Critical Incidents: Reflection upon Our Own Practices

Concentrating on the meanings of these two terms, critical and incident, we could reach the conclusion that a critical incident has a negative effect on the teaching and learning process. However, it does not.

Critical Incidents (CI) are, as Kennedy and Wyrick (1990) suggest, “a method of reflective practice” (p. 5 ), so it should be pointed out that, by reflecting on our teaching practices, not  only can we obtain information which could be useful so as to solve problems that can  arise in the classroom, but also we can take decisions based on that information which may  allow us to be able to act before the unexpected.

As Fernández  and Fernández (1994) states  el “incidente critico es una estrategia estructurada y en la cual se presenta a los profesores situaciones escritas de la enseñanza (…) y se les pide que tomen una decisión en función de la información que se le proporciona”.

When writing a CI, there are steps that should be followed in order to have a deeper insight.  Mezirow (1990) outlined two basic steps to write critical incidents. First of all, the writer should describe an incident – an event – giving details of the place and time in which the episode took place. The writer should also list “people involved, the roles these people played, and the action”  taken so as to solve the problem.

The second step is to “record thoughts and feelings related to the incidents as it happened and after the action took place, being careful not to interpret or to analyze the action taken” (as cited in Kennedy & Wyrick, 1995, p. 5).

All in all, critical incidents are not only a useful mechanism for reflecting upon our teaching practice, but they are also a powerful tool for enhancing our performance. Taking critical incidents into consideration might assist us whenever  a problem arises in our classrooms.

                                                                  References

Fernández González, J.,  Elortegui   Escartín,  N., &  Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista Universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17-001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved October 2011, from http: //redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

Kennedy, R.L. & Wyrick, A.M. (1995). Teaching as reflective practice. Tennessee: The University of Tennesse.