Response to February 15th readings

I enjoyed Tobin text. Even though at the beginning I got lost with authors’ names and trying to figure out what was he calling “Process writing”, when I finished reading the chapter I had a somewhat vivid image of the debates in the field. I think that the way he wrote the article is also related to his postulates: he relates his experiences as a teacher and as a student with the theories and debates in the field. I think he is one of the few authors that openly accept that the link between research and practice is not a linear and neat relationship. As he states: “the differences in theory are less clear and less significant in the classroom” (p. 10). I loved his/her (?) confession: “When I arrived in grad school, I had an experiential, empirical belief in process but no real scholarly basis for my approach” (p. 8). I loved this “confession” because I think it describes how we forge ourselves as teachers and how sometimes, in the craziness of daily life and work pressures, we just “go with the flow” and don’t reflect in our teaching practices or our pedagogical beliefs. Of course, I don’t think this is good. It is my opinion that as teachers we need to reflect on why we do the things we do in the classroom, we need to recognize what makes us teach the way we do. But on the other hand, it is true that many times reality overwhelm us and we just go… and the fact that someone is voicing this in a book it is, in my opinion, good.

In addition, I also agree with Tobin when he states that “pure practitioners” of one or other theory or movement do not exist: “even the most process-oriented teachers acknowledge that a meaningful process ought to lead eventually to some sort of written product, and even the most product-oriented teacher accepts the fact that writing occurs in a series of steps and stages” (p. 7). And here again I think that what Tobin proposes is realistic. Personally, I think that being eclectic sometimes helps teachers, given the fact that he/she can justify the eclecticism. In other words, I think that as teachers, we need to try out many things but never forget to reflect and give foundation to our pedagogies (I don’t think “pedagogy”, as a singular word is good), never forget to reflect on those postulates that are in the back of our head and lead us to teach in the way we teach.