Masaryk University

Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature

Reflective Teaching and its Influence on Classroom Climate

Diploma thesis

Written by Svtlana Merglov

Supervisor Dr. Rita Chalmers Collins, Ed. D.

Brno 2008

Declaration:
I declare that I have worked on this thesis on my own and that I have only used
the sources listed in the bibliography.
Svtlana Merglov
13 April 2008

Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank Dr. Rita Chalmers Collins, Ed. D. for her kind help,
constructive advice and professional approach she has rendered me in the course of the
production of this thesis.
Svtlana Merglov

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5
Theoretical Part ............................................................................................................................. 6
1.0

What is reflective teaching? ............................................................................................. 6

1.1

Teaching journal .......................................................................................................... 8

1.2

A reflective teacher .................................................................................................... 10

1.2.1

Values and identity. .......................................................................................... 12

1.2.2

Teachers perceptions of pupils ........................................................................ 12

2.0

Childrens perceptions ................................................................................................... 13

2.1

Childrens views of themselves ................................................................................. 13

2.2

Influences on childrens attitudes .............................................................................. 14

2.3

Childrens perceptions of teachers ............................................................................ 14

2.4

Childrens views of one another ................................................................................ 16

2.5

Piagets theory of cognitive development ................................................................. 17

3.0

Classroom Climate ......................................................................................................... 18

3.1

Rules of creating a warm classroom climate ............................................................. 20

3.2

Communication ......................................................................................................... 22

4.0

Action research .............................................................................................................. 23

4.1

Questionnaires ........................................................................................................... 24

4.2

Sociometry ................................................................................................................. 24

4.3

Activities.................................................................................................................... 25

Practical part ............................................................................................................................... 25

5.0

Description ..................................................................................................................... 25

5.1

Research .................................................................................................................... 27

5.1.1

Teaching journal ............................................................................................... 28

5.1.2

Activities and Questionnaire ............................................................................. 31

5.2

Results ....................................................................................................................... 32

5.2.1

Results of the questionnaires ............................................................................ 32

5.2.2

Results of sociometry........................................................................................ 34

5.2.3

Results of activities from Reflective Teaching.................................................. 34

5.3

Discussion.................................................................................................................. 36

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 41
References ................................................................................................................................... 42
Appendices.................................................................................................................................. 44

Introduction
The aim of this diploma thesis is to see whether reflective teaching can influence
me as a teacher, my students and the classroom climate. I have chosen this topic
because I expect that reflective teaching will help me in my teaching, students learning
and hopefully also in the classroom atmosphere, which I think is so essential for
teaching and learning.
Action research will be a part of this thesis therefore I decided to perform the
research with a group of 15 students at the age of 16-17 because their relationships
seemed not to be the best ones at the end of last school year. The book about reflective
teaching by Pollard et al. and other books and articles have shown me a way how my
teaching could be more professional, effective and interesting.
As I have said already teaching is easier when the classroom atmosphere and the
relationships among students and the teacher are positive. Therefore I want to find out if
different reflective activities, various teaching strategies and activities that are focused
on relationships can improve the classroom atmosphere in the class. A questionnaire,
feedback from the students and my teaching journal should bring the answers.

Theoretical Part
1.0 What is reflective teaching?
Reflection is an important human activity in which people
recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate
it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.
(Boud, Cohen and Walker, 1985, qtd. in Introduction to
Developing Reflective Practice 1)
Whenever the word reflection is mentioned a connection with a mirror may
come to peoples minds. Throughout our lives we reflect or should reflect on all the
experience to learn from them. Therefore not only ordinary events but also our approach
to the world should be reflected so that we can develop. Due to the importance of the
profession of a teacher in our society reflective teaching is one of the most significant
activity.
Foundations and characteristics of reflective practice are described in Teaching
Practice in Adult ESL Setting as followed:
Reflective practice is an evolving concept. In the 1930s, John
Dewey defined reflection as a proactive, ongoing examination of
beliefs and practices, their origins, and their impacts. Since then,
reflective practice has been influenced by various philosophical and
pedagogical theories. One influence is constructivism, which views
learning as an active process where learners reflect upon their
current and past knowledge and experiences to generate new ideas
and concepts. A humanistic element of reflective practice is its
concern with personal growth and its goal of liberation from values
that can limit growth. Critical pedagogy, espousing examination of
underlying power bases and struggles, and American pragmatism,
emphasizing active implementation, testing, and refining of ideas
through experience, also shape the concepts of reflective practice,

7
particularly in the United States. (Stanley, 1998; Kullman, 1998;
and Brookfield, 1995, qtd. in Florez 2)
Deweys view on routine action in comparison with reflective action is
mentioned in Reflective Teaching by Pollard et al., where routine action is influenced by
tradition, habit and authority, i.e. it is relatively static. Reflective action, on the other
hand, involves a willingness to engage in constant development. Among other things, it
implies flexibility, analysis and social awareness. They find it both challenging and
exciting (15).
Cruickshank claims that reflective teaching is the teachers thinking about what
happens in classroom lessons, and thinking about alternative means of achieving goals
or aims and again the major purpose is to create good habits of thought and to enable
teachers to develop their pedagogical habits and skills necessary for self-directed
growth (qtd. in Salmani-Nodoushan 132).
Jack C. Richards in his article Towards Reflective Teaching also says that in
reflection experience is recalled, considered and evaluated and this will be a basis for
planning an action therefore for further development (1).
A very important idea in Julie Tices opinion in her article Reflective Teaching:
Exploring Our Own Classroom Practice arises. For her reflective teaching means not
only looking at what you do in the classroom, but also thinking about why you do it,
and thinking about if it works. It is a process of self-observation and self-evaluation
(1). She agrees that many teachers already think about their teaching and talk to
colleagues about it too, nevertheless she points out the systematic process of collecting,
recording and analyzing our thoughts and observations, as well as those of our students
(1).
Moreover reflective teaching is a cyclical process. Florez suggests the following
steps to be taken: collect descriptive data, analyze them, consider how the activity
could be different and create a plan that incorporates new insights. When the plan is
brought into an existence further observation and analyses are performed again (2-3).
What can be the major concern in reflective teaching? Carolin Kreber and Patricia
A.Cranton in Exploring the Scholarship of Teaching from The Journal of Higher
Education introduce Mezirows kinds of reflections that provided three levels of
reflections (478).

8
Content reflection focuses on teaching (e.g. planning courses, using different
teaching methods or evaluation students). The authors call the knowledge about
teaching instructional knowledge (Kreber and Cranton, 1997). This reflection will not
be the subject of the theses (479).
Whereas process reflection which deals with understanding of learning style,
cognitive style, and group dynamics will be partly the main issue of the research. This
pedagogical knowledge (Kreber and Cranton, 1997) is also concerned with how to teach
discipline and how to help students in solving the learning tasks. They compare it with
another term diagnostic knowledge, which includes general knowledge about learners
of given age ranges, their ability levels and learning difficulties, as well as knowledge
about the particular strengths and weaknesses of the entire class and of individual
students (479-480).
In premise reflection which Kreber and Cranton (1997) call curricular knowledge
questions about the goals of the teaching arise. Teachers may ask why they teach the
way they teach and thereby engage in critical reflection on their practice (481).
From all these descriptions it is clear enough that reflective teaching includes
knowledge of self, knowledge of content, knowledge of teaching and learning,
knowledge of pupils, and knowledge of context within schools and society, which was
presented in an article The Reflective Teaching Model (1).
Therefore chapter 1.2 and its subchapters will deal with these issues.

1.1 Teaching journal

All the authors mentioned in the previous chapter agreed on the first step of the
reflective process, which is gathering information. This could be provided by recording
lessons, self-observation, peer observation, student feedback but mainly by writing a
teacher diary often called a journal. (see Appendix A )
Tice defines it as the easiest way to begin a process of reflection since it is purely
personal. She suggests that after each lesson a teacher should write down what
happened, he/she can also describe their own reactions and feelings and those of the
students. Obviously diary writing requires a certain discipline in taking the time to do it
on a regular basis (2).

9
Richards highlights Powells (1985) and Baileys (1990) goals of journal writing.
It should mainly creative interaction between the participant and the self-development
process and between the participant and other participants (4).
However, Pollard et al. claim that teachers data should be collected regularly,
otherwise they are often incomplete and subjective. Then they are only based on
previous experience therefore it might be difficult to break out of old habits and to
develop. On the other hand a very personal diary can provide a vivid reflection of
teachers ideas and feelings. They cite Tharp and Gallimore (1988) who point out that
such a diary may help teachers to enter into a conversation with oneself, which gives
them the opportunity to learn something about themselves (47). Later Pollard et al.
provide other significant reasons why to keep a diary. It is also the fact that it can be revisited in later days, weeks or years to consider both specific issues and the process of
continuing professional development.
Josh Boyd and Steve Boyd in their article Reflect and Improve: Instructional
Development through a Teaching Journal describe three dimensions of reflection
suggested by Jay and Johnson (2002): descriptive, comparative, and critical.
Descriptive dimension deals with what happens in a class. The authors cite
Sparks-Langer et al. (1990) who found the most basic kind of reflective practice to be
concerned with practical and technical aspects of teaching (such as planning lectures,
creating exams, and managing students (111).
Comparative dimension provides a way to compare the current practices with
alternatives: other pedagogical approaches, theories or new ideas for teaching. The
reason again is to improve teaching in the future (112).
Critical dimension. There are two different ways in which reflective teaching can
be critical: in the sense of considering broader implications and deeper meaning of
classroom instructions (Jay and Johnson, 2002), and in the sense of self-critique and
continuous learning and improvement (113).
At the end of the article the importance of keeping a teaching journal is
summarized:
Keeping a journal and, more important, reading that journal, create
more accountability and preserve observations and ideas about
teaching so they can benefit future students. It is not just about
reflection, but about reflection that leads to action, and action that

10
creates improvement. It also provides motivation reading
about past successes and lessons increases our energy level, it helps
us get back into the context of the class and renews our
enthusiasm for the students and the course The teaching journal
is one of the simplest yet most productive methods of selfeducation and continued instructional improvement. (Boyd and
Boyd 113-114)
In all these articles the importance of a teaching journal is emphasized. Definitely
without keeping a record the problems would be forgotten, no analyses could be done
and no further steps could be taken.

1.2 A reflective teacher

Reflective practice is important to the development of all
professionals because it enables us to learn from experience.
Although we all learn from experience, more and more experience
does not guarantee more and more learning. Twenty years of
teaching may not equate to 20 years of learning about teaching but
may be only one year repeated 20 times. There are many times
when our normal reactions to events are insufficient themselves to
encourage reflection. We should not rely solely on our natural
process of reflecting on experience, but actively seek ways to
ensure that reflection itself becomes a habit, ensuring our
continuing development as a professional teacher. (Beaty, 1997,
qtd. in Introduction to Developing Reflective Practice 5)
In the previous chapter Pollard et al. warned against subjectivity. Richards also
points to the danger that without real reflection a teacher only repeats his/her learnt way
of teaching. Later, it may become his/ her teaching style and a teacher will not be
reflective any more because his/her actions may become routine. Then professional
growth will not be possible (1).
What is the definition of a reflective teacher then? How can we become a
reflective teacher?

11
A reflective teacher (also called a researcher of teaching) is a
person who transcends the technicalities of teaching and thinks
beyond the need to improve his instructional techniques. Being
reflective draws on the need for asking what and why
questions. In reflecting on what and why questions, we begin to
exercise control and open up the possibility of transforming our
everyday classroom life. The process of control is called critical
reflective teaching. By being critical, a teacher will have the ability
to see his actions in relation to the historical, social, and cultural
context in which his teaching is actually embedded. Such a teacher
will develop himself both individually and collectively (in relation
to society). (Salmani - Nodoushan 133)
Later, ten principles that guide the process by which teachers can become
reflective are introduced:
1. Teachers must reflect upon issues in the social context where
teaching occurs.
2. Teachers must be interested in the problem to be resolved.
3. Issues must be derived from the teachers own experience.
4. Reflection on the issues involves problem solving.
5. Ownership of the identified issue and its solution is vested in the
teacher.
6. Systematic procedures are necessary.
7. Teachers experience of teaching should provide information
about the issue.
8. Teachers ideas must be tested through the practice of teaching.
9. Tested ideas about teaching must lead to some course of action.
10. New understandings and redefined practice in teaching should
result. (Salmani - Nodoushan 134)
In the chapters about reflective teaching itself, about reflective teachers and about
a teaching journal the main idea is emphasized: if there is no willingness to develop, to
change, if there are no doubts about yourself and your teaching style or if there is no
search for perfection, neither development in teaching nor in personality can be found.

12
That would cause dissatisfaction of the students and of the teachers themselves and of
course failure in teaching and learning process. As it was mentioned above first the
knowledge of oneself can lead to the knowledge of others, which is so important for
creating warm classroom atmosphere. Therefore the next chapter is devoted to teachers
identity and their values.

1.2.1

Values and identity.

This chapter will centre on an important issue: Who am I? Do I know myself?

