Humberto Marino

Models of Training

Every language teacher identifies more with a certain Wallace's model than the others
(Wallace 1991). The knowledge and analysis of other models helps teachers to start using
them in a way they had not thought before! When a teacher gets to master the three
models he can suggest other training teachers how to use them; he can also become a
collaborator to help them put it into practice. In this text I am going to write about my own
experience with the 3 models and explain how they helped me grow in my professional
career; these insights will certainly be valuable to the teachers that I will train/develop one
day.
The craft model is the first one used by most teachers. This was my experience as a
novice teacher when my dad told me that I had to tell students the meanings of the words,
explain grammar, have them repeat and do the exercises. I had no idea that he was using
the craft model by showing me what to do and telling me if I was doing well or not. As I
was gaining experience, the craft model was still my choice number one because other
experienced teachers told me what and how to do things in the classroom. They also
corrected me when I told them about my mistakes and congratulated me when I had
successful classes.
But during this time I also started using the applied science model when I looked for
information on how to improve my teaching. I found out that children love songs, crafts and
games whereas teenagers value respect and are digital natives. I came across with
knowledge and theories like the silent period, the i+1 input theory, universal grammar and
communicative activities. Many of these ideas shaped my beliefs and thinking; they
changed my teaching practice and I started doing new things like providing my students
with language just above their level, speaking in English for longer periods of time trusting
they would understand most of what I said and not worrying if they did not speak English
right away.
But these two models were not enough, there are times when applied science says one
thing and in the classroom happens another and the teacher is puzzled and thinks that
according to the theory a certain activity or method should work but things do not improve
at all. This is when the reflective model comes in to analyze a class especially when things
turn out particularly right or particularly wrong. Also, in situations where decisions must be

made quickly the reflective model also known as 'knowing in action', allows the
experienced teacher to think fast and accurately to decide how to react in face of the 1,000
interpersonal interactions that a teacher faces every day. (McLeod and McIntyre( 1977) in
Wallace (1991).
Continuing with this, Penny Ur (1997) notes that, in the craft and applied science models,
the training teacher is mainly passive, receptive of the collaborators constructive criticism
or the research theory while on the reflective model the teacher has an active role while
experiencing, reflecting and conceptualizing what goes on in his classroom. In my first
years I used to be receptive like Ur says, receiving information that I thought was absolute
in order to have a good learning environment, doing everything I was told, applying what
the research books told me to do. I was not very reflective, when something did not work
out I restrained from using it but I did not ask myself why; there were many things that my
collaborator and research books told me to do but did not seem to be successful with me.
It was not until recent years that I embraced a more active role by reflecting more about
my teaching, I did not just experiment but also came to conclusions about why something
did not work for me in spite of the wonderful results when other teachers did the same
thing. I observed how my mentors did the things I could not do, their tone of voice, the
situations, the context, and the participants. It was in this stage that I figured out why lots
of advice I had received before had not just turned out well in my classes, I was not
applying tips and ideas properly, in the exact same way my collaborator applied them.
Moreover I conceptualized principles about why things worked or not. For example, I
always knew that rewards and punishments model behavior significantly but there was a
time when I did discipline my kids but there was no improvement in the course of the
weeks. It was not until years later that I realized that some penalties work for some people
but not for others and the same with rewards. Rewards and punishments must be found
out to suit specific kinds of individuals.
Another supporter of the Reflective model is Tanvir (2008), who understands it as a cyclical
process in which the student-teachers are involved throughout their lifelong teaching
experience and have, as a result, continuous improvement and the development of
personal theories of action. I definitely agree with this author because this process is
repeated during all teachers career, whenever a challenge is completed there comes
another. Practice-reflection is a continuum that enriches the teachers profession. Another
thing that is achieved is developing my own personal theories. Yes, all teachers read

theories from Krashen, Chomsky, Skinner, Richards but a teacher can agree with one or
various authors regarding the best approach applied to his own context. A reflective
teacher sometimes creates a mixture of various methods which work great results to his
own interests.
Finally, Markovic (2007) says that the role of the reflective model is to shed light upon
unconsciously made classroom decisions, leading teachers to develop insights into
knowing-in-action. I really liked this definition because it explains thoroughly what
happens in the English classroom: an inexperienced teacher decides to give permission
to some students to go out of the classroom, after they come back they delay the class
when they go bring their books. While the teacher reflects upon this class he realizes that
he had very little time because he let the students out without having them get their things
ready. By means of this reflection he develops an insight that for his next class he will tell
his students to have their material ready before letting them out. After many days of
following this procedure this practice becomes a habit. This is just an example of the
process of the reflective model in action.
In this paper I have written about the three models by Wallace (1991) and how they relate
to my personal experience as I will have to use them in the future and share them with
other trainees and I came with the conclusion that they are all important to build a
professional career. In the first stages of teacher training the craft model and applied
science model are advisable but as a teacher continues to grow and develop his skills he
needs reflection in order to get the most out of the other models. The reflective model
helps to improve teaching practices by giving light to aspects a teacher had not seen
before; it is an ongoing process that accompanies the teacher in conceptualizing and
coming up with his own theories of how English language teaching works best in his
classroom.

Bibliografa
Markovic, D. (2007). Becoming a reflective practitioner: A classroom based research on
mentor work with a novice teacher in Tuzla Canton, Bosnia Herzegovina.
http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1010&context=ipp_collection consulted on March 8th 2015.
Tanvir, S. (2011). The Models of Teacher Education. tanvirdhaka.blogspot.com/.../modelsof-teacher-education consulted on March 8th 2015.
Ur, P. (1997). Teacher Training and Teacher Development: A Useful Dichotomy? Jalt
Journal.
Wallace, M. (1991). Training Foreign Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.