"Journaling Together:

Collaborative Diary-Keeping and Teacher Development

Mark N. Brock, Bartholomew Yu, and Matilda Wong
I
"Journaling Together: The Journey Begins
Since the late 1970's, diary studies have been gaining attention as legitimate means of investigating
learning and teaching processes in second language classrooms. Though this approach to classroom
research is relatively young, researchers claim several benefits in investigating learning and teaching
processes through diary studies. One of the most important of these is that this approach to
classroom research can provide access to those hidden affective variables that greatly influence the
way teachers teach and students learn. There are several other advantages in employing diary
studies in investigating classroom teaching and learning processes, including the following:
1.
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They provide an effective means of identifying variables that are important to individual teachers and
learners.
They serve as a means of generating questions and hypotheses about teaching and learning processes.
They enhance awareness about the way a teacher teaches and a student learns.
They are an excellent tool for reflection.
They are simple to conduct.
They provide a first-hand account of teaching and learning experiences.
They are the most natural form of classroom research in that no formal correlations are tested and no
outside observer enters the classroom dynamic.
They provide an on-going record of classroom events and teacher and learner reflections.
They enable the researcher to relate classroom events and examine trends emerging from the diaries.
They promote the development of reflective teaching
(Allwright, 1983; Bailey, 1990; Brown, 1985; Nunan, 1989; and Richards, 1990).
The usual procedure followed in diary studies is quite simple. Diarists set aside regular times
immediately following a classroom lesson to reflect on and write about the teaching or learning
experience. Bailey (1990) suggests that diarists also include in their diaries an account of previous
learning and teaching experiences so that diary entries are given the perspective of past experiences.
She recommends that diarists original entries be rewritten for any public presentation and that the
diarist re-read entries regularly in order to locate important issues and define emerging trends about
the learning or teaching experience.
Most published diary studies in second language classroom research (for example, Bailey, 1983;
Schmidt and Frota, 1986; and Schumann and Schumann, 1977) have reported the experiences and
findings of individual diarists. Some of these studies - for example, Bailey (1983) - have included the
input of another researcher or teacher who read and commented on the diarist's entries. We are
unaware, however, of any published diary studies in our field in which diarists kept diaries together,
reading, reflecting on, and talking about their own as well as other participant diarists entries.
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In the study reported here, we attempted a slightly new approach to diary studies. This paper
describes our experiences keeping diaries of two of our classes throughout a ten-week term at City
Polytechnic of Hong Kong. Each week we read one anothers diary entries, made written responses
to each of those entries, and discussed our teaching and diary-keepingexperiences for one hour. Our
report draws on our individual entries, our written responses to one anothers entries, and transcripts
of our weekly discussions. It is divided into two major sections. First, we discuss in detail the process
of our research, that is, how the research was carried out. Second, we consider some of the effects
of this process on our diary-keeping experiences and on our development as second language
teachers.
Processes and Procedures of Collaborative Diary-Keeping
Procedures
Of the three participants in the study, one is an expatriate teacher who has taught at City Polytechnic
for one year. The other two participants are local teachers. One has taught at City Polytechnic for
two years; the other for one year. Each of us wrote three diary entries each week of a ten-week term.
Two entries were made for one three-hour class which met twice weekly (two consecutive hours in
one meeting and one hour in the other meeting). The third entry was made for one meeting of
another class. Our entries concerned different classes, including business, technical, and supplementary
English classes. As several researchers (e.g. Bailey, 1990) have suggested, we wrote our diary entries
immediately following the lessons so that we could remember classroom events and our responses
in as much detail as possible. We also followed Baileys (1990) advice that time spent writing at least
equal time spent in class. We wrote freely in almost a stream-of-consciousness style, paying little
attention to grammatical correctness or stylistic coherence. In addition, we attempted to be as
honest in our diary entries as we possibly could. The fact that our entries often included issues of
frustrations or feelings of failure may indicate that we were indeed honest in what we wrote.
