1. Closing
English Teaching Professional Practicum
UCSC 2012
Brief description
The following lines will be mainly focused on the various influences I have gotten and all the
things that made me reflect over the practicum period. It includes a reflection of my development
as a teacher, some strategies I have found successful and certain experiences that I think would
improve my practice in my future workplace. Finally, there are some general comments related
to my teaching experience and the influences that had an effect on my philosophy of teaching.
Closing: Influences & Reflection
Considering the student as a social and cultural actor, he played a role in the social and cultural
scenarios, creating global interdependence subject to changes that were made in the
negotiations of this actor with others. Moreover, knowledge and learning were linked to the
teacher's role to the extent that this actor, along with others, defined a scenario of cultural
mediation, also became central role in what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development,
understood as the potential or the distance between two levels: the current development of
maturity, expressed in the ability to solve problem situations autonomously, and the level of
development set by the ability to resolve them with the help of others. This concept, central to
the theory of mediated learning, acted as strong support to explain the potential of development

2. and the need for cultural mediation. With this support can be clearly stated that learning was
accompanied by development processes, and the learning context determined its possibility and
quality. The social world within the classroom and the roles played by each of the actors who are
part of their interaction scenario made students generated learning linked to the social and
cultural plot to which mean, value or belong.
From the socioconstructivist perspective are some teaching strategies that were implemented
during my professional practicum where the need to reflect all the time on the importance of the
confrontation between students by valuing the benefits of:
 decentering students of unique and self-centered viewpoints;
 coordinating regulation of peer interaction;
 learning from the experience of others;
 and participating in solving problems collectively.
Furthermore, it is well known that teaching strategies that engage and involve students in the
learning process are found at the heart of good teachers’ action. That is why, during my
professional practicum, it was shown that certain strategies actually help students to achieve
success and learn at higher levels. Some of these were:
• Use of prior knowledge:
It was important to exploit students' prior knowledge in order to help themselves to
build new knowledge.

3. • Use of cooperative learning:
Individual work was important to assess each individual process, but it was also
important to make students work in pairs or groups to strengthen the construction of
knowledge one another.
• Use of feedback:
I usually stimulated student’s learning; relevant role of the teaching process.
• Use of recognition:
Based on the Socratic method, some decisions on some evaluations or everyday
matters of coexistence within the classroom came to a good agreement between
teacher and student and among the students themselves.
• Use of a "modeler" teacher:
Personally I think it was an effective strategy when showing a new concept or skill to
be developed.
• Use of technology:
The use of this was completely limited during class due to the misuse of it by students
themselves. However, out of the pedagogical hours, it was very useful for giving
feedback and answering questions about the course in general by means of a
Facebook group.

4. I honestly think that I did a good job as both an English teacher and head teacher: firstly I tried to
create an favorable environment in every single class, encourage students to learn a little more
every day and improve their marks from the previous semester through didactic and entertaining
activities in which they could develop their full range of skills, and secondly, as far as possible, I
kept close communication with a lot of my students when I thought they needed someone to
trust their daily problems, tried to solve their problems somehow or at least get them out of the
tense situation in which they were involved with a smile.
Personally I think everything in life influences or affects somehow in our daily lives. This is why
having been at CEIA MASS during my professional practicum had a positive effect on me not only
as a teacher but also as a future educator. In simple words, the practicum made my philosophy of
teaching to be strengthened: I have always believed in the potential that every single student has
inside to learn and I did further in those who were studying at this educational institution. While at
first many of these students did not attach importance to activities or classes in general, during
the process I saw that some of them began to be interested in listening, participating and
learning. If I asked any professor from my university or any other if they think CEIA MASS is an
appropriate school for professional practicum surely the answer would be "NO", yet I think it is
one of those schools where most teacher-students are needed to do professional practicum
simply because there is where a true teacher is really formed, where all the skills of a teacher are
tested, where students need one and where student or teacher quality is not valued.