Without the answers a teacher cannot become reflective. He/she must realize the
starting point and try to develop. Without knowing him/herself he/she cannot
understand others. The question is how sincere is the teacher to himself.
Pollard et al. quote Hall and Hall (1988) where each individual is seen as having
a self-image which is based on a personal understanding of the characteristics which
he or she possesses and on an awareness of how others see his or her self (94). They
also claim that people may have a sense of ideal-self, i.e. some characteristics which
they want to develop. Without this ideal-self no changes can be taken. They point out
significant social responsibility of teachers profession because teachers have an
important influence on their pupils (94).
Easen (1985) distinguishes between our public display, our blind spots, our
dreamer spots, our untapped reservoir and our unknown potential (qtd. in Pollard et al.
95). Therefore if teachers want to develop their self-knowledge they should know the
answers to these aspects. (see reflective activity 5.1 in Chapter 5.3.3 and in Appendix
C) The authors admit that gaining self-knowledge is not an easy task. It is a neverending process that may be sometimes painful. Nevertheless they think that self-growth
is worth taking risks (Pollard et al. 97).

1.2.2

Teachers perceptions of pupils

While in the previous chapter teachers perceptions of themselves were discussed,

in this chapter teachers perceptions of pupils will be examined. It is certain that

teachers must have a concrete idea of what to expect of their pupils. Teachers
experience and their observation should be of a significant help. However, the danger of
teachers preconceptions and prejudices about what children should be like as pupils

13
should be considered (Pollard et al. 100). They cite Brophy and Good (1974) who warn
of labeling or stereotyping which can lead to a phenomenon known as a self-fulfilling
prophecy and could result in considerable social injustices (100), i.e. children who
were believed to be bright would do well but, when there were negative expectations,
then children would not achieve good results.
To create a warm classroom atmosphere, teachers should empathize with their
pupils and help weaker students to feel successful. More will be presented in the chapter
on classroom climate.

2.0 Childrens perceptions

In following chapters, childrens perception will be discussed. Classroom
interaction depends not only on teachers but on the pupils as well. Therefore their view
of themselves, of their teachers and of one another will be the main issues.

2.1

Childrens views of themselves

Everybody will definitely agree with Claxton (1999) and Katz (1995) that the

way that children think of themselves in school will directly influence their approach to
learning, their learning disposition (qtd. in Pollard et al 101). Some children may
feel over-confident, some may undervalue themselves but some may be very well aware
of their own strengths and weaknesses (Pollard et al 101).
It is clear enough that if teachers want their students to have positive approach to
learning, positive self-concepts should be developed among children. Teachers should
provide opportunities where childrens qualities can be appreciated, where children are
encouraged to identify and to improve these qualities (Pollard et al. 103).
Therefore again, creating a warm climate by becoming a reflective warm-hearted
teacher who passes over his/her positive energy to children and who wants to develop
too could be the way. Nevertheless the influence of various factors may stand out of
teachers reach. In the next chapter these will be presented.

14

2.2 Influences on childrens attitudes

Nobody will doubt the importance of a family or an environment on childrens
points of view. Pollard et al. describe factors that influence childrens attitudes:
The family. Parents and their ideas and actions are obviously the first examples
for young children. Though they do not understand parents behavior they tend to copy
it so that they could gain parents love and appreciation. However, the behavior and
values of the family may also run counter to those supported in schools.
Peers at school. They have an enormous influence especially on teenagers who
start rejecting everything their parents and teachers say. They create groups that reflect
the influence of gender, ethnicity, social class, age and physical abilities.
The school. Hopefully, the school also influences childrens perspectives. The
information, values and attitudes are of great importance. The personality of a teacher
should not be forgotten here.
The media and new technologies. Although books used to be the most significant
carriers of culture, they have been replaced by television and computers. Children spend
long hours in cyberspace, which may influence their views (e.g. computer games and
theirs violence, sexist or racist views). However, the possibility to get the latest
information should be highlighted here too.
The community. Each child is a member of wider communities therefore he/she
belongs to a racial group, social groups or they may follow a specific religion. All these
communities help to shape an individuals values, behavior and sense of self. (358-360)
Inborn qualities such as introversion or extraversion influence childrens
perceptions of the world in general. This can be an important factor for their attitude
towards teachers and one another, which could cause problems with communication and
creating relationships in a class. However this would be a question for psychologists
and this thesis will not deal with it.

2.3 Childrens perceptions of teachers

In previous chapters childrens views of themselves and the various factors were
focused on. Whenever positive classroom climate is to be established, childrens
attitudes towards teachers are of great importance as well.

15
Pollard et al. offer a considerable amount of evidence collected. This evidence
suggests that children like teachers who make them learn and who provide interesting
activities, but also those who are prepared to be flexible, to respond to the different
interests of the individual and those who provide some scope for pupil choice, so those
who are firm, flexible fair and fun (108).
Luke Prodromou in the book Teacher Development: Making the Right Moves
offers the lists of a good and bad teachers qualities from his survey; here are some
examples:
Good teacher - is friendly, explains things, gives good notes, lets
the students do it by themselves, gives group work, lets the students
do the lesson together, elicits things known, talks about his/her life,
talks about problems of the school, talks about other subjects, plays
games, tells jokes, is one of the students, does not push weak
students, asks students opinions, is like an actor, is forceful, but
not strict, is educated, knows psychology, uses movement to make
meaning clear, makes sure everyone understood, is funny, reads in
tone that makes meaning clear, gets close to students, has a
personality of his/her own, is experienced, makes grammar clear,
tries to communicate, gives advice, talks about personal problems,
uses questions a lot, talks about the lesson, believes in students,
makes them believe in themselves... (19)
Bad teacher - is very strict, does not let students speak, gives marks
all the time, is fixed in a chair, is dominant, shouts, gives a lot of
tests, forces the students to do things, does not prepare them for the
tests, makes too difficult tests, does not smile, starts the lesson
immediately, does not discuss other problems, only shows
grammar rules, believes the students are all the same, shouts when
they make mistakes, speaks flat, is very nervous, is like a machine,
is not prepared, treats kids like objects, is rigid, is sarcastic and
ironic, does not discuss other things, avoids answering questions,
students cannot laugh or speak... (20)

16
Though these are not the only positive and negative qualities of teachers in
childrens eyes, i.e. other surveys may provide us with different results in the practical
part the results from Bad/good teacher activity will be compared with the qualities
mentioned above. As it was said earlier the views and values of family and especially
those of their peers influence childrens attitude towards teachers too.

2.4 Childrens views of one another

When the factors that influence childrens attitudes were discussed, peers were the
second significant ones on the list. So this chapter devotes attention to childrens
perception of one another. People are social beings therefore even the children tend to
form pairs or groups. Their relations in class are very important because this can affect
their learning. They usually look for their friends subconsciously, i.e. they look for
somebody who is very similar to them. Nevertheless it is also a common case when
children form groups with others who are either stronger or weaker than they are. In
a way they copy the family patterns.
Childrens play is, therefore, an important means by which they can
identify with each other, establish themselves as members of a
group, try out different roles and begin to develop independence
and responsibility. When peer groups begin to form, each member
may be expected to contribute and conform to the norms which are
shared by the group: for example, liking similar games, toys and
TV programs; supporting the same football team or pop group;
liking the same fashions. Group members will also be expected to
be loyal to each other, stand up for their mates, play together and
share things. (Pollard et al 109)
Reflective teaching includes all the aspects of childrens perceptions: views of
themselves, of one another and of their teachers as well as of the world. These aspects
are interrelated with one another. As later Pollard et al claim the relationships to peers
and to teachers affect childrens self-image (110).
As soon as teachers want to create a warm classroom atmosphere they must
consider the relationships among children. Sociometric analysis (see Chapter 4.2 and
Chapter 5.2.2) or observations can help teachers to realize the grouping and relations.

17

2.5 Piagets theory of cognitive development

In this chapter Piagets theory of cognitive development will be briefly discussed.
The way of thinking of teenagers is a complicated one and this thesis will not study this
psychological issue. The reason why Piaget is mentioned here is to show that
adolescents think in a different way and that this might influence their behavior,
relations and classroom atmosphere.
An author from Valdosta State University cites Huitt and Hummel (2003) and
their Educational Psychology interactive and describes Jean Piaget as one of the most
significant researchers in developmental psychology who was interested in how
children think. Piaget noticed that younger ones answered questions differently because
they thought differently. He believed that infants are born with schemes operating at
birth that he called reflexes. In other animals, these reflexes control behavior
throughout life. However, in human beings as the infant uses these reflexes to adapt to
the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes (1).
According to the author Piaget described two processes used by the individual in
its attempt to adapt: assimilation and accommodation:
Assimilation is the process of using or transforming the
environment so that it can be placed in preexisting cognitive
structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive
structures in order to accept something from the environment. Both
processes are used simultaneously and alternately throughout life.
(1)
Four Stages of Cognitive Development are further (2) presented:
1. Sensorimotor stage (Infancy).
2. Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood).
3. Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence). In this stage,
intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols
related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops and egocentric thought
diminishes (2).
4. Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). In this stage, intelligence is
demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Early in

18
the period there is a return to egocentric thought. Only 35% of high school graduates in
industrialized countries obtain formal operations; many people do not think formally
during adulthood (2).
The author adds advice how to teach students who start to use formal operations
(adolescence). He adapted materials from Woolfolk & McCune-Nicolich (1984) in their
Educational Psychology for Teachers:
- Use visual aids such as charts and illustrations, as well a simple
but somewhat more sophisticated graphs and diagrams.
- Use well-organized materials that offer step by step explanations
- Provide students opportunities to discuss social issues.
- Provide consideration of hypothetical other worlds.
- Encourage students to explain how they solve problems.
- Make sure that at least some of the tests you give ask for more
than rote memory or one final answer; essay questions, for
example, might ask students to justify two different positions on an
issue.
- Whenever possible, teach broad concepts, not just facts, using
materials and ideas relevant to the students.
- Use lyrics from popular music to teach poetic devices, to reflect
on social problems, and so on. (1)
Throughout the six months of the research all these pieces of advice were taken
into account. As the students are 16-17 years old, their cognitive development has not
reached Formal operational stage. Hopefully by discussing social issues that are
relevant to their interests classroom atmosphere could be improved. In next chapters the
attention will be paid to classroom climate. As it was pointed out in the chapter about
reflective teaching, the positive classroom atmosphere is an essential condition for
successful teaching and learning.

3.0

Classroom Climate
Classroom climate is quite a wide-ranging concept encompassing
the mood or atmosphere that is created in the teachers classroom
through the rules set out, the way the teacher interacts with pupils,

19
and the way the physical environment is set out. (Freiberg & Stein,
1999 and Creemers & Reezigt, 1999, qtd. in Module Two
Classroom Climate 2)
Rogers suggests that three basic qualities are required if a warm, personcentered relationship is to be established acceptance, genuineness and empathy
(Pollard et al. 120). Later Pollard et al. explain what these qualities mean in the
conditions of school: Acceptance involves acknowledging and receiving children as
they are; genuineness implies that such acceptance is real and heart-felt; whilst
empathy suggests that a teacher is able to appreciate what classroom events feel like to
children(121). Rogers claims that good relationships are founded on understanding
and on giving (qtd. in Pollard et al. 121). The qualities described above are not the
only important ones in creating a warm atmosphere because additional factors are
involved as well:
In the first place teachers are constrained by their responsibility for ensuring that
the children learn adequately and appropriately, second, the fact that teachers are likely
to be responsible for relatively large numbers of children means that the challenges of
the class management and discipline must always condition our actions and third, the
fact that teachers themselves have feelings, concerns and interests in the classroom
means that they, too, need to feel the benefit of a degree of acceptance, genuineness and
empathy if they are to give of their best. (Pollard et al. 122) Woods argues that good
relationships in classrooms must then be based on each teacher having earned the
respect of the children by demonstrating empathy and understanding and by
establishing a framework of order and authority (qtd. in Pollard et al. 123).
In Model Two Classroom Climate an anonymous author shows Borichs
(1996) three types of classroom climate. They differ in the extent to which the
classroom is pupil or more teacher-centered. Most classrooms contain elements of all of
these, but usually one model dominates:
The Competitive Classroom which is teacher-centered, where pupils compete
with one another to give answers. It can motivate pupils and teacher provides
scaffolding for pupils learning, but it may bring damage to self-concept of less able
pupils and the pupils are not taught to work co-operatively (3)
The Co-operative Classroom where pupils are engaged in dialogue, monitored
by teacher, i.e. they bring up and discuss own ideas, but teacher intervenes to clarify and

20
scaffold their thinking. It develops pupils social and co-operative skills. However one
or two dominant pupils can start to dominate, with others allowing them to do all the
work (4).
The Individualistic Classroom where pupils work independently, at their own
level, there are no right or wrong answers, teacher takes a back seat in pupil learning.
It encourages development of independent learning skills, but pupils will not develop
co-operative skills and less able pupils will not make sufficient progress without
teachers scaffolding (4).
It is clear that all three types have their advantages and disadvantages. The class
where the research was done will be classified according to all the signs mentioned
above in the practical part. To create a positive classroom atmosphere is not an easy
task. Words such as acceptance, genuineness, empathy, understanding and giving as
well as a certain kind of order, discipline and authority are of great importance. Many
similar words to those in the chapter about reflective teachers will be found in the next
chapter where rules of creating a warm classroom climate will be provided.