In his comparison of ethnographic research and diary studies, Long (1980) notes that the former is
a record of observation while the latter is more concerned with the diarist's introspection. In keeping
our journals, we attempted to combine the narration of classroom events with our reflections on
those events. We did not narrow our focus to one or even several issues, as we wanted our entries
to reflect as far as possible the reality of our classroom experiences and our reactions to some of the
myriad variables that go into the making of the classroom dynamic.
The Interaction of Entries, Written Responses, and Discussions
To maximise the effects of interaction among the three diarists, our diary-keeping was coupled with
written responses and group discussions. These three steps formed a kind of triangulation which
offered us more than one way of exploring teaching issues and concerns. After writing each diary
entry, we made copies and gave them to one another to read. We then wrote brief responses to one
anothers entries and gave copies of these responses to one another before our one-hour discussion
time on Friday afternoon. These group discussions were audio-taped and later transcribed. At the
end of the term, we analyzed the diary entries, our written responses, and transcripts of discussions
to determine how these three interacted and what issues occurred most frequently.
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Our written responses to one anothers diary entries reflect several interesting patterns of discourse.
Often these written responses were characterized by questions or requests for more information
from the diarist. An example from Bart's response to Matilda illustrates this point:
I am interested in knowing how the change of the classroom atmosphere is taking place and did you do
anything to make them participate more fully in class? I remember you saying this class was very
disappointing last week but how come, one week later, the class changed rapidly (January 23,1991)?
Written responses were also used to request that a particular issue or question be considered during
the Friday afternoon discussions. In a response to one of Bart's diary entries, Mark asks:
Can we talk about this some more at todays meeting? I want to hear more of what you are discovering.
I think if I can just see more clearly some things that are going on in my class and in my thinking, then I
can put words to it and that will help me to understand it. I think hearingyou talk more about this will help
me along the way (January 18,199l).
Another prominent feature of our written responses was that often we related concerns in one diary
entry to concerns in another entry. In a response to Marks journal, Bart wrote:
The point you raised towards the end of the entry is similar to what Matilda mentioned in her entry, i.e.
teachingperformance is to some extent independent of class attitude. That is also in one way or the other
in tune with the issue I raised (January 25, 1991).
Additional, written responses to diary entries were used to ask for help, ideas and opinions; to clarify
ones own position about a particular teaching issue; to narne frequently recurring issues in the diary
entries; and to relate an experience similar to that described in the entry being responded to.
Another interesting phenomenon arising from the interaction of diary entries, written responses,
and weekly discussions was a pattern in which issues were developed from a more local, micro-level
(i.e. actual classroom events), to a more general, macro-level. An example will illustrate this process.
In a diary entry, Mark mentioned the way in which one group of students spoke in Cantonese during
a group activity:
One of the groups persisted in discussing the questions in Cantonese. I walked by them and stood by them
a couple of times, but they continued in Cantonese (January 23, 1991).
In the response to this entry, Bart asked for clarification of the event:
I would be interested to know why a couple of students in your class were persistent in using Cantonese when
the others were pretty much on task in English (January 23, 1991).
Then in our group discussion, we considered this event in relation to language attitudes and policy
in Hong Kong society and government:
Mark I dont know, I mean I think its the whole question about English and its a big issue. I think either
people in Hong Kong, theyre going to decide: Are we going to let things keep going? (And English, as far
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as the level in schools, it does seem to be deteriorating.) Are we going to let things just go on or are we going
to change the language of instruction?
Bart: What do you think about the teaching medium? Do you think we should use English or Chinese as
the classroom medium (January 25, 1991)?
There are at least two possible reasons our weekly discussions tended to move from the micro- to
the macro-level. First, we may have been motivated by a desire to explore the larger reasons behind
the particular events we observed in our classrooms. Second, we simply may have found it easier to
talk in more general rather than more specific terms. Talking about larger, theoretical issues may
have been an avoidance technique at those times when we were reluctant to discuss the specific
events in our classrooms.
