TOWARDS PATHS OF REFLECTION IN HISTORY TEACHING: OBSERVATION AS A STRATEGY FOR SUPERVISION AND TEACHING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Current proposals and approaches to teachers' professional knowledge point to a new conceptualisation of professionalism. The practical knowledge of the teacher, the routine and situated knowledge about the curriculum, the materials, cognitive development, disciplinary issues, classroom strategies, parents, can be captured through images, metaphors and stories, promoting reflective practice. The focus on observation means putting it in what should be its rightful place, as a dynamic, investigative and reflective component of the teaching-learning process and, consequently, as a fundamental instrument of its development - therefore, research and practice should dialogue collaboratively. The proposed observation scheme focuses on the interaction between teacher and students and between students in the classroom. The organisation and the openness of the recording lines of this scheme allowed to take notes of the diversity of aspects related to the interaction established in class, namely the time used by the teacher and the students in the different moments of class, the type of activities proposed, and the type of questions and answers produced, as well as the way they were evaluated (or not).