3.1 Rules of creating a warm classroom climate

The author of Model two Classroom Climate introduced above writes that the
most important aspect of classroom climate - as it has been mentioned more times
already - is the relationship between teacher and pupils. Therefore a warm, supportive
environment increases teachers effectiveness and pupils achievement. (4)
In the same article the author describes what a teacher should be like to be able to
achieve a warm classroom climate:
understanding with no sarcastic comments, helpful - not ignoring
pupils, friendly - everyone is valued as an individual, genuine - has
the same attitude away from the pupils, enthusiastic and he/she
should: lead without being overbearing, enjoy teaching, motivate,
have high expectations - all pupils can learn, make sure pupils
respect one another, encourage discussions - to clear up any
misconceptions and clarify pupils thinking, give consistent,
considered and constructive feedback, value pupils work - praises
and displays it and create an inviting and cheerful classroom -

21
bright and colorful with displays of pupils work or posters on the
walls. (5-9)
Some other rules to reach an effective and warm classroom climate are suggested
in Effective Class Management: Teachers should not forget to be polite to students and
should expect the same from them, should not show favoritism towards particular
students, should include all student during lessons and should not let one or two
students monopolize the class and they should be consistent (Underwood 35).
Though all these rules seem to be well known other pieces of advice that teachers
should have in mind are provided in Classroom Atmosphere:
use humor, teach social skills, show students how to build on
strengths and compensate for weaknesses, how to accept and learn
from mistakes, emphasize improvement rather than perfection and
involve students in creating and establishing guidelines for
acceptable behavior (Hanson and Corbett from Development
Team 1).
Whenever students speak out of turn, use inappropriate language or otherwise
disturb classroom activities, without any discipline no creative or positive classroom
climate can be achieved. Therefore some additional rules are given:
Teachers should speak to the student privately to reinforce
expectations and consequences, use proximity or eye contact to
engage the student, use timeouts as a time for self-reflection,
draw attention to the positive aspects the student's behavior or
work first, use a problem solving approach rather than a blaming
approach, avoid overreacting, provide the student with choices so
that they accept some responsibility for the solution to the problem
or place student in an area of the classroom where there is a
minimum of distractions (Hanson and Corbett from Development
Team 2).
Other interesting ideas which can help to build an effective learning atmosphere
and which can indicate our interest in students were presented in A Guide to Teaching
& Learning Practices, Chapter 5 - Managing Students and the Classroom Climate such

22
as: be tolerant of students viewpoints, move around the room, use body language, get
on the students level and share learning, select varied office hours, obtain early
feedback from your students about your teaching (6).
Involving all students as it was advised above can be reached by organizing
students in three basic ways: individual work, pair work, group work and class work.
Nowadays, pair work or group work is very often used. Advantages and disadvantages
are described in Reflective Teaching: These types of work are significant especially in
developing social and language skills; pupils can help one another they learn to cooperate, which is mainly important for less confident or quiet learners who need to feel
secure, and which creates supporting and challenging atmosphere (Pollard et al. 239).
However, very often pupils misuse the groups for talking, the monitoring of group
work or the forming of group itself can cause problems, some pupils do not contribute
to the work (e.g. they either do not have the confidence or the will) or the groups stop
working whenever the teacher leaves them for another one (Pollard et al. 240).
Most of these rules will be dealt with in the practical part. A reflective teacher,
who wants to create a warm classroom atmosphere, must be sincere and needs to think
about him/herself, students, the relations among them and between them and him/her,
about the appropriate organization of work, about maintaining discipline so that
learning can be achieved and many other things.

3.2 Communication
There is no doubt that no relationships can be achieved without communication. It
is the reason why this chapter will be devoted to it.
Though language skills are fundamental but, since communication
involves people, it requires social skills as well. Nor can we forget
the attitudes of the participants, the relationship between them, and
the context itself, for these add another layer of meaning to the
encounter. (Pollard et al. 272)
Para-verbal and non-verbal features i.e. looks, gestures or movements as well as
the way how things are said i.e. tone of voice, pace, pitch, volume etc. are pointed out.
Not to be confused it is essential that all participants know how to communicate
(Pollard et al. 273).

23
Though all participants can talk not all of them can listen, some of them want to
talk all the time or others do not want to speak at all. An important task of a reflective
teacher is to realize who speaks and how often and to help all the pupils to learn
speaking, listening, taking turn and respecting other pupils opinions.
Barnes has developed a hypothesis about the relationship between styles of
communication and views of learning and knowledge. He argues that if a teacher sees
knowledge as content that pupils must learn, he calls it school knowledge, there is no
interaction, pupils only repeat what they had learned; they forget it quickly and it does
not help them in their lives. However, if the teacher sees knowledge as existing in the
learners ability to interpret, then communication will be interactive, and there will be
negotiation between the teachers knowledge and the pupils knowledge (qtd. in
Pollard 274).
This hypothesis suggests the idea that everyone has something to say and that
teachers should provide pupils with possibilities to do so, e.g. by involving pair work.
By talking and listening, this is what communication means, children develop their
perceptions of themselves and the others. Classroom atmosphere must be positive and
reflective teachers must be sensitive to many factors that support it.

4.0 Action research

Action research will be a part of this thesis. The steps of action research are
similar to steps of reflective teaching; Strickland offers: identify an issue, seek
knowledge, plan an action, implement the action, observe the action, reflect on your
observations and revise the plan (qtd. in Gebhard 38-39).
The reasons why teachers should do action research are clear both teachers and
their students can get valuable information about certain issues and the process itself
may help to create a warm classroom atmosphere.
Other reasons were provided in Action Research, e.g. it can help teachers to
notice what they and their students really do, rather than what they think they do, to
change their teaching according to students needs or to increase their knowledge of
learning and teaching (Verster 1).

24

4.1 Questionnaires
There are many techniques of enquiry and other than the teaching journal a
questionnaire will be used in this research. A questionnaire is defined as a useful means
of collecting factual information as well as opinions. It can be closed (asking for
specific data or yes/no responses) or open, which encourages relatively free answers
about pupils thought and opinions(Pollard et al. 58).
In Waddingtons Types of Survey Questions many types of questionnaires were
shown. In this thesis likert-scale was used because students feelings and attitudes
towards classroom atmosphere were investigated. However, at the end of the
questionnaire some open-ended questions were presented so that students could add
their ideas. (see Chapter 5.2.1 and Appendix B)

4.2 Sociometry
As this thesis mainly deals with relationships among students, sociometry will be
a part of the research. It is described as a technique which has been developed to help
children and teachers gain insights into friendship patterns (Pollard et al. 59) To
receive a sociogram children are usually asked to write one to three names of their peers
with whom they would like to work or play. (Pollard et al. 60)
In A Guide To Teaching Practice the importance of teachers understanding of the
relationships that exists among the children in the class is also highlighted because the
results might give the teacher valuable information (Cohen and Manion 146-147). Out
of Morenos sociometric test following categories can usually be found:
- stars: those selected by several members of the group
- mutual pairs: where two children choose each other in their first
two or three choices
- cliques: where three, four or more individuals include each other
in their choice
- chains: where A chooses B, B chooses C, C chooses D and so on
- isolates: those no one in the group chooses
- rejectees: those with whom other children express a definite wish
not to be associated(qtd. in Cohen and Manion 146)

25
Results of sociometry can be found in Chapter 5.2.2.

4.3 Activities
Activities play a very significant role in this research and in practical part more
will be explained. There will be two types of activities: reflective activities that should
help teacher to develop and activities focused on relationships in a playful way. In
Classroom Dynamics, where some activities were taken from, the significance of a
positive group atmosphere that can have a beneficial effect on the morale, motivation,
and self-image of its members, and thus significantly affect their learning, by
developing in them a positive attitude to the learning process, and to themselves as
learners is pointed out (Hadfield 10). Therefore the author offers suggestions for
practical things a teacher can do to improve relations and atmosphere within a group by
performing some activities. However, later she admits that forming and maintaining
groups should not replace content teaching (Hadfield 13).

Practical part
5.0 Description
As it was said in the introduction, this diploma thesis deals with the influence of
reflective teaching on classroom climate. The research was held at the Private
Secondary School of Art at Psek. About one hundred and thirty students attend this
school altogether. Most of the students come from urban areas and are from lower or
middle class. There are 17 teachers, both women and men, where five of them are
Academic painters. Unfortunately, some artists feel superior to academic teachers,
which breaks the team. Nevertheless the relations among the rest of the teachers are
very friendly and there is no doubt that the headmistress supports all the teachers to
develop professionally. Every year students and their teachers have a chance to go either
to France or Italy to see many outstanding works of art. When our students leave this
school, they can either continue studying at various universities or they can start
working as graphic or fashion designers. To pass entrance examinations at Art faculties
is very difficult even for our students therefore many of them study Faculty of
Education to become Art teachers.

26
The school has two parts: a renovated private house of our headmistress where
some of the classrooms are specially designed for teaching practical subjects like
drawing, sewing and designing and a rented part of an old school about five minutes
away where a language classroom, two classrooms with data projectors and an
interactive board and two ordinary classroom can be found. The school does not have a
gym, so the students have to go to another school for their Physical training lessons.
Though the school has no own school canteen, there are two school canteens that belong
to different schools where our students can have their lunch. One of them is located in
the building of the old school and the other one is about ten minutes away.
Fifteen second year students at the age of 16-17 were chosen to be part of the
research. The reasons why these students were selected are following: first, they have
known each other already (it is not a newly formed class where no relations have been
created yet), second, this is not a homogenous group (there are students of completely
different interests and characters; the differences influence the relations very much),
which is interesting for the research, third, there are five boys (quite unusual at this
school where mostly girls are studying), fourth, there is a highest number of students in
a group in comparison with other groups at this school land fifth, at the end of the
previous school year a boy from this class told me that the relationships in the class
were not very good, which was a challenge for me to try to make them better.
The students have three lessons twice a week two on Monday (90 minutes) and
one on Wednesday (45 minutes) after their lunch break. Monday lessons seem to be too
long for them because they look forward to the lunch whereas the students on
Wednesday are either sleepy or too excited after their lunch break. Except for Friday
their school days are quite long; their classes finish at 15.40 because not only subjects
like Czech, English, History of Art, Civics, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and
Technology are taught, but the students have also practical lessons where they draw,
sew, work with computers or have their design lessons.
Classes on Monday are held in a language classroom where desks create a circle
together with the teachers desk because of the wires to the headphones. Unfortunately
the room is quite narrow therefore it is almost impossible to move round. The
communication with students is worse then; pair work and group work can be checked
with difficulties. Though the circle is said to be the best shape how to arrange the desks,
this one faces the whiteboard with the narrow part. It means that the students actually sit
in two rows and they have to turn their heads to be able to look at the board.

27
Nevertheless the classroom is very bright (there are four windows), full of colors, there
are maps of English speaking countries and boards with pictures. Videos and DVD
about English speaking countries or films in English can be played on a recorder.
The classroom used on Wednesdays has the traditional setting of the desks, it is
quite big, other subjects are taught there too, but the pictures from different projects in
English and some plants make it really comfortable and pleasant.
The students are allowed to sit next to their friends, only two very weak pupils
who cannot concentrate on the work all the time sit in the front next to more advanced
students who should tell them what to do. All the pupils except for one who has joined
the class from another school this year are considered advanced because they had been
studying English at least six years before they came to this school. Nevertheless their
knowledge of English is of various levels from a beginner to advanced. More details
about students can be found in Reflective activity 5.3. in Appendix C.
Since September the students have been studying English from a new course book
New Headway Pre-Intermediate, 3rd edition, OUP - that was designed to prepare
students for the new school leaving exam. It took them quite a long time to get used to
the book, but now all the students agree that the book is up-to-date, with many
interesting pictures and articles that motivate students to study and to think about our
multicultural world. This course book brings pair work or group work activities, a lot of
listening exercises and interesting topics for discussions.
I have been teaching for seven years and this school was actually my first one. In
addition to the work at this school I had a part-time job at two other schools in the last
three years - at grammar school (one school year with a group of 11-year-old children)
and at secondary school of commerce (two school years with two groups of students at
the age of 15-17).

5.1 Research
The first step of action research is to identify a problem. The problem identified
was the classroom atmosphere in relation to reflective teaching. The next step is to seek
the knowledge, so to be able to carry out the research. I have read about reflective
teaching and classroom climate in Pollard et al. (2005), where various reflective
activities were suggested (see 5.2.3 or Appendix C) and many articles on the Internet.
Describing the existing classroom atmosphere was the next step. In September the

28
students were given a questionnaire concerning the relationships in the class and I
compared some theory with the practice to see what kind of classroom the specific class
is. After that, planning special strategies where relationships and the atmosphere could
be influenced was performed. Implementation and observation was done during
September to February. Some activities dealt with relations and feelings and others were
meant to release the atmosphere. Students were involved in some projects and in
revising grammar from previous school year. Every lesson is described in my teaching
journal (see Appendix A). At the end of February students were given the same
questionnaire to complete, so that I could find if my reflective teaching had influenced
the classroom climate.