Changes in Attitudes During the Project
In the beginning of this project, we were enthusiastic about diary-keeping and the possible insights
this project would reveal. The length of the entries, which possibly serves as a barometer of our
enthusiasm, decreased markedly in the latter weeks of the project. In the first three or four weeks,
Mark, for example, tended to write long entries, often stretching to three or four single-spaced pages.
Yet even within those early days of enthusiasm, there were indications that our zeal for the diary-
keeping process might be short-lived. The following excerpt is from Marks entry written during the
second week of the term:
Today my body and mind rebel against this discipline of sitting down and writing about my class. Im tired;
I have a million other things I'drether do; and I don't feel like expending the energy necessary to think clearly
and critically about what went on with the class and with me today (January 15, 199l).
Even though sometimes we felt diary writing was a burden, we generally acknowledged its influence
in raising our awareness about particular classroom issues and experiences. Later in this entry, Mark
expressed these feelings about the benefits of diary-keeping:
I dont think there is one set, easy answer for all classes. Each class calls for its own particular configuration
and approach. Finding that, or at least moving towrads some possibilities, is the whole purpose of this
"joumaling" process (January 15, 1991).
As our project was very time-consuming (Each of us spent a minimum of five hours on the project
each week.), and as each of us carried a heavy teaching workload, our enthusiasm for the project
waned as the term progressed. The unwillingness to write emerged as one of the dominant issues
in our diaries as the term drew to an end. For example, in response to the issue of fatigue raised in
one of Marks diary entries, Bart wrote:
To be honest, my enthusiasm for writing journals has been ebbing away towards the closing weeks of the
term Sometimes, I simply do not feel like writing anything even though there are some things to write and
reflect on. Maybe I am gradually reaching a point of burnout (March 13, 1991).
In general, our feelings about diary-keeping embraced several conflicting emotions. On one hand
we saw the project as valuable in providing insights and some measure of awareness-raising that we
48
previously had not experienced. In addition, we collected what we called a list of issues, concerns,
and questions related to our teaching that we each could choose to investigate at some future time
through diary-keeping or other research methods. Along with these positive reflections on the diary-
keeping process, there were negative sentiments as well. Our enthusiasm dimmed as the term
neared the end, and at times we saw the discipline of diary-keeping as a burden on our time rather
than as a tool with which to enhance teacher development.
Some Effects of Collaborative Diary-Keeping
Collaborative diary-keeping brought several benefits to our development as second language
teachers. It raised our awareness of classroom processes and prompted us to consider those
processes more deeply than we may otherwise have. Collaborative diary-keeping also provided
encouragement and support; it served as a source of teaching ideas and suggestions; and in some
sense it gave us a way to observe one anothers teaching from a safe distance.
Awareness-Raising and Collaborative Diary-Keeping
As previous research has shown writing and reflecting on diary entries can serve as a process of
discovery. Diary-keeping can prompt a teacher to become more observant and alert to some of the
many variables affecting classroom teaching and learning processes. Through the retrospection and
introspection diary-keeping requires, teachers may become aware of some of the issues, concerns,
and questions attendant to their teaching which were previously unarticulated. As some researchers
have noted, some of these issues, concerns, and questions may never be carefully considered without
the discipline of diary-keeping.
This sense of awareness-raising as a result of diary-keeping is evident in our experience; for example,
as Matilda concluded in one of her entries:
Ingeneral, I'm not at all satisfied with this class today... Onreflection, I admit I didn't do well this aftemoon;
I guess I was tired as well... But, definitely, these students didn't show much interest in the lesson today. To
improve this, I really must consider more seriously what to include in an afternoon class so as to enliven
the lesson and stimulate students in a more effective way (January 23,1991).
Then in the following week, she reported that she was aware of the problem with this class after the
reflection she went through in the previous week.
