Critical Incidents Technique

Education strategy for secondary school teachers

Being prepared to face and overcome difficult or unexpected situations in the classroom as well as reflecting about their teaching practices and experiences may help teachers work in a more comfortable and relaxed atmosphere. According to Pintos & Crimi (2010), those unusual or unpleasant situations are called critical incidents and they should be used as a positive source of analysis and learning. 

When facing a teaching situation, it is very important for teachers to know about the subject they are going to talk about as well as having a special training in how to transmit that knowledge clearly. But being good observers of classroom events help them  to  be prepared when facing and trying to solve difficult situations inside the classroom. But how important is it for future teachers to learn the critical incidents technique at training college?

According to Monereo (1999), from the beginning of their education, teachers should be offered instruments for interpreting and analyzing their own activities. This will help them make decisions as regards their performance as trainees and trainers developing strategies that will improve their professional activity integrating theory and practice (as cited in Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez, 2003).

Unexpected situations in the classroom will require different didactic solutions.

Fernández  and Fernández  (1994) point out that working with critical incidents is a structured strategy in which written situations of the teaching practice are presented to

the teachers and they are asked to make decisions according to the information provided and  analysing specific situations (as cited in Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez, 2003).

Critical incidents as didactic resources represent an important tool for reflection and  analysis of  events that happen in the classroom. These experiences when shared with other  teachers  may be very useful to improve teaching practices.

The whole process that implies working with critical incidents allows future teachers to accumulate experience and to have professional resources obtained from reflection. This can avoid thoughtless reactions when an unexpected thing occurs within the teaching – learning environment.

References

Fernández González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N. & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en  la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de  Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved December 2007, from

http: //redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdf.jsp?iCve=27417107

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: Personal Narratives in Teaching

http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856

                                                 Overcoming unexpected situations

Context

A group of students from 1^st Year Adolescents is taking a final exam. They are inside the classroom waiting for the examiner. When she enters and greets them they respond politely. The examiner delivers the papers and read the tasks aloud explaining what the students have to do. They have time to ask questions and then they are ready to start the written test.

An unexpected reaction

There is a boy at the back of the classroom who seems to be a bit nervous. He is a very good student. He always does his homework and studies a lot for tests and dictations. He attends classes regularly and participates actively in them showing a lot of interest. But he is working with some difficulty to solve the tasks presented in the exam. After some time, he hands in the answer sheet and leaves the room. Half an hour later the student is about to give his oral exam but when he enters the classroom he refuses to sit and decides to leave without giving his exam.

  

Possible causes

-          He got nervous.

-          He could not study enough for the exam.

-          He could not understand the written exam format.

-          Lack of self- confidence.

-          He has personal problems.

-          He does not feel well.

Possible solutions

Some possible actions to overcome the situation would be: talking to the student to see what the problem is and trying to help him; talking to colleagues to hear their opinions and experiences on similar situations; present the students more practice in class following the final exam model and working with the whole group with different techniques in order to reduce anxiety and nervousness. Having a meeting with the student’s parents can help if there is a special situation at home and it is a form of having contact with parents and informing them about their children’s weaknesses.

Final conclusion and reflection

At first, I felt very worried about my student’s reaction but later talking to some of my colleagues I understood that it was a very common situation and they told me about their experiences so I could put some of their suggestions into practice. I talked to the student and he confessed he was not feeling well at the time of the exam, he felt very strange and he could not concentrate on the test but as he is a very shy person he did not tell the examiner what was happening. I explained that situation to his parents who agreed on taking him to the doctor for examination and now we are waiting for the results. They boy is now feeling better so he is attending  English classes as well as school classes but he seems to be worried about his health.