5.1.1

Teaching journal
In all theories about reflective teaching, a teacher journal is of a crucial

importance. Writing this journal was my reflection on my teaching, to students

reactions and their behavior. I decided to write a personal diary because my feelings
create the classroom atmosphere as well. The whole process of writing it was very
interesting; to put down ones thought is more demanding and obligatory. Whenever I
had a feeling that the lesson was not successful I tried to be self-critical and I revised the
plan. This is the most important step, otherwise there would be no reflection and no
progress. At the same time I made some reflective activities that helped me to realize
my state of view but also other alternatives. To be honest, sometimes I had hardly any
time to write down my notes, so it happened that I was delayed in regular writing.
My teaching journal includes all three dimensions described in Chapter 1.1: first,
descriptive dimension because I focused on managing students. Second, comparative
dimension as I tried to introduce new ideas for my teaching e.g. students were to explain
grammar from the last year or they revised vocabulary in a playful way. And third,
critical dimension because I concentrated on self-critique and my continuous learning
and improvement.
Some examples of my teaching journal will be presented here; books about
reflection and classroom climate helped me to understand what should be changed next
time.
To create a warm supported atmosphere does not mean to let students do what
they want. Discipline, as it was mentioned in the theoretical part is crucial issue. The

29
students are at the critical age, many of them have totally different interests than school.
After their lunch break they are either very sleepy or very active. Veronika H. does not
like school and she feels bored, even during the activities or pair work, though she is not
the only one in this class who disturbs. I let my students sit next to their fiends but in
this class it is not always possible. To create working conditions for everybody I had to
think about the sitting order; I had to minimize distraction.
12.9. Wed. Veronika H. was disturbing the class. I will create a
sitting order to avoid disturbing. It is hard because of Monday
classroom where everybody has two neighbors and because I do
not want to punish the good pupils by forcing them to sit with
somebody else
It was really very difficult to decide who will sit next to whom. Many students,
those who are eager to learn something, wanted to sit in the front but I needed the weak
and problematic students (Michal and Erik) to sit near me and moreover to sit with
somebody who could help them with their work. From my observation, and the
sociometric analysis confirmed it later, these boys are not liked by others. I asked the
class about my new ideas and Dan and Jakub agreed to sit with the boys. Two sitting
orders had to be prepared for Mondays and for Wednesdays.
17.9. Mon. The new sitting order was useful.
This sitting order exists till now and the students seem to be satisfied. Teaching is
much easier now. After the research I am more aware of the sitting order in other
classes as well.
Not only sitting order but also certain rules are important to maintain discipline,
so important for learning. Another good piece of advice that I found in the theoretical
part (see Chapter 3.1) was about involving students in creating these rules for acceptable
behavior.
19.9. Wed. Next time I will ask the students to suggest some
classroom rules and punishments because I was inspired in the
Checklist 11.3 and Checklist 11.4

30
24.9. Mon .At the end of the lesson I wanted three groups to
discuss the rules and punishments. What a mistake I have made! I
forgot about the rule of grouping (Reflective activity 6.6) and I let
them chose the group and all five weak students sat together. There
was no outcome; they made fun of it. Therefore I must be more
careful next time. The other groups had some suggestions
concerning the rules. We will discuss them on Wednesday.
I appreciated the effort of the students; some of them take the responsibility for
their behavior; they feel that they are the partners and that the rules are not here to
punish them but to help them. Very important is my awareness of grouping students.
This cannot be done spontaneously, but consciously: students ability and their
communicative skills must be taken into account.
Though I know how significant involving all students in the lesson is and that I
should not let one or two students monopolise the class (Underwood 35), I thought
that calling on everybody would be sufficient. The result was that mostly two or three
students were communicating, the rest was just sitting and listening or feeling bored.
The reason why pair work and group work should be part of the language lesson is clear
now.
1.10. Mon Pair work, now I must agree with all the books that it
is the easiest way how to involve all the students. There is a risk
that the pairs who I am not next to talk in Czech but as I can guess
the students start getting used to speaking English.
However, Dan wanted to monopolize the talking during the lessons though we
had made arrangement that he would not speak without my asking. English is the only
subject he is good at and this is the reason why I do not want to de-motivate him.
However, others should have the chance to speak too. At the end of the research period
he seemed to understand what I wanted from him. He started to raise his hand instead of
shouting the correct answer.
Various activities were introduced during the research to release the atmosphere
and to have fun. Most of them were found in a book Classroom Dynamics, which was
designed for teachers who want to have better relations among and with their students. I
was very surprised that One Big Family-Family tree turned to be the most successful

31
one. Students, even those who do not like some of their schoolmates, created a family;
they accepted one another in a way.
7.1. Mon. First lesson in the New year. Pair work - talking about
Christmas presents. An activity from Classroom Dynamics
Family tree. Similar one to Changing identity but with
relations to the classmates. A real success.

5.1.2

Activities and Questionnaire

There were two types of activities I used during the research period: activities

focused on relations and creating a warm atmosphere and reflective activities, check
lists and the questionnaire. The former were presented to students to influence their
relationships and the classroom atmosphere in general. As it was mentioned above, they
were taken from Classroom Dynamics (see Appendix D) and my comments on them are
in the journal (see Appendix A). The latter were meant for me the teacher to identify the
problems, to realize my points of view, to plan the actions, to observe and finally to
reflect and revise the plans. Most of the reflective activities were suggested in Reflective
Teaching (see Results and Appendix C). All the activities were chosen because they
were connected with the topics, either with reflective teaching or with classroom
climate. There is no doubt that other activities could have been performed, but I
consider these ones very useful.
In this thesis, a likert-scale questionnaire was used. The first eleven questions
were asked at the beginning and at the end of the research, so that I could compare the
answers. Out of fifteen students three were new, they did not fill the questionnaire in
September and three were absent, therefore only nine students could be compared.
Other questiones were added so that I could see what the students wanted to change in
their English lessons during this school year. In February they were replaced by
questions concerning the research (see Chapter 5.2.1 and Appendix B).

32

5.2 Results
5.2.1

Results of the questionnaires

The answers from September and from February were compared and here the

results of only the most important questions and answers will be provided. The whole
questionnaire with its results can be found in Appendix B.
2. Most of my schoolmates in the English class are my friends.
3

2
September 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

rather yes sometimes rather no

no

Two students changed their answer to worse, one to better and two new students
expressed their rather positive relations.
3. I can cooperate with anybody in this class.
4
3
September 2007
2

February 2008
New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

One student changed the answer to worse, two to better. This was a positive
change, which could have been effected by reflective teaching.

33
9. The relationships in this class are very good
3

2
September 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Three students changed the answer to worse, one to better. It is the worst result of
the questionnaire that contradicts the question 12 from Questionnaire II. in February.
In September, students were asked to suggest what could be changed during the
English lessons (question 14). Answers pointed to the needs of student, i.e. more
practice, more discussions, more individual work, more difficult tasks, everything,
nothing or to change weak students with better ones from the other group. The last
comment may be very significant in students relationships.
In February last open questions in Questionnaire II were focused on activities.
12. Do you think that some games and activities we were doing have improved
the classroom relationships?
5
4
3
February 2008
2

New students

1
0
yes

rather yes

sometimes

rather no

no

Eight students - out of eleven - ticked positive answers: sometimes, rather yes and
yes. They liked especially co-operation; it was fun; there was a nice atmosphere, but
also a mess or they could learn something new or exchange their opinions (question 13).
However somebody defined them as a waste of time or boring; badly organized;
somebody complained that he/she had had to think, to work with people who he/she
could not stand or that the peers had not co-operated (question 14).
The most popular activities can be seen in Appendix B.

34

5.2.2

Results of sociometry
The students were asked to write the names of one to three other students with

whom they would like to work or make a project. By sociometric analysis I wanted to
ensure myself about the relationships in the class because my opinions do not have to be
objective enough.
The person on the first place got 3 points, on the second 2 points and on the third
one point.
Dan 15 points, Veronika N. 15, Jiina 7, Pavel 6, Ka 5, Jakub 4,
Zuzana 3, Aneta K. 3, Trang 3, Markta 3, Veronika H. 3, Aneta B. 2, Bra
0, Erik 0, Michal 0
When a sociogram was drawn, according to Cohen and Manion (146), stars (Dan,
Pavel, Veronika N.), mutual pairs (Aneta K. and Trang, Markta and Veronika H., Dan
and Kuba, Veronika N. and Jiina), clusters of friends or cliques (Veronika N., Pavel,
Jiina, Zuzana) and isolates (Bra, Erik, Michal) can be seen.
The results will be analyzed in Discussion

5.2.3

Results of activities from Reflective Teaching

In this chapter results of only some activities will be given.
Reflective activity 5.1 (96) (see Appendix C) analyzes dimension of my self.

Important are my dreamer spots, i.e. aspects I would like to be there: I would like to
be more self-confident, to be more interesting, to have more courage and not to fear
failure, the new, and feeling of not being accepted.
Reflective activity 5.2 (99) (see Appendix C) identifies general aims that I hold
for my pupils learning. I claim that my students should learn to understand that without
knowing themselves and their values, without accepting themselves and therefore
accepting others their lives will not be rich; that there is always a chance to change
either the conditions or themselves (or their attitude) and that responsibility is the sign
of being a grown up and finally that they should speak as often as possible, they should
be able to express their feelings and at the same time to listen to others.
Reflective activity 5.6 Good / bad teacher. First the students were to write good
and bad qualities of teachers in general (see Appendix C). Out of that a list of qualities
was prepared and then fourteen students ticked the qualities that in their opinion were

35
concerning me. This activity was selected because a reflective teacher needs some
feedback from his/her students, otherwise he/she cannot develop professionally. Here
only the bad qualities will be mentioned (numbers of students with the same opinion are
put in brackets):
I - give unexpected tests (7), enforce my opinion (6), use foreign
words (4), leave the topic (3), have my favorite students (3), am
conservative (2), am boring (2), do not tolerate weaker students (2),
bring my problems bad mood - to class (1), am moody (1) and
dictate too quickly. No other bad qualities were ticked.
The whole activity can be found in Appendix C and the results of this activity and
of the following comparison will be investigated in Discussion.
When these qualities are compared with those of a teacher in children s
perception in chapter 2.3 and with those that help to create a warm classroom
atmosphere in chapter 3.1 following results can be presented:
The students agree that I am: friendly, understanding, enthusiastic,
tolerant, educated and that I enjoy teaching, explain things, talk
about my life, about problems of the school and about other
subjects, play games, encourage discussions, involve all students,
talk in tone that makes meaning clear, have humor and plan the
lesson.
Reflective activity 6.6 (134) (see Appendix C) looks for the answers if each child
can identify with class activities and feel secure there. I have found that I should help
my students to learn to respect each other, that I should emphasize learning efforts more
than the achievement, that I should be aware of grouping students according to their
abilities as well as according to their relations, but they should have a chance to work
with other students too, that I should display their products, that I should value the effort
and a progress of each child more than knowledge and activity and that I should find at
least one thing the child is good at.
Checklist 11.4 (265-266) (see Appendix C) dealt with classroom management
and discipline using the Elton Reports principles. The answers that brought new
insights: I should think about sitting order, I should involve students in establishing

36
rules, I should be consistent all the time, I am mostly thrown by unexpected events, so
more consciousness and experience will certainly help me, I should be aware of my
behavior all the time, I should use private reprimands.
Reflective activity 12.1 (276) (see Appendix C) investigated who speaks and how
much. Though a lot of speaking is there in the class most of it I do. Only four students
react whenever I am asking a question; more pair work and group work for the quiet
should be involved.

