I think that changing from
teacher to teacher each year does affect students’ learning, but at the same
time it is a good thing that students get used to different teaching
styles. Each year students need to adapt
to different teachers’ teaching styles and the method in which they conduct
their classes. I like the idea of “looping”
and having the same teacher for two or three years in a row and maybe in the
ideal world students would have the same set of teachers throughout elementary
school, then throughout middle school and then the same set of teachers
throughout high school. However, maybe
this is not the best approach. This
method of changing teachers might actually make it harder for students to get
used to the new set of teachers when they switch schools, from elementary to
middle and then from middle to high school.
Students need to get used to different teaching styles and what matters
even more is that students learn how they learn best.
A good teacher should teach to different learning styles
and to accommodate all students as best as he or she can. The emphasis needs to be on a teacher being
an affective teacher, not so much on whether students should change teachers or
not. From one angle it would be great
for students to get used to one teacher and the teacher wouldn’t have to worry
about what the students learned last year because she would already know and
having this same teacher for 2 or more years would provide continuity and
stability for students. But from another
angle, say this teacher was not an effective teacher and the student is now
stuck with this same teacher for 2 or more years. I had never had the same teacher for more than
a year until high school.
I
had the same Spanish teacher in high school for 3 years. There were only two Spanish teachers at my
high school and I feel that I got the least effective teacher of the two. I didn’t learn much in those three years and
I think Spanish I-III it felt like we covered the same material each year. I got straight A’s in her class, but her
class was too easy. I am also not sure
why my high school didn’t make it a point to place students in a higher level
of a language class, since I had taken Spanish in middle school. When it came to deciding if I should take
Spanish IV I decided not to, because the teacher I had was that un-motivating
and she did not expect the most of her students. Even in Spanish III she did not speak the
target language at all times, which would have been appropriate. So in this case keeping the same teacher each
year was not beneficial to me as a student, my grades were good but my
motivation to continue learning the language was low.
I never had the experience of having only 2 Spanish teachers in my high school. I agree that students should change teachers on a yearly basis. I know that some school can't because either there are not enough students or that the budget doesn't allow it. There are other options so that students don't get the same teachers every year. For example of there are only 2 teachers in the Spanish dept. then 1 teacher should teach level 1 and 3 while the other teaches 2 and 4. With this set up the students will alternate every other year with different teaching methods.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to having a teacher that is not effective, it puts the subject so low on my priority list and lack of motivation definitely increased. Not to say teachers should be killing their students, but a challenge is what keeps the class interesting and students learn best by overcoming those tangible challenges presented to them. I had the same Spanish teacher for 2 years and it actually helped me to see the difference between the levels of II and III. At the end of Spanish II I could see him using the target language more and more, and then when I came back to start III the class was taught fully in Spanish and I could tell that the course was going to be a bigger challenge. Luckily I was close with this instructor and he was very effective so having him for the 2 years just made my learning experience so much more enjoyable, probably one of the reasons I continued on with it.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been great to have an instructor like the one you had in high school, Nathan. I did not see a progression during my three years of Spanish with the same teacher and the biggest issue was that she did not use the target language and Spanish III should have been taught in only Spanish. Having the same teacher does have some benefits, but I don't think there is a big issue with students changing teachers every year. The more important issue is whether the teachers students have are effective or not in their teaching styles.
ReplyDelete