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托福阅读TPO9(试题+答案+译文)第2篇:Reflection in Teaching
托福阅读原文
Teachers, it is thought, benefit from thepractice of reflection, the conscious act of thinking deeply about andcarefully examining the interactions and events within their own classrooms.Educators T. Wildman and J. Niles (1987) describe a scheme for developingreflective practice inexperienced teachers. This w
as justified by the view thatreflective practice could help teachers to feel more intellectually involved intheir role and work in teaching and enable them to cope with the paucity ofscientific fact and the uncertainty of knowledge in the discipline of teaching.
Wildman and Niles were particularlyinterested in investigating the conditions under which reflection mightflourish–a subject on which there is little guidance in the literature. Theydesigned an experimental strategy for a group of teachers in Virginia andworked with 40 practicing teachers over several years. They were concerned thatmany would be “drawn to these new, refreshing” conceptions of teaching only tofind that the void between the abstractions and the realities of teacherreflection is too great to bridge. Reflection on a complex task such asteaching is not easy.”
The teachers were taken through a program of talkingabout teaching events, moving on to reflecting about specific issues in asupported, and later an independent, manner.
Wildman and Niles observed that systematicreflection on teaching required a sound ability to understand classroom eventsin an objective manner. They describe the initial understanding in the teacherswith whom they were working as being “utilitarian … and not r ich or detailed enoughto drive systematic reflection.” Teachers rarely have the time or opportunitiesto view their own or the teaching
of others in an objective manner. Furtherobservation revealed the tendency of teachers to evaluate events rather thanreview the contributory factors in a considered manner by, in effect, standingoutside the situation.
Helping this group of teachers to revisetheir thinking about classroom events became central. This process took timeand patience and effective trainers. The researchers estimate that the initialtraining of the teachers to view events objectively took between 20 and 30hours, with the same number of hours again being required to practice theskills of reflection.
Wildman and Niles identify three principlesthat facilitate reflective practice in a teaching situation. The first is supportfrom administrators in
an education system, enabling teachers to understand therequirements of reflective practice and how it relates to teaching students.The second is the availability of sufficient time and space. The teachers inthe program described how they found it difficult to put aside the immediatedemands of others in order to give themselves the time they needed to developtheir reflective skills. The third is the development of a collaborativeenvironment with support from other teachers. Support and encouragement werealso required to help teachers in the program cope with aspects of theirprofessi
onal life with which they were not comfortable. Wildman and Niles makea summary co mment: “Perhaps the most important thing we learned is the idea ofthe teacher-as-reflective-practitioner will not happen simply because it is agood or even compelling idea.”
Thework of Wildman and Niles suggests the importance of recognizing some of thedifficulties of instituting reflective practice. Others have noted this, makinga similar point about the teaching profession’s cultural inhibitions aboutreflective practice. Zeichner and Liston (1987) point out the inconsistencybetween the role of the teacher as    a (reflective)professional decision makerand the more usual role of the teacher as a technician, putting into practicethe ideas of theirs. More basic than the cultural issues is the matter ofmotivation. Becoming a
reflective practitioner requires extra work (Jaworski,1993) and has only vaguely defined goals with, perhaps, little initiallyperceivable reward and the threat of vulnerability. Few have directlyquestioned what might lead a teacher to want to become reflective. Apparently,the most obvious reason for teachers to work toward reflective practice is thatteacher educators think it is a good thing. There appear to be many unexploredmatters about the motivation to reflect –for example, the value of externallymotivated reflection as opposed to that of teachers who might reflect by habit.
托福阅读试题
1.The word “justified”in the passage(paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to
A.supported
B.shaped
vaguelyC.stimulated
D.suggested