5.3 Discussion
This thesis deals with reflective teaching and its influence on classroom
atmosphere. The theoretical part describes what reflective teaching means. It is a
cyclical process that consists of steps such as describing, observing, planning, acting,
observing and again planning etc. As it was explained in Chapter 4.0 rules for action
research, which was a part of this thesis, were very similar to rules of reflective
teaching: plan, teach, observe and reflect. Though it might seem to be very easy,
warning against subjectivity and a certain routine in chapter 1.2 highlighted the danger
of reflective teaching. Without any effort it is very difficult to break old habits. Reading
about reflective teaching was actually reading about common things because each
teacher thinks about his/her teaching but the idea about systematic reflection was new.
Therefore I definitely agree with Salmani-Nodoushans principles (see chapter 1.2)
because I was interested in the investigation of classroom atmosphere, therefore I tried
to involve my own experience as a teacher but as a student as well and I tried to be
systematic, i.e. I read about the topic, thought about it, I brought the new ideas into
action and according to the results a new understanding of many issues came out.
To teach in a reflective way a teacher must become reflective i.e. he/she should
keep his/her teaching journal and write in it regularly. In this journal all interesting facts
should be kept, especially those that are connected with the problematic issues. While
writing it during the research period I have realized many things about myself, my
students, the atmosphere in the class and my teaching methods. I decided to keep a
personal journal because it corresponds to my inner feelings, though lack of
professional approach may be found in it. Nevertheless keeping a teaching journal
would not be sufficient; the most crucial is the connection to books and articles about

37
reflective teaching and classroom climate and many reflective activities that helped me
to see things from another point of view.
A reflective teacher should be open-minded and should have other qualities as
well as he/she should be aware of his/her values and identity. Therefore I have started
with myself. The reflective activity 5.1 pointed out perceptions of myself: I do not feel
confident enough and I am afraid of failure. These features are especially visible
whenever I have to decide about things or when more consistency is expected.
Sometimes the students even complain that I am not strict enough. After filling
Checklist 11.4 I realized that I should pay more attention to my behavior and that this
consciousness would help me to act in unexpected events. Involving students into
creating classroom rules and thinking about seating more consciously brought
improvement. I try to minimize distraction and I think about how mutual likeness
between students could be taken advantage of, especially in forming groups and pairs,
which I did not use to do before.
When studying the students results of the activity Good/bad teacher and reading
about qualities a teacher who creates warm classroom atmosphere should have I was
surprised that students results were very positive. I think that feedbacks from my
students are of great importance. The questionnaire was anonymous and adolescents are
usually very critical, especially towards their teachers. I would never get such sincere
opinions from my colleagues. Even my own perceptions about myself could be wrong.
The way a teacher presents him/herself is in the teaching process significant. I must
agree with some students who wrote that I enforced my opinions (I was not aware of the
fact before, on the other hand I was convinced that I was very tolerant), that I had some
favorite students and I did not tolerate weaker students. Every teacher may have his/her
favorite students and after reflective activity 5.3 I realized that I preferred those who
were nice, friendly, active, communicative and those who wanted to learn and to share
their opinions and those who did not disturb the lesson. When I learnt that, I focused on
my behavior more and I addressed the two problematic boys in a friendly way too (I
am not sure if I was natural; in the discussion about results of Good / bad teachers, even
the students admitted that nobody can be liked by everybody). Without students
feedback I would not see all these vices. This activity has certainly helped the classroom
atmosphere; students understood my willingness to change, to develop and they saw
that I was able to admit my faults. I teach them to be polite by being polite. The main
aim of the whole action research was to become a better teacher therefore I appreciate

38
the feedback from my students very much though I know that other factors such as
observation, studying materials about teaching, consulting problems with experienced
teachers and various reflective activities as well as teaching journal are considered more
significant.
I definitely put all my energy into teaching and I have high expectations I still
believe that even weak students can learn. If I were to describe the type of our
classroom climate, it would be competitive, because it is teacher-centered, though real
competition does not take place there and co-operative as well, because students work
together in pair work or in group work. The danger that some students dominate in these
types of work is clear enough. Fortunately, the student who used to dominate the whole
class has finally understood that other students should have a chance to express
themselves. Individualistic type of a class would not implement the main goal of
teaching language, i.e. to learn to communicate.
My problem in teaching could be emphasizing achievement more, so now I know
that effort should be considered as well. I want my students to learn from mistakes but
sometimes I blame them for not preparing enough and I prefer perfection to
improvement. I am aware of self-fulfilling prophecy and I try to treat all the students
equally.
Communication plays the most important role in classroom climate; looks,
gestures, movements, tone, pace, pitch and volume of voice are additional but essential
parts of communication, so I use body language or keep eye contact spontaneously and I
act like an actor. Students are expected to learn how to communicate in English.
However, very often they cannot do it in their mother tongue. Communication means
not only talking but also listening to others. To respect somebody means also to listen to
him/her. I think teachers should respect their students otherwise the students will not
respect them.
Unfortunately, I did most of the speaking during the lessons and only some
students took part in discussions, so I have changed my mind about pair work and group
work because for shy or introvert students these are the only chance to express
themselves and communicate. However, results from the questionnaire show that some
people prefer individual work.
It is very difficult to write here about childrens view of themselves because we
cannot enter their minds. Only from observation, based on a certain experience, the
teacher might guess who feels over-confident or who undervalues him/herself. I try hard

39
to encourage students to find themselves by pointing out that we all are different but the
same as well. For this reason some activities from Classroom Dynamics were performed
during the whole period of the research (see Appendix D). From the results following
can be said: students liked all activities except for Shaking hands. There were two
reasons why this activity was not successful: the furniture layout (desks in the language
classroom cannot be moved and there was no space to go around) and their age. Most of
them are not mature enough; they were laughing all the time though one step of this
activity was to close ones eyes and to feel others. The most successful were: One
Big Family=Family tree because it was fun to create a family out of all pupils including
me, imagining we were somebody else and I am you where students wrote about their
partners; they were surprised what they already know or what they can guess about their
partners. They realized how similar they are to each other.
From the ways the students talk to one another, the way they sit together or the
ways they look at one another certain conclusions can be deduced about their view of
one another. To confirm them a sociometric analysis was made: the students were asked
to write down names of their peers with whom they would like to work or make a
project. The reason why this activity was included into this research was to see the real
relations among students and to use the results for social or educational purposes. It
brought important results: my opinions about two problematic boys showed to be very
alike to their peers opinions. They turned to be isolates, i.e. nobody would like to work
with them. However, the reason why the boys were rejected may have been their bad
knowledge of English and their rating. As well as Dan may have become a star because
of his excellent English. Another interesting fact was learning about two mutual pairs
where no other names were mentioned. After seeing the sociogram I started to observe
the students with a new insight. I do not force the girls to work with anybody else
now. When the results were discussed in the class, certainly I talked only about the
positive aspects of the sociometry; the isolates were not mentioned at all.
Influence on childrens attitudes that was described in theoretical part must be
definitely taken into account too. There is no doubt that family, peers, media and new
technologies, community and hopefully school and teachers influence pupils opinions.
I meet my students twice a week and I cannot say that I know much about them or about
their background, but it may be an advantage because I have no expectations or
prejudices; they start at this school like tabula rasa. At this age their peers are the most
influential anyway. Nevertheless I still hope that my task at school except for teaching

40
English is to help them to grow in psychological sense: to learn to express their
feelings, to learn to be responsible for their behavior and actions and to learn about
themselves and to accept themselves, which leads to acceptance of others. It is not an
easy task. Piaget in his theory of children development explains that at both Concrete
operational stage and Formal operational stage children use different way of thinking.
He even adds that not all adults can reach the Formal operational stage. Therefore if I
want my students to learn and understand something I should follow the advice how to
teach adolescence: I should use more visual aids (while I rely on students imagination),
I should go step by step in explaining new grammar (I used to provide them with the
whole concept) or the students should be involved in discussions more, so that they
could learn to accept other peers ideas. At the end of my research I can admit that these
pieces of advice were very helpful.
All the factors mentioned above are crucial for reflecting teaching as well as for
creating a warm classroom atmosphere. Rogers emphasized person-centered approach
in teaching, i.e. acceptance, genuineness and empathy, which I definitely agree with,
though I am aware of the arguments of Pollard et al. that school should provide children
with some knowledge in the first place. Teachers feelings they also need a certain
degree of acceptance, genuineness and empathy - must be taken in account too.
The results from the questionnaires show many interesting facts. Only in the
questions: I can co-operate with anybody in this class more people changed their
answer to better. This is very important for the classroom climate and though some
students still do not like some other students, which is quite common in every class,
they can work with them. In all other questions it was the other way round, i.e. more
students changed their answers to worse.
What I was surprised at was the answer to the question: I enjoy attending English
class this year; three students changed their answers to worse and I must ask why. The
new more difficult course book, vocabulary and tests, a lot of activities concentrated
only on relationships or my way of performing them or my teaching could have be the
reasons.
Though three students changed the answer to worse and only one to better in the
question about the relationships in the class, in February six pupils said yes or rather yes
in question if some games and activities we were doing have improved the relations.
This is really confusing. They liked co-operation, nice atmosphere, exchange of
opinions and fun. Nevertheless some admitted that it had been waste of time, boring,

41
badly organized, that others had not co-operated or that they had had to work with
people they could not stand. It is difficult to decide if my research has helped to create
warmer classroom atmosphere because there could be other reasons that may have
influenced it. Growing up is a painful period; searching for ones identity, his/her place
in the world or his/her real friends is a demanding task the young people must undergo.
Although some results point to a certain failure I think this research was worth
trying. The reading about reflective teaching and understanding the problematic issues
were for me of great importance. Reflective activities and students feedbacks have
helped me to find my place at school; some students may have realized something about
themselves and the others. Working with this class is now much easier than it used to
be. Maybe something has changed to better.

Conclusion
This diploma thesis and the action research were dealing with reflective teaching
and its influence on classroom atmosphere. Within the period of six months I studied
these issues; I answered some reflective activities that focused on my perceptions of
myself, of my aims, of my teaching and of my students so that I could realize who I was
and so that I could reflect and develop. Additional activities were performed in a class
of adolescent students; these were meant to help them to see that though everybody is
different, he/she is the same as well.
To find out if the reflective teaching influences classroom atmosphere, students
were given a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the research period. Many
other aspects may have influenced the students and the classroom atmosphere, so the
results cannot be unambiguous. Reflective teaching also depends on teachers
personality, his/her views, opinions and experience, therefore this research may not be
objective enough.
Though most of the answers in the second questionnaire were changed to worse,
students admitted that they could co-operate with anybody in the class and that all
activities, they had been doing within the six months, had improved the classroom
atmosphere. This fact could be considered as a success.

42

References
Boyd, Josh, and Steve Boyd. Reflect and Improve: Instructional Development through
a Teaching Journal. EJ725827. College teaching, Vol. 53, No. 3, p 110. 22 Jun.
2005. ERIC. 17 Jul. 2007
<http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_
nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ725827&ERICExtSearch_Sear
chType_0=no&accno=EJ725827>
Cohen, Louis, and Lawrence Manion. A Guide to Teaching Practice. 1977. London:
Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1981.
Florez, MaryAnn Cunningham. Reflective Teaching Practice in Adult ESL Setting.
ED451733. March 2001. ERIC Digest. 17 Jul. 2007
<http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-4/esl.html>
A Guide to Teaching & Learning Practices. Chapter 5 Managing Students and the
Classroom Climate. Florida State University Center for Teaching and Learning.
17 Jul. 2007
<http://learningforlife.fsu.edu/ctl/explore/onlineresources/i@fsu.cfm>
Hadfield, Jill. Classroom Dynamics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Hanson, Elaine, and Velma Corbett from Development Team. Classroom Climate. 30
Jan. 2001. The Adoptive Dimention. 17 Jul. 2007 <http://www.saskschool.ca/curr
content/adapthandbook/envir/classrm.html>
Introduction to Developing Reflective Practice. The Higher Education Academy. UK
Centre for Legal Education. 25 Jan. 2008
<http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/reflection/you.html>
Gebhard, Jerry G. Awareness of Teaching: Approaches, Benefits, Tasks. Kral 38-39.
Prodromou, Luke. The Good Language Teacher. Kral 19-20.
Kral, Thomas, ed. Teacher development, making the right moves, selected Articles from
the English Teaching Forum 1989-1993. Washington, D.C: English Language
Programs Division United States Information Agency, 1999.
Kreber, Carolin, and Patricia A. Cranton. Exploring the Scholarship of Teaching. The
Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 71, No. 4, pp. 476-495. Jul. Aug. 2000.
JSTOR. 5 Oct. 2007 <http://www.jstor.org/pss/2649149>

43
Module Two Classroom Climate 5 Jul. 2007
<http://www.bhamteep.info/assets/pdf/teepmodule2classroomclimate.pdf>
Piagets Theory of Cognitive Development. Educational Psychology
Interactive.Valdosta State University. 9 Oct. 2007
<http://chiron.valdosa.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html>
Pollard, Andrew, Janet Collins, Mandy Maddock, Neil Simco, Sue Swaffield, Jo Warin,
and Paul Warwick. Reflective Teaching, 2nd ed. London, New York: Continuum,
2005.
Richards, Jack C.Towards Reflective Teaching. The Teacher Trainer. 10 Jan. 2008
<http://www.tttjournal.co.uk>
The Reflective Teaching Model. Eastern Mennonite University. 17 Jul. 2007
<http://www.emu.edu/education/model.html>
Salmani-Nodoushan, Mohammad Ali. Language Teaching: State of the Art.
ED495672. Sep. 2006. ERIC. 10 Jan. 2008
<http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?ac
cno=ED495672>
Teaching Students Beginning to Use Formal Operations (Adolescence). Educational
psychology for teachers, 2nd ed. Valdosta State University. 9 Oct. 2007
<http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piagetuse.html>
Tice, Julie. Reflective Teaching: Exploring our own classroom practice. British
Council BBC. 17 Jul. 2007
<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/reflection.shtml>
Underwood, Mary. Effective Class Management. New York: Longman, 1987.
Verster, Cheron. Action Research. 20 Oct. 2002. British Council BBC. 17 Jul. 2007
<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/action
research.shtml>
Waddington, Heather. Types of Survey Questions. 2000. Encyclopedia of Educational
Technology. 21 Sep. 2007
<http:/coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/surveyquest/start.html>

