The Johari Window Benefits To An Esl

Teacher Essay, Research Paper

The Johari s Window was introduced and conceived by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham and also was used in an information session at the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development in 1955. The word ‘JOHARI is derived from the names of them. (JOSEPH LUFT, HARRY INGHAM = JOHARI).

As an ESL teacher, this conceptual model can be used and implemented for describing, evaluating and predicting aspects of interpersonal communication especially during teaching and learning activities in the classrooms as it gives us the opportunity to explore and understand ourselves and those around us (students).

The Johari s window represents four informations between a person and those around him or her. There are four windows or panes in it and are called Arena, Blind Spot, Fa ade and Unknown. (Figure 1)

ARENA

Arena is also called as Open Self, Public self and Agenda (Figure 2). All of them are in the same area. It represents about all the information, behaviours, attitudes, feelings, desires, motivations, ideas etc. It is also the portion of total inter personal space devoted to mutual understanding and shared informations. This small window or pane is known by self and also known by others . For example, teacher and students; a teacher knows his/her students; behaviour, attitudes, feelings, desires, etc and students know their teacher; what she/he likes (behaviour)/ability/performance.

FA+ADE

Fa ade is also called as Private Self or Hidden Self (Figure 2) and it is the second quadrant of the Johari s window. It refers to what is known to a person but hidden from others. In this pane, one has to be conscious of what to divulge to others. . In other ways it is the things you know about yourself that others don’t know. A person in this pane, only reveal to people he/she trust or rely on. This area is particularly useful in order to protect confidential items such one s secret.

BLIND SPOT

Blind Spot is also called as Blind Self (Figure 2) is the third window or pane in the Johari s Window. It holds information known by other but unknown by self . It means that everybody knows a person (such as his/her attitude, feeling, knowledge etc) but the person does not know about himself/herself. For example, between teacher and students in the classroom, a Blind Spot teacher does or says something that she / he feels is enjoyable but students take it differently. The Blind Spot teachers feel that the students like the way she/he teaches but in fact students know that the teaching/lesson is uninteresting. So, to avoid such inconsistency, we need to be aware of this third window and willing to do some actions to improve our performance in teaching.

UNKNOWN

This is the final window and it refers to what is not known to a person and also to others. This small window or pane is unknown by self and also unknown by others .

As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, there are several benefits of knowing the small windows in Johari s Window. They are as listed below.

a. The ESL teacher will obtain more information/knowledge about their student through class participation or discussions (giving ideas and opinions, and receiving feed backs from his/her students).

b. ESL teachers are able to discover and know their weaknesses directly so that they should improve their performance or techniques or strategy of teaching during teaching and learning activities.

c. The teachers will understand and then increase the ability of the teachers to cope with the problems faced by the students as there are freedom of expression and mutual trust between them

d. Every student in the classroom has a unique and different personality so that knowing this conceptual model will allow teachers to apply various learning methodologies based on their students personality.

e. Through this window, it will improve the relationship between teacher and students. Students will be more confident with their teachers and feel more comfortable and encourage them towards a better learning.

Conclusion

The Johari s Window plays an important role to teachers as it can be used to assess students interpersonal position and analyse especially during teaching and learning activities. Knowing our students and us will certainly create a conducive environment of teaching and learning activities effectively.

WORK CITED

1. Luft J and Ingham H, The Johari Window: a graphic model for interpersonal relation , Univ. Calif. Western Training Lab. 1955

2. Berne, E, The Games People Play, NY, 1964

3. Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (4) Shannon C and Weaver W, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, Illinois Univ. Press 1968.

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