Introduction
This survey will provide you with a chance to reflect on your teaching and how people you know have influenced your teaching. Ultimately the compiled results of this survey will give us a deeper understanding of how know-how is passed on from one teacher to another. See below for information on the authors of the survey.
In this survey, we would like to learn about the people who influenced the way you teach. If you think back through your career as a student and a teacher, there are many people who had a chance to influence both your decision to become a teacher, and the kind of teacher you have become. We invite you to select one person who had a strong influence on the way you teach. Take a moment to recall the circumstances and the time you shared with this person, and how you interacted with each other.
1. Who is/was this person?

1. Someone who is/was not a teacher.
2. Someone who taught me (one of my own teachers)
3. Someone I team teach/taught with
4. Another teacher at my school
5. A teacher with a little more experience than me
6. A much more experienced teacher
Other. Please specify:

3. How did you apply your memory of Omega in this situation?

4. How often do you find yourself drawing on what you learned from Omega?

Moving to the opposite of your relationship with Omega, we would now like to ask you to think of someone whose teaching you think you may have influenced. Let's call him or her Epsilon. Take a moment to recall the circumstances, and the time you shared with Epsilon, and how you interacted with each other.

5. Who is/was Epsilon?

1. Someone who is/was not a teacher.
2. Someone whom I teach/taught (one of my students)
3. Another teacher in my teacher training program
4. Someone I team teach/taught with
5. Another teacher at my school
6. A teacher with a little more experience than me
7. A much more experienced teacher
Other. Please specify:

Demographic information: Now we'd like you to tell us a little more about yourself and your background.
7. How old are you?

1. 15-19
2. 20-29
3. 30-39
4. 40-49
5. 50-59
6. 60-69
7. 70-79
8. 80+

1. English (for native speakers)
2. ESL/EFL
3. Another native language
4. Another foreign language
5. History
6. Mathematics
7. Science
8. Social Science
9. Psychology
Other. Please specify:

1. Pre-school
2. Elementary school
3. Junior high school
4. High School
5. Junior College
6. Undergrad College/University
7. Graduate program
8. Adult education
9. Language School
10. Private tutoring

1. High School diploma
2. Junior College degree
3. Bachelors degree
4. Masters degree
5. Doctoral degree

1. None
2. Practice tutoring
3. Supervised practice-teaching
4. Unsupervised practice-teaching
5. Mentoring
Other. Please specify:

Contact Information (optional)
 

Who wrote this?
The authors are Jill Robbins and Peter Ross.
If you'd like to send e-mail to us, we can be reached at:
Jill Robbins:
Peter Ross:

SAMPLE RESPONSES

Q2: What made you think of Omega?
A. The teacher handled a situation successfully