Its an afternoon class again. I remember we had a fairly tired and lazy atmosphere last time. So this week
I was determined to improve it... This week, I prepared to give students a video exercise which I hoped would
stimulate their interest and keep them awake in a sleepy afternoon (January 30, 1991).
This evolving self-awareness and the urge to improve seems to be a natural part of the reflection
process. Indeed, as Brown observes, it may be that the awareness would have come without the
journals, but writing it down made it very evident (1985, p. 131).
The process of observation and reflection arouses a new awareness of ones teaching and of oneself
as a teacher. In his first entry, Mark observed:
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My mirror is clouded I hope that by reflecting further on my teaching I can polish up my mirror and see
myself clearly in the light of day. Iprobably won't like some of what I see. But at least I can see it and with
that vision have before me then some possibility of change (January 8,199l).
And, in another entry, he reported:
I know that I need to give more attention to my teaching. I need to consider what I do in the classroom more
deeply. And of course, through keeping this diary Im tying to do just that. I don't know if I've found any
answers. I have certainly found myself asking lots of questions, though And maybe that in itself is a success.
At least it indicates that Im still alive as a teacher Im still considering what is going on in my classes.
I'm still trying to leam and to change, to become aware (February 13, 1991).
Although diary-keeping may not yield any answers, at least at the beginning, the fact that many
questions are raised as a result of the reflection diary-keeping requires is significant in itself.
Thinking about and evaluating what we do in the classroom, examining whether it is effective, and
considering some of the variables affecting teaching and learning processes has the potential of
moving teachers beyond mechanistic, non-reflective teaching.
In addition to keeping diaries as tools for reflection, the additional experiences of reading and
responding to one anothers diary entries and then discussing what we had read served to enhance
this awareness-raising process. Receiving responses from one another and seeing ourselves through
anothers perspective helped us discover some of our blind selves and discover what we might have
overlooked.
On one occasion, Matilda made an interesting discovery after Mark responded to her journal and
reflected on her indecision in using the first language, Cantonese, in certain situations in class. In
her original entry, Matilda reflected on how she explained to the students the location of Burma:
I then pointed out to them that was Burma, somewhere near Thailand I knew some students couldn't get
where it was and fortunately one student whispered Burma in Chinese and all students immediately got
it. This was something really minor but I somehow suppose the use of the first language could be
exceptionally possible in such a case. Honestly I found it all the more much easier to explain this country
Burma by simply expressing it in Chinese! Indeed I know I shouldn't do that at all and here I let students
do it. I don't know exactly whether I should do that at all. I think with names or places, it should be all
right (February 27, 1991).
Mark, in his response to this entry, observed:
You raise the interesting question about whether we should use the first language in the class or not. Its
interesting to note your conversation with yourself about this issue. First, you said,"... I know I shouldn't
do that at all... then you say I dont know exactly whether I should do that...", and finally you concede
that I think with names or places, it should be all right." I really this conversation, this progression
or birthing of an idea, fascinating (February 28, 1991).
Occasionally responses to our entries prompted us to re-see and re-consider the deeper implications
of what our diaries revealed.
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Issues, Concerns, Questions, and Collaborative Diary-Keeping
Through the keeping of diaries, reading and responding to one anothers diary entries, and discussing
our experiences weekly, we discovered a number of recurring issues in our entries, responses and
discussions. It is probable many of these issues were active concerns previous to this project.
However, through keeping diaries, responding to one anothers entries, and discussing our experiences,
these issues were brought to the fore, as the project enabled us to articulate how we see our teaching
and ourselves as teachers.
There were interesting and striking differences among the issues that appeared most frequently in
our journals and discussions. The predominant issues were essentially related to the practice of
classroom teaching. Group work was the most frequently mentioned issue in Barts entries,
classroom interaction was second, and student-centered versus teacher-centered teaching was third.