44

Appendices
Appendix A: Teachers Reflective Journal
Appendix B: Student Questionnaire I (English)
Student Questionnaire II (English)
Student Questionnaire I (Czech)
Student Questionnaire II (Czech)
Results of Questionnaires
Appendix C: Activities from Reflective teaching
Other Activities
Appendix D: Activities from Classroom Dynamics

45

Appendix A: Teachers Reflective Journal

5.9. Wed. To be able to start my teaching journal I have done Reflective activity
5.3 to realize my perception of the students beforehand. On the first school day I was
glad to see some of the students after the summer holiday. The questionnaire is not
ready yet, so we were only talking about their holiday activities. I am always surprised
to see how much the students can forget during the holidays. I want them to take part in
teaching therefore homework for next week: think about grammar you do not
understand or you want to revise. I have done Reflective activity 5.1 to see who I am
and which aspects may influence my teaching. My typical problems I underestimate
myself. I was a responsible pupil and I expect it from my students as well. Reflective
activity 5.2. showed me that I want my students to know and accept themselves to be
able to know and accept the others. I am too naive. They are still very young. That is
what Piaget says.
10.9. Mon. Nobody had the homework as usual if they are to do it only orally,
they do not do it at all. Next time these things must be done in the lessons. Only
students who want to learn something (Dan, Veronika N., Katka, Bra) could answer
my question and gave me some suggestions. Erik and Michal said: We do not
understand anything. Was the previous year so useless? I realize that I cannot stand the
two boys because they are lazy and unwilling to participate. They do not pay attention,
they sit and draw their graffiti and whenever I call them they know nothing. They
cannot sit by themselves. I will ask somebody to sit next to them to help them with the
work. We played two games (Penny Ur); I should have asked them to work in pairs. I
do not like the pair work but it may be useful. HW- some students who chose the
grammar explanation are to prepare it for the next week.
12.9. Wed. Grammar lesson (present perfect). An emotional lesson the students
are so confused why English uses this tense. I asked students to prepare a sentence: I
have never It is so difficult for some of them; they do not know what to say
Veronika H. was disturbing the class. I will create a sitting order to avoid disturbing. It
is difficult because of Monday classroom where everybody has two neighbors and
because I do not want to punish the good pupils by forcing them to sit with somebody
else. Yesterday I did Reflective activity 6.6, Checklist 11.3 and Checklist 11.4. I have
realized many important issues.

46
17.9. Mon. The new sitting order was useful. Veronika N. had her grammar
presentation. Clear, but maybe too long and boring. Dans presentation was very
chaotic. He is really good at English but has no system. Neither of them had exercises
for their peers. I should see the next presentation beforehand. Nevertheless the class
clapped their hands after their presentations. Finally new books arrived. It will be
difficult both for me and for the pupils to get used to it. At the end of the lesson we
played a miming game that was very successful. Only Michal who sits in the front too
was watching his watch all the time, which made me nervous. I consulted my
colleagues, they have the same experience with him: he is very hyperactive and I should
give him some duties more often.
19.9. Wed. Bra showed me her grammar presentation, it seemed OK for me, but
the class did not like it because it was very slow and chaotic at the end. Listening
exercises. The work with the class is much better, but I feel so stressed because I have
not given them the questionnaire yet. Next time I will ask the students to suggest some
classroom rules and punishments because I was inspired in the Checklist 11.4.
24.9. Mon. Unit one in the book- revision of present simple and continuous. Two
new students and Erik, Michal and Veronika H. (one third) do not know the difference!
I feel so disappointed. Have they not learnt anything? Have I not taught them anything?
Am I such a bad teacher? Veronika N. on the other hand complained that I was
explaining the grammar again and again. She wants to learn something new. So the
crucial question arises: What pace should I keep the one that suits the better students
(because the weak ones do not want to learn anyway) or should I slow down so that the
weak students have a chance? In our psychology lessons I have learnt that people have
their limits (talking about intelligence), so maybe my effort to help them is uselessAt
the end of the lesson I wanted three groups to discuss the rules and punishments. What a
mistake I have made! I forgot about the rule of grouping (Reflective activity 6.6) and I
let them to chose the group and all five weak students sat together. There was no
outcome, they made fun of it; I must be more careful next time. The other groups had
some suggestions concerning the rules. We will discuss them on Wednesday.
26.9. Wed. The rules: those who disturb will get some extra work and all students
should get a chance to express their opinions (Dan wants to talk all the time). You can
forget your homework twice then you will get a five. You should try not to go to the
toilet during the lesson. I should not explain things again and again because the weak

47
students do not care at all and the brighter are bored. They want me to be stricter, which
is not easy for me. Finally, the questionnaire was given to the pupils to fill it at home.
1.10. Mon. Another new student joined us, so there are three now. I had no time to
look through the questionnaires, I only checked the questions about the classroom
atmosphere and the relationship towards me and I was very pleased to find out that
majority ticked very good or quite good. A discussion from the book. A pair work, now
I must agree with all the books that it is the easiest way how to involve all the students.
There is a risk that the pairs who I am not next to talk in Czech but as I can guess the
students start getting used to speaking English.
8.10. Mon. Last grammar presentation took place. Erik did not come to consult
me, so he only copied some rules from another book without thinking (he even added
more difficult rules which are taught at university). So my idea of presenting known
grammar by students in this class was a failure. Only the brighter ones are able to do it.
Next year I will ask another class to see if it can work with other students. Activities
Shaking hands and What kind of person are you from Classroom Dynamics, I did
not realize that the shape of the classroom does not allow the movement and that some
students are still childish, i.e. too young to enjoy shaking hands with their eyes shut. I
feel a bit disappointed.
10.10. Wed. There was a quite interesting exercise in the book Star signs
Dan as usual was very enthusiastic and all the students seemed to be interested. Dan is
the one who wants to talk all the time. We made an agreement that he will not talk
unless I ask him.
15.10. Mon. Working with texts - pair work. There are too many students of so
different knowledge and interest Whenever I put better students together with
weaker ones, they do all the work and are upset then.
17.10. Wed. We were working with dictionaries, I was surprised that students did
not know how to work with them and they were very glad to do so. Veronika N. even
asked me to do it more often. For other students it was not a demanding lesson where
they did not have to pay much attention. HW exercise similar to the one at school
(dictionaries).
22.10. Mon. A half of the students did not finish the HW saying they did not
know what to do. So previous lesson was waste of time I will have to do this exercise at
school next year. They are simply too lazy to open the dictionary. I know it is my fault
because I am not so strict and nothing forces them to do anything. They do not care

48
about the fives. I try so hard to have the lessons more interesting, I want to involve them
in creating the lessons but some students are so passive, just sit and do nothing. In the
second lesson we were reading in magazine Bridge about drugs and teachers. They
wanted to discuss it but mostly in Czech. I let them use it because I think that they
should express their opinions to realize who they are.
24.10. Wed. The day before holidays only 8 students were present. Now I
realize how the number of students influences the lesson and the atmosphere. It was
very pleasant to be there. To help the students to see that all the people are the same
though they are different, I gave them a sheet of paper to fill as if they were their
neighbors: I am you from Classroom Dynamics. Although at the beginning they were
complaining: I do not know my partner so much. at the end they were surprised how
often they were successful in guessing.
29.10. Mon. We were reading Bridge magazine. I gave each student only a small
part of the text about the Simpsons to translate (with dictionaries). Veronika H. and Erik
translated it word by word without any sense. Next time I will ask them to do it in pairs
so that they could help each other.
31.10. Wed. To get the students involved in creating lesson I asked them to make
a presentation (a song, a poem, a discussion, a crosswords etc.) either in a pair or alone.
They seemed to be pleased to do it. I wonder if it will work. My opinion is that they are
enthusiastic about everything new but when they are to do something for it, which
always means some extra work, they do not feel like doing anything. The other day
Veronika H. said that she hates school and that is why she does not like any activities
there. These students are at their critical age. From my experience they usually change
in the third year of the secondary school. I am looking forward to the next year!
5.11. Mon. Dan did not prepare for his presentation. I feel disappointed but I do
not think that he should be punished for it because the aim of it is mainly to have fun.
The test they wrote last week was a disaster but the discussion about everyday routine
was fine. Though I do try to involve all the students, only the active take part.
7.11. Wed. Dans presentation a discussion about music. Dan is an interesting
person, his English is very good, he even writes poems in it but as my colleague says he
lacks basic knowledge of the world. What I really mind is his temptation to speak all the
time, he gives others no chance. His presentation was not well prepared. There were no
specific questions, the students only shouted their favorite music styles but they enjoyed
it. The aims of the lessons should be: 1. loosing the atmosphere, 2. speaking English, 3.

49
talking about ones preferences, 4. teaching their peers and 5. realization that we all
are different but this is great. Students have problems with vocabulary, they tend to
speak Czech and Dan was not active enough it is not easy for them to teach.
12.11. Mon. Another game from Classroom Dynamics Predicting similarities.
Some students did not want to cooperate much. I think the daytime (before their lunch
break) is not the most appropriate for it.
14.11. Wed. Pavels presentation was easy but successful. It was a vocabulary
game where students had nothing to do except to shout the correct words in English.
Dan, Kuba and Aneta B. (a new pupil) were the winners. I concentrate on my research
too much I am quite behind in our course book and the students want to learn something
new.
19.11. Mon. Another test with bad results. I know it seems that I again emphasize
the achievement only but I still think that tests are important. Not only to have some
marks but they force the students to prepare. The problem is that some do not mind
bad results. The students at this school either want to study and they do well or they do
not want to do anything. Even moving around the class is too much for them. It is
interesting how each class differs; all my colleagues do not like teaching in this class:
too many students, not very intelligent and at the difficult age.
21.11. Wed. Nothing special happened.
26.11. Mon. Aneta K. and Trang had their presentation. Everybody had some
words to translate and to fill into crosswords on the board - a good practice of new
vocabulary.
28.11. Wed. An activity from the course book Change your identity. Students
enjoyed it because they could use their imagination. It is interesting that very often they
change the sex or they change to an old or very young person. Their professions are
either very funny or seriously meant (graphic designers).
3.12. Mon. Group work activity from course book are you a day or a night
person? The aim again is to accept the differences. Now I try to add the group work as
often as possible. I see the advantages of it: students help each other and are not so
scared as when they work by themselves. The negative part is of course the fact that
weak students tend not to do anything. At this age the pupils should realize their
responsibility for their learning.
5.12. Wed. Another activity from Classroom Dynamics Group profile. I
prepared this activity for Wednesday to have space enough to move round. This activity

50
should not only release atmosphere, and help students to speak English but it also
should use their ability to draw and to use the computer. Their finale project will
decorate our classroom as well. Finally, I will have something to hang on the wall.
10.12. Mon. Bras and Aneta B. presentation - another type of crosswords. Find
the English word and cross it out on the board. Quite a fun. Pair work practicing
pronunciation in different ways (slowly, quickly, sadly, in a loving way etc.) It was
something new for them; their attention was great. I am glad to see that weaker students
join these activities as I have learnt they need to experience sort of success.
12.12. Wed. Last lesson before Christmas. Ka had her presentation a
Christmas poem for three groups to read and translate. It was a nice poem but too long
and the two other groups did not pay attention when another group was reading (as
usual). Ka is a quiet person and for her this activity would be right. It is not easy to
teach peers. At this age some students do not behave thoughtfully to others. Do all the
adults do it?
7.1. Mon. First lesson in the New Year. Pair work - talking about Christmas
presents. An activity from Classroom Dynamics Family tree. Similar one to
Changing identity but with relations to the classmates. A real success.
9.1. Wed. A test from Unit 2.
14.1. Mon. A midterm test. I was surprised that the students were already sitting
by themselves at the desks and prepared for the test. The results were not good but Dan
got one and only Markta failed. She is absent very often and she is not interested in
school at all.
16. 1. Wed. Correcting the tests. Most students are not interested in correcting
answers so that they would not make the mistakes next time, only the mark is important.
I am glad to hear from my colleagues that they have the same problems with this class.
21.1. Mon. This lesson was a disaster: first I forgot to take my books to the class,
second a colleague of mine asked me to swap the classrooms (for one lesson only) so
that her class could watch a video, third three students were writing an additional test to
help me to decide about their final mark. Though the rest of students had work to do,
they did not care. I know I am not strong enough but I cannot force myself to change
my personality. Should teachers sit for psychology test to see if they are resistant
enough?
23.1. Wed. About five pupils were missing (including Dan), what a pleasure to
teach in this class. They were eager to learn new grammar!!! No bored faces, no

51
interruptions from Dans side The atmosphere was calm, warm and creative.
Advanced students helped me to explain the grammar.
28.1. Mon. Working with the course book. As my research comes to the end I
want to change the sitting arrangement again. I will prepare a Find your partner
activity with phrases I want to write a test on. The students will have the chance to sit
next to somebody else and to get to know him/her better. They sit with their friend
mostly because I do not want them to think that to sit with somebody else is a
punishment.
30.1. Wed. We did the activity I mentioned above. Mary Underwood in her book
Effective Class Management writes about the necessity to have some rules. Though we
did this in September, some students have forgotten them. I talked to the whole class
and then I asked five pupils to talk in private (this is something I had to learn). The
students see that I am really interested in their progress: Markta promised to study
more and to look for an additional teacher. Michal admitted he created problems (he
does not pay attention, does not work) and promised to change. His Surely, surely.
did not seem to be meant seriously. We will see. Veronika H. said: I sit quietly., as if
it was all she should do at school! Dan promised not to talk all the time but I know from
my personal experience that it is very difficult to be silent when you know the answer. I
asked each of them: Do you know why I want to speak to you? and only Erik looked
at me as if everything was great and said: No. I cannot stand his look. As if he was
laughing at me. He seemed to be sure that I would be on his side just because we have
known each other for 16 years!
4.2. Mon. We were to write a test but two people were absent and other two (Dan
and Michal) left before the English lesson! I talked to their class teacher and I feel so
angry that our students have more rights than we do. They can write an apology for
themselves. Therefore we did not write the test and worked with Bridge. Students were
sitting in the new arrangement and even Erik and Markta tried to work!
6.2. Wed. The test I caught two pupils cheating (Zuzana and Erik), though I did
not want to I had to give them five for it. Finally the students brought their projects for
the Group profile but only because I said they would get a five if they did not bring it.
One of the topics in the project was Our interest. It was typical for this group to admit
that they are interested mostly in sex or friends.
11.2. Mon. Four people were missing, so again a nice lesson. I asked them to
decide what are the qualities of a good / bad teacher. Reflective activity 5.6.

