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

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.