Matilda wrote most frequently about her concern with class timing, the rationale behind the
activities she used, and the issue of face or teacher image. The most frequently mentioned issues
in Marks entries were journal writing, feeling tired or distracted in class, and group work. Strikingly,
the most frequent issue that Mark wrote about in his journal was journal writing itself, an issue which
is not directly related to classroom teaching. In at least eighteen passages, he dealt with the value,
the process, the insights, and the burdens of diary-keeping.
Mark was not alone in his concern. In our weekly discussions, the three of us often considered the
value of diary-keeping. As early as the first week of our study, we examined this issue in our
discussion:
Bart: Yes, Mark, what do you feel, the same question back to you, so what do you feel about diary writing?
Mark Well, I thought it was good I mean, I had lots of thoughts about lots of diffferent things. I think right
now I feel like I have lots of ideas about things Im doing and getting a kind ofpicture, what kind of things
I do as a teacher. But I feel like Im not seeing things clearly yet, which is of course no surprise since we've
just started off (January 11, 1991).
In Week 4, the same question was considered again:
Matilda: Through diaries at least you can be made aware of those imperfections. But Im sure I cant say
I can get rid of all these immediately.
Mark I think you need to remember too weve just been doing this 4 weeks.
Matilda: Yeah
Mark Give yourself a little time. Maybe something will come out of this -and maybe not (February 1, 1991).
Then in Week 9, near the end of our diary-keeping experience, we talked about this again:
Matilda: I mean, I have a clearer image of my teaching; its the best point I can get from this exercise.
Mark Yeah, I think thats great. I mean thats exactly what I would hope this kind of thing wouldgive us.
And I guess thats why were trying to be more diligent doing this and keeping at it.
Maybe if you do it over
a years time, everyday or something, maybe you'll come up with a clearerpicture, or theyll have to take you
away to the mental hospital (March 15, 1991).
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Encouragement and Collaborative Diary-Keeping
The sharing of feelings and opinions through responding to one anothers diaries and discussing
experiences provided us a sense of encouragement and support. The responses and comments
sometimes served as possible suggestions for problems posed in diary entries. More often during our
project, the responses and comments we received provided encouragement, especially in those times
when we were frustrated, wondering whether we were proceeding in the best direction with our
teaching. In one instance, Mark responded to Matildas experience of feeling defensive in class:
It seems to me that, as you point out, you are feeling defensive or at least uneasy this term And believe me,
I understand how you feel and how that can affect you. We all experience this at times and sometimes I
real& don t know what answer there is to it. It must drive a lot of teachers from the profession What do
we do (January 17 1991)?
This kind of understanding and expression of empathy provided an atmosphere in which we could
share our failures and successes. Our responses and discussions were often punctuated with
expressions of support, solidarity, encouragement, and praise for ways in which particular teaching
situations were handled.
New Options and Collaborative Diary-Keeping
By reading one anothers diary entries, we were able to share our teaching experiences, and we often
felt that we were learning as much from one anothers entries as we were from our own. Reading
and responding to the entries led us back to our own teaching to consider how and why we taught
as we did. In one of our weekly discussions (Week 6), we discussed this result of keeping and sharing
our diaries:
Matilda: I also feel that our discussion is helpful. I think I get a lot from our discussion as well and from
your responses.
Mark I get a lot too. I learn a lot from reading both of your entries. I mean I learn; I get some ideas for
my own teaching but I also learn... It makes me reflect back on my own experiences and maybe realize
something that I haven't realized, to pick up something that I havent picked up (February 22, 1991).
Through this diary-writing and -sharing experience, we gained new suggestions and ideas from one
another and discovered new options for approaching particular teaching tasks. As Matilda
responded to one of Marks diary entries:
I think Iget some useful ideas from you and Bart when I read through the entries from both of you. Perhaps
you can give me more suggestions for my composition course next term (March 13, 1991).