52
13.2. Wed. Marktas presentation a crosswords on the board. Nothing special
but she used new vocabulary and I must consider her effort.
18.2. Mon. A successful lesson (Dan and other two pupils missing) with listening
and pair work. Students write a name of their classmate who they would like to work
with. This is how sociometry can be done. Bra, Michal and Erik are the isolates. No
wonder. I was surprised about the mutual pairs of Aneta K. - Trang and Veronika H. Markta. This means they would not work with anybody else!
20.2. Wed. A normal and nice lesson where four students were missing (including
Dan).
25.2. Mon. I printed all the good and bad qualities of a teacher and everybody was
to tick the ones I have. It was a great feedback for me to see what they think about me,
what I do wrong etc. Last activity from Classroom Dynamics I remember them
because. Students wrote what they like about the person they chose in Find a partner
activity. They wanted to read it aloud. I appreciated that they tried to find something
nice about their partner.
27.2. Wed. The last day of my research. Students had to fill in the same
questionnaire they did at the beginning of the term. Some additional questions were
added. Today I have done the last Checklists.

53

Appendix B: Questionnaire I
1 = yes
2 = rather yes
3 = sometimes
4 = rather no
5 = no

1. I enjoy attending English class this year.

1-2-3-4-5

2. Most of my schoolmates in the English class are my friends.

1-2-3-4-5

3. I can cooperate with anybody in this class.

1-2-3-4-5

4. Some schoolmates are rude to me (if yes - how).

1-2-3-4-5

5. I do not like some of my schoolmates (if yes - why).

1-2-3-4-5

6. I can do my work without any help of anybody (if no why).

1-2-3-4-5

7. I feel bad, whenever I do not know an answer in class (if yes - why).

1-2-3-4-5

8. Some schoolmates want to be always the first.

1-2-3-4-5

9. The relationships in this class are very good

1-2-3-4-5

10. My relationship with my English teacher is very good.

1-2-3-4-5

11. I participate in discussions.

1-2-3-4-5

12. What do I like in English classes?

13. What do I not like in English classes?
14. What would I like to change in English classes?

54

Questionnaire II
1. I enjoy attending English class this year.

1-2-3-4-5

2. Most of my schoolmates in the English class are my friends.

1-2-3-4-5

3. I can cooperate with anybody in this class.

1-2-3-4-5

4. Some schoolmates are rude to me (if yes - how).

1-2-3-4-5

5. I do not like some of my schoolmates (if yes - why).

1-2-3-4-5

6. I can do my work without any help of anybody (if no why).

1-2-3-4-5

7. I feel bad, whenever I do not know an answer in class (if yes - why).

1-2-3-4-5

8. Some schoolmates want to be always the first.

1-2-3-4-5

9. The relationships in this class are very good

1-2-3-4-5

10. My relationship with my English teacher is very good.

1-2-3-4-5

11. I participate in discussions.

1-2-3-4-5

12. Do you think that some games and activities we were doing have improved the
classroom relationships?

1-2-3-4-5

13. What did I like about them?

14. What did I dislike about them?
15. Which of the activities helped to improve the relationships? (your presentations,
your teaching peers, sociometry, project Group profile, Family tree, What I am good at,
Good / bad teacher, What kind of person am I, I am you, Predicting similarities,
Shaking hands, Find a partner, Dialogues in different pronunciations or anything else

55

Dotaznk I
1 = ano
2 = spe ano
3 = nkdy
4 = spe ne
5 = ne

1. Rd navtvuji hodiny anglitiny.

1-2-3-4-5

2. Vtina mch spoluk ve skupin jsou m kamardi.

1-2-3-4-5

3. Mohu spolupracovat s kmkoli v tto skupin

1-2-3-4-5

4. Nkte spoluci se ke mn nechovaj pkn (jestlie ano Jak)

1-2-3-4-5

5. Nemm rd nkter m spoluky (jestlie ano Pro?)

1-2-3-4-5

6. Zvldm prci v hodin bez jakkoli pomoci (jestlie ne Pro)

1-2-3-4-5

7. Ctm se patn, kdykoli neznm odpov na njakou otzku

(jestlie ano Pro?).

1-2-3-4-5

8. Nkte spoluci chtj bt vdy prvn.

1-2-3-4-5

9. Vztahy ve skupin jsou velmi dobr.

1-2-3-4-5

10. Mj vztah k uitelce anglitiny je velmi dobr.

1-2-3-4-5

11. Zastuji se diskus.

1-2-3-4-5

12. Co se mi lb v hodinch anglitiny?

13. Co se mi nelb?
14. Co bych chtl zmnit?

56

Dotaznk II
1. Rd navtvuji hodiny anglitiny.

1-2-3-4-5

2. Vtina mch spoluk ve skupin jsou m kamardi.

1-2-3-4-5

3. Mohu spolupracovat s kmkoli v tto skupin

1-2-3-4-5

4. Nkte spoluci se ke mn nechovaj pkn (jestlie ano Jak)

1-2-3-4-5

5. Nemm rd nkter m spoluky (jestlie ano Pro?)

1-2-3-4-5

6. Zvldm prci v hodin bez jakkoli pomoci (jestlie ne Pro)

1-2-3-4-5

7. Ctm se patn, kdykoli neznm odpov na njakou otzku

(jestlie ano Pro?).

1-2-3-4-5

8. Nkte spoluci chtj bt vdy prvn.

1-2-3-4-5

9. Vztahy ve skupin jsou velmi dobr.

1-2-3-4-5

10. Mj vztah k uitelce anglitiny je velmi dobr.

1-2-3-4-5

11. Zastuji se diskus.

1-2-3-4-5

12. Myslte e nkter hry a aktivity, kter jsme bhem roku dlali zlepily vztahy ve
td?

1-2-3-4-5

13. Co se mi na nich lbilo?

14. Co se mi na nich nelbilo?
15. Kter byly nejvtm pnosem pro zlepen vztah? (vae prezentace, vae
vyuovn, sociometrie, projekt Group profile, Family tree, What I am good at, Good /
bad teacher, What kind of person am I, I am you, Predicting similarities, Shaking
hands, Find a partner, Dialogues in different pronunciations poppad co
jinho

57

Results of Questionnaires
1. I enjoy attending English class this year.
4
3
September 2007
2

February 2008
New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes rather no

no

Three students changed their answers to worse

2. Most of my schoolmates in the English class are my friends.
3

2
September 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

rather yes sometimes rather no

no

Two students changed their answer to worse, one to better

3. I can cooperate with anybody in this class.
4
3
September 2007
2

February 2008
New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

One student changed the answer to worse, two to better

58
4. Some schoolmates are rude to me.
6
5
4
September 2007
3

February 2008

New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

One student changed the answer to worse, one to better

5. I do not like some of my schoolmates.
3

2
September 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Three students changed the answer to worse, two to better

The reasons why they do not like them: different opinions, unpleasant, dullwitted,
6. I can do my work without any help of anybody.
5
4
3

Septem ber 2007

Febraury 2008
New students

1
0
yes

som etim es

no

Two students changed the answer from rather yes to sometimes. One changed it
from sometimes to rather yes.
The reasons: They are not sure with things, the lack of concentration

59
7. I feel bad, whenever I do not know an answer in class.
3

2
Septem ber 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

som etim es

no

Three students feel worse and two better at the end

The reasons: They feel embarrassed, they feel stupid or they should have known
things
8. Some schoolmates want to be always the first.
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

September 2007
February 2008
New students

yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Five students changed the answer to yes, one to no

9. The relationships in this class are very good
3

2
September 2007
February 2008
1

New students

0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Three students changed the answer to worse, one to better

60
10. My relationship with my English teacher is very good.
6
5
4
September 2007
3

February 2008

New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Two students changed the answer to worse, one to better

11. I participate in discussions.
4
3
September 2007
2

February 2008
New students

1
0
yes

rather yes sometimes

rather no

no

Two students changed the answer to worse, one to better

These questions were given only at the beginning of the research in September.
12. What do I like in English classes?
Listening 2x, explanation of grammar 2x, individual work, English, it is fun,
everything
13. What do I not like in English classes?
Nothing 4x, English, few discussions, working in groups, revising all the time, I
am bored
14. What would I like to change in English classes?
More practice 2x, more discussions, more individual work, more difficult tasks,
everything, nothing, to change weak students with better ones from the other group
At the end of the research in February - the questions 12 14 we replaced by
these ones:

61
12. Do you think that some games and activities we were doing have improved
the classroom relationships?
5
4
3
February 2008
2

New students

1
0
yes

rather yes

sometimes

rather no

no

13. What did I like about them?

Everything, co-operation, it was fun - 3x, a mess, exchange of opinions, I can
learn something new, nice atmosphere
14. What did I dislike about them?
Nothing 4x, waste of time, I had to think, it was boring, bad organization, the
peers did not co-operate, I had to work with people I cannot stand
15. Which of the activities helped to improve the relationships? (your
presentations, your teaching, sociometry - 1x, project Group profile- 3x, Family tree
=One big family - 7x, What I am good at - 2x, Good / bad teacher - 1x, What kind of
person am I - 2x, I am you - 5x, Predicting similarities - 1x, Shaking hands, Find a
partner - 2x, Dialogues in different pronunciations or anything else)

62

Appendix C: Activities from Reflective teaching

Reflective activity 5.1 (96).
Aim: to analyze dimension of our selves
Try to identify:
1. Dreamer spots (parts you would like to develop), aspects of ourselves which we
know they are there or we would like to be there but of which others are unaware
- self-confidence, not to fear of failure, of the new, of not being accepted
- to have more courage
- to be more interesting
2. Blind spots (parts you do not often face up to), aspects of ourselves which other see
but we do not recognize.
I do not know.
3. Public display (parts you publicly present), aspects of ourselves which we project and
others also see presented
- be a nice person
- be naive and unsure of everything
- be understanding
4. Untapped reservoir (parts you think might be there) our unknown potention of which
we are also unaware
- a sort of courage
- a will to go on
- a will to bring things to the end
Try to situate your reflection as a child, a parent, a pupil, a teacher:
Being a child - I used to compare myself with my energetic mother and my older sister
who was interested in many things. I was feeling useful, uninteresting and boring. I did
not see any reason why I was born. My mother was very demanding (a teacher) in
connection with the school results. Though I was a successful student I felt her
dissatisfaction because I sometimes had two.
Being a parent - I am much more tolerant with my children but I also expect them to be
good at school. Fortunately they are. The son is an introvert and a bit lazy. The daughter
is full of energy, tolerant and understanding. When a problem comes I sometimes think
that I have failed the role of a mother.

