I absolutely think changing teachers every year has an impact on students' learning, especially in terms of foreign language. Every teacher covers information based on their own unique teaching style. Some teachers are better at covering certain aspects of a language than others, but no teacher is perfect. This makes it difficult for students who are continuing their studies of foreign language. In the beginning of every year in each foreign language class (except for the first, obviously) the teacher does a review unit to make sure everyone is on the same level. During the review unit, some student might be bored because the teacher they had the previous year did an excellent job in making sure they learned that material. Other students, however, could potentially be completely lost, because their teacher didn't cover that at all. For students who feel like they are lost and don't understand what is going on, they could lose all motivation and as a result earn poor grades.
Personally, my first Spanish teacher was extremely easy, so at the time I really enjoyed her class. It wasn't until my second and third year of Spanish did I learn what a disservice she did to us. Although we all got decent grades in her class, she didn't go over all the necessary material or prepare us for the following years. I struggled through my second year of Spanish because my teacher had much higher expectations and expected us to know the material presented in the first year - with very little review. It wasn't until the third year that I finally understood some of the important material that was so basic. After my third year of Spanish I decided not to continue because of how hard it was for me. This was rather unfortunate, because I do enjoy learning about other languages and cultures, but I didn't have a helpful teacher until the final year and by then it seemed too late.
I think having a review unit is a good thing, but you are right some students may need a more intensive review and others may not need a review at all. Having a short "review" quiz before the review unit could help the teacher assess just how much review should be done and maybe some students would be exempt from this review unit and be allowed to work on an independent project related to Spanish or relating what they have learned in Spanish with another class, etc. It is pointless to teach to only some students in the class and allow other students to get further behind.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher should try to talk to the previous language teacher and find out what was covered in the class the year before, or just ask his or her students if the lesson he or she is doing is review for them. Review does serve other purposes besides making sure everyone is "caught up," it also serves as reinforcement for skills that should have been mastered the year before. The review unit should be something fun, not just boring drills and "busywork."
I think in a case like that where there are a group of students from one class who is below the level expected, it is important for the teacher to offer outside help for the students. The review should have also possibly changed the course work for a bit until everyone could be at the same level.
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