Readings for Reflective Teaching Edited by Andrew Pollard

A good read if you teach very young learners

A collection of extracts from various sources on what it means to be a reflective teacher, Readings for Reflective Teaching has a misleading title in that it is not specific enough. This is a book dealing primarily with the teaching of young learners and more accurately with the teaching of primary schoolchildren in the UK.

The book is divided into eighteen sections dealing with various aspects of teaching. The selection is wide-ranging, each section typically beginning with something fairly general and subsequent readings dealing with more specific areas on that topic. The book covers a large historical period, with the first reading dating from 1933 and others from the last decade. In between there are readings from landmark essays and government documents which help to give an historical perspective of primary teaching in the UK.

If you are a primary school teacher in the UK then I am sure you will get a tremendous amount from this book. Other teachers however will need to read very selectively, and may be disappointed with the amount of relevant material.

The book begins promisingly enough, with some general extracts from important papers dealing with reflective thinking and practice in general. These are very thought provoking and can be applied to any teaching and learning situation. There is a lot here on the thought processes a reflective practitioner goes through, and the practical steps that they take. Also there are nice readings on Action Research, which provide definitions and give some practical ideas.

After that the book loses relevance for all but the specific kind of teacher that I mentioned earlier. If you teach English solely to adults then this is really where you should stop reading. If you teach English as a foreign (or second) language to young learners then it is still worth reading on. You will need to pick your way around irrelevant texts, such as UK government documents, but there is still much to be gained.

In particular there are many readings that help you see things from a pupil’s point of view. The sections on motivating students, class management and teachers’ classroom talk are particularly good at this.

The book falls down mostly in that it tries to cover too much ground. Often the most interesting readings are merely snippets. Although the introduction stresses that we should read the original essays and papers if we find anything interesting, this still feels a bit incomplete.

Perhaps I am being too picky here. The book certainly is thought provoking and serves as a useful start to many a research question. Overall though, this is a book you should only buy if you are, or plan to be, a UK primary school teacher.