134
5.6.1 Change in pedagogic disposition to dominance
The productive disruption in Maya’s teaching practice and her identity as a teacher as a result of mediated self-evaluation encouraged her to imagine her future
identity as an English teacher. A comparison of Maya’s teaching practices in the video recording of her lesson before the self-evaluation activity with her teaching practices in
the video recording after the self-evaluation shows a significant difference in Maya’s identity and expression as teacher. Maya transformed into a more ‘democratic” teacher.
She does not try to exercise too much control over the students’ learning, she reduces the amount of time she spends talking during lessons by inviting the students to be more
active participants in classroom discussions, and she provides more opportunities for the students to ask and answer questions voluntarily. As a result, Maya’s teaching practice
is no longer determined by a pedagogic disposition to dominance. Maya’s change in her pedagogic disposition to dominance was greatly
influenced by her engagement in collegial dialogues. An example of collegial dialogue transcriptions is found below.
JOKO: Or maybe you can also do brainstorming when you test them? HANI: Or maybe you can use movies? You never do it right?
JOKO: Where is your class? In traditional or multimedia language laboratory? MAYA: In traditional language laboratory. If I want to move my Listening class to Multimedia
one, who should I contact? ANDI: Yes. You can move your class to the multimedia laboratory. You just need to contact
Mr. Tamam or Mrs. Arining. I have Mrs. Arining’s phone number if you want. I think using video in your Listening class will be more effective. I am also teaching Listening subject this
semester. My students are active and their grades are just fine.I have some good videos for teaching Listening as well. If you want to, I can lend them to you.
MAYA: Wow, that’s great.
The collegial dialogues provide Maya with opportunities to hear from other teachers how she might address the limitations in her teaching practices. By sharing her thoughts
about the monotonous nature of her teaching with her colleagues, they were able to provide suggestions on how to use a greater variety of teaching materials during her
listening classes. In addition, as a result of the collegial dialogues, Maya was motivated to move her class to the multimedia laboratory where she could utilise audio and video
devices. Maya’s awareness of her teaching limitations and her inability to resolve her
135 issues alone encouraged to make use of collegial dialogue as a mediating tool in order to
facilitate her development. The multimedia laboratory enabled Maya to engage in more interesting teaching
and learning practices. She decided to use more interesting teaching materials than simple pre-recorded cassettes. In addition to the use of the textbook, Listen Carefully,
Maya also selected various videos from YouTube and the British Council for use. Some were authentic listening materials and others were adapted for listening classroom. The
students now had their own computer with headsets to watch the videos. Maya’s teaching was reorganised to make it more varied including the introduction of the
following practices: brainstorming activities emerging from referential questions provided to the students related to the discussion topic; introducing and discussing
difficult vocabulary items in the video as pre-activities; playing the video and discussing the content; and answering questions related to the video as a post-activity.
The brainstorming activity helped Maya to generate greater student interaction and to provide students with more opportunities to express their ideas in English. This is
evidenced in the excerpt below taken from a recording of Maya’s lesson:
[The topic for listening class will be “Going Abroad”. Maya asks some referential questions before she comes to the discussion topic]
MAYA: Do you have a plan to go abroad? SANTI: Yes to German.
MAYA: Germany? Why Germany? SANTI: Because I want to meet national team football.
MAYA: Football national team. SANTI: Yes, football national team and I want to visit all cities.
MAYA: Okay, so you want to visit all cities in Germany. So you love Germany? SANTI: Yes mam.
MAYA: Okay, how about others? [Chorifa raises her hand] Yes, Chorifa, where do you want to go?
CHORIFA: Singapore. MAYA: Why?
CHORIFA: Nothing. MAYA: So you want do nothing in Singapore?
CHORIFA: I want to visit Universal Studio. MAYA: Only that place?
CHORIFA: I also want to visit Sentosa Island and Singapore Zoo.
136 As the above excerpt illustrates, Maya invited the students to express their ideas in
English by asking a referential question, that is a question that has no specific answer and is used to encourage genuine communication. Furthermore, an analysis of the
classroom discourse shows that rather than making evaluative comments, Maya provides an interactive type of feedback to expand or modify the students’ response.
This is apparent when she replies to the students: “Germany? Why Germany?”; “Why? So you want do nothing in Singapore?”; and “Only that place?” In other words, Maya
does demonstrate the minimum IRF interaction, but uses the third turn to invite further opportunities for the students to practice the target language. This is because the IRF
pattern promotes further interaction more effectively if the teacher employs the third turn to facilitate further opportunities for interaction rather than using evaluative
feedback Anton, 1999; Hall, 1998; Hall Walsh, 2002; Ohta, 2001; Walsh, 2002. In addition, in the above excerpt when Maya asks, “how about others?” she does not
nominate which students answer her question. Instead, she lets the students answer voluntarily.
