How Teachers Reflect on Their Pedagogy: Learning from Teachers' Pedagogical Vocabulary.

This paper considers the importance of teachers’ beliefs and pedagogical awareness in relation to their teaching practices. The paper draws on findings from an in-depth qualitative study of ten teachers of adult learners over a period of eight months. The study examined the potential of learning in practice and explored how teachers reflect on their pedagogy. In this paper, I consider what these reflections tell us about the choices teachers make about their practice. The findings reveal that teachers’ gut feelings play a significant role in shaping their thoughts and beliefs and in informing their choices and teaching practices in class. I suggest, however, that these teachers’ everyday practices do not hold pedagogical learning potential on their own, as individual teachers are not all capable of taking advantage of the opportunities offered to them in their everyday teaching. The study reveals that over time – when working with teachers’ beliefs during the process of writing and discussing – their pedagogical awareness strengthens and they are more capable of taking advantage of the opportunities offered to them in their everyday teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]