63
Being a pupil I was and I am a very responsible student. I could not come to school
unprepared. Getting a good mark was very important for me.
Being a teacher Though I have been teaching for seven years I still feel like a trainee.
I doubt my teaching methods. I am a bit old-fashioned because I think that it is
important to teach the system of a language. I try to use pair and group work though I
do not like these methods much. My lessons may be boring but I give all my energy to
the teaching and some students seem to like me, which gives me the satisfaction.
Reflective activity 5.2 (99)
Aim: to identify general aims which I hold for my pupils learning
- Students should learn to understand that without knowing themselves and their values,
without accepting themselves and therefore accepting others their lives will not be rich.
- I want them to realize that there is always a chance to change either the conditions or
themselves (or their attitude) and that responsibility is the sign of being a grown up.
- Students should not feel shy and they should speak as often as possible, they should be
able to express their feelings and at the same time to listen to others.
At this page Pollard et al. remind the work of Eisner and Vallance (1974) where three
dimensions can be distinguished:
1. if education should treat individuals needs or the needs of society
- I would say somewhere in the middle, more to the individuals
2. if education should develop sense of values or the skills
- Though the values are more important the skills should be developed too
3. if education should prepare students to fit the present society or to change it
- I would agree about the change and the development but students should have the
constant values in mind
Reflective activity 5.3 (101)
Aim: to understand our perceptions of pupils
Write down the names of students (what does the order tell you, why?)
Dan Duek too active, gives others no chance to speak, very good at English, writes
poems about death in English
Jakub indel a very nice rocker
Erik Jirnek I have known him since he was one, very passive, does not pay attention,
disturbs lessons, I cannot stand his cheeky look, very bad at English
Michal Bro also very bad at English, does not pay attention either
Veronika Novkov very active, wants to learn, fair, good at English

64
Jiina Sedlkov quite weak but wants to learn, very friendly
Aneta Kosobudov very silent but nice, a good, hard working student
Trang Nguyen Thu the same as Aneta, her neighbor
Pavel Slma very friendly, nice, intelligent, active
Ka Santarov a quiet but friendly person, looks after her horses early in the morning
Veronika Hodov disturbs the classes, is bored at school and hates it there
Bra chov - nice, ready to help
Aneta Brukov a new student with no knowledge of English
Markta Klepsov a new student very bad at English, is not interested in school
Zuzana Kovakov a new student, very friendly, active
Each student is individuality, in this class there are more boys than usual, it may be the
reason why they are on the top of the list. It is interesting that both the boys I do not
particularly like (Michal and Erik) are on the top too. It is probably because they cause
problems.
What do you distinguish the children by?
- if they are nice, friendly
- if they want to learn
- if they are active
- if they share their opinions
- if they disturb the lesson or not
Reflective activity 5.6 (108)
Aim: To find out childrens criteria for a good and bad teacher
1. Students write down their ideas numbers of pupils who had the same ideas are in
brackets.
Good teacher
Has authority (7), Teaches in an interesting way (5), Explains well (5), Likes his/her job
(4), Understanding (4), Tolerant (3), Makes the lesson interesting (3), Brief notes (3),
Friendly (3), Human (2), Considerate (2), Witty (2), Discusses, Joyful, Optimistic, Just,
fair, Teaches by playing games, Talkative, Thinks the job is important but does not take
it too seriously, Trains a lot, Involves all students, Objective evaluation, The right
proportion between explanation and the notes, Good at his/her branch, Ready for the
lesson, Nice, Clever, Reasonable, With clear rules, With individual approach
Bad teacher
Monotonous voice (6), Raging, shouts (4), Brings his/her problem (bad mood) to class

65
(4), Uses foreign words (3), Conservative (2), Explains things learned by heart (2),
Gives unexpected tests (2), Is not nice to certain students (2), Enforces his/her opinion
(2), With prejudices, Arrogant, Moody, Pretends, Does not tolerate weaker students,
Leaves the topic, Has his/ her favorite students, Lies, Dictates too quickly, Evil, Boring,
Unfair, Stupid, Unfriendly, Sad
2. Teacher puts them together and asks the students to tick the ideas that characterize the
particular teacher in this case me.
Good teacher
Likes his/her job (14), Friendly (12), Joyful (12), Makes the lesson interesting (11),
Tolerant (11), Reasonable (11), Understanding (10), Teaches by playing games (10),
Good at her branch (10), Ready for the lesson (10), Nice (10), Clever (10), Talkative
(9), Discusses (9), Witty (9), Human (9), Considerate (8), Optimistic (8), Just, fair (8),
Involves all students (8), Objective evaluation (7), Teaches in an interesting way (6),
All the remaining qualities were ticked by less than 5 students
Bad teacher
Gives unexpected tests (7), Enforces her opinion (6), Uses foreign words (4), Leaves the
topic (3), Has her favorite students (3), Conservative (2), Boring (2), Does not tolerate
weaker students (2), Brings her problem (bad mood) to class (1), Moody (1), Dictates
too quickly (1), No other bad qualities were ticked
Reflective activity 6.6 (134)
Aim: to consider if each child can identify with class activities and feel secure there
1. Are children helped to learn to respect each other?
- I do not help them enough; I must try more.
2. Does any unnecessary competition take place?
- I do not think so.
3. Which is emphasized most, the achievement or the learning efforts?
- To be honest, I emphasize the achievement more. I should consider the effort too.
4. How flexible and responsive are classroom organizational groupings?
- Unfortunately, they are not very flexible and responsive. I let them create groups
according to the friendship or the seating. I must try different grouping so that they have
a chance to work with other students (e.g. Find a partner activity).
5. How are the products of the class represented?
- Products of this class are not displayed. I am going to do so.
6. How wide-ranging are the achievements that are valued?

66
- They are not very wide-ranging. I mostly value the knowledge and activity. I should
value the effort and a progress of each child.
7. Does every child experience at least some success?
- I am not sure, I will pay attention to this matter. Whenever I have a reason to praise I
do. I must find at least one thing the child is good at.
Checklist 11.3 (263)
Aim: to record incidents of ongoing problem behavior.
1. When exactly does the disruption occur?
Is it random or regular? Regular
Is it always the same child? Yes, Dan, Michal, Erik, Veronika H.
Is it always regarding the same task? Yes, Dan cannot help speaking, takes the others
the chance to answer my question even if I call their names. Michal and Erik do not pay
attention, do not participate. Veronika always talks to her neighbour.
Is it with all teachers? No, Dan is not good at other subjects, so he is quiet. Michal and
Erik put down the notes but without interest, no participation is required. Other subjects
are not on communicative base more or less lectures. Veronika either talks with her
neighbour or sleeps.
2. What are the effects on the children, the teacher or the class? They do not want to
change. I talk to them but it does not bring any results. Some children are bored or
ignore it. Some laugh at Erik or Michal. Some are angry with Dan. You can see that
they are more relaxed when the problematic students are missing.
Checklist 11.4 (265-266)
Aim to reflect on classroom management and discipline using the Elton Reports
principles.
1. Do I know my pupils as individuals names, personalities, interests, friends?
- I know their names, I may think I know their personalities, some interests. But nobody
can claim so.
2. Do I plan and organize both the classroom and the lesson to keep pupils interested
and minimize the opportunities for disruption (furniture layout, grouping, pacing the
lessons, enthusiasm, humor)?
- I cannot change the furniture layout, but I will think about the seating. I hope I put all
my energy and enthusiasm to each lesson.
3. Do I involve pupils in establishing the rules for classroom behavior and reinforce
them?

67
- I want to ask them to establish the rules. However, my problem is being consistent all
the time.
4. Do I act flexibly to take advantage of unexpected events rather than being thrown by
them?
- I am quite an unstable person, so I am mostly thrown by the unexpected events. More
consciousness and experience will certainly help me to be more flexible.
5. Do I continually observe the behavior of the class?
- Yes, I definitely do.
6. Do I remain aware of, and control, my own behavior, including stance and tone of
voice?
- I act spontaneously but I try to be aware of my behavior.
7. Do I model the standards of courtesy that I expect from pupils?
- I really try to.
8. Do I emphasize the positive, including praise for good behavior as well as good
work?
- Yes, I always do.
9. Do I make use of reprimands being firm not aggressive, targeting the right pupil,
using private not public reprimands, being fair and consistent, avoiding sarcasm and
idle threads?
- I am never aggressive, I try to avoid sarcasm and threads, I target the right pupil but I
should use private reprimands. I should definitely be consistent.
10. Do I make use of punishments avoiding whole-group punishment and pupil
humiliation?
- I never use whole-group punishment or pupil humiliation.
Reflective activity 12.1 (276)
Aim: to investigate who speaks and how much
1. How much speaking is there? I would say a lot.
2. Who is doing the speaking? Unfortunately, I do most of it.
3. Which pupils speak? - I ask questions very often but mostly only Dan, Veronika N.,
Zuzana or Pavel react.
4. When do the pupils speak? When I call them. I should involve more pair work and
group work for the quiet students to speak.
A questionnaire from Effective Class Management (45)
Aim: to encourage class atmosphere

68
1. Three things I will do to achieve a happy, purposeful atmosphere in my class
- I will be positive, I will encourage weaker students, I will use more pair work
2. Five things which I will expect the students in class to do regularly
- Listen to the one who speaks, be polite to one another, do not interrupt, do not laugh at
one another, help one another.
3. Five phrases of encouragement I will use
- You are right, does anybody have another opinion?, Well done! Great!, I know you
can do it., You are on the right way, go on., I am interested in your opinion.
4. Two ways in which I will try to involve all the students in oral practice
- pair work, group work
5. One thing I will never do again
- reprimand somebody in public
Checklist from Module two Classroom Climate (11)
1. Is pupils work displayed in the classroom? Now, it is.
2. Are pupils encouraged to interact with one another? Yes, they are.
3. Did I seem enthusiastic about the subject? I think, I did.
4. Are all pupils contributing to the lesson? No, some are very shy or some do not
want to. That is why I have to involve them all.
5. Did I refrain from negative comments about pupils (not their behavior)?
Unfortunately, I did not. I am aware of it now.
6. When I praise pupils, is my praise specific rather than general? - Rather general, I
will be more specific.
7. When I praise, is it because I really thought he/she had done something good, rather
than it just being routine? I am afraid, very often it is a routine. I should not praise all
the time.
8. Do I always use pupils names? Yes, I do.
9. Did I refrain from expressing low expectations of certain pupils? Yes, I did.
10. Do I treat all pupils equally? Though I try, I may not. It is very difficult because
not everybody is my cup of tea.
11. Did my pupils enjoy the lesson? Mostly yes.
12. Do my pupils feel they can ask me for help? I hope they do.
13. Do pupils laugh at one another when they make a mistake? Sometimes they do,
but I always tell them not to do it.
14. Did I ask challenging questions to pupils of ALL abilities? I am not sure, I will

69
have to do so.
15. Were girls and boys equally involved in the lesson? Yes, they were.
What am I good / bad at? A questionnaire.
Aim: to realize students abilities
Students were to tick what they are good / bad at.
I am good at words (4), translating (4), understanding text (2), nothing (2), listening (1),
reading (1), grammar (1)
I am bad at grammar (7), speaking (4), translating (3), writing (3), listening (3), reading
(2)

70

Appendix D: Activities from Classroom Dynamics

Shaking hands (26)
Aim: to lose the atmosphere, to have fun, to learn to feel others
1. Get all the students walking round the room.
2. Ask them to shake hands with everyone they meet. Ask them to do it formally. Then
informally. At the end with closed eyes to feel others.
What kind of person are you? (33)
Aim: to realize oneself and to accept other varieties
1. Give all students the questionnaire to complete it individually.
2. Let them discuss it with their partner or this could be an open discussion.
Are you a tea person or a coffee person?
Are you a morning person or an evening person?
Are you an earth person or a fire person?
Are you a mountain person or a valley person?
Are you a jungle person or a city person?
Are you an indoor person or an outdoor person?
Are you a garden person or a forest person?
Are you a diary person or a knotted handkerchief person?
Are you a straight-line person or a loops and curves person?
Are you a sight person or a sound person?
Predicting similarities (p.51)
Aim: to realize that though everyone is different and we do not know the others well we
are the same.
1. Pair work. Students write what they know or guess about their partner. They should
not see what the partner is writing.
2. When they are ready there is discussion.
We are both
We both have.
We both like
When we were younger we both used to
In the future both of us will probably

71
I am you (p.67)
Aim: to realize that we can empathize with others
1. Pair work. Ask students to fill the sheet not for themselves, but for their partner.
Students should not communicate but they should empathize with him/her and imagine
what he/she would reply.
2. When they have finished, they compare their answers and comment on them.
I like the colorbecause
My favorite time of day is
When I was at school I used to
I enjoy
I particularly dislike
The kind of music I like best is
I sometimes worry about
My biggest fear is
My ambition is to
I like people who
People like me because
Group profile (p.74)
Aim: to find out facts about the others and to feel that we create a group
1. It is a survey about the group. Each student chooses one topic and asks the others.
(topics: Sports, food, drink, colors, fears, likes)
2. They should make posters with their results at home. (draw them or on PC)
3. Out of their posters a bigger one is made and hanged up on the wall.
One big family (p.79)
Aim: to create a feeling of one family, to have fun
1. Ask students to think of the class as a big family. Everyone can choose a position on
the family tree. They can think out their new name, age, profession, likes etc.
2. Others join the tree and create the relations.
Ill remember them because. (p.165)
Aim: to look for something positive about the others
1. By Find a partner activity students have new partners. Give them piece of paper.
They should write down what they like about their partners.
2. After that they give the paper to the partner and he/she reads it aloud.