Another example of how Maya provides the opportunity for students to answer questions voluntarily can be seen in the following excerpt:
MAYA: All right. What about number two? Before I play the recording again, anyone wants to answer? [looking to entire class]
FEBRI: Yes Ma’am. Mexico City [Febri provides an answer voluntarily]. MAYA: Okay, Mexico City. And then, the departure time?
FEBRI: Um…..16:45. MAYA: Yes 16:45. Good.
The above excerpt shows that rather than nominating which students answer her questions, Maya invites them to answer on their own accord by asking, “anyone wants
to answer?” This implies that Maya has become more “democratic” and less “dominant” as a teacher.
Data from the video recording of Maya’s lessons conducted after she engaged in a series of teacher self-evaluation activities also demonstrates that she does not try to
exercise too much control over the students’ learning. She not only employs more interesting teaching activities, she also listens to what the students want in the class
activities. Moreover, she then asks students for their opinion about the teaching material
137 she has provided. The excerpt below shows how Maya listens to the students comments
about what they want to learn:
MAYA: Okay, good. So we are finished with activity two and we still have 10 minutes. STUDENTS: Song Ma’am song [some students say eagerly].
MAYA: Okay, I will give you music.
As the above excerpt illustrates, Maya does not try to over-control what the students need to learn. She allows the students to determine the content of some teaching time
10 minutes. She agrees to play a song as a variation in her teaching to create a more relaxed atmosphere. In addition, on a different occasion, Maya also asked the students
about the level of difficulty of the material she provided to them as shown in the short excerpt below:
[After discussing two different source materials Maya asks the students for their opinion of the materials]
MAYA: Okay. Which one is more difficult, this one or previous one? STUDENTS: The previous.
The above excerpt indicates that Maya is concerned about the teaching material she delivers to the students. It seems Maya wants to provide materials that are suitable to
the students’ ability. The video data also shows that Maya reduces the amount of time she spends
talking by inviting the students to be more active in the classroom discussion. She prefers to address the questions to entire class, as shown in the excerpt below:
MAYA: How can the man get to the office? STUDENTS: On foot [entire class is answering all together, loudly and enthusiastically]
MAYA: Okay, on foot. How long does it take? STUDENTS: 20 minutes [again, entire class is answering all together, loudly and
enthusiastically] MAYA: Yes 20 minutes. And what time he needs to go from the hotel?
STUDENTS: 9.30. MAYA: Okay, 9:30. Great
138 As evidenced in the above excerpt, Maya discusses some questions related to the
conversation she previously played to the students and they answer her questions eagerly. This eagerness suggests that the atmosphere in Maya’s classroom is more
relaxed and that the students now want to actively participate in the classroom discussion. In addition, Maya provides more opportunities to the students to ask
questions following her explanation and discussion of the topic. “That’s all from video, do you have questions?” is an example of how she invites the students to participate.
Maya utilises the whiteboard to explain the learning material to the students more often following the move to the multimedia laboratory. This technique helps the
students to understand her explanations. Overall, the atmosphere of her class is more relaxed and enjoyable and as a result many students are active in the teaching and
learning process. They are enthusiastic to answer Maya’s questions. Maya commented., “I changed my teaching strategy after engaging in teacher self-evaluation activity to
have better teaching so that my students can understand what I explain and get what they want and I want in that teaching” Interview 3, 06062012. In other words,
teacher self-evaluation functioned as a mediational activity to direct Maya’s thinking to implement more interesting and engaging teaching and learning practices. Vygotsky
argued that culturally constructed and organised means mediate human consciousness Lantolf Thorne, 2006, p. 60. In this sense, Maya became aware of now her teaching
practice was a manifestation of her pedagogic disposition to dominance and this awareness has driven Maya to improve her practice.
When Maya was asked about her opinion following her use of more interesting teaching material in the multimedia laboratory, she remarked:
My students were very passive before. They are now more active. When I ask something, they can answer correctly and I don’t need to repeat my questions
many times, maybe two times is enough. It’s different when I only used audio in my class in which I have to repeat my questions many times until four times
for certain part of discussion Interview 3, 06062012.
Maya’s comments are indicative of how the mediational artefacts in the multimedia laboratory such as the computer, video, and headsets have contributed to the change in
her pedagogic disposition. This suggests that her self-evaluation experiences have helped her to change her habitus, reflecting the argument that “habitus is an open system
of dispositions that is constantly subjected to experiences, and therefore constantly
139 affected by them” Bourdieu Wacquant, 1992, p. 133. In addition, Maya’s video
recording and student feedback data affirmed to her the monotonous nature of her teaching style. As a result, Maya became more self-conscious of her limitations and
subsequently made an effort to address her weaknesses by employing more attractive teaching strategies; most notably the use of more varied teaching materials in the
multimedia laboratory. This supports Roth’s 2002 claim that habitus can be changed through particular forms of self-consciousness and actions. The next subsection of the
chapter discusses the changes in Maya’s pedagogic habitus to formalitydistance.
5.6.2 Changes in pedagogic disposition to formalitydistance
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