Exploring English Vocational High School Teachers’ Critical Incidents: A Case Study

This study aims at identifying and exploring the critical incidents (CI) experienced by English vocational high school teachers. Their particular tasks, such as creating learning opportunities and resources that must meet the students’ specific needs, bring them some challenges and difficulties. Despite the importance of CI for fostering teachers’ reflective skill as well as teachers’ professional development, the teachers are still unfamiliar with this systematical reflection activity. Besides, Research on this subject has been mostly restricted to EFL teachers in general and left ESP teachers like vocational teachers unexplored. By interviewing three vocational high school teachers and analyzing their CIs reflection, this study found that the most CIs teachers encountered are behavioral and students’ language proficiency. Besides, their perspective on using CI as a self-reflection tool is somehow similar to the previous studies which notify that reflection is seen as challenging as well as rewarding at the same time. Some insight referring to the use of CI for a collaboration activity is seen as a promising activity for a professional development program.