar to the previous one. But this time student teachers have to be concerned with student’s willingness and interest to the task and learning process. In the third column student teachers have to outline a specific learning activity. After the lesson they will analyze which tasks promote negative or positive attitude with learners. In the last column an observer has to give any other comments on the situation and motives that caused this behaviour, and defines whether this situation refers to the instrumental or integrative motivation.

After the lesson pre-service teachers are recommended to make brief comments on the relationship between learners’ behaviour and learning activities in order to define which learning activities, instructions promote instrumental or integrative motivation. The third comment that students have to make concerns attitude to the task with different gender. They should be aware of whether motives of female and male students are different in approaching and accomplishing the tasks or the same.

At the post-observation session student teachers should reflect on the role of motivation in the learning process and its influence on the task fulfillment. They might think of the degree the pupils judge their learning capabilities, and the level they value their efforts invested in the task. It will direct pre-service teachers to take into account the degree of challenge pupils face and adequate feedback they expect. Finally, student teachers should consider all these factors in their further planning of lesson activities, formulating their instructions and anticipate appropriate rewards for every task.

5.3 Learner as a doer

5.3.1 Learner as an active participant and reasons of participation

Humanistic, communicative language teaching theories advocate the assumption that learners should be actively involved in day-to-day teaching practice. In its turn in order to encourage learners to take active position in learning process and be more responsible for their progress teachers should take into account that learners perceive, approach tasks, process and solve problems in divergent ways. The reason of it arises out of learners’ intelligence, expectations, aptitudes, strategies and learning styles.

Learning styles, or some learners’ preferences in approaching and processing tasks, are considered to be salient and can be obtained through observing learners’ behaviour. Tudor (1996:114) considers that learning style is characterized as ‘a practically-oriented construct: it is based on … the analysis and grouping of observed behavioural preferences’.

Various researchers define learning style as ‘a consistent pattern’ (Gregoire 1970:234), ‘relatively stable indicator’ (Keefe 1979) which consists of distinct behaviours or characteristics a person learns from and interacts with his/her environment. This definition shows that the term ‘cognitive style’ refers to a very complex set of processes and involves different psychological and cognitive variables. Birkey and Rodman (1995) point out that, just as there are ‘striking differences in the way people learn and process information...there are significant differences in how learning styles are defined and measured’. Different researchers have constructed a great range of bipolar schemes and numerous measuring instruments, such as questionnaires, scales, surveys, to investigate student learning styles.

5.3.2 Areas of learning styles

Reid (1995:x,xi) have grouped different dimensions of learning preferences into three main spheres: cognitive styles, sensory styles, affective/temperament styles. Cognitive learning styles refer to how people learn rather than what they learn. It relates to learners’ ‘habitual modes of processing information and, in a general sense, of organizing their perceptions of and interaction with their environment’ (Tudor 1996:108). Keefe (1979:4) defines learning style as a ‘characteristic of cognitive, affective, and physiological behaviors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment’. Thus, the term ‘cognitive style’ is used to refer to a very complex set of processes, and encompasses various stylistic variables. The most famous and developed variable with application to language learning is field dependence – field independence (FD - FI). Sometimes called global versus analytical thinking this variable reflects on how learners think and process information. The FD learner is one who processes information globally. This learner is less analytical, not attentive to detail, and sees the perceptual field as a whole. This whole resists analysis or decomposition. The FI person on the other hand can easily break the field down into its component parts. S/he is typically not influenced by the existing structure and can make choices independent of the perceptual field. FD persons are more socially oriented, they ‘benefit from positive peer interaction’ (Violand-Sanchez 1995:53) and tend to be sensitive to approval (Chappel 1995:160). They also need more explicit instructions when material to be learned is disorganized. FI learner, because s/he does not need the approval of others, ‘might be the more confident language learner, actively speaking out in class and taking risks’ (Day 1984:74).

Sensory style refers to how people use their senses (seeing, hearing, touching, testing or smelling) in perceiving new information and materials. In learning context the first three of these senses dominate learners’ perception. That is why learning styles are often categorized to a person’s strongest sensory system: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile. Visually oriented learners prefer to read and to obtain information by means of visual stimulus; such learners react fast to stimulus provided by posters, flashcards and charts. Auditory learners are comfortable with oral teacher’s instructions, listening activities and discussions. Kinesthetic/ ‘hands-on’ (Oxford and Ehrman 1993:196) like lots of movement and enjoy working with tangible objects. These learners are good at dramatizing dialogues, playing games, especially which involve physical motions.

Affective learning styles involve temperament of a person. Temperament refers to basic dimensions of personality that are grounded in psychology and explain individual differences in the developmental process. Buss and Plomin (1984) developed a measure based on the following three dimensions: emotionality, activity, and sociability. One of the polar dimensions of affective learning style is extroverted-introverted style. Extroverted learners enjoy conversation, role-plays and other highly interactive activities. They are very expressive and speak a lot, but do not mind being interrupted. Whereas introverted learners are stimulated most by their own inner world of ideas and feelings. In the language classroom they prefer to work alone, listen carefully, but dislike interruption.

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