During one lesson, Matilda decided to conduct a small group activity following a format described
in Bat-ts and Marks diary entries. In one of her responses to Mark, she observed
After the two Friday discussions we had, I've thought about this point again and Ive actually tried not to
intervene at all in some cases this week when students are doing their group tasks (February 8, 1991).
Through the experiences we shared in this project, our perspectives were widened and we discovered
new options for our teaching.
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Observation and Collaborative Diary-Keeping
Keeping diaries, reading and responding to them, and discussing classroom experiences in some
small way opened a window on our teaching, allowing us to observe one another from a safe
distance. As Fanselow (1987) suggests, observation is a way of seeing teaching differently, and
reading, responding to, and discussing one anothers entries gave us a way to see our own teaching
from a different perspective. Occasionally, a readers observation of a seemingly insignificant event
yielded deeper insights into what was actually happening in class. After reading one of Matildas
entries in week 5, Mark commented that he was struck by the incident before class began when the
student in your class asked permission to eat an orange. This seemingly minor observation was
discussed in the weekly group meeting and developed into a serious consideration of the issue of
student respect for teachers and the issue of face, as well as some of the cross-cultural differences
between Chinese and American classroom behavior.
In sum, the experience of collaborative diary-keeping not only challenged us to look closer at our
teaching but provided support, encouragement, and solidarity. As teachers of approximately the
same professional level, our relationship was not marked by the discomfort that can attend
relationships of power, such as that of a supervisor and teacher or that of a master-teacher and
novice-teacher. As Mark expressed during one group discussion:
I think weve come at this not as experts who tell people how to teach, Im going to tell you how to teach
and you're going to tell me how to teach," but more as people trying to learn and be supportive of each other
(March 15, 1991).
"Journaling Together: The Journey Ends
Throughout our "journaling together, we have sought to see our teacher-selves more clearly and
to understand our classroom behaviors more fully. Our hope has been, as Bailey (1983) has
suggested, that diary-keeping would raise our awareness of what we do in the classroom and help us
understand some of the reasons and consequences of our actions.
Through keeping diaries, making written responses to one anothers entries, and discussing our
experiences, we were able to focus on several issues that are important to us as teachers. Our diary-
keeping project did indeed serve as a hypothesis-generating tool (Bailey, 1990), and our lists of
issues, questions, and concerns could serve as an agenda for our future classroom research.
"Joumaling together gave us each a sense of encouragement, a forum in which to relate experiences
and pose questions, and an opportunity to gain an inside perspective on other teachers experiences.
As Mark suggested in his final diary entry, our project raised many questions but offered few answers.
However, it is possible that collaborative diary-keeping may serve as a more effective tool for teacher
development if the scope of issues considered is focused more narrowly. We suggest that future
teachers undertaking collaborative diary-keeping consider narrowing their focus to a few salient
teaching issues during their investigation. Such an approach would allow participants opportunity
to choose and investigate in depth two or three issues of common interest rather than attempting
to explore many issues at one time.
In addition, future groups of teachers who attempt collaborative diary-keeping research must have
a large block of time to commit to the discipline of diary-keeping and sharing. They must also be
comfortable in relating both pleasant and unpleasant classroom experiences and be committed to
struggling together to gain a clearer picture of classroom teaching and learning processes.
In conclusion, each of us believes that there is potential for using collaborative diary-keeping as a
tool for teacher development. This sentiment is reflected in our final entries in which we
summarized our experiences. In his entry, Mark recollected, Overall I think that our project has
been worthwhile. I think that I have learnt something about myself as a teacher. I really have enjoyed
our discussions and Ive enjoyed hearing particularly about the teaching experiences of Bart and
Matilda. Bart expressed that through diary-keeping, we raised our consciousness of what
happened during our teaching and for the first time I began to be aware of many of the interesting
points during the class flow. Matilda stated that on the whole I think journal writing enables me
to clear some of my doubts through getting responses from my partners... sharing journals with the
others... widens my vision. It is with this widened vision that possibilities for teacher development
come into clearer focus.
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