1. When I found myself enjoying teaching, I was sometimes reminded of him. From the way he used to teach or what he was saying, I realised that he was also teaching us. So, I always remember that enjoying teaching others makes them happy at the same time.
2. B. The teacher uses Omega as a guide; i.e. a model to work toward.
3. I was going to put off grading student paper for a couple of weeks and the image of Omega came to mind; he always got our homework and papers back to us the following week, with constructive comments. This image of my former teacher came to mind when I was at home, looking at a desk piled high with reports. This was in stark contrast to Omega's efficient work space at school, and at his home.
4. When I teach older students. I have two Omegas.
5. A Japanese professor who taught me how to teach (pedagogy). He told me that teacher should be a midwife. A midwife never gives birth to a baby but helps an expectant mother. A midwife is a teacher and an expectant mother is a student.
6. An American Professor who showed me how to teach.(demonstration) He told me that teaching is not telling. ...
C. The teacher encountered some kind of problem; e.g. s/he didn't get the results s/he expected, had trouble coping with a situation, etc.
1. It was an English conversation class for university freshmen; no one was listening, no one was trying to talk English, I was getting frustrated. Only the 25 or so students were in the room with me. It was one of those days. I thought of Omega and wondered what he would do.
2. Teaching my students (graduate students), I sometimes feel that they are dull, lazy and not-smart. Then I often think of Omega.
3. I remember how she could make even a dull part of a textbook (chronological order for example) seem interesting. She never actually said it, but she made the saying, It's a poor workman who blames his tools meaningful somehow. So, when I taught in Mainland China and had a lot of trouble getting up-to-date materials, I thought about how she was able to enliven this comp. class at UCLA with a particularly dreadful textbook.
4. When I see my grad students struggling I think of Omega. We were a group of grad students teaching in an ELI meeting at the end of every week to talk about what we did that week and to discuss if there are any problems. The director and assistant director are there as well. The assistant D. often complimented and encouraged us and would sometimes say, Wow, that sounds like an article. Write it up and give it to me! She was the editor of 2 or 3 small newsletters for teachers. This basically made us feel like part of the profession and our contributions were valuable.
5. My Omega helped me to see that teaching is a profession which is perhaps foremost about human relations and the way that humans interact with each other. He helped me read people better and showed me some ways of developing rapport. When I am confronted with a difficult student, I often remember his teachings. So-called difficult students often have different ways of learning/thinking that I am used to. However, it is precisely such students who help me become a better teacher. In a strange way, I am sort of grateful for them - they keep me on my toes.
6. The influence that the above teacher had on my teaching practice was tremendous. It is not a question of who was there, what I was thinking, what circumstances I was in, and so on. Whatever I do, I think of the teacher. Especially when I have a challenge, a frustration, or a difficult situation, I would think of her and wonder what she might do if she were in my shoe. For example, when the students are not responsive, when they are extremely passive, when somebody was late for class, when somebody was absent from class.
7. I'm not sure I think of Omega specifically but rather the philosophy that Omega has about teaching. That philosophy is a social constructivist philosophy and incorporated in that is student centred approached to teaching and learner autonomy. I think about these things when I find myself failing to practice what I profess to believe. I find myself thinking of these things when I see a student yawn or react in any other way indicating that they are not involved in the classroom. I wonder whether I am responsible for this and how I can get the student more involved. I guess I think of Omega specifically, rather than his philosophy when I'm doing correction. I remember seeing Omega by smiling alone and I try to remind myself of the humanity of this correction technique.
8. I was having my students do some daily free writing as Peter Elbow suggests writers do. When they finished, they were to record the number of words they had written on a log, and we watched daily together as they improved both in the number of words produced and the length of time they could write without stopping. One day I was very tired during this class scheduled at the end of the day from 3-5 pm. I just did not want to get on my feet and walk around the room to see how the students had done. But I remembered how we had discussed the witnessing that teachers do for students in my Approaches to Teaching class at SIT, and the instructor we had--and how he had witnessed our work and our growth. That discussion about witnessing had a great impact on me and I often thought about it, what it meant and tried to link it to the message of the film with Harrison Ford who chased a criminal into the Amish country (Witness). So I became motivated to get on my feet, walk around the! room for the students to show me their success, to witness their success. In this Approaches class we had discussed also teacher authority and what teacher authority is based on. I feel that witnessing student success is part of a teacher's responsibility, and that in fulfilling that responsibility, a teacher affirms and grows in their authority. We cannot as teachers claim authority that we have not be responsible for. My Approaches teacher had always fulfilled his responsibility, so how could I not fulfill mine? If my teacher could thus inspire me by his untiring work, perhaps I could have such an effect on my girls.


Q3: How did you apply your memory of Omega in this situation?

1. I reflected on the fact that I was not Omega, and that my own teaching and leadership modes, though deeply influenced and informed by him, were different. My strengths were not necessarily the same as his. I realized I'd be a stronger teacher/ director/ leader if I didn't pretend to be him, but explored my own personality and leadership style more fully.
2. I recalled how Omega taught us. Although Omega was not a language teacher, I could apply his general approach to my class. We students supplied most of the content for the course as well as did most of the talking. Omega supplied the general framework. I started doing the same in a reading course I was concerned about. This was some years back now.
3. It's not that I often picture this particular instructor perched over my classroom door giving me advice out of the side of her mouth -- she just had this way of exuding confidence without acting smug and was resourceful and encouraging in difficult situations. I learned later that she often reflected on her teaching and felt that reflection was an important part of teacher development.
4. Ah, a precise situation. OK. I remember one student who felt I was not serious enough ... I explored her ideas of what a teacher is and changed some of my behaviours. I modified my teacher persona based on her responses to what she felt a teacher should be. My teacher persona is somewhat flexible - I can adjust it and control it to a degree. I can be different things to different students. I understand better now how students often look for different things in teachers. If I read students well and elicit feedback, I can usually pick this up. Sometimes, however, I miss key information. So-called difficult students help me to see my own blind spots.
5. Oh, yes, my very, very cynical mentor (I was aged 23 then) Charles. His advice on the general make-up of organizations, people is that you can't trust organizations and groups at all---in time they get politicized to the point that you are either part of the clique and are in on the attacks or you end up at the wrong end of things. Basically, he pretty much oriented me to the fact that I had to look out for myself and never, never trust any organization because sooner or later it was going to let you down. Basically, very true, in having only 4 weeks to find a job when I was a visiting professor at XYZ University, when they decided at the last minute to hire someone cheaper---with signals from the people in charge that everything was in order and I shouldn't worry. Charles was important because he was the first to shatter naive assumptions about how things really work---assumptions that education colleges pretty much instill. He was a fun guy to be with, and he had been around the block (being at that time at 63, and just putting in a couple more years until social security kicked in. He had worked in the Miami school system which, of course, is like being in a war zone, if that clarifies things a bit more.
6. This teacher was my fifth grade teacher . . . She taught us all that we mattered and knit us into a tight group. She taught me the importance of community building in the classroom.
7. I don't teach English but try to be a facilitator. I am now teaching English to adults. One thing I must not do is to teach them too much. I teach little and ask them to do a lot. And I try to be a facilitator, not a teacher. It is a three-month course. Students arrive as strangers and leave as friends. Some students even got married after the course.
8. I remembered the suggestion Omega made to think of a green tree, to focus on it and calm down. From that classroom window I could see some trees. It always helped me to refocus on my situation.
9. I recalled how Omega taught us. Although Omega was not a language teacher, I could apply his general approach to my class. We students supplied most of the content for the course as well as did most of the talking. Omega supplied the general framework. I started doing the same in a reading course I was concerned about. This was some years back now.


Q6: How has Omega affected the way you interact with Epsilon?

A. It's hard to think of someone I affected, and/or to know exactly what effect I might have had.

1. It is a little difficult to separate out whether Omega was the overriding factor in this interaction with Epsilon, or whether it was my own natural temperament which brought it about. It feels like a case of the chicken or the egg. However, when I do think of Omega, it is a model which does act as a spur to my putting forth extra effort in giving help/feedback to students.
2. Now this Epsilon stuff ... it is much harder to know who I have influenced. Who has eaten me? Hmmm ... this can get sort of weird. I can't actually think of how I have influenced any other person's teaching style. I do not feel like I have ever been a mentor to anyone - at least in the field of teaching. I have mentored a few creative writers, encouraging them to develop their budding talents. Hmmm ... Who is my Epsilon? I am not really a teacher trainer - though I suspect we all are in some way. Who is my Epsilon? Frankly, no person comes to mind..
B. The teacher uses Omega as a guide; i.e. a model to work toward.
1. Omega has helped me take my teaching less seriously, that is I can enjoy my classes more and that has influenced how I react with Epsilon. I know that I am not so uptight and that has loosened him up as well.
2. Epsilon is my daughter, who has been asked to teach English and has agreed to. She has asked my advice about preparing lessons, but finds the lessons I propose to be too time-consuming to prepare. Reflecting on how Omega would do things, I have tried to be more patient and explore what my daughter would feel comfortable in doing with the small children she teaches in order to give her more usable suggestions.
3. Omega has influenced how I interact with Epsilon during our training/evaluation workshops. I try to allow Epsilon to self evaluate as much as possible. I offer praise and I ask for input. If we consider teacher training as learner centred as well then its best to try to apply the same principles to that learning context that we do in a traditional EFL classroom context. Since our first workshop together Epsilon has become much more enthusiastic and less cynical or indifferent and I think the trouble I took to try and discover why Epsilon was behaving that way made a small measure of difference. Of course most of the credit goes to Epsilon, and Omega.
C. Interesting answer, but doesn't make the connection between Omega and Epsilon.
1. This colleague is very sincere and a hard worker, but I see her a bit too tied up in the top-down or controlling aspect of being a teacher. I want to help her evolve her teacher authority from a less controlling style (and perhaps a bit manipulative) into a more trusting-in-human-nature one. She might say she plans to list the good points of several student papers and tell the rest of the class why these papers are good. I suggest that she return all the papers to the class and have pairs discuss what is good in their papers and share that with the large class group. Let the students themselves put the criteria into circulation. I am trying to help her see that sharing responsibility for the class, for the subject matter can be a more positive use of teacher authority and that her witnessing student success will be a positive experience for the students. . . . Another time my colleague told me she had had a great lesson. I asked her if she had asked the students to take a few minutes at the end of class to write down what they liked, what they did not like and what they had learned. No, she said, she could tell from their body language what was going on. I persisted and said that body language could indeed reveal a lot to an observant eye, but that through my training at SIT I had learned to try these feedback questions and that the responses were richer than I had thought they could be. So, I was really excited when she told me she had tried the questions and had learned a lot from them. It was fun to see someone else try an adventure in the classroom.

 
Q11/12: If you did go through a student teaching, practice teaching or mentoring program, how did it affect you and/or your teaching?
A. It was useless/non-existent
1. The majority of on the job training I've receive has been insufficient and I have taken it upon myself to attend seminars and workshops and confer with colleagues outside of my teaching context in order to improve as a teacher.
2. The TESOL program (I have an MATESOL) was not helpful to me as a teacher, almost not at all, except for general linguistics courses that help me teach English. But the teaching methodology courses were almost entirely un-useful. So, remembering some teachers of *other* subjects I had, and also studying on my own AFTER graduate school has been helpful. Especially what has been helpful is studying applied educational psychology, also cross cultural communication and global issues education.
3. I have not been taken any teacher training programs at all. Our system (Japan) is a bit similar to a guild. If we met a good master, it is our fortune.
B. It was very helpful
1. I had a rigorous 8 week student teaching situation ... it helped me to know what the realities of teaching are but most of what I know and learned about teaching actually came from several years of on-the-job training. I was able to apply the 5 years of on the job teaching of native speakers to my now 7 years teaching EFL students.
2. I think the mentoring is useful for self-reflection. I find that writing thoughts about myself helps little, whereas writing to discuss with someone is much more productive. Having supervised and unsupervised practice allows one to try out ideas that one thinks might work well. However, I think that at the practice teaching stage one is still very much a novice and still has a lot of growing to do. I suppose my 'style' was largely set through teaching practice (possibly even before then) but I think I've changed as a teacher as time has gone by.
3. It had a tremendous influence on me. But it was not just the program. People I met in the program and in conferences, people I met through readings, and people I observed, they all had a substantial influence on my own teaching. I took Silent Way and CLL practicum. It made me think of teaching from entirely new perspectives. For instance, I still wonder what effects my pre-fabricated lesson plans have on what actually happens in my classes, whether I am truly aiming for student-centered classes, whether I should be more concerned about the emotional impact the (often frustrating) learning process has on the students.
4. Although I have not become an elementary teacher (yet), it had many effects on me. For the first eight weeks, I had a great supervising teacher in the fifth grade (not Omega above, though) who, like my Omega, involved the students a lot and got them to take on more and more responsibility as the year progressed. This teacher was also great about setting the curriculum aside for an hour or so sometimes and talking to the class about other things in their lives or the classroom. My second supervising teacher was terrible. I am sure the main reason she took on a student teacher each year for 8 weeks was to get more free time for herself, because she had me scheduled to do quite a bit of unsupervised teaching before she had even seen me teach! That experience taught me that as long as just about anyone can become an elementary teacher in the U.S., I would not be happy teaching in that environment. (But of course there are schools where all the teachers are great. Now if they could just get the salaries up to par ...)
5. The mentoring program I went through solidified the theory I was studying about in the research oriented section of my teacher training program. It also helped me develop lesson plans which I am still able to use today. Finally, I am at a point in my career where I believe my training and experience are coming to together to help me raise up a new generation of teachers. Having this ability to pass the torch is quite satisfying and keeps me serving as a teacher.
6. The supervised student teaching affected me and my teaching very much because it helped me connect the principles we discussed in class with my practice. I watch what my students are actually doing in the classroom, for instance that they are referring to notes taken the day before. I don't try to make my students conform to my perfect plan. I don't worry what they should do. After all should just expresses and opinion as I read once. But, I worry that my plan facilitates the learning process that each individual in front of me is going through. Maybe people learn this way and not that way, so I have to adjust my plan and teach responsively. As a result, the classroom is much more interesting, more lively and very exciting when I realize through feedback and observation what happened at some moment with a student. The classroom is more electric and less dry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Response categorizations
Multiple choice questions
Q1: Who is/was Omega?
Someone who is/was not a teacher: 1
Someone who taught me: 19
A teacher with a little more experience than me: 1
A much more experienced teacher: 3
Other: 1: A teacher from another school
No answer: 7
Other textual comments:
• Both of my parents were teachers - they had the greatest influence on my decision be become a teacher.
• A professor at Manchester University ran a unique course
• NLP trainer
• "Someone I observed teaching. She was one of the teachers I observed for my dissertation. There was nobody else in the classroom--Omega, her students, and myself. "
• "Someone whose profession was not teaching, but who taught acting. He was/is a director and actor."
Q4: How often do you find yourself drawing on what you learned from Omega?
Several times a year: 16
Several times a month: 5
Several times a week: 3
Several times a day: 5
No answer: 3
Q5: Who is/was Epsilon?
Someone who is/was not a teacher: 1
Someone I teach teach/taught with: 7
Someone I team teach/taught with: 5
Another teacher at my school: 7
A teacher with a little more experience than me: 1
A much more experienced teacher: 1
Other: A friend who was in a workshop I was also in; A peer teacher at another school who I often discuss teaching with; an intern for my school ; a less experienced teacher than me
Nobody: 2
No answer: 4
Other textual comments:
A grad student who is also a teacher.
I don't feel that I have had such an experience
I don't have any idea whom I have influenced.
Q7: How old are you?
30-39: 6
40-49: 13
50-59: 8
60-69: 2
70-79: 1
Q8: What subjects do you teach?
ENL: 1
ESL: 22
Science: 1
Social Science: 2
Other: 5
Curriculum methods and instruction, theories of
learning, theater arts, writing
International Management
outdoor education
Teacher Trainer, specialising in initial TT for
NNT's
Theatre, creative dramatics, storytelling
No answer: 1
Other textual comments:
English for Japanese
"Grad school interactive learning, psychology of learning"
Beginning Japanese (part-time)
history
In the example I refer to regarding Omega I was teaching History in England
"Japanese, teacher training, American culture, teaching EFL to young learners"
"Science, Physical Education "
Q9: Main level at which you are now teaching:
Elementary school: 1
High school: 3
Junior college: 1
Undergrad college/university: 17
Graduate program: 3
Adult education: 2
Language school: 1
Other: 2; teach from primary to University; All ages
Not teaching: 1
No answer: 1
Other textual comments:

Private students, language school
Grad classes (part-time)
Grad School, some elementary thru HS
"K-12, continuing ed, undergrad "
Language School, Private Tutoring
High School
private children's classes and community centre classes

Q10a: Please indicate your highest degree
Bachelors degree: 4
MA: 19
Doctorate: 7
NA: 2
Q10b: Where did you receive your highest degree:
Australia: 2
Canada: 2
Japan: 2
UK: 2
USA: 12
No response: 10
Q11: What kind of student teaching, practice teaching or mentoring program did your teacher training program have:
None: 6
Practice tutoring: 2
Supervised practice-teaching: 15
Unsupervised practice-teaching: 3
Mentoring: 3
Other: I'm not sure, as I was able to get the requirement waived; Teaching Practice Short Courses
No answer: 1
Other textual comments:
None for my Master's Degree although a student-teaching program was being implemented while I was there. I did, however do student teaching in an elementary school while I was working on my education degree.
All of the above options
My undergrad degree required fairly extensive practice-teaching--something like 6 weeks if I recall correctly--whereas my M.Ed. didn't require any!
"We are talking about my native speaking teaching credentials now, rather than my ESL/EFL credentials."
Actually, it was student teaching for elementary students, so it included all of the above components: mentoring, tutoring, supervised teaching, and unsupervised teaching.
As grad students in an ELI
Current residence
Australia: 1
Japan: 15
Korea: 1
Spain: 1
UAE: 1
USA: 6
NA: 5


---

Conclusions
• Our sample was mostly university-based and teaching in Japan.
• Most respondents have a MA.
• Many teachers have been influenced by their own teacher
• Teachers were able to reflect on how their own teaching style has been influenced by their own mentor/role model, but they are not usually aware of whom they have influenced in turn.
The lucky ones who are aware of their "Epsilon" see that their mentor taught them things like patience, kindness, and to encourage learning through discovery rather than transmission of knowledge.
 

---


This was a response from a non-language teacher:
About the survey, I'm not sure that it applies very well to me. My field -- clinical law -- is a relatively new one (only about 30 years old). Because it is new, its practitioners have been excruciatingly self-reflective about their teaching. There is now quite a vast literature on clinical methodology, written by colleagues who are all about my age or a little older. (I'll be 50 in October.) So I can't really claim to have been strongly influenced by one person, as opposed to a whole generation of teachers like me who thought that there ought to be a better way to teach law students than lecture (or even lecture and discussion). Almost every day we talk about how we teach, and what we can do to teach better. Our courses are usually co-taught, so that after every class we can talk about how the class went, and what could have been gone better, and the choices we made, etc. But my teaching career has felt like one long experiment with a new pedagogy, and most of the national conferences are about how we teach and supervise our students in the context of a live-client clinic. The emphasis is on taking your hands off the wheel, and letting the students assume as much responsibility for the client and the client's case as possible. This is a hard thing for most lawyers to do, because most lawyers are control freaks who chose their profession because it suited well their Type A personalities.... So we clinicians have been influenced by other fields, where the professionals listen far more than they talk, and where silence makes room for others to fill it. Mostly we ask questions, and only supply answers in a crisis, when immediate action is required.
I occasionally find myself asking, How would X handle this situation? But more often I think about the range of options that past or present colleagues, or friends from other law school clinics, might bring to bear on the situation I'm facing. The same with passing information to new colleagues -- I never tell them what to do, but talk about the possibilities. The trick, I think, is always to be trying to overcome your own default drives -- the things you would typically do in a given situation, which may or may not be the best things to do if you had access to a different or wider range of options. The claim we make is that by giving students a lot of responsibility, and by discussing their every move (both ahead of time and after the fact), we somehow begin to teach them what it means to exercise good judgment (in the context of representing a client). But this is far more an art than a science, and I'm not convinced that we can measure outcomes (or that we would prove ourselves successful if we could).
What I am saying is that because clinical TEACHING is so explicitly on the agenda every day, I can't say that I've been more subtly influenced by a particular teacher, or that I've been a particularly strong influence on others. In my clinic for a long time I typically hired people who were older and more experienced than I was -- it was great to make myself the junior lawyer in the office. Now that I'm old enough that it is harder to do that, I give the new (younger) people all the decision-making authority, so that the syllabus and the case-load is theirs, and the oldsters go along with almost anything they want to do. They love the autonomy, even if as a program we sometimes must re-invent the wheel, or make the same mistakes that I made 15 years ago....
We try to create a culture of questioning, in which it is easy to admit our own ignorance, and to get help from others. The idea is to provide a model by which a lawyer can keep growing and learning throughout a career, even when the structured educational process (of school) has been left far behind.
I hope this answers your questions better than would my partial answers to the survey.

---




Home