‘The Curse of Knowledge’: Reflections from a Teaching Practicum Course in a Saudi University

Afra Takrouni, Miriam Alkubaidi

Abstract


This paper is an action research study that focuses on improving the quality of my teaching practice as an English language teacher in an English as a foreign language (EFL) educational context. It presents my reflections as a post-graduate student of Master in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MA TESOL) from the Teaching Practicum course at a Saudi Arabian University. The study of Teaching Practicum course enabled me to develop my understanding of teaching as a profession, to reflect upon my pedagogical practice systematically, and to tackle teaching issues and concerns. Based on my reflective practice, this action research introduces the curse of knowledge as a pedagogical issue, which I have faced throughout this course as a student. As part of the study, lesson plans and reflective journals were used to obtain the required data through conducting four micro-teaching sessions. Newby’s (2010) reflective cycle was followed to reflect on my teaching practice in a systematic way. As the data was thematically analyzed, I realized that the clarity of instructions played a significant role in decreasing the effect of the curse of knowledge on teaching. As a result, students were not be able to carry out classroom activities.


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/gjes.v5i2.15224

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