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While practicum courses are commonly viewed as practice teaching, the text argues that intensive observation of others’ teaching can connect theory to practice and help practitioners reconstruct how they teach and interact with learners. Drawing on TESOL scholarship and the author’s personal experience, the article examines why observation-based praxis supports effective ESOL pedagogy.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-observational-practicum-a-stepping-stone-to-praxis-in-tesol/598060/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-observational-practicum-a-stepping-stone-to-praxis-in-tesol/598060.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Indoniesian Boy","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the article say an observational practicum adds to professional growth?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It enables practitioners to connect theory to practice and supports professional growth by providing an ideal site for praxis through reflection and action.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does observation relate to the practicum components described in TESOL literature?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The text describes observation as a preliminary or supplemental component that supports subsequent teaching-practice activities, though it can also serve as an effective focus in its own right.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why can actually practicing teaching be difficult for novice practitioners?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"For novices with little experience, practicing teaching can create high anxiety and tension, and may affect confidence and perceived readiness in practicum settings.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},598060,1792165201,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962090760608,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","The Observational Practicum:  \nA Stepping-Stone to Praxis in TESOL  \nWhile a practicum is usually regarded as a place to practice teaching, or as a place to turn what one has learned in the classroom into real practice, an observational practicum can also substantially further one’s professional growth. Indeed, an observational practicum can be an ideal site for novice ESOL practitioners to develop the groundwork of praxis, which requires reflection and action in teaching to provide students with meaningful L2 learning. Drawing from scholastic literature in TESOL and her own observational practicum experience, the author advocates conducting an observational practicum as a means to practice seeing teaching before intensively doing teaching.  \nD  \nefined as “the practice teaching course”(Richards & Crookes, 1988, p. 9) or “a period of teaching practice”(Crookes, 2003, p. 1), a practicum is usually recognized as a critical compo-  \nnent of teacher education designed to put one’s learning into action. While a practicum may consist of both direct experience of doing teaching and indirect experience of seeing teaching, the focus is often on the former, turning what one has learned in the classroom into real practice as the final step toward becoming a full-fledged teacher (Canh, 2014; Crookes, 2003; Johnson & Golombek, 2013; Payant & Murphy, 2012; Richards & Crookes, 1988; Stoynoff, 1999) . In other words, seeing teaching through observation seems to be only preliminary or supplemental to the following teaching-practice components. Indeed, Richards and Crookes (1988) stated,“[t]he practice teaching typically begins with observation of the cooperating teacher, with the student gradually taking over responsibility for teaching part of a lesson, under the supervision of the cooperating teacher” (p. 20), and Crookes (2003) positioned observation as “in support of a practicum”(p. 33) in presenting his practicum model.  \nHowever, an observational practicum, a practicum that centers  \nThe CATESOL Journal 29.2 • 2017 • 185  \non intensive observation of someone else’s teaching rather than actually doing teaching, can also substantially further one’s professional growth, enabling her or him to connect theory to practice and thereby reconstruct the world she or he sees and interacts with. In fact, an observational practicum seems an ideal site for praxis, especially in the beginning of one’s professional development. Praxis, as the worldfamous educator Paulo Freire (1970) advocated, is an educational process of reflection and action to provide students with effective and meaningful learning experiences as opposed to one-directional, teacher-centered education. In the realm of TESOL, praxis can also be interpreted in the scope of reflective teaching, through which teachers“collect data about teaching, examine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and teaching practices, and use the information obtained as a basis for critical reflection”(Richards & Lockhart, 1996, p. 1) . Indeed, praxis, or reflection and action, should be the basis of ESOL pedagogy because it is the foundation of ongoing teacher development that trains teachers to provide meaningful education for students in the real world. Therefore, ESOL practitioners should be consciously trained to conduct praxis. However, this does not mean that praxis can be achieved only through doing teaching. In fact, to be able todo teaching effectively, one also should know how to see teaching effectively.  \nAs an international student from Japan with little teaching experience, I benefited from an observational practicum in my second semester of the MA TESOL program at San Francisco State University (SF State) in that the practicum provided me with the groundwork of praxis, and this benefit of observational practicum seems applicable to many other novice practitioners. Thus, this article explores the potential of an observational practicum, drawing from literature in TESOL and my own observationa","cbCaiv9YFBGrWb5Y","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv9YFBGrWb5Y","pdf",176242,15,"English","# The Observational Practicum\n## Practicum and Observation in Teacher Education\n## Praxis and Reflective Teaching\n## Literature Review: The Practicum in TESOL","[{\"question\":\"What does the article say an observational practicum adds to professional growth?\",\"answer\":\"It enables practitioners to connect theory to practice and supports professional growth by providing an ideal site for praxis through reflection and action.\"},{\"question\":\"How does observation relate to the practicum components described in TESOL literature?\",\"answer\":\"The text describes observation as a preliminary or supplemental component that supports subsequent teaching-practice activities, though it can also serve as an effective focus in its own right.\"},{\"question\":\"Why can actually practicing teaching be difficult for novice practitioners?\",\"answer\":\"For novices with little experience, practicing teaching can create high anxiety and tension, and may affect confidence and perceived readiness in practicum settings.\"}]","The Observational Practicum - A Stepping-Stone to Praxis in TESOL | PDF",1792086212,38]