What experienced teachers DO and expert teachers DO NOT take for granted in foreign language instruction: A critical incident study
What experienced teachers DO and expert teachers DO NOT take for granted in foreign language instruction: A critical incident study

Summary/Abstract: The article previews an extensive research project on the phenomenon of expertise building among teachers of English as a foreign language in Poland. It presents a pilot study encouraged by and rested upon the assumption that experience of classroom practice is valid yet insufficient a ground for both teacher cognition and expertise to grow. What it takes to articulate well-informed professional judgments — a legitimate necessity in high profile domains — is constantly renewed specialist knowledge and principled intellectual effort, including systematic examination of critical incidents in and outside the classroom. Presumably, when captured and rigorously analyzed, they can enable teachers to take evaluative insight into their performance and cognitive representations, and to transform their experiences into a better awareness of didactic choices they make on a daily basis. The sample incident which the article outlines — selected and investigated by a seasoned university-based teacher of English — interestingly demonstrates how an ill-considered response to an adverse occurrence in class exposes the teacher’s competence and yet initiates her quest for understanding of what actually happened, which eventually leads to a clear-cut didactic diagnosis. Limited in its scope, the account calls for a further inquiry and a serious academic discussion within the field of foreign language didactics about how experienced teachers approach what they find problematic, and how their teaching behavior